Soil Amendments We Use
There is no getting around the facts that the key to healthy productive plants is healthy productive soil. You can have the finest quality plant start, but if your soil is poor you will be in constant battle for success. The reality is that healthy soil that is rich in micronutrients and beneficial bacteria will increase drought tolerance, disease, and pest resistance. The other side is that a food that is grown on dead and depleted soil will never have the nutrients our bodies need. Healthy soil is the key to healthy food. You can see than we add a lot of amendments to our soil, but the longer we work and support our soil from a regenerative perspective the less it needs from us. Many of these amendments are simply investments into the long term health of our garden. Our initial garden beds are based on the no-dig method and are first built with a mix of composted rabbit manure and mushroom compost, after planting we mulch with a layer of native wood chips. Over the years the soil grows healthier and stronger with smaller additions of our own compost and some of these amendments. Other amendments we use really depend on the specific area we are growing in and what plants we are growing. Gardening always seems to present its challenges and the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know!
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Texas Greensand
Greensand is a naturally-occuring iron potassium silicate (also known as glauconite) with the consistency of sand but 10 times the moisture absorbtion. It is an excellent source of iron, potassium, silicate, phosphorus, and trace elements.
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Lava Sand
Crushed scoria, a reddish brown to black volcanic slag with a texture full of holes; lava sand is the most popular rock material. Considered by many to be an excellent source of energy for the soil, lava sand makes soil nutrients more available to plant root. It provides aeration and porosity to the soil and helps retain the right amount of moisture in the soil, is durable and resists degradation.
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Microlife
Provides over 100 + nutrients, minerals, vitamins, natural plant hormones, natural plant stimulators, essential sugars/amino acids/carbon/protein and billions of beneficial microbes representing 76 different species. 100 % slow release and will not burn.
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Compost with Zeolite
Our compost from our farm is a combination of garden waste, fall leaves, and chicken manure with Zeolite. We dust all of our roosting boards daily with zeolite and then add the manure/zeolite daily to our compost bins. Once full each bin is allowed to compost for 6 months to 1 year before going into the gardens. There are a lot of options in making your own compost depending on whats available to you. Compost doesn’t have to have animal manure but it is helpful. Be careful that any animal’s manure added to the compost bin was not fed sprayed hay. The herbicides on the hay will not breakdown and will affect the plants in your garden for years.
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Mycorrhizal Fungi
There are several ways we work to increase the presence of the Mycorrhizal Fungi in our garden. One is starting our seedlings in a soil that is inoculated with the mycorrhizae and another is adding a soil conditioner containing it at planting. The mycorrhizal fungi work in symbiosis with the plants. The tiny hyphae of the fungi are smaller than the root hairs of the plants and can reach areas that the plants can not. This increases the root surface area of absorption from soil and provide is access to large amount of water and nutrients, like nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc, manganese and copper. Some of the other reported benefits of the mycorrhizae include increased pathogen resistance and increased drought tolerance. Plants with mycorrhizae also have higher transplanting success, increased crop yield, and enhanced flowering.
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Dried Molasses
I have mixed emotions about this one and I am debating whether or not I will continue to use it. Dried molasses can help to attract and feed beneficial bacteria. It also helps to deter fire ants from your garden. The latter is why I began using it with mixed results. My hesitation with it, is that, it is not pure molasses. It is a liquid molasses sprayed on a silage substrate often soy or corn based. Since I have yet to see an organic version of this I am pretty certain all the ingredients are going to be GMO based. If it comes between using this and an ant poison I would not hesitate to choose this, but I think for soil health I will just use an organic blackstrap molasses in my compost tea, fish emulsion, or seaweed extract.
