....and do they both supply trace elements and Cal/Mag? When you have mycorrhizal plants removed from any type of ecosystem you then create nothing but a bacterial one which actually favours weeds and by weeds I am talking Ruderals. That is not efficient. Read more Seaweed is a word used to name many species of aquatic plants, specifically oceanic ones (hence the sea- prefix). The suggestion is valid if you have very high (over 7.8) or very low (below4) pH. =============================. I used this on my tomatoes and they started earlier than any other year prior. While they grow they add very little nitrogen to the soil – the nitrogen produced is used by them to grow. Seaweed Extracts as Biostimulants of Plant Growth and Development. I understand azomite has 60 plus traces, but wondering if a guy(or gal) would want to use both....does azomite act as a buffer? Sulfur is the go-to product for lowering pH in soil, so I found this statement to be a surprise. Having said that, a ruderal commonly lives one season and a circumventor will still live for a decade on a screwed up site. This powder grade is ideal for blending with other fertilizer materials or amendments as a trace mineral resource to help meet plant nutritional needs. Advising someone to add more calcium without knowing the calcium levels in the soil is bad advice. Oddly enough, I don’t use any fertilizers ever, but fortunately I do know most of my plants from the Southwestern native habitats and their requirements from over thirty years of successes and failures. The yields were also higher. I’m not looking to plant blueberries, but being able to keep some vegetable plants going would be nice, also help for the hardly apple trees and hardy roses that cant take the soil either. Do you have topic about Seeding? I am not surprised about that since many people just repeat what they have heard and give it very little thought. One would hope that a US university extension office – who is the states expert on such matters – would get it right. Too much nutrient is bad for plants. In such settings the scenario is more of “Survival of the Mutually Cooperative” rather than the failed Darwinian view of “Survival of the Fittest”. I rarely believe information unless it comes from experts in a field, government sites or published research articles. If the soil really can’t grow more things, then you might need to use raised beds with plastic in the bottom. In my mycorrhizal landscapes back in San Diego County, I went down to maybe 2% of ruderal weeds with most being extremely stunted in growth. “Most plants perform best in soils high in organic matter (greater than 2% organic matter by weight).”. Re-post the info. Yeah, plants have been eating dead organisms for ever but they hardly had the meat slaughterhouses they have nowadays back in the olden days! Azomite is mainly there for the trace minerals, I am thinking you can use kelp meal as a substitute for it though. The woman below is an extremely sharp intelligent woman and I wish there were more Academics like her pushing for a Biomimetic approach as opposed to the majority of Academics pushing the industrial standard. I don’t agree with your statement “My experience is that if you have a health mycorrhizal soil system, the mycorrhizae will outcompete the weeds to available phosphorus.” Many weeds form mycorrhizal associations and also benefit by their presence. But you can even over do those if not careful. *******************************, Robert: “Not sure what a ‘mycorrhizal soil system’ is, but any healthy soil will support weed seed, unless the seed is prevented from germinating with something like mulch, or shade.” It is true that urea converts to ammonia and if the ammonia is near the surface of the soil, it can escape as a gas into the air. Not so in this case. That way it continues to decompose and add nutrients for plants without burning roots. Along with kelp. In permanent landscapes, flower gardens and lawns, it is much better to simply water it in. The problem with fertilizer is that the nitrogen in it is very soluble and easily runs into waterways. Wow – what a list, and I did not even touch on water-absorbing polymers and mycorrhizae. Most commercial fertilizers list 3 numbers on the label. This is a great product !!! Dried kelp will usually contain 1.6 to 3.3% nitrogen, 1 to 2 % P 2 0 5 and 15% to 20% K 2 0. Phosphate moves through soil much more slowly than nitrogen. Some other vitamins may have an effect. A balanced fertilizer contains the same amounts of N, P and K. For example a 10-10-10 fertilizer is a balanced fertilizer and a 10-5-5 is not. Garden soil is usually not deficient of trace minerals and most plant debris and compost contains them. Nutrients sprayed on leaves enter the stomata easily. Any dry fertilizer is not going to be acidic. I use urea on the lawn, and occasionally in the veg garden. Contains up to 35% humic acid.”. Many farmers are finding out that they no longer need companies like Dow Agro-Chemical etc. ********************************************, Robert: “You can’t selectively add the nutrient you need. I apply it just before a good rain thereby preventing it from escaping into the air. Excess magnesium is often associated with soil stickiness, crusting, compaction, reduced aeration, and releasing nitrogen from the soil pound for pound. This can be caused by irregular water levels. This bed is mulched with pine needles and shredded leaves and I would like to add a bit of soil acidifier to help keep the ph low as I have naturally alkaline soil even though it isn’t in this bed…yet. If you have a soil that breathes and percolates wonderfully as a result of healthy microbial communities underground, they will do the nitrogen gathering themselves which is what all plant communities did prior to the introduction of the “1950s Green Revolution”. This does not work in practice except for one case, legumes support microbes that take nitrogen from the air and transfer it to plants in a form they can use. This is true of any plant or animal material used. Adding nutrients will help, provided the soil has a deficiency. In order to add nitrogen you also need to add P and K, which can quickly reach toxic levels. A lot of the stuff on the internet is garbage when it comes to gardening advice. From your article, maybe kelp? “At a pH above 6.0, iron sulfate lowers pH more quickly than sulfur”. They probably have some effect, but they have not been shown to be needed for garden situations. But this may have nothing to do with the amount of calcium in the soil or even in the plant. Do growth hormones work? It is true that so called ‘start fertilizers’ and ‘booster fertilizers’ are higher in phosphorus, but it is incorrect to promote the idea that adding extra phosphorus will foster root establishment. What reasonably natural amendment would you recommend for extremely alkaline soil, and also with alkaline well water for watering? The University of Wisconsin and University Maine both did multiple potato studies in several different locations in their respective areas in using Mycorrhizal Applications Inc’s product MycoApply which has several species of fungi and beneficial bacteria. “Kelp is valued as a growth stimulant because of rich concentrations of trace minerals (over 60 types), amino acids, vitamins, and growth hormones. It is true that in early spring when the soil is still cold, decomposition of organic matter would be slow, but nutrients resulting from decomposition in prior years would be available. ”. I condemn the so-called Organic side because the reality is, they do not really discuss these things either. Mix into the top 4-6 inches of soil. It makes no sense to me to add a product that has too much salt, and then try to wash away the salts. *********************************************, Robert: “I agree that farming can be done, on a limited scale, without using fertilizers. To maintain high soil fertility, I add a light application of compost or aged manure. If your statement were true natural woods would be free of weeds since they have a very healthy fungal population. Kelp Meal is made from dried ocean seaweed that is then ground up into a meal type product. I commented on your other blog and I asked you about a soil acidifier and after reading this article, I would like to clarify what it is that I am trying to do. That is why you should not add fertilizers unless you know the soil needs them and you should not add excessive amounts of organic matter for the same reason. You can have too much organic matter. So am I now an expert? They discovered azomite here and there and blah blah blah and they tried out this mineral set on tomatoes I think. Your point about commercial farming however needing to continue with inputs of fertilizers needs some correction. The video below is Dr Wendy Taheri from South Dakota State University who is a microbiologist who specializes in endomycorrhizae, especially with crops. Clover is also grown in grass and as it is mowed it adds nitrogen to the lawn. Jul 12, 2019 Overview: FoxFarmâs Happy Frog dry fertilizer is a mix of granular organic bud food ingredients such as bone meal , bat guano, and kelp meal . Most nurseries sell small boxes of it. “Apply uncomposted manure in fall only. If you grow a legume to seed state, there is little nitrogen in the leaves. View All Customer Testimonials. I searched my post about comments saying that commercial farming requires input of fertilizers, and did not find any? A FEW KELP MEAL TIPS: Easy kelp meal tea: ¼ cup of kelp meal to 1-gallon water, let steep for 1-3 days and agitate daily. Vitamins such as A, B, and E are present in the meal, as well as minerals like magnesium and iron. Both and for specific reasons. There are a couple of myths about nitrogen fixing plants. I tested both in hot & dry weather above 80 degree: horse manure vs. Azomite, and I would take Azomite over horse manure. Gabe Brown: Keys To Building a Healthy Soil. Unlike some other supplements like bat guano or blood meal, which are made from animal droppings and byproducts of meat processing, azomite and minerals come directly from the earth. Hi, I appreciate your scientific research and information,and would like some help if possible. I think this is where we are talking past each other. Glacial rock dust is a low-cost, high-impact way to mimic the natural systems of soil formation through glacial activity. Other experts, in the UK, Europe, and Canada (me) routinely recommend adding sand to clay. Nature has been programmed for countless centuries to perform that tasks prior to human industrial age and I understand the business needs of former allied/axis munitions companies to find ways to continue to make money after the war was over, but the over doing it has ruined millions of acres of soil. As organic levels get over 8%, by weight, they start to cause problems including nutrient levels that are too high. Adding reasonable amounts of fertilizer is not destructive to microbial life. Vitamins does not help plants except in some special cases ammonia and subsequent escape into the fields promote! 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