Looking after your soil biology pays off from the start with healthier plants, better food, more carbon in the soil, better soil structure, and it costs very little to do.
Avoid Chemicals that Kill
Avoid using any chemical that ends in ‘cide’ – as that suffix that means killing. Replace those for products with ‘Organically Certified’ signs on their package. That means that the contents comply with Australian 2022 standards for organic and biodynamic production. The need for protection will diminish as your soil biology gets healthier, see the Plant Health Pyramid for an explanation.
Feed Your Plants with Biology-friendly Products
Artificial fertilisers are highly concentrated simple salts that kill or interfere with soil biology. Use natural fertilisers such as kelp oil, fish oil, molasses, blood and bone, soft rock phosphate, rock dust, chook pellets, manure, compost and so on. You can also make your own BioBooster to kick-start your soil and give it a boost of diverse soil biology.
Feed Your Soil Biology with Sea Minerals
The tens of thousands different species in soil biology have their own needs for minerals, and Sea Minerals have the widest range of minerals of supplementary fertilisers. The case studies show improvements in yields and quality from applying it to crops and orchards, while applying pastures with Sea Minerals has produced substantial increases in Dry Matter.
Keep the Soil Covered where Possible
Where possible, use cover crops, crop residue or stubble mulch. They protect the soil biology and when they decay, they feed it in the next season. In gardens, use the ‘Chop and Drop’ method: all parts of the plant that are not used by us get cut up and left on the bed where it grew to build up the soil biology.
Leave Plenty of Leaves when Grazing
Leaving half or more of the leaves to catch the sun’s energy allows for faster re-growth and yields more Dry Matter per year than overgrazing. Taller residual leaves also give animals more consistent feed quality and reduce the risk of bare patches forming, which helps maintain steady pasture growth across the season.
Encourage Diversity
Encourage diversity in the soil biology by growing multi-species cover crops, crop rotation, or using a diverse mix of different crops grown between rows when and where possible. In pasture, short term rotational grazing reduces the selective grazing of plants favoured by cattle and helps maintain diversity in plant species, meaning better overall nutritional quality of the pasture.
