soilminerals.com
soilminerals.com

Soil Fertility

Soil Mineral Prescriptions
by
Michael Astera
HERE

Cation Exchange Capacity:

Soil Science 101

The secrets of soil mineral balance that create ideal soil, plant, and animal health are revealed here for the first time.  The amazing results that can be achieved by balancing the major cation minerals Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium and Sodium in the soil according to the teachings of Dr William Albrecht and Dr Carey Reams have changed the world of agriculture.  This knowledge has taken the focus away from merely trying to achieve high volume yields to achieving the highest yields of the highest quality and nutritional value, while building the overall health of the soil, the crops, and the people and animals that rely on them for food.

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There are no more depleted soils and farmlands when using these techniques; the soil just keeps getting better and better year after year, and all without the use of any sort of toxic rescue chemistry.  As Dr Albrecht was known to say, "Well fed is healthy."  A well-fed soil leads to well-fed crops and well-fed people and animals.

Professional agronomists charge hundreds or thousands of dollars to consult with you and apply their specialized knowledge of soil nutrients and  minerals in order to achieve the perfect balance in your soil.  Though we feel they are well worth what they charge, some of us would prefer to have the knowledge and be able to do that for ourselves and others.  There are also many home gardeners and small farmers who simply don't have the financial resources to afford the expense of a professional soil consultant.  The lack of knowledge or money need no longer keep any grower from having the ideal soil.  For only $29.95, about the cost of a single laboratory soil test, this new one of a kind book teaches you everything you need to know to perfectly balance all of the major and minor mineral nutrients in any soil.

Read more about The Ideal Soil: A Handbook for the New Agriculture

Grown by Tom Bigger, Kenosha, Wisconsin 2017

BSOs: Beneficial Soil Organisms

The focus at SoilMinerals.com is on the mineral nutrients needed by plants, animals, and people to ensure outstanding nutrition and vibrant health.  Why do we also recommend and use beneficial soil fungi and bacteria?

For the same reason that bakers use bread yeast, champagne makers ferment grapes with champagne yeast, brewers add beer yeast, yogurt is made with yogurt starter, and cheesemakers use the culture that will give them the kind of cheese they wish to make.  One can wait around and hope that the right yeast spore will fall into the vat and create champagne, or one can increase the odds in their favor by adding the cultures that they want right at the start.  It is wise to be sure that the best possible soil life "culture" is there and ready to make the minerals and organic nutrients in the soil available.

BSOs are valuable for freeing nutrients that are in the soil but "tied up".  For example, some soils have good phosphate reserves, yet the plants growing on those soils are starving for phosphate. READ MORE

Soil Mineral Prescriptions
by
Michael Astera
HERE

All You
Really Need

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26 August 2018

The Errors of Regenerative Agriculture
By Michael Astera

Error 1: Increasing the amount of carbon and carbonaceous organic matter does not and will not increase the mineral fertility of a soil.

Error 2: It is impossible to increase stable organic matter, or sequester carbon in the soil, without increasing the soil's reserves of phosphorus, sulfur, and certain trace minerals. If any essential elements are deficient or absent, additional organic matter added will simply decompose and return to the atmosphere as CO2, carbon dioxide, and NH3, ammonia.

Let's take these one at a time. What makes a soil fertile? Mineral nutrients, not carbon content. Higher plants require at least seventeen mineral elements to complete their life cycle, to grow and reproduce and form viable seed for the next generation. The higher animals and humans need at least twenty-two essential minerals, and possibly fifty or more.

The proven essential minerals for plants:

The macronutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), sulfur (S), magnesium (Mg), carbon (C), oxygen(O), hydrogen (H)

The micronutrients (or trace minerals): iron (Fe), boron (B), chlorine (Cl), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni)

In the absence of any one of these essential minerals the growth and reproduction cycle will fail. The failure may not be as obvious as a fruit tree not blooming or forming fruit. A plum or peach tree may bloom and form loads of beautiful, sweet fruit, but the stone or pit of the fruit will be empty or contain a shriveled infertile embryo that cannot grow. I'm sure many readers have seen this, a plum or peach with an empty, hollow seed. That is caused by the lack of sufficient manganese, either because there is little or no manganese in the soil, or because the plant was unable to absorb and utilize manganese due to a deficiency of another essential mineral such as iron.

Of these seventeen known essential elements, four come primarily from the atmosphere: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. These elements form carbohydrates such as sugars and starches, hydrocarbons such as oils and waxes, and amino acids and proteins where nitrogen is involved. If the soil is downwind from a coal-fired power plant or a volcano, the plants may be able to obtain sulfur from the atmosphere, so potentially five elements can be sourced from the air; the other twelve must come from the mineral reserves of the soil.

Do soils have an unlimited supply of these other essential elements? Of course not, no more than a gold or copper mine has an unlimited amount of gold or copper. The planet has thousands of abandoned gold and copper mines that simply ran out of ore. We also have thousands of abandoned farms that simply ran out of essential mineral nutrients. In addition, many soils never did contain sufficient quantities, or any amount, of some of the essential minerals. When the prairies of northern Florida were first used for grazing cattle, the cattle did very poorly, and often wasted away and died. It turned out that the soil of these prairies was lacking in cobalt, necessary for bacteria in the cattle's digestive tract to synthesize vitamin B12. Notice that cobalt, Co, is not on the above list of essential elements for plants, but it is necessary for a bacteria that produces a vitamin needed for the growth and reproduction of higher animals.

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Products for sale: We supply consulting and prescription soil fertility services for Organic, Biodynamic, and Sustainable Gardens, Lawns, Landscapes, Greenhouses and Sustainable Agriculture Farms. Our focus is on perfect health and nutrition for soils, plants, people and animals through the science of remineralizing and balancing soil elements.