(Continued from Part 2.)
The microbes in the soil are master mineral miners using various acids, such as carbonic acid, to break down minerals into soluble forms that are bioavailable to the plants. The plants in turn exude sugars to feed and power the microbes during the mining operation. If you live east of the Mississippi or in commercial agricultural areas where we’ve been unsustainably exploiting the soil nutrients for decades or even centuries, there is a pretty good chance your soil is deficient in micronutrients, especially anion molecules like boron, sulfur, and molybdenum that tend to leach from the soil.
There are dozens of trace minerals that are key for various functions of your plants growth, development, reproduction, and self defence. Plants are master chemists. Some of the plants that have been studied in herbalism have hundreds of different chemical compounds identified in them. How do you think a plant defends itself from pathological viruses, bacteria, and insects? It can’t run away, so it mixes chemical defenses. By providing a broad spectrum of nutrients in the soil you are ensuring your plants have access via the soil life to a well stocked chemical laboratory to handle any attacks they face. By extension, many of the compounds that a plant uses to protect itself are the ones that nourish or heal our bodies when we eat the plants. If it’s in the soil, it will be in the plants. If it’s in the plants it will end up in you. Bottom line: The microbial ecosystem can extract, balance, and transport the nutrients in the soil so your plants can thrive without ANY fertilizers. You just need to make sure the microbes have the mineral building blocks to start with.
A great way to find out what your soil needs is to have a soil analysis done at a lab. You’ll want to use a lab that goes beyond the typical NPK analysis and also includes some of the major trace minerals. In the resources section at the end of the article I’ve linked a lab I’ve used in the past. If you watch the “High Bionutrient Crop Production” course from the BFA linked in the resources there is a detailed discussion of macro and micro nutrients in part 2 with target levels discussed and how to calculate the maximum application rate.
Life
You can have oxygen, water, food, and the full spectrum of minerals present in your soil, but if the bacteria, fungi, and other organisms are not present the system will still be dead. Are you trying to regenerate farmland worn out by conventional ag? Maybe you want to put a garden plot in a lawn that’s been treated by chemlawn for the previous 10yrs. How many species of microorganism have been wiped out from your soil by chemicals, fertilizers, and tillage? It could take decades until they are slowly reintroduced naturally. Reintroducing a broad spectrum of soil microorganisms that are known to be symbiotic with plants can be one of the biggest bangs for your buck to jump-start your soil system.
There are a couple ways you could do this depending on your scale and budget. There are numerous agricultural sources of broad spectrum seed inoculants on the market. They don’t cost too much, and a little goes a long way. I bought a small container (3-4oz) a few years ago and haven’t even used it all yet. Just a tiny pinch in a seed packet, shake it up, and plant. The same warmth and moisture that will trigger your seeds to germinate will also trigger the spores to germinate. Your baby seeds will be born with their soil microbe buddies ready to go! Another option is the DIY route. Simply take a walk in a local park or forest and collect small soil samples from wherever you see healthy vibrant plants that are growing naturally without any help. Get samples from as wide a variety of biomes as possible (forest, grasses, stream/pond bank, swamp, etc…), and then mix them into a bucket of water. Once the soil particles settle you’ve got entire colonies of microorganisms ready to go and you can spread them in your garden (don’t let the water sit more than a couple hours, or the microbes will die from lack of oxygen). Isn’t it cheating, or artificial to add microbial species? I would say that the only reason they were eradicated from the soil in the first place was due to artificial external forces.
Creation will repopulate the biome in time without our help as long as we stop destroying its rebuilding attempts. However, we can partner with creation to bring things up to speed faster, and get our soil system up and running sooner by introducing the species the plants need. Inoculating our seeds is the equivalent of a newborn baby getting colostrum the first time it nurses. That colostrum is loaded not only with vital nutrients, but also with a whole spectrum of bacteria the baby will need to digest breastmilk. The fact is we humans cannot digest our own food without the help of our gut microbes, and our plants are no different. Make sure your plants start life with the microbes they need to thrive. When your system is up and running, and your soil is healthy and alive you probably won’t need to inoculate any seeds you are directly sowing into your soil. Potted plants and seedlings should always be inoculated. Inoculating your seed is probably the single biggest improvement you can make with the lowest input of dollars, time, and effort.
Principle #2: Build Your Soil
In order to be an excellent microbe farmer, and by extension crop producer your main gardening job will be to build your soil. This will get your biological system up and running and will help you establish the soil life engine we discussed in principle #1. The main tasks of building your soil are: establishing organic matter, rebuilding soil mineralization, and addressing soil structure imbalances. Each of these tasks plays a role in the 5 requirements of soil life.
Building Organic Matter
Building organic matter in your soil is a pivotal improvement. Carbon based organic matter in your soil:
- Functions as a food source for soil life
- Loosens and aerates the soils to allow oxygen and water to penetrate
- Drastically improves water absorption, retention, and drought tolerance
- Binds with soluble nutrients that would otherwise leach from the soil
Organic matter impacts 4 of the 5 components of managing for vibrant soil life. Target levels of organic matter in your garden soil should be between 5%-10%. Since organic matter is constantly being used up, you will need to be constantly adding it at least as fast as it is being used. One of the best sources for organic matter is homemade compost. Here is a link to my previous Survival Blog article on making your own Compost, and you should also check out Charles Dowding’s videos on making compost. I make about 4 cubic yards of compost each year to apply to my gardens. In my early gardening years, before I understood what was happening in the biological system, making and adding compost was my first leap forward as a gardener. It was the main thing I could point to that differentiated my results from other gardeners who were struggling to keep their plants alive. My opinion is that making your own high quality compost is one of the most important skills you can learn to enjoy gardening success.
The materials are largely sourced from my own property, including manure from our chickens and rabbits. Animal manure is a major reason to add animals to your system. Besides the things the animals can provide (eggs, meat, etc…) they also become your partners in adding organic matter to your garden or pasture via manure. My opinion is the best results with manure for gardening use are when I mix it in with the rest of the compost. This ensures it is fully broken down and ready to be absorbed. Some manures like chicken manure are “hot” because of high levels of nitrogen and can burn the plants if applied directly. Ensure you are sourcing your manure from animals that are eating pesticide and herbicide free feed/hay. Some of these chemicals can go right through the animal’s digestive tract and then damage your plants (besides the damage to your animals and you).
Wood chips are a great, clean carbon source that are usually available locally for cheap or free. I use these extensively to mulch garden aisles, and to add to compost when I need more carbon in the mix to balance out a wheelbarrow of chicken manure. They can also be used as a mulch, especially around perennial trees and berry bushes, and will break down over time adding organic matter and nutrients to the soil. Wood chips really help balance out the microbial life by shifting the soil towards a fungal dominant system. Many soils can be too bacterial dominant and the wood chips can help to even things out.
Another way you can build your soil is via animal pasturing. If done right, rotational grazing can actually build the organic matter in the soil at a much larger scale. I don’t have enough property to really pursue this strategy but I have started experimenting with running rabbits in the yard in tractors to give them pasture and build the soil in case I ever need to expand the garden. Joel Salatin has a lot of great resources for building soil through pastured livestock if you want to dive deeper.
(To be continued tomorrow, in Part 4.)
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