Does agro-textile affect soil microbiology?

Agrowo­ven fab­ric has been pop­u­lar with gar­den­ers and allot­ment hold­ers for years as an effec­tive way to com­bat weeds, keep the soil moist and pro­tect crops from the ele­ments. How­ev­er, with the grow­ing inter­est in organ­ic and con­scious gar­den­ing, there are more and more ques­tions about how non­wo­ven fab­ric affects the bio­log­i­cal life of the soil. Does­n’t the agro-tex­tile inter­fere with the nat­ur­al decom­po­si­tion of organ­ic mat­ter or impede air and water, which could harm ben­e­fi­cial micro-organ­isms such as bac­te­ria, myc­or­rhizal fun­gi or earth­worms?

A healthy soil is not only about the right lev­el of nutri­ents, but above all it is about active micro­bi­ol­o­gy — life invis­i­ble to the naked eye that sup­ports plant growth, improves soil struc­ture and influ­ences soil resis­tance, des­ic­ca­tion or ero­sion. In this arti­cle, we take a look at whether the use of agro-tex­tile real­ly has an impact on soil micro-organ­isms, dis­pel some pop­u­lar myths and sug­gest how to use this mate­r­i­al with­out dis­turb­ing the nat­ur­al bal­ance in the gar­den.

What is soil microbiology and why is it important?

Soil micro­bi­ol­o­gy is the field that deals with the study of microor­gan­isms liv­ing in the soil, such as bac­te­ria, fun­gi, actin­o­mycetes or pro­to­zoa. Although invis­i­ble to the naked eye, they per­form an impor­tant func­tion in the life of plants and the entire gar­den ecosys­tem. It is the micro-organ­isms that are respon­si­ble for decom­pos­ing organ­ic mat­ter, con­vert­ing plant remains into humus and mak­ing nutri­ents avail­able in a form that is assim­i­l­able by the roots.

Some form sym­bi­ot­ic rela­tion­ships with oth­er organ­isms — such as myc­or­rhizal fun­gi, which increase the absorbent sur­face area of the roots and help to draw water and min­er­als from deep­er in the soil.

A well-devel­oped micro­bi­ol­o­gy also means greater plant resis­tance to dis­ease, bet­ter mois­ture reten­tion and more bal­anced growth. In prac­tice, liv­ing soil means health­i­er, stronger and less demand­ing plants. This is why more and more gar­den­ers are rely­ing not only on fer­til­i­sa­tion, but also on build­ing up the bio­log­i­cal activ­i­ty of the soil by com­post­ing, green manures or avoid­ing chem­i­cals. The ques­tion aris­es, how­ev­er, whether the use of agro-tex­tiles — although con­ve­nient — does not inter­fere with these prin­ci­ples?

Agrotextile structure and air and water flow

Agro-tex­tile is a mate­r­i­al made of polypropy­lene, with a struc­ture resem­bling a thin, per­me­able fab­ric. One of its key char­ac­ter­is­tics — impor­tant for soil health — is its abil­i­ty to allow water and air to pass through. This allows both plants and soil micro-organ­isms to func­tion under its lay­er with­out hin­drance. Unlike plas­tic sheet­ing, the agro-tex­tile does not form an air­tight bar­ri­er — the micro-open­ings allow rain­fall to pass through and allow a free exchange of gas. Oxy­gen reach­es the roots and soil organ­isms, and excess mois­ture and gas­es can be dis­charged.

In this con­text, it is also worth clar­i­fy­ing that agro-tex­tile vs. agro-tex­tile is not the same. Dif­fer­ence con­cerns, among oth­er things, bio­log­i­cal life in the soil. Agro-tex­tile, although more effec­tive in long-term weed con­trol, has a denser weave and low­er air per­me­abil­i­ty. This can reduce soil aer­a­tion, which is not always ben­e­fi­cial in organ­ic farm­ing. This is why agro-tex­tile is some­times rec­om­mend­ed more often where you want to sup­port bio­log­i­cal life in the soil. How­ev­er, it is impor­tant to remem­ber that its effec­tive­ness also depends on the qual­i­ty of the mate­r­i­al and how it is laid. If it is pressed too tight­ly or cov­ered with imper­me­able lay­ers (e.g. coarse grav­el or stones), it can local­ly restrict the access of oxy­gen.

The most common doubts about the impact of agro-textiles on the soil

Although agro-tex­tile is wide­ly used in hor­ti­cul­ture, ques­tions arise among users about its impact on the bio­log­i­cal life of the soil. Below we dis­cuss some of the most com­mon­ly raised ques­tions.

Can agro-textiles lead to soil sterilisation?

There is no evi­dence that the mate­r­i­al itself has a neg­a­tive impact on soil fer­til­i­ty. The non-woven fab­ric does not con­tain chem­i­cals harm­ful to micro-organ­isms and its struc­ture allows water and air to pen­e­trate. The soil under­neath is still ‘work­ing’, although it may have some­what lim­it­ed access to light and fall­en leaves, which nat­u­ral­ly enrich the humus lay­er.

How the agro-textile affects the access of oxygen to roots and micro-organisms

A good qual­i­ty agro-tex­tile mulch is air per­me­able and does not block gas exchange. How­ev­er, incor­rect lay­er­ing, such as cov­er­ing the mate­r­i­al with too thick and com­pact a lay­er of mulch, can tem­porar­i­ly wors­en the oxy­gen con­di­tions in the soil. There­fore, mod­er­a­tion and the cor­rect sequence of lay­ers is impor­tant.

Do fungi or mould develop under the fleece?

In areas with poor soil per­me­abil­i­ty and increased mois­ture, localised fun­gal growth can indeed occur. These are not usu­al­ly dan­ger­ous, but may indi­cate that the soil needs to improve its struc­ture or drain excess water.

What is the importance of fleece for earthworms and other soil organisms?

Organ­isms such as earth­worms often func­tion unhin­dered under the agro-tex­tile, espe­cial­ly if the soil is rich in organ­ic mat­ter. The non­wo­ven fab­ric can even cre­ate more sta­ble con­di­tions for them — reduc­ing dry­ing and sud­den tem­per­a­ture fluc­tu­a­tions.

How to support soil life when using agro-textiles?

To agro-fibre did not lim­it bio­log­i­cal activ­i­ty, you need to know, such as its use. Just a few sim­ple prac­tices are enough to take care of a healthy microflo­ra even under a lay­er of fab­ric. It is worth remem­ber­ing the fol­low­ing rules:

• Take care of the soil before lay­ing the fleece — add com­post, manure or bio­hu­mus to pro­vide the microor­gan­isms with a source of nutri­ents.
• Do not pinch the fleece too tight­ly — Heavy lay­ers of grav­el or stones can restrict air­flow.
• Pay atten­tion to the moment of unfold­ing the mate­r­i­al — many peo­ple buy­ing agro-fibre, he reflects, when it lay? This is best done at the plant­i­ng stage or just after sow­ing, when the soil is already prop­er­ly pre­pared.
• Use fleece sea­son­al­ly or spot on — at the end of the crop­ping sea­son, remove the mate­r­i­al so that the soil can regen­er­ate.
• Add a lay­er of organ­ic mulch - com­post­ed straw, bark or leaves on top improve the ther­mal and bio­log­i­cal con­di­tions.
• Use bio­log­i­cal enhancers — prepa­ra­tions with myc­or­rhiza or effec­tive microor­gan­isms should be applied before cov­er­ing the soil.

With these treat­ments, it is pos­si­ble to reap the ben­e­fits of agro-tex­tiles with­out the risk of under­min­ing bio­log­i­cal life in the soil.

Summary

Agro-tex­tile, when used cor­rect­ly, does not harm soil micro-organ­isms or lead to soil steril­i­ty. Its per­me­able struc­ture allows air and water to enter, and sta­ble con­di­tions under its lay­er can pro­mote bio­log­i­cal life.

The key is prop­er instal­la­tion, sea­son­al use and soil sup­port through com­post, organ­ic mulch and nat­ur­al prepa­ra­tions. In this way, you can reap the ben­e­fits of agro-tex­tile with­out wor­ry­ing about the con­di­tion of the soil and plants.