[APWG] Smell soil to see if you have dead soil causing weeds?

[craig at astreet.com]

Dear All,
I am going to suggest an even easier test to check for
soil problems that can cause weed infestations--is to smell the
soil?
Where I have the worst weed problem at my site in Palo Alto,
the Italian thistles and the medusa head grass, I noticed that when I dug
up the soil for the soil nutrient tests on those sites, there was no
visible organic matter below the weed thatch, and there was no smell to
the soil.  The soil is dead, nobody microscopic like the fungi and
yeasts, alive any more.
Then if you go 20 feet away where there is
no medusa head or Italian thistles, when you dig past the surface thatch,
you can see visible organic matter, and if you breathe in, you can sniff
that somebody is still home in that soil.  
I am suggesting
that along with soils being below the nutrient threshold for native
seedling survival can cause weed infestations, that you can also have a
case of weeds as symptoms of dead soil.  The weeds could be looked
like flies gathering on a dead body, and we may need to resurrect the soil
microbes in order to chase away the weeds?
Sincerely,  Craig
Dremann (650) 325-7333
 
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