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.