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Welcome to Independent Soil Solutions
True soil fertility is the foundation for good crop and livestock performance.
In natural eco-systems, the main sources of nutrients in the soil are
air, water, rock minerals and organic matter.
In modern farming systems, chemical-based fertilisers have largely replaced
the work of natural microbes. Plants can be fed directly form the bag
but being soluble, any fertiliser not used by the plant will either move
through the soil into drainage water, or become “locked” in
soil reserve. Good examples of this are nitrates and phosphates, although
potassium and other elements can be affected. Without question, crops
respond to the use of fertilisers. However, releasing stored soil nutrients
can help reduce costs, improve productivity and avoid pollution.
We know that soils contain enough nutrient reserves to feed plants for
many years, if only the plant could gain access to them. In the past,
little value was placed o the measurement of total soil reserves, as they
were thought to be “locked-up” and unavailable to plants.
Microbes play an important part in moving nutrients from “locked-in”
resources because they have the ability to release these nutrients into
forms that are truly plant-available: different types of microbes can
pull nitrogen form the air, dissolve phosphates from rock and move minerals
form the soil to the root zone.
Biological farming systems use this concept to match crop needs with soil
reserves and microbial activity. The starting point for this is a full
soil analysis which measures true fertility, chemistry balance and physical
soil problems.
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