What’s Growing On showcases an entire living world right beneath our feet

Vineland Research and Innovation Centre’s annual open house covers trees, soil and sustainability

Rhoda deJonge offers some tips on planting trees to those taking part in the What’s Growing On Here open house. Luke Edwards photo

By Luke Edwards

To the naked eye, a clump of soil is little more than a dead pile of dirt.

But to Jason Henry and Stephanie Vickers, it is - or at least should be - an entire ecosystem of life. Henry and Vickers were two of the presenters at last month’s What’s Growing On open house hosted by Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, sharing some of their expertise and explaining about the work they do to improve soil health.

“(We should be) treating our soil as a living, functioning organism,” said Vickers, a soil management specialist in horticulture with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness.

“Soils are unique and diverse ecosystems.”

This year’s open house covered trees, soil and sustainability, taking visitors through three stations. Vickers and Henry, a soils research scientist, discussed the importance of keeping soil healthy and ensuring there’s enough organic material for the microbes in the soil to thrive.

Henry, with the help of a few volunteers, ran a test of four soil samples to show just how much of an effect soil maintenance can have.

The kicker? The four samples were all from the same site.

“They’re the same soil, we’ve just added life back into it,” he said.

There are several ways to add that life back into the soil. Henry outlined some lesser known soil amendments like pellets made from chicken manure, feather meal, insect manure and vermicompost (worm castings).

Vickers also discussed some of the work she’s doing with the farming community to explore the use of cover crops in vineyards and orchards. Common in other types of farming, cover crops can add organic material to the soil, control erosion and reduce compaction. Options they’ve looked at include different types of clover and alfalfa.

“Often the best option is to mix two species,” she said.

While a healthy soil provides the foundation, no one brags about their field of dirt or a barren garden. The whole point is to provide a space for fruits, vegetables and trees to thrive.

Rhoda deJonge, director of plant responses and the environment, and Helen Hermansen, a restoration ecologist for Land Care Niagara, led a second station where they gave some tips on tree planting. They said the hole should be twice as wide as it is deep, shaped like a saucer and be essentially level with the root ball.

Snipping any circling roots can help the tree grow properly once in the ground, and a layer of mulch in a doughnut pattern around the tree helps.

A renewed focus on appropriate tree species has brought people back to native trees. Variety is also important, obvious to anyone who lives in an area once dominated with ash trees now destroyed by the emerald ash borer.

“They didn’t understand the idea of spreading your risk,” said deJonge.

Now, species such as hackberry trees are a preferred option.

“It’s a good replacement for elm,” said Hermansen.

While deJonge recommends regularly watering a newly planted tree until it gets established, Hermansen said fertilizing them isn’t usually worth the hassle. Instead, adding some compost during planting can be all that’s needed.

“A tree has evolved to take in organic material,” she said.

Staking trees should also be done with careful consideration, as that can lead to a weakened trunk.

The open house also included a tour of the Millennium Forest, a project that saw several organizations and service clubs team up to create a three-acre plot of land on the east end of the Victoria Avenue campus that features over 100 different trees.