WATCH YOUR CROPS THRIVE WITH OUR BIOLOGICAL & ORGANIC FERTILISER SOIL STIMULANT

RESTORE FERTILITY

With a biological system, fertility is returned to the soil, crops and farm animals. Restoring fertility is not a short term project, it takes time using the correct procedures, and you as the grower will gain knowledge and see tremendous benefits from your actions, including personal satisfaction, a healthier lifestyle and a better bank balance.

Building a biological soil profile will create greater organic matter, increase soil carbon, balance soil nutrients, grow better crops, and increase soil biological activity and soil species. All these things plus many more have a great multiplying effect within the soil profile such as increasing natural sugars within the plant, which means less insect/ pathogenic fungal attack, reducing watering by building carbon in the soil profile, buffering seasonal changes, balancing the soils’ populations of bacteria and fungi to support the crop that is grown, plus many more benefits for you as the grower.

Restoring fertility to your soil means that you are in control of what happens on your farm.

BALANCE YOUR SOIL

When you get your soil results back from one of the two laboratories mentioned in “Getting Started”, these are the steps to take:

First, we balance the soil chemical elements so that the transition to a biological system is much easier.

The products recommended for this balancing are natural soil stimulants, some are registered organic products, but all are soil building products.

The first action you need to undertake is to balance out the calcium/magnesium soil ratio. The easiest option is to review the results in the soil report under “Percentage” in the “Adjusted CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity)”. Understand your type of soil:

For a clay-based soil:
Calcium percentage needs to be 65- 68%
Magnesium needs to be 12-15%

For a sand-based soil:
Calcium percentage needs to be around 60%
Magnesium needs to be around 20%

In both cases, the CEC needs to add up as close to 80% as possible.

Most soils I encounter require an amount of calcium to be applied, so without jumping to an immediate conclusion, the soil test will reveal the available phosphorus and/or available sulphur, which will help to determine the product we recommend to use.

A number of growers/farmers use lime, dolomite or Gypsum because the calcium is low. However, lime (calcium carbonate) is a very hard element to break, releasing the calcium, and unless your soil has plenty of sulphur or phosphorus in the form of an acid or plenty of lactobacillus bacteria then lime will certainly NOT be the best product to use. Growers put out lime and see no or very little result because they do not have the naturally occurring acids to break the lime down so the soil can utilise it. There are a number of other products to use such as Soft Rock Phosphate, CMP or N-Fix Ag which will get the calcium components active within the soil profile.

A good soil profile will have more calcium than phosphorus,

• more phosphorus than potassium,
• more potassium than magnesium
• more magnesium than sulphur.

That is the way nature intended the soil balance to exist.

Any questions email soil@soilcharge.com.au

ELIMINATE USE OF FUNGICIDES AND INSECTICIDES

Building a soil biological system is the simplest and easiest way to eliminate the use of fungicides and insecticides.

As discussed in Reducing Production Costs, it is about feeding the soil and the plant with biological products, and as a benefit, building natural sugars within a plant (Brix level) to produce as high as possible Brix level for that crop.

Each crop/plant has different readings, for example, potatoes usually have a Brix level of between 3 and 8, carrots 4 to 18 Brix, and pineapple 12 to 22 Brix. The standard for blueberries is 7 to 15 Brix. However, a number of our blueberry growers often obtain a reading of 23 Brix.

Let’s examine the conditions for an insect attack. The chemistry of the plant determines insect attack as well as the plant’s Brix readings, therefore, a better-balanced soil (as discussed in Improve Crop yield and Crop Quality) will assist in insect repulsion, but a high natural sugar reading, or Brix, is the best deterrent and the natural way to protect your crop.

Plant-sucking insects do not have a pancreas to process sugars, so if an insect were to feed on these high sugar plants, then the natural sugars would turn to alcohol and poison the insect from within. Most insects would seek a crop of low sugar content and attack that one. A high natural sugar within a plant is the best resistance to insect attack.

To understand plant pathogenic fungal disease, let us examine what conditions it thrives in and change the conditions and environment to eliminate this effect. Plant pathogenic fungal disease (e.g. rust, algae, mould and fungus) breaks out in a crop when the conditions are right. These conditions generally are low natural sugar content within the plant, low nutrient transfer, and low electrical conductivity. These conditions have to be counteracted in the early stages of growing a crop, when the pathogenic conditions break out it is too late to implement natural growing principles.

Any questions, email soil@soilcharge.com.au

IMPROVE CROP YIELD AND CROP QUALITY

Following on from our discussion about Reducing Production Costs:

To understand crop yield and crop quality I believe that first, we need to understand what a plant consists of:

A healthy plant is made up of 80% water and 20% dry material.

80% Water- is self-explanatory, but quality water is an issue we may all face in Australia.

20% Dry Material:   break down of 47% carbon, 43% oxygen, 4% hydrogen, 3% nitrogen and 3% soil nutrients.

Now the first four elements, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen all exist in the air.

In fact, every breath we inhale is 78% nitrogen, so if the air consists of 78% of nitrogen, then WHY do I have to buy so much nitrogen? Good question!!!

The simple answer is that the requirement to buy more nitrogen is because the soil is short of one or all of the three elements, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. Why does the soil become deficient in carbon, oxygen and hydrogen? The initial answer is farming practices that have been used up to this point in time, and the second reason is: “that is the way nature operates”.

So, to achieve the best results, go about building these soil elements within your soil’s profile and build a strong biological system.

A natural, strong biological operating system together with a balanced soil profile will increase your returns and produce high-quality crops, whilst reducing input costs and creating healthier living conditions.

Any questions email soil@soilcharge.com.au

REDUCE PRODUCTION COSTS

When a biological system is in existence in your soil profile, the need to fertilise with biological products still exist, but your input costs are much lower due to the fact that the symbiotic relationship with the plant roots and the soil biology is working to build the soil food web.

You may ask: How does this happen?

The plant’s fine root hairs exude liquid exudates into the plant’s rhizosphere (the region of soil around the roots in which the plant’s chemistry and microbiology are influenced through growth, respiration, and nutrient exchange). Plant exudates are used by soil bacteria, fungi, plus many other soil micro-organisms as a food source. While feeding on these exudates, the soil micro-organisms excrete carbon. In exchanging exudates from the root hairs, the plant receives the minerals it requires from the soil to utilise in plant growth or reproduction by way of fruiting or flowering.

For example, if a plant requires copper, the soil biology in association with help from mycorrhizal fungi supplies the copper from the soil profile to the plant root hairs. The mycorrhizal fungus is a network of fine white hairs spread throughout the soil profile which can spread many metres away from the plant, and supply the required copper in our example. This natural way of growing strengthens the plant’s immune system against insect or pathogenic fungal attacks by increasing the plant’s natural sugars.

Not only do the plant’s higher natural sugars act as a defence mechanism, but as an added benefit, they increase the flavour of fruits, nuts, berries and vegetables, as well as the intensity of colours in cut flowers, and they enhance the length of the flowering period of plants which in turn increases crop yield.

In his book, “Teaming With Fungi”, Jeff Lowenfels writes that…” A staggering 80 to 95 per cent of all terrestrial plants form symbiotic relationships with mycorrhizal fungi”.

IF you use synthetic fertiliser, then this symbiotic relationship is impaired or does not exist.

When plants are force-fed synthetic nutrients in a salt form, then the soil just becomes a medium to hold the plant up. Because the plant’s natural system is not being used, then the plant and the whole crop are set up for insect and pathogenic fungal attack, and guess what, ironically, the same company that supplied you the synthetic fertiliser just so happens to be able to supply sprays to control insects or pathogenic fungal attack.

To understand whether your crop needs to be dominated by bacteria or fungi, there is an easy guide. If your crop is in the ground LONGER than 12 months, then the soil profile needs to be dominated by beneficial fungi. However, if your crop is mostly in the ground LESS THAN 12 months, then the soil profile needs to be bacterially dominated, and with pasture/grass a 50/50 split between beneficial fungi and bacteria is required.