Into to Soil Biology

As is often the case when setting a path for the future, we can greatly benefit from considering the past. When it comes to the future of farming, we really need to look to the LONG AGO past, when soil’s natural system kept it rich with life. Thanks to the human disruption with agricultural practices (mono-crops, petroleum-based additives, beneficial insect elimination, etc.), so much of our soil has become plain old dirt. Lifeless.

How do we rebuild our fields from “the ground up”? We start by looking at the smallest individuals present in the soil food web, Microbes and Fungi. Though they are the fundamental building blocks for healthy soil, only recently have their importance been brought into mainstream discussion. Their importance in soil regeneration and beginning the process of bringing life back into  dead, over-farmed land cannot be underestimated.

This goes for indoor/greenhouse growing systems. Simply feeding your plants the nutrients they need often isn’t enough, or at least not optimal.  Introducing and encouraging living biology like microbes, fungi and enzymes to your growing media can increase efficiency of nutrient delivery and achieve soil health otherwise not available in an indoor environment. That being said, there are a multitude of new things to consider such as oxygen levels, continued inoculation and monitoring for microbes may be becoming dominant (as indicated by how the plant is responding or not responding). 

Over the course of this Soil Biology blog series, we will cover important considerations for the use of microbes, fungi and enzymes (microbially derived) in soil regeneration and overall health. We will discuss why concentration, balance, diversity, carrier products and shelf life are important, in addition to introducing tea, the microbially derived and microbially safe enzyme, and how fungi plays an important role to tie everything together.

Stay tuned!