Dallas Morning News – May 3, 2018
STEP 2 – BUILD THE SOIL WITH HELPFUL PRODUCTS
Compost can be purchased or made at home.
After the destructive products (high-nitrogen synthetic fertilizers and toxic chemical pesticides) are eliminated, the soil building can begin. Soil health can be achieved with aeration, compost, rock minerals, sugars, microorganism products and shredded native tree trimmings mulch. Here’s how it all works.
Decomposed granite and or crushed granite can be effective rock mineral amendments for soil building.
Instead of lifeless peat moss, apply compost, organic fertilizers and natural mulches. Apply the compost at 2-5” in beds and at about ¼” in turf areas. Some will argue that these amendments are all you need – and well, I don’t disagree that simple formula will work. Only problem is that it takes too long to turn the ground into healthy soil so that crop production will be good the first season.
Greensand is an excellent soil amendment but not as available as it once was. Magic sand is an excellent substitute.
What I recommend adding to the carbon-based amendments mentioned above are rock minerals and microbe stimulators.
Lava sand and dry molasses are two of the most important soil amendments.
Rock minerals include lava sand, granite, greensand, zeolite, gypsum, Azomite, and other rock minerals that are a different color and chemistry than the base rock on your properly. Greensand is still on my recommended list but is harder to find because one of the most important mines shut down. A new commercial product called Magic Sand is an excellent substitute. These rock minerals are equally as important as the organic/carbon amendments. Apply the rock minerals at about 40 – 100 lb. per sq. ft.
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Shredded native tree trimmings (in this case cedar) make the best of all mulch choices.
Although the organic/carbon products used with the rock minerals will stimulate the biological activity in the soil and set everything in the right direction, there is another group of amendments that will strongly fire up soil microbes and are key to having strong plant growth and crop production the first season. This third major category includes the sugars – molasses, cornmeal and the living organism products. Any sugar will work. You can use white sugar, old cookies and cakes, etc. but one of the best is dry molasses because of its trace minerals. Whole ground cornmeal
Whole ground cornmeal functions as a sugar and stimulates a fungus called trichoderma.
functions as a sugar because it converts so efficiently into sugar. It also stimulates beneficial fungi called trichoderma that neutralize pathogens in the soil. Apply the sugars and cornmeal at about 20 lbs. per 1000 sq. ft. There are liquid and dry commercial products that contain beneficial microbes or efficiently stimulate the microbes already in the soil. They are helpful to use at the recommended rates on the products.
Azomite is one of the excellent commercial rock mineral soil ammendments.
Physically aerating the soil prior to or with the addition of amendment is certainly helpful in all cases but essential when dealing with compacted soils. Spraying hydrogen peroxide at 1-2% can also help soften poor soil structure.
Planting native plants and well-adapted introductions together with infrequent, deep irrigation will help round out the natural-organic program. Welcome aboard!