Reed Organic Supply

The Solution!

 

Before we can cure the dead soils of our farmland, we must first understand what soil is. Healthy soil is a living, breathing system of minerals, organic particles, sand, silt, clay, humus, microbes, fungi, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and much, much more. One square inch of healthy soil will have 4 billion microbes or more, one square inch! And all of the nutrients found in our atmosphere eventually move through the soil which helps build this living breathing organism we call soil.

 

What if we were to treat every square inch of our farmland soil with respect? What would we get?

 

Deeper roots, healthier plants, pest resistance, and higher yields!

 

This is an overview of some of the common mistakes made that cause damage to soils and ultimately the watershed, organisms (large and small) and plant communities.

 

TILLING - PLOWING - CHOPPING

Farmers are very familiar with the age old practice of tilling - In fact I can't name a single farmer i know who doesn't plow thier fields or groves. Including us (except at our verticl farm - The LOV Farm). Tilling may seem beneficial at first as the organic matter from the soil surface is mixed into the layers below. Soil productivity spikes for a short period of time as microorganisms in the layers below break down the newly introduced organic matter.

 

The real damage occurs when the large intricate network of soil fungi is broken apart and destroyed. Soil fungi play an extremely important role in plant health. Fungi convert nutrients in the soil to readily available forms for uptake by plant roots. In exchange, the plants provide sugars and carbohydrates to the fungi.

Tilling does not mimic natural systems. Think of any forest, hundreds of years of leaf litter and decaying wood building layers of organic matter in the soil. The organic matter feeds the healthy population of microorganisms. Soil fungi then make these nutrients available to the trees. The millions of fungi form a massive network in this forest connecting thousands of tree root systems together. You can foster these organic layers and build new plant communities by leaving the leaf litter in your landscape. If you've ever walked through any forest I'm sure you've seen the many Foresrty employees on their tractors plowing the forest floor, right? Wrong! The only time you will see a plow running through a forest is for a fire line to stop the spreading of wildfires. Forest are vibrant living examples of why we should till as minimally as possible. This is why we prefer vegetable farming with Verti-Gro Systems.

 

The soil is also a seed bank. Every time we turn the soil, we bring new seeds to the surface to germinate The soil is a wildflower & weed seed cache, Plowing just brings those seeds to the surface for germination. If you till existing weeds such as quack grass, you are essentially vegetatively propagating more quack grass as you chop up the rhizomes. Tilling under trees is especially harmful as you will severely damage the shallow root systems. This is especiaslly true in Florida's orange groves.

 

Tilling also releases the "stored" carbon-nitrogen bond in the soil. Plants deposit carbon-nitrogen chains into the soil through their roots. Part of this is created through fixation and some is throguh decompsition of dead plants. When the soil is over-tilled these chains are broken and much of the stored carbon and nitrogen is lost to the artmoshphere. That's free nitrogen being lost for the plants to use. BioNatural has the reverse effect on soil, Bioploin builds these carbon-nitrogen chains through a liquid application building these naturally occuring bonds. Over time your soil becomes healthier and builds the nitrogen reserves in your soil. In fact the product is so productive you may even be able to stop using added fertilizers all together. And that's a fact!

 

BioNatural Products, Bioplin, NutriTech, Nutrifoliar and Taba will become your sole source of nutrition for your crop. You'll have higher yields, and higher test weights improving your profits substantially. You will save money by reducing the use of "hot" chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides which destroy the soil. Remember, the addition of chemical nitrogen actually depletes the carbon-nitrugen chains already stored in your soil.