The interest in organic gardening and farming, has advanced our knowledge greatly in the last few years, better understanding of the cycles of pests, how nutrients are absorbed used, and processed by plants has made organic farming economically competitive with modern chemical farms, its not just about growing healthier or tastier products, in the long run, organic practices may save on water usage, save on insecticides and may even surpass in some cases productivity.
And of course the other added benefits, of doing less harm to the environment, and the potential for being self reliant.
A lot of research has gone into boosting the soil, after all what is it that they say, "feed the soil, not the plant" , so how do we go about making the perfect super soil?
Obviously this will differ from yard to yard, and of course each plant has different requirements.
One group that has done a lot of experimentation and monitored results, are the indoor "Medicinal herb" growers, and there is a tried and true Super Soil recipe that has been circulating around the web. this is a stand alone soil, for containers. so you are starting from scratch.
Here are the basic ingredients:
8 large bags of a high-quality organic potting soil with coco fiber and mycorrhizae
25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings
5 lbs steamed bone meal
5 lbs Bloom bat guano
5 lbs blood meal
3 lbs rock phosphate
¾ cup Epson salts
½ cup sweet lime (dolomite)
½ cup azomite (trace elements)
2 tbsp powdered humic acid
Just google Super soil recipe, and you will get more details on how to mix up the above, I did not want to link to any of those "medical herb" sites, on this forum.
Again the above recipe may be perfect for some plants, but not for others, looks to "rich" for mangoes in my opinion. but bet some fruit trees and especially veggies would love it.
Some products that seem to do wonders for the soil / roots.
Replacing minerals:
heavily farmed soils usually have depleted micro nutrient minerals, and many sandy soils, just do not have them at all, as they were long ago leached away. so replacing these elements using rock dust, is something that many swear by. Azomite, Seaweed or other ocean products, and Glacial rocks are some sources used by products.
Humus and Fulvic acid:
I have been looking into this recently and it is just amazing, Humus is what makes plain old dead dirt into a soil. it has been said that fertile top soil takes hundreds of years to just make an inch or two. but this is not true, adding mined humus to your yard / garden can start a chain reaction that will do this in just a few years, not decades or centuries. Fulvic acid can even be used as a foliar spray, and transport minerals right into the plant. humus / fulvic acid make the minerals in the soil available to the plant in a form it can use.
Biologicals:
Having beneficial fungi and bacteria in the soil, work with plants, protecting them from the bad guys, transporting nutrients to the roots, and decomposing organic matter into nutrients the plant can use.
What are some of your ideas for the perfect soil?
Which of the above substances have you used?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adhssib1ggEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ItTiwlA_I