Just curious if anyone on the Nicole Masters course would have any insight into 'reading weeds' aboveground as an indication of belowground soil structural, chemical and/or biological health? Specifically for an Irish context and the weeds we often hear about - buttercup, thistle, silverweed, daisy, docks, redshank, etc? Not that I am contending that everything classified as a 'weed' should be such! However, the Soil Food Web course just talks about them in very general terms of succession and the fungal to bacterial ratio in soils (so far anyway) or about plants that wouldn't be relevant in an Irish context. Is there any merit still to specific weeds indicating specific underground conditions? We sampled a field for the EIP that would traditionally have a fair smattering of daisy and buttercup but the soils were not in any way compacted or acidic...
Just curious if anyone on the Nicole Masters course would have any insight into 'reading weeds' aboveground as an indication of belowground soil structural, chemical and/or biological health? Specifically for an Irish context and the weeds we often hear about - buttercup, thistle, silverweed, daisy, docks, redshank, etc? Not that I am contending that everything classified as a 'weed' should be such! However, the Soil Food Web course just talks about them in very general terms of succession and the fungal to bacterial ratio in soils (so far anyway) or about plants that wouldn't be relevant in an Irish context. Is there any merit still to specific weeds indicating specific underground conditions? We sampled a field for the EIP that would traditionally have a fair smattering of daisy and buttercup but the soils were not in any way compacted or acidic...
