Teaming with Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition

"If you really want to get a sense of how little we know about how plants use fertilizers — and I count myself in this league — you should read Teaming with Nutrients , which gets deep into the weeds, so to speak, of the microscopic architecture of plants and the biochemical processes at play." — The Washington Post “Useful and practical information on soil testing, natural and synthetic fertilizers, factors influencing availability of nutrients, and the importance of proper fertilizing.” — Pacific Horticulture “Lowenfels offers everyone else a crash course in discovering soil structure, fertility, and microbial actions powerful enough to turn a dry wash into a productive source of clean, slow, organically grown food, without a single bag of potting soil.” — The Desert Sun “Lowenfels offers a deeper understanding of the major and minor plant nutrients and delivers the necessary science in a conversational style that most gardeners will appreciate.” — The Monterey County Herald “You’ll never garden the same old way again.” — Muskogee Phoenix “Colorful illustrations, plentiful and readable diagrams, and a well-executed chapter structure make this an indispensable resource.” — Publishers Weekly Teaming With Nutrients...how plants eat and what to feed them. We all learn about cation exchange capacity, CEC, but that always ends up as a discussion of how the soil particle holds nutrients. It never really explains how plants actually take up nutrients, ie how they eat. And, what about these nutrients once they get inside the plant? What happens to them?This second Teaming book is a tripxa0 that delves into the cellular biology of plants in the same way Teaming With Microbes was a book that starred microbiology. This is, at least to me, a fascinating voyage that requires some chemistry and botany, too, but stars cellular biology. Don't worry, the learning is fun and fascinating and I make it easy. In the end you will know how plants eat and, of course, what to feed them. It is not all biology and botany. Teaming contains the practical advice you need feed your plants properly and organically. Teaming with Nutrients should change the way you farm and garden, for sure, but hopefully you will never look at plants the same way again. You will appreciate the 18 trillion cells in an apple tree and know how they work. And it all happens with just 17 nutrients! Smart gardeners know that soil is anything but an inert substance. Healthy soil is teeming with life—not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains healthy plants, and thus become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of artificial substances, many of them toxic to humans as well as other forms of life. But there is an alternative to this vicious circle: to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web—the complex world of soil-dwelling organisms whose interactions create a nurturing environment for plants. By eschewing jargon and overly technical language, the authors make the benefits of cultivating the soil food web available to a wide audience, from devotees of organic gardening techniques to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy, vigorous plants without resorting to chemicals. This revised edition updates the original text and includes two completely new chapters—on mycorrhizae (beneficial associations fungi form with green-leaved plants) and archaea (single-celled organisms once thought to be allied to bacteria). Jeff Lowenfels is America's longest running, weekly garden columnist having written a column, everyxa0 weekxa0 since 1976, for the Anchorage Daily News . He is the founder of Plant a Row for The Hungry, a program that has created over 76 million meals to feed the hungry. A popular national garden writer and leading proponent of organic gardening using the concepts of the soil food web, Jeff is the former president of the Garden Writers of America, was made a GWA Fellow in 1999 and in 2005, was inducted into the GWA Hall of Fame. He lives in Anchorage, Alaska and Portland, Oregon. His first book, "Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web" won the 2010 Gold Award for Best Book from the Garden Writers of America. Read more