In lawn care there is one great truth… If your program never changes, the effects of that program will force a change. In the business of growing healthy organisms or even controlling unwanted ones, stagnation of materials is a nail in the coffin for a business. Utilizing the same active ingredients over and over at the same rate will ultimately cause other areas of an ecosystem to fail or for the active ingredient itself to be completely ineffective for the very organism it has been designed to control.  If you follow label rates or read about certain materials that are in commonly used lawn and garden products, this concept doesn’t make allot of sense unless everyone can agree on certain half-life degradations or that there is always residual chemical in our growing environments. The effects of overuse have been well documented and even “solved” with little to no fanfare. The interesting thing about this is that you can consider fertilizer as something with “active ingredients” just like pesticides. Every nutrient has a function for a particular method of the growth cycle and every nutrient can be used to kill a plant or organism with doses above certain thresholds.

Here is what’s going on behind the scenes; turf, trees and really any perennial crop have the ability to learn. Because there isn’t technically a brain, or a common root in most plant organisms, the communication occurs differently to help tell or code the next generation of life. This is the very essence of evolution, which all living organisms do automatically, but it is happening rapidly. When I refer to learning, it’s more along the lines of when to expect a next meal, next drink, next seeding. Now, the genetic information being passed down is purely about survival. Roots are especially susceptible to regimens that don’t vary. Plants will become lazy, weak, and sick, and soon be on an irreparable path towards death. Why is this? It would seem that a plant would want to stay strong between feedings so that it would ultimately thrive. This is just not the case.

Most of the communication that happens through plant life is done through mycelium. These fungi bind and connect most plants together so that they can communicate what is happening all across the spectrum. Mycelium are a type of endomycorrhizae that will coat the end of plant roots to facilitate all nutrient functions. These branches and nodes send pulses through the subsoil system that will “ask and tell” what is needed for a particular root to thrive. So the question then becomes, are we seeing an actual plant resistance to chemicals (fertilizer) or a subsoil biological agent acting as a gatekeeper?

It would appear that it is some of both. Overall efficacy of both fertilizers and chemicals is greatly reduced in low carbon soils. One major “X” factor in the chemical industry is that the soils in which tests take place DO NOT have any consistency. There is enough documentation to support the notion that healthy soils need less of well…. Everything. This can be seen easily in areas with sandy soils. Plants growing in sand require more of everything to be somewhat healthy because the soil matrix is still being built. The funny thing is that if we were to let whatever naturally grew in a sandy soil environment thrive for a few seasons, we would have a good opportunity for healthy soil.

What this boils down to is nothing more than things we have said over and over again. Don’t blanket apply chemicals and don’t over apply fertilizer. In either situation, upon continued over use, the soil matrix will change. The communication will be that of survival and the OM will begin to drop out. When you add those up, it’s no wonder that farmers are applying more than 5x the rate of roundup they did in the late 80’s and 90’s. It’s easy to just say weeds are becoming resistant, but it’s so much more. The entirety of the growing medium has been depleted to the point of becoming incapable of processing these materials in a way that would be “acceptable” in laboratory conditions.

So what do we do? What we’ve always done. Feed the soil. Micro-feed the plants. Be on a rotation of active ingredients in your weed and pest program every 2-3 seasons. Don’t get stuck in a rut with your program, it doesn’t take long for a rut to become and impassable canyon.

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