Monday, April 7, 2014

Dad's Soil Amendments and the Risosphere

Dad believed in doing anything possible to improve the soil and even proactively build biology and soil structure. He would do this by adding compost, cover cropping, and using various soil amendments from AgriEnergy Resources.

He would use fish emulsion, a biological preparation of chicken manure, and various inoculations. I especially like the inoculations, where AgriEnergy would culture various micro-organisms from the soil and then under the watchful eye of their staff microbiologist they would increase these cultures to commercial quantities. Dad used to inoculate his seed and extended this practice to his soils. You see he understood that there was more going on in the soil than just a soup of chemical nutrients.

Dad understood there was a risosphere (a biome, which is an ecological system, around the roots) where the plants communicate to their environment through a symbiotic relationship with the biology in the soil. This is a whole area of study that we don't have space to go into here, but the risosphere is as important to human and livestock health and nutrition as any other thing on this planet.
Just like Dad we enhance the biology in the soil on our farm so we get the best possible risosphere and the best possible minerals, phytonutrients and shelf life.

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