A century of chemical fertilizers, monocropping, tilling, and harsh pesticides has left our soil tired. It needs our help.
Your crops rely on healthy, functioning soil biology to thrive. Many soils are in need of repair due to a long history of short-term solutions. Horticulture is shifting its lens towards lasting improvements; these changes start at the microscopic level, by improving the health, strength, and diversity of soil microbes.
Microbes are responsible for making nutrients bioavailable to plants, and they’re the most important factor when it comes to measuring soil health. More species of biology provide more functions. More functions mean an increased chance of success.
Biological Functions You Rely On
- Fix gases (nitrogen and carbon) from the atmosphere
- Digest carbon from residue, soil, manures, and applied fertilizer
- Cycle minerals from one season to the next
- Change/advance/metabolize minerals from one form to another
- Exchange minerals with the plant
- Solubilize minerals in the parent soil, turning small particles into a fertilizer solution that is only then available for plant uptake
- Consume pathogens that might otherwise harm the plant (bio-sanitation)
- Ward off pathogens to protect plant roots and shoots (competitive exclusion)
- Build soil carbon; microbes drive the humification process
Modes of Biological Action/Protection
Maintaining or re-establishing a biological balance can help crops survive and/or thrive in their natural environments. It is perhaps the unintended consequences of the inputs and practices employed, over decades, that have disrupted the balance.
Competitive Exclusion
One organism creates an unwelcoming environment for another, effectively excluding the second organism from becoming established without directly killing it. An example of this would be creating a film on a root surface to prevent pathogens from infecting the plant.
Production of Natural Antibiotics
The secondary metabolites that contribute to plant health and nutrient density.
Bio-Sanitation
Some microbes (gram-positive bacteria) consume pathogens
(like botrytis and anthracnose) as a food source as seen on leaf surfaces and orchard floors.
Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR)
Stimulating plant response to disease pressure before actual diseases are detected. This results in strengthened plant defenses, helping prevent the onset of actual disease when it is imminent.
The Path You’re On Without Good Biology:
Without a good microbial habitat, you lose the soil particle aggregation microbes provide.
Diminished soil structure decreases soil respiration and oxygen availability for seeds and plants. This results in reduced seed/soil contact, seed hydration, and reduced germination rates in the spring.
Diminished aggregation reduces water infiltration and water holding capacity. This takes much of the resilience out of the farming system.
Over time, and without a good habitat for biology, the microbes you count on to mineralize, solubilize, fix, chelate, protect, and actively deliver macro and micronutrients to your crops no longer function well in your soil.
As this downward trend continues, farmers become more reliant on purchased fertilizers and the next more expensive generation of crop protection inputs.
The Purple Cow Take:
Plants don’t take up dry inputs, fertilizers either solubilize based on time, temperature, and moisture or biology converts them. Using a diverse broad-spectrum biological can help ensure that the maximum amount of soil and applied nutrients are being utilized in your system.
A diversity of microorganisms from a broad-spectrum biological will ensure that the maximum amount of soil nutrients are utilized.
If there is moisture and the plants are still not getting nutrients, three considerations stand out:
· A mineral imbalance - This can be from either excess or deficiency.
· Diminished energy and exchange capacity, often related to high salt factors.
· Minerals that are chelated or tied up in the growing system.
There are many reasons and corrective steps to address the 3 factors above.
One significant advantage of a liquid fertility program is how nimble the program can be. Rather than applying minerals in fall at a rate much higher than the plant needs, an observational grower, and perhaps a simple tissue test, can quickly address a deficiency if they see one. Plants get minerals much faster with a foliar pass on their leaves than with a field application through their roots. The corrective application can have an almost immediate impact.
The case is being made that increased phosphorus uptake is not achieved with more applied phosphorus, but rather through more applied biology. Farmers and agronomists are developing a deeper understanding that phosphorus and potassium come from the soil, are plentiful in manures, and can be biologically digested and made available from crop residue. Many fields have phosphorus and potassium from previous applications and, if needed, a fertility application can be made.
BIOACTIVE LiquiLife® and LiquiLife+® help you get the most out of the soil, manure, crop residue, and other inputs you apply. Adding the necessary microbes for nutrient cycling and conversion of nutrients to the proper form for plant uptake is an excellent way to increase fertility efficiencies and profit this season and for years to come.