DO chemical based fertilizer kill off organic soil goodies?

No they do not kill off all microbial colonies.

 

You'r not doing them any favours when you hit them with chemicals every time you do you reduce the size of your micro army. Things that you do to the water will harm them also like using acids for pH adjustments. I used the Botanicare Pro with Liquid Carma + Cal-Mag for years and was very happy. I build my own dirt now so don't buy any stuff any more.

 

I wasn't aware of Fox Farms having any organic bloom nutrients.

 

The interactions between these organisms form a web of life, just like the web that biologists study above ground. What most people don't realize is that the above ground world wouldn't exist without below ground systems in place and functioning. Soil biology is understudied, compared to life above ground, yet it is important for the health of gardens, pastures, lawns, shrub lands, and forests. If garden soil is healthy, there will be high numbers of bacteria and bacterial-feeding organisms, which means the beneficial, disease-suppressive organisms will be present. If the soil has received heavy treatments of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, soil fungicides or fumigants that kill these organisms, the tiny critters die, or the balance between the pathogens and beneficial organisms is upset, allowing the opportunist, disease-causing organisms to become problems.

Overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides have effects on soil organisms that are similar to over-using antibiotics. When we consider human use of antibiotics, these chemicals seemed a panacea at first, because they could control disease. But with continued use, resistant organisms developed, and the organisms that compete with the disease-causing organisms were lost. We found that antibiotics couldn't be used willy-nilly, that they must be used only when necessary, and that some effort must be made to replace the normal human-digestive system bacteria killed by the antibiotics.

Soils are similar, in that plants grown in soil where competing organisms have been knocked back with chemicals are more susceptible to disease-causing organisms. If the numbers of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes and arthropods are lower than they should be for a particular soil type, the soil's "digestive system" doesn't work properly. Decomposition will be low, nutrients will not be retained in the soil, and will not be cycled properly. Ultimately, nutrients will be lost through the groundwater or through erosion because organisms aren't present to hold the soil together.

The best way manage for a healthy microbial ecosystem is to routinely apply organic material. To keep garden soil healthy, the amount of organic matter added must be equal to what the bacteria and fungi use each year.

Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides should be avoided. If the soil is healthy for the type of vegetation desired, there should be no reason to use pesticides, or fertilizers. If a decision is made to change from grass to garden, or forest to lawn, a massive change in the soil foodweb structure is required but all that is needed is addition of the right kind of compost with the right kinds of organisms to do that conversion. Once the correct soil foodweb structure is in place, there should be no reason to apply chemicals.

If both bacteria and fungi are lost, then the soil degrades. If bacteria are killed through pesticide or chemical applications, and especially if certain extremely important bacteria like nitrogen-fixing bacteria or nitrifying bacteria are killed, the wrong kinds of bacteria, or too much fungal biomass can result (often seen in tropical soils!) can take over and crop production can be harmed. For example, current research indicates that the reason moss takes over in lawn ecosystems is because the soil is converted from a bacterial dominated system to one dominated by fungi. Or the soil may become saturated with water because of poor soil structure during heavy downpours, and the iron in the soil is reduced into plant unavailable forms. Without the right biology present, reduced iron cannot be taken up by grass, and weeds flourish.

Without the right biology present, nutrients are lost, erosion increases and plant yield is reduced. If inorganic fertilizers are used to replace the lost nitrogen, the immediate effect may be to improve plant growth. However, as time goes on, it is clear that inorganic fertilizers can't replace the other kinds of food that bacteria and fungi need and may damage soil through accumulation of salts. After a while, fertilizer additions are a waste of money, because there aren't enough soil organisms to hold on to the nutrients added. Surface and groundwater will become contaminated with the lost nutrients, causing problems.