Will visitors to Madeira worry about having branches or trees in public places fall on them? No; according to Engineer Francisco Pedro Freitas Andrade of Est. Marmeleiros, No 1, Jardins & Espaces Verdes who is Chef de Diviso Câmara Municipal do Funchal; Departamento de Ciência e de Recursos Naturais; Divisão de Jardins e Espaços Verdes Urbanos in charge of the trees within the pavements within the area controlled by Funchal Municipality - See Monitoring of Trees in pavements in Funchal, Madeira from September 2019 to February 2010 1, 2 pages by his department.
See Pavements of Funchal, Madeira Damage to Trees 1, 2, 3, 4. galleries to see 4000 x 3000 pixel photos of this damage.
The following 12 sections provide more detail; with section 12 providing a cheap start to improving the life for the roots:-
- 1. This tree trunk in Madeira will fall because of the heartwood being rotted away.
- 2. Electrical cabling tied to trees in Madeira is killing the tree.
- 3. Constriction of trees by metal, tarmac, stone, concrete etc will cause the tree to grow over the constriction. At some point that tree will break at this fulcrum and fall over; due to the weight above that fulcrum being in excess of what the heartwood at that fulcrum can support.
- 4. Growing trees within 2 metres of a vertical drop in the soil and thus automatically restricting it's circle of roots means that the tree will have complete lack of support from a large section of root and is vulnerable to falling down from wind. Also the Eucalyptus roots extract a lot of water from the soil causing that soil to lose its cohesion and fall away.
- 5. The weight of a growing unbraced shrub/tree in a small volume of soil, surrounded by impervious material, is going to exceed the weight of that soil. That means that that plant will fall down at the fulcrum of that trunk with the ground.
- 6. Constriction of trees by plastic twine, baling twine, metal wire will cause the same problem as in Sections 2 and 3.
- 7. Photograhic evidence of damage to 166 trees in Funchal, Madeira with explanations and possible solutions.
- 8. In Medway, England the council has sprayed herbicide round the base of trees in public spaces to kill off the grass. The grass dehydrates the roots of the tree below.
- 9. This explains why grass is detrimental to other plants growing in it.
- 10. The cultural needs of plants for water, gas exchange and nutrients is explained. If these are not met then that plant will die.
- 11. Earthworms provide the transport system in the soil for the rainwater, gas exchange and nutrients dissolved in that water to reach the tree roots via tunnels. No access for earthworms, no earthworms, cultural needs of plants not met.
- 12. Although some solutions have been given in the previous sections, this provides a start for improving the cultivation conditions for the roots of those plants in Madeira and in other countries.
1. Could Madeira use this tree in its current state as Cheap Staff Accomodation for
- staff at the Forum Shopping Centre
- or
- for me as accomodation, while I sort out their tree problems
(at least when I would fall asleep, it would be sitting up as required below? Madeirans care for their staff in knowing that I would not have far to travel to go to work)?
Photo 10 - tree 101 from pestana promenade to forum tree hollow trunk IMG_6063.JPG in
Damage to Tree Roots in Madeira caused by People Page in Section 7.
The hole in the trunk could be sold by the Tourist Office or rented out, who would install a thin front door (you would need to go inside your bijou residence sideways) with a toilet behind it ( you could also sleep on this toilet saving hotel bed costs), a small sink to the side and hanging space for one's clothes for a very reasonable selling or renting price. A camping stove could be set up outside to cook your meals - or you could eat in the establishments within a 150 metres in the Forum Shopping Centre; and then you could use a small fold-up stool for seating outside. Rubbish could be installed in a bag behind you, which could be lent against as a cushion/pillow at nightime.
Household insurance to cover the flat from being blown down could be expensive. You would need to scrub off the charcoal from the burnt inside of the trunk, before you could paint it magnolia. You might not be able to extend the living space within the trunk without structural collapse.
Try not to be on the zebra crossing when it does fall if there is no repair.
2. The following 2 photos illustrate how easy it is for an electrician to kill a tree by tying a metal/plastic tie so tight that it cuts through the Outer Bark, the Inner Bark or Phloem and the Cambium layers depriving the trunk above and kills it, without him/her knowing that is what will happen. Combine that with no maintenance of these trees in pavements and so the population and the paying visitors prepare to endure the failure of branches/trunks of these trees and hope that they are not underneath or that those trees will not interfere with gas tanks which are below them:
note the splits in the exposed heartwood, where the heartwood is starting to fail.
Below is a diagram showing how thin are the 3 top layers of a tree/shrub which provide protection and power to live for that tree and how easy it is to be damaged without the tree being able to repair that damage:-
3. The following photo comes from Madeira Island News.com with the accompanying text dated 30 July 2018:-
"A set of iron foundations placed around some trees of regional road 104, in the stretch between the PSP and the Ponte Vermelha, in Ribeira Brava, are conditioning the growth of the trees and generating controversy.
According to one reader to JM, the fact is that the same bases, which are completely rusty as the image demonstrates, are clearly affecting the growth of the species in question, which in their opinion may lead to the destruction of the species.
In addition, it indicates that many of these bases are even reaching the interior of the trees and there are cases of some species that are already higher in relation to the pavement.
Several popular have already expressed concern about what happened. They understand that the solution is to remove the iron bases."
If these iron bases are reaching the interior of the trees, that means that as that tree grows it will at some point be too heavy to be supported by the trunk at the base level and it will fall down - WHY DOES NOBOBDY IN MADEIRA GET EDUCATED ABOUT HOW TREES GROW AND SHOULD BE MAINTAINED, OR DO THEY PREFER TO HAVE ANOTHER 13 PEOPLE KILLED BY FALLING TREES AS HAPPENED IN 2017? AND WILL THEY MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE WHEN PLANTING 288,000 TREES AND SHRUBS IN THE ECOLOGICAL PARK? Since nobody in Portugal or Madeira is reading this during April 2019, perhaps somebody might tell them or will you also be wasting your time?
4. Another report from Madeira about trees:-
PPM WARNS TREES AT RISK OF FALLING ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CANHAS AND PAUL DA SERRA
TOBI HUGHES 22ND FEBRUARY 2019
The PPM Madeira was today on the road connecting the parish of the Canhas to Paul da Serra, according to the request of the people who contacted the party, to see the danger of some large trees that are in danger of falling.
“What we saw there is very worrying,” says Paulo Brito, who photographed some of the trees with their roots in sight without the necessary support to stand. In his opinion, “a stronger wind is enough that they come down”, others that have been severely burned by the last fires and are dead, “just waiting to fall”.
We saw large branches and trees already with a level of inclination for the road, almost at a stage of a possible tragedy.
The road also needs a lot of attention as it is in a very bad state and is a road used by locals and many tourists, as one of the main routes to Paul da Serra.
Taken from Funchal News.
This tree does not have any root support for over 50% of its circular root area. There are at least 3 trees in this photo that are within 1 metre of the cliff face to the road. I wonder if these trees are Eucalyptus (one of the reasons for the introduction of Eucalytus to the Island was for the production of paper) which has one of the highest demands for water and therefore if grown on a slope with many others, the ground underneath this tree may have reached the Permanent Wilting Point. Then, the soil between the tree roots falls off the side of a cliff as shown here; and the ground becomes too dry to support the other trees in this wood. In this photo there are at least 2 trees which are no longer vertical and if the ground moisture below them has reached beyond the Permanent Wilting Point for those trees, then they likely to continue the descent to ground.
Surface soil moisture is the water that is in the upper 10 cm (4 inches) of soil, whereas root zone soil moisture is the water that is available to plants, which is generally considered to be in the upper 200 cm (80 inches) of soil:-
- Wet Soil has Saturated water content of 20-50% water/soil and is Fully saturated soil
- Moist Soil has Field capacity of 10-35% water/soil and is Soil moisture 2–3 days after a rain or irrigation
- Dry Soil has Permanent Wilting Point of 1-25% water/soil and is Minimum soil moisture at which a plant wilts
- Residual water content of 0.1-10% water/soil and is Remaining water at high tension
- Available Water Capacity for plants is the difference between water content at field capacity and permanent wilting point
5. If you put a shrub/tree in a very small volume of ground and allow it to grow, there will come a point where the weight of the tree/shrub above ground exceeds the weight of the earth/roots below the ground and so it becomes unstable and falls over as you can see in an evening for falling trees in October 2017 article. The earth in the hole where the shrub is surrounded by impervious material is not enough area or depth for its roots to continue to provide itself with a stable platform as it matures.
Tree Root Systems - 130/95/ARB - by Martin Dobson of Arboricultural Advisory and Information Service:-
Tree root systems are wide spreading, extending radially in any direction for distance in excess of the tree's height; frequently no deeper than 200 cms (80 inches, which as noted above; soil moisture is generally considered to be in the upper 80 inches) - see What to do about subsidence caused by clay page to see the effect of the length of different tree roots. Roots grow predominantly near the soil surface (see photo below with tree roots on the soil surface) - over 90% of all roots, and virtually all the large structural supporting roots, are in the upper 60 cm (24 inches) of soil. Soil disturbance within the rooting are should be avoided, as this can significantly affect tree stability and moisture uptake. Lateral roots taper rapidly until at 200-300 cms distance they are usually only 2-5cms (1-2 inches) in diameter, by which stage they have lost much of their rigidity and physical strength. It is here they tend to break when root plate failure occurs, e.g in a storm.
Roots branching from the upper side of laterals grow upwards and divide profusely in the surface soil, which is usually well-aerated, to form fans or mats of thousands of fine non-woody 'absorbing' or 'feeder' roots. In woodland, they grow horizontally between the 2 to 3 year old fallen leaves to absorb moisture and nutrient uptake. In order for roots to survive, oxygen must be available in the soil immediately surrounding them. Depositing toxic or impermeable materials on the roots will damage the roots" by stopping access to oxygen and soil moisture from above. Having grass over the tree roots is also detrimental as shown in section 9 below.
Our local church has a very large yew tree, where the local authority have removed the leaves, dead church flowers, prunings from the rest of the churchyard and grass cuttings to make sure that it has no nutrients and the grave-diggers continue to dump 60cm (24 inches) depth of the subsoil from new graves onto the yew tree roots robbing them of both moisture and oxygen - noted on 6 January 2022.
Why is it that nobody in Great Britain in parks or gardens open to the public, or gardens of homeowners understand the cultural needs of plants, as shown onsection 10 of this row? and why do they want to kill these plants as shown in the sections of this row in Madeira? Every country in the world puts tarmac on top of tree roots in pavements of roads, right up to the trunk. Why not put a 300 cm (120 inch) radius from each tree trunk in the pavement of peashingle locked in a Gravel Stabilisation System, so that at least oxygen and moisture can get to the roots? Then, collect the green waste from the homeowners and dead leaves from the trees on public land, mix it with 5% seaweed for the trace elements, compost it, shred the result, create a slurry of it and feed that slurry on top of the Gravel Stabilisation System, followed by a spray of clean water to clean the top-most pea-shingle, once a month throughout the year.
6. "This tree was tied with plastic baling twine to a fence when very young. The white section shows the width at which it was tied. This tree top snapped in the wind.
Please never use plastic twine or wire to tie a plant.
Please also do not use tarred cord as it will last too long and cause the same problem as above, use garden twine which will rot within a few years and then allows the plant' stem to expand. For trees or shrubs remember that the stake is only a support for the first 3 years at most, in order to stop the plant from being uprooted and to allow the stem above the 18 inches (45 cms) where it is tied to being able to sway in the breeze and strengthen rather than being tied at 60 inches (150 cms) and then when the support is removed the tree trunk is not strong enough and breaks in a strong wind. If you going to support climbers then also use garden twine, since when you cut it to move or remove that branch every 2 or 3 years, it can then lie on the ground and be recycled by your friendly earth organisms!" from Growing Edibles in Containers in Plants Extra.
If the tree is constricted by a metal ring as shown above; then it will grow over that ring and when the weight of growth above is too much for the area of heartwood within that metal ring, it will also snap off at that point.
7. 166 trees in the pavements in a short section of a road in Funchal, Madeira are being slowly, starved, dehydrated, asphyxiated, poisoned by tarmac and concrete, burnt inside their hollow trunks, roots pounded by 40 ton lorries or shoes of pedestrians, and allowed to rot until killed off during February 2019 (see information in Problems with trees in pavements in Funchal, Madeira in January/February 2018 Page, which appears to have had no effect) as shown by my 433 photos in the following pages (and further detailed in the following Camera Photo Galleries Pavements of Funchal, Madeira Damage to Trees 1, 2, 3, 4):-
- Death of tree roots and
- Death of tree trunks/branches caused by people.
- Solution to problems for trees caused by people using irrigation -
Growth of Pollarded Tree in Hotel Garden in 1 year provides a water solution to this destruction.
- Damage to Tree Trunks 1, 2, 3, 4 caused by people,
- Damage to Tree Roots caused by people,
- Area of Open Ground round trees,
- New Trees in pavements 1, 2,
- Irrigation of current trees,
- Watersprouts on trees,
- Crossing Branches in trees,
- Utility Equipment with tree Foliage,
- Lights on trees,
- Bycycle Lane in Pavement,
- Public Gardens alongside pavements,
- Hotel/Private Gardens alongside pavements,
- Current Permeable Pavement Surface round trees and
- Irrigation and Fertilising of trees.
The people of Madeira and/or VAN DEN BERK NURSERIES could SOLVE THESE TREE PROBLEMS
or
they could continue to kill these trees and others in the same situation elsewhere on the island
and then continue to be killed by those trees falling on them or on a 1000 gallon cooking gas tank for each of 2 hotels, causing leaks, followed by explosions
or
invite me to do the work unpaid, with Madeira providing food/drink, work clothes, materials and equipment for these tree problems (Madeira would donate the use of the following sleeping facility with my ankles and head above my stomach to drain my ankles and prevent drowning from phlegm created in my throat during my sleep together with 11 medications for heart failure, head tumour, diuretics, blood thinners, reduction of heart rate by 60 beats a minute, glaucoma, and 3 of those medications for diabetes, etc).
It might take me a little time
- to gather over 50 tons of seaweed/ cow manure and mix it before delivering it 3 times a year to each tree and pavement flower bed in this section within Funchal; more would be needed to cover the others in the island,
- removal of pavers and white/black marble pavements and replace with reduced size pavers with 2 inch depth of sharp sand under them,
- deal with unsealed tree branch cuts and rotting holes,
- deal with rotting tree roots,
- deal with root/lorry problems,
- retighten tree braces,
- erect steel structures over gas tanks to prevent damage by falling trees,
- provide irrigation to the trees in those pavements on a weekly basis
- create database of all trees/flower beds in pavements in Madeira, with repair schedule and paver replacement/ irrigation/ fertiliser creation; and irrigation and fertilising time schedules.
- following my use of 6 FAIL (Fortran Assisted Instruction Lecture) written notes, so that the students from Years 1 and 2 of the Architecture Dept of Portsmouth Polytechnic would receive the next 1 hour lecture notes at the end of the previous, I taught the Fortran language, hardware, software, flowcharting and documentation to them within 6 hours followed by 2 afternoons of practical in creating stats from an experiment in the laboratory. Those students passed with 75% following my exam of a waffle, flowchart and program questions supervised by the Computer Science Dept. I graduated with a 2.2 in Psychology from Brunel University the previous year to this teaching, having spent 18 months under Section 22 from falling on my head at 60mph in Wales from a motorbike and then recovering the use of the spoken and written English language by myself. I was passed mentally fit in the January of the year that I took my finals. Due to 1/3 of my brain being detached from my skull, I am discouraged from engaging in contact sports. Following close contact between a female dentist and my teeth, which resulted in a 2 month hiatus in my blood-thining medication, I am also allergic to close contact with the female species, unless my eyes are closed until they move 2 feet (60 cms) away. I have a temperature range between 18-20 degrees Celcius, so it can be a problem where air-conditioning only brings the temperature down to 24 degrees Celcius as in cinemas, theatres and banqueting halls.
Then perhaps I could teach the following students:-
- Tree-surgeons to get trees thinned, crowned, etc to aid the purpose for which those trees were planted, not pollard the whole tree and produce a very dangerous result when used for trees in pavements, or for hanging electricity lighting schemes on them - the ties slowly cutting through the bark and the cambium killing the trunk/branch above.
- Bed maintenance staff in how to prune, which does not mean chopping a rose to ground level each year and nor does it mean using a flail to chop shrubs into rectangles or turn shrub borders into oblong hedges.
- Bed and tree maintenance staff with use of green manures, seaweed/cow-, pig-, sheep-, chicken-manure, recycled food waste from restaurants and food markets mixed with shredded shrub/tree prunings and used as a mulch to feed the plants under their care.
- hotel and restaurant staff in checking the state of their toilets to stop the leakage of thousands of gallons of water from the overflow in the cistern or the washer seals into the latrine bowl.
Having had to reveal 2 leaks in the 2 toilets in the Pestana Promenade Hotel suite in 2018 followed by a leak in 1 of the toilets in the Pestana Mirimar Hotel Suite in 2018 followed a year later in the Pestana Promenade Hotel Suite with one of the same toilets still leaking and it taking an hour for the Maintenance Manager to cure it this time, I am hopefull that next year there will not be a repeat performance.
Your toilet cisterns remind me of the self-cleaning tumble dryer that used the water removed from the drying clothes to wash the condenser into the same match-box tank with foam pressure valve which activated a pump to transfer that water into a large tank at the top. Unfortunately when the system washed the fine dust into that matchbox, it clogged the foam and activated the pump. When no more water could be pumped, it refused to allow the machine to start drying. That tank was inaccessable to the machine owner and so cost £180 a time to get emptied. Brilliant - a machine designed to fail if it carried out its function, rather like the toilets in Madeira in wasting water.
- educate the public about their relationship with plants that come into their environment to realise that without them they would be dead from lack of oxygen. In public spaces, it is advisable to be careful since many people suffer from hay-fever, so plants from All Bee-Pollinated Flowers per Month could be used, which would not affect them and those planted areas could be identified for them.
I could use Companion Planting, but I am sure that the above is enough for me to start with in taking 400 hours per day leaving my time schedule for sleep and nourishment not executed,
if
the people of Madeira do not wish to sort out these tree/shrub plant problems themselves as can be seen from the lack of response to what I wrote last year in the Problems with trees in pavements in Funchal, Madeira in January/February 2018 Page.
Although the above is about the trees in the pavements in Madeira, other towns in other countries may find the information within it useful. There are also Problems with Trees in Pavements in Guernsey, in September 2019 Page.
8. I have noticed in my home town that herbicide has been spread
- round the trees on lawn-grass between the kerb and the tarmac pavement and
- under the hoop barriers
(hoop-barriers would probably be easier than the more effective Brett Trief Vehicle Containment Kerb system) stopping cars from parking on that verge in March 2019.
- Also, where trees are in lawn-grass on steep slopes so that their roots are exposed up the bank, that that lawn-grass has been removed - instead of herbicide being used - between those visible roots.
Perhaps Green Manure seeds will be sown in these areas.
If the Green Manure (Mustard is bee-pollinated) is bee-pollinated rather wind-pollinated, then hay-fever sufferers would not be affected when it flowers and sets seed.
Then,
- if the contractors using their ride-on mowers or rotary mowers cut into the green manure as well, it will not matter as the seed generated from that green manure will grow and replace the damaged legumes.
- These legumes under the hoop barriers and besides the trees will then feed nitrogen to the roots of those trees and
- what rain water that these legumes do not use will be available for those same tree-roots. This will help the trees
- as well as reduce the possible damage to the bark of those trees by strimmers from those same contractors and
- reduce the amount of grass mowings being put into the storm drains, when it rains after those mowings have strayed onto the tarmac road. Green manure instead of grass in and around hoop barriers within a very thin strip of grass between the road and the tarmac pavement will not require strimming as the grass it replaces does.
- if the grass next to private household fences/walls/ telegraph poles/ other items within public grassed areas or next to public buildings is also killed off with herbicides and replaced with green manure like mustard, then the strimming of that public grassed area next to those boundaries could be stopped.
The legumes like mustard between spring to autumn will replace the bare earth, which would otherwise grow weeds and look unsightly - it does not matter if some mustard grows into the grassed areas, since it would be cut down.
Use Lawn Aerating Shoes to spike the bare earth, spread the green manure seed thinly and spread using a soft brush into the holes created by the spikes. Spray the seeded ground with water to dampen the ground, before spreading a thin layer of sharp sand over the seeded area and leave the seeds to grow.
Repeat this next spring, since the first frost during the previous autumn will have killed the top growth of the mustard and the worms will then clear the ground. It becomes too cold for the weeds and just replanting in the spring with mustard will superseed any new growth of weeds.
Overall maintenance cost would thus be greatly reduced and the trees would benefit.
9. The section below explains why grass has such a detrimental effect on trees/shrubs/ or other plants planted within it:-
This shows the roots of 1 ryegrass plant, which had been removed from the foundation bed of Type I MOT Roadstone in a client's garden. You can see that this plant has tens of yards or metres of root to absorb water.
"Most turf grass roots are concentrated in the first 6-8 inches (15-20 cms) of soil. Try to irrigate only one or two inches of water per week during the turf growing season. You could irrigate the whole amount of water at one time, however most folks have better results splitting the amount into two separate applications. Please note however in sandy soils where the water percolates more rapidly it may benefit you to split the applications into three separate irrigation cycles. You do not want to irrigate more than three times a week because you would be applying so little water the outcome would be shallow roots."
"Native Grass Meadow
MARSHALL SILTY CLAY LOAM (HEAVY SUBSOIL PHASE) These plots (18-20) were located in an area that is in native grasses and has never been plowed, but being within a cemetery area has had frequent mowing. It adjoins the Agronomy Farm at Lincoln, Nebraska. T ests on these native grass plots (Table 1) showed that they absorbed over 2 inches of water during the first 1.5 hours with an absorption rate of about 1.4 inches per hour at the end of this time. Following a delay of 10 days during which there was no rain-fall, water was again applied to the test areas with practically the same results as for the previous test. It will be shown later that if the second test is made only 1 day after the first, the rate of intake will be materially reduced. This seems to be due to the settling of soil immediately after wetting. Upon longer standing the soil seems to resume its original condition."
Photo 5 - tree 23 from end of 2 road junction tree in garden IMG_6222.JPG
The roots of this tree are at ground level where they compete with the grass and other plants. Replace the grass with GREEN MANURE such as everlasting spinach to provide nitrogen to the tree roots as a legume rather than the grass which takes away the water and any application of fertiliser or nutrients in an organic mulch. The roots of the tree can then migrate below ground.
The area where the above tree is planted is not usually trafficked by the public,
- since it is witin an enclosed public space.
- The same is true when there is a tree within a high raised bed also surrounded by grass as outside a shopping centre in Funchal, or
- where trees/shrubs are planted within a grassed area like on a bank or in a central reservation of a dual carriageway near the Forum in Funchal,
- or in between old graves with less than a mower's cutting width between them in cemeteries, or
- You are unable to do any more gardening like mowing in your home garden, but you then employ a gardener to just cut your lawn on a regular basis,
- Why not kill off the grass and replace with Clover Green Manure. The tree/shrub roots will get fed and maintenance will only be required once or twice a year to strim/cut the foliage down before flowering and leave on the ground for the worms to take into the soil?
10. Since I am currently adding to the 97 out 706 ferns to the Fern Gallery, I thought you might be interested in the following to explain why the current treatment of growing plants in pavements in Madeira is lacking in care:-
This row gives a very clear overall description of the
Cultural Needs of Plants
from Chapter 4 in Fern Grower's Manual by Barbara Joe Hoshizaki & Robbin C. Moran. Revised and Expanded Edition. Published in 2001 by Timber Press, Inc. Reprinted 2002, 2006. ISBN-13:978-0-88192-495-4.
"Understanding Fern Needs
Ferns have the same basic growing requirements as other plants and will thrive when these are met. There is nothing mysterious about the requirements - they are not something known only to people with green thumbs - but the best gardeners are those who understand plant requirements and are careful about satisfying them.
What, then, does a fern need?
All plants need water. Water in the soil prevents roots from drying, and all mineral nutrients taken up by the roots must be dissolved in the soil water. Besides water in the soil, most plants need water in the air. Adequate humidity keeps the plant from drying out. Leaves need water for photosynthesis and to keep from wilting.
All green plants need light to manufacture food (sugars) by photosynthesis. Some plants need more light than others, and some can flourish in sun or shade. Most ferns, however, prefer some amount of shade.
For photosynthesis, plants require carbon dioxide, a gas that is exhaled by animals as waste. Carbon dioxide diffuses into plants through tiny pores, called stomata, that abound on the lower surface of the leaves. In the leaf, carbon dioxide is combined with the hydrogen from water to form carbohydrates, the plant's food. This process takes place only in the presence of light and chlorophyll, a green pigment found in plant cells. To enhance growth, some commercial growers increase the carbon dioxide level in their greenhouses to 600ppm (parts per million), or twice the amount typically found in the air.
Plants need oxygen. The green plants of a plant do not require much oxygen from the air because plants produce more oxygen by photosynthesis than they use. The excess oxygen liberated from the plants is used by all animals, including humans. What do plants do with oxygen? They use it just as we do, to release the energy stored in food. We use energy to move about, to talk, to grow, to think - in fact, for all our life processes. Although plants don't talk or move much, they do grow and metabolize and must carry on all their life processes using oxygen to release the stored energy in their food.
Roots need air all the time. They get it from the air spaces between the soil particles. Overwatering displaces the air between soil particles with water, thereby removing the oxygen needed by the roots. This reduces the root's ability to absorb mineral nutrients and can foster root-rot. These gases need free access to the roots:-
Nitrogen Cycle -
Nitrogen is the most commonly limiting nutrient in plants. Legumes use nitrogen fixing bacteria, specifically symbiotic rhizobia bacteria, within their root nodules to counter the limitation. Rhizobia bacteria fix nitrogen which is then converted to ammonia. Ammonia is then assimilated into nucleotides, Amino Acids, vitamins and flavones which are essential to the growth of the plant. The plant root cells convert sugar into organic acids which then supply to the rhizobia in exchange, hence a symbiotic relationship between rhizobia and the legumes.
Oxygen Cycle -
No nutrient absorption occurs at the root zone unless oxygen is present.
Carbon Dioxide -
Plant roots uptake carbon dioxide to provide carbon for parts of the foliage.
Plants need minerals to grow properly. The minerals are mined from the soil by the plant's root system. If a certain mineral is missing, such as calcium needed for developing cell walls, then the plant will be stunted, discoloured, or deformed.
Some plants tolerate a wide range of temperatures, whereas others are fussy. If the temperature is too high or low, the machinery of the plant will not operate satisfactorily or will cease entirely.
The basic needs of plants are not hard to supply, but growing success depends on attending to these needs with care and exactitude. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to a discussion of these requirements, with the exception of mineral needs, which are discussed in Chapter 5."
11. Only Earthworms provide the tunnels which transport water, gas and nutrients to and from tree roots
When the roots of the plant requires the mineral nutrients dissolved in soil water, oxygen and nitrogen intake and waste gases output, it gets it through the action of the earthworm continously making tunnels to provide the transport system.
6000 species of Earthworm have no special respiratory organs. Gases are exchanged through the moist skin and capillaries, where the oxygen is picked up by the hemoglobin dissolved in the blood plasma and carbon dioxide is released. Water, as well as salts, can also be moved through the skin by active transport.
When the earthworms are denied access to the air above ground as in the case of pavements, then they die and the system round them dies as well. Since the roots are not getting the requirements then they also die off, and you are left with insufficient live root to support the tree.
The roots of each tree covered by tarmac, concrete or stone (in any country in the world) will create a Russian Roulette situation, where the asphixiated, dehydrated and starved tree may fall down. In this situation, there is only one place where the tree may get the water and nutrients requiired and that is by taking them from a branch, normally the ones nearest the ground to be able to compete for new branches and leaves at the top in competition with either other trees or buildings shading their tops. This can be seen in dense forests.
Human beings must be the only animal that is determined to kill itself by denying itself oxygen to breath.
Nitrogenous fertilizers tend to create acidic conditions, which are fatal to the worms, and dead specimens are often found on the surface following the application of substances such as DDT, lime sulphur, and lead arsenate. In Australia, changes in farming practices such as the application of superphosphates on pastures and a switch from pastoral farming to arable farming had a devastating effect on populations of the giant Gippsland earthworm, leading to their classification as a protected species. Globally, certain earthworms populations have been devastated by deviation from organic production and the spraying of synthetic fertilizers and biocides with at least three species now listed as extinct but many more endangered.
Vermicomposting of all organic "wastes" and addition of this organic matter, preferably as a surface mulch , on a regular basis will provide earthworms with their food and nutrient requirements, and will create the optimum conditions of temperature and moisture that will naturally stimulate their activity.
This earthworm activity aerates and mixes the soil, and is conducive to mineralization of nutrients and their uptake by vegetation. Certain species of earthworm come to the surface and graze on the higher concentrations of organic matter present there, mixing it with the mineral soil. Because a high level of organic matter mixing is associated with soil fertility, an abundance of earthworms is generally considered beneficial by farmers and gardeners.
12. The easiest and quickest solution for existing pavement areas using pavers or paving slabs is the SuDSFLOW System using paving spacers for permeable paving. Simply take up the paver/paving slab and re-install with the spacer and laying coarse if you cannot afford to also install the correct subgrade. You would then end up with redundant pavers/paving slabs and the same system could be used elsewhere.
The same SuDSFLOW System could be used on Domestic Driveways, Patios and Terraces, Car Parks and Footpaths including the laying coarse and subgrade to absorb the rainfall even if the soil is clay underneath. This would prevent the rainwater falling on your land from leaving it - which is illegal in the UK.
Instead of wasting your time using the existing compost bins in private gardens; use the vermicomposting system to create a better product for your home garden.
Use the same vermicomposting system on organic waste from restaurants, hotels and supermarkets, before mashing it into small compost particles and put into a water solution to give a monthly supply to the trees in your pavements in your village/ town/ council area.
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