In these unprecedented times, farmers and cultivators are finding themselves with the weight of this pandemic, and its resulting economic recession, on their shoulders. The demand for fresh organic produce is as high as ever, with many families looking to secure healthy foods that are high in nutrition and capable of boosting their immune systems instead of their usual routine of ordering take out and fast food.
How can today’s agricultural heroes maximize their yields to provide food for the American public during this state of emergency, in a manner that minimizes their overhead, and keeps their businesses afloat, in this dwindling economic period?
One cost effective solution is to improve the soil biology and soil health, which in turn increases the health of the plants. And the best way to increase the soil microbe biome is Robust Compost and compost extract and actively-aerated compost teas (AACT). Depending upon how poor the soil health is to start, the full-spectrum biological solutions have been shown to increase yields. Sometimes more than 30%, sometimes in flavor and nutrient density. At a lower price point than traditional agrichemicals, this is a level of efficiency that cultivators in today’s in today’s climate cannot afford to neglect. One cubic yard (27 cubic feet) of SymSoil® Robust Compost can be used to make twenty-seven 250 gallon batches of Compost Extract or Compost Tea using the GEOTea 250.
Compost Extract or Compost Tea are liquids that carry the microbial life of the Robust Compost and can restore soil microbial biodiversity and increase the overall health of soil. Dr. Elaine Ingham, who first documented the Soil Food Web in academic literature, is fond of saying, “Dirt is a dirty 4-letter word. It is dead. Soil is what every grower wants. Soil is full of life.”
Grown in healthy soil, plants are able to operate at peak efficiency, improving yield, taste and resilience. An important thing to understand about compost and teas is that in order for them to be properly utilized they must be aerobic. That is, the dominant microbes must be those that require oxygen. There are some beneficial microbes, such as lactobacillus, that do not require oxygen, but most of the harmful microbes thrive in stagnant water or soil that has no air component.
The purpose of active-aeration is to prevent compost tea (AACT) from becoming anaerobic, where harmful bacteria, fungi and other microbes come to dominate. They will eat plant roots, cause disease and attract larger unfavorable insects. The soil microbe biome you are cultivating will not work efficiently – and you will have wasted your investment of time, money and energy.
Making sure that your compost and biologically active liquids are rich in oxygen is very important in optimizing your soil and plant health. While the smell will let you know that your AACT has gone bad, the only way to confirm that your AACT has good biology is with a microscope. Follow this link to Dr. Ingham’s specifications for the right type of microscope, as well as lowest cost microscope available for monitoring soil health
Compost Extract and AACT are techniques that leverage the biology in SymSoil’s Robust compost, creating a more cost effective solution that helps cultivators begin to achieve efficiencies necessary for today’s climate.
What is Robust Compost?
Robust Compost feeds plants the way nature intended with the complete soil microbe biome. Sometimes called Living Soil, Soil Food Web compost or BioComplete compost, the full spectrum soil ecosystem includes bacteria, fungi, archaea, beneficial nematodes, amoeba, flagellates and micro-arthropods.
Often it has other types of life, including animals (earthworms) and it may contain diatoms and other algae, phages and other types of protozoa. Where healthy soil contains in excess of 10,000 species of life, Robust Compost has in excess of 1,000 species and includes at least 7 types of life.
SymSoil® RC is Robust Compost, with over 2,000 species and 7% biochar, which acts as a soil conditioner as well as a tool to revive or reseed the soil microbe biome.
About SymSoil® Inc.
SymSoil is an evidence-based, soil health company with products and services to improve the profitability of all growers, based on a deep understanding of soil biology. The company has soil amendments for agriculture that restore the full-spectrum of microbes that provide the right food to the plant roots, improving plant health, and making food more nutrient dense and flavorful, the way nature intended. SymSoil has products and services for growers using regenerative agriculture methodologies which improve profitability. SymSoil was named one of 2019’s AgTech Companies to Watch. Accredited Investors can learn more about SymSoil as an impact investment here.