| Fundamentals For Good Farming Results! 1. Carbon dioxide is the biggest limiting factor to crop production. 2. The sugar molecule produced in photosynthesis is the foundational building block for everything you see growing above ground level. 3. Leibig's Law of the Minimum states that "it's the element in LEAST SUPPLY that governs productivity". [not how much N P K fertilizer we throw onto the soil] 4. The Calcium to Magnesium ratio has one of the biggest effects on crops, because it influences the Air to Water porosity in the soil. Roots need air and water to grow effectively. Ask any Nurseryman how important it is in their potting mix. 5. Bacteria are primarily responsible for solubilising the minerals in the soil with their acid exudates, thereby making mineral nutrients plant available. [The best way plants like their nutrients.] 6. Silicon is responsible for cell strength, particularly in grasses e.g. cereals, sugar cane etc. It builds up the cell walls and helps to increase plant sugar levels, sometimes called Brix levels. 7. Mycorrhyzal fungi [the most researched fungi in the world] have the ability to increase a plants nutritional supply by 5 times. [Some chemicals and fertilizer kill these fungi ... How much fungi have you got?] 8. When you have to spray crops for pests and diseases, you are admitting that you have produced plants with compromised nutrition. 9. Microbes have the ability to raise soil temperatures by as much as 5 degrees centigrade compared to soil which has no biology. 10. Sodium has 2x1/2 times more pulling power over water than roots. Why use salty fertilizers? 11. Plants split water into oxygen and hydrogen, the oxygen replenishes the atmosphere and the hydrogen acid is used by the plant in exchange for nutrients. This hydrogen acid is what is measured and it effects the soils pH. 12. The availability or lack of nutrients from the soil is governed by pH. 13. Organic carbon in the soil is a water and nutrient storage facility, as well as being a housing estate for the microbes. It is easily destroyed by the following: A. Excessive Nitrogen application B. All Tillage operations. C. Compaction. D. Water logging. 14. The optimum time to foliar spray with nutrients is when the Air temperature is Lower than the ground temperature; this is the triggering mechanism for plants to open the stomata on the leaves, making it optimum to get fine sprays into plants. 15. On average plants are 95% a function of photosynthesis and 5% mineral. Why do we focus so much on the 5%??? 16. All living cells emit electro magnetic waves and the more waves emitted the healthier the plant cells, this phenomenon of electro magnetic emission is called bio photons and good levels of bio photons in plants produce systemic acquired resistance. [SAR for short] 17. The protozoa family of microbes in good soil grazes bacteria and can produce up to 400 kilograms of pure Nitrogen per annum in this natural nutrient recycling process. [equivalent to one tonne of Urea.] 18. Most Broadacre and Vegetable crops require fungi to bacteria ratio in the soil of 1 fungi to 1 bacteria. Soils with low or no fungi levels are certain to have weeds. [Weeds don't grow in soil with good fungi levels] 19. At night plants dump into the soil up to 30% of their total energy/sugar produced during the day, this is because plants and the biology have a symbiotic relationship. If you have killed off the biology with chemicals and salty fertilizers the plants will continue to dumping sugar into the soil with no return to the plant. 20. Scientists use a virus to cause genes to stick in plants when genetically modifying them, who wants to grow plants with unhealthy viruses in them? 21. Carbon can never be destroyed, it only moves from plants, into the soil, the air or water/ocean. 22. Compost Tea, an extract from well made compost has the ability to supply plants with a whole suite of plant available mineral nutrients, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, hormones, and antibiotics, things which you can never buy from your rural supply store in bags or bottles. 23. Plants are at their most nutritious stage prior to flowering and this is the ideal time to incorporate them as green manure crops. 24. Calcium is the Prince of all nutrients as it is a carrier for all other nutrients, and is a key component for the intra cellular message system in plants. 25. Do you have a problem with your fields, consider checking the following, high Magnesium, Iron, Aluminum, and Sodium, causing unbalanced conditions. Improve the biological activity by feeding the microbes with a balanced food. These opinion's are of a certified SFI (Soil Foodweb Institute) Advisor and internationally recognized authority in agricultural sciences. He has over 40 years of commercial farming experience. Copyright © 2008-2018 BioBased.US - All content including, without limitation, text, images, media files, videos, software, and source code is subject to copyright protection and may not be used except with the written permission. |