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Microbes

Beneficial microbes in your soil work similarly to how good bacteria works for your gut. Having healthy microbial & bacterial populations in soil enable all the living organisms underground to live symbiotically, thriving together, growing together resulting in the soil providing a healthy structure, water management and nutrient transfer amongst varying types of plants..

What does this mean? In short, the soil is enabled to behave the way it did a few hundred years ago – prior to fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and damaging farming techniques such as tilling.

Plants, soil and it’s microorganisms operate like the ASX, constantly trading. They have to trade to remain healthy and alive. This trading can be interrupted by the introduction of fertilisers and chemical compounds where a plant learns to feed off the nutrients from the addition of fertilisers, not from the soil itself. The natural trading between different plants swapping various nutrients (ie, legumes & corn trading nitrogen for phosphorus) is vital to both plant and soil health. The same with various microorganisms trading nutrients between each other, multiplying and continuing to feed the soil, unlocking nutrients such as phosphorus that forms naturally but can be locked up if not released by certain bacteria.

Earth worms are the most visual indicator of a healthy soil microbiome. As the worms move through the earth, they not only excrete nutrients but leave passages and airways clear for additional nutrient transfer and water management within the soil. Perfect water management, keeping the soil moist during the dryer months and releasing water (preventing pooling) during larger down falls of rain.

Healthy soil = healthy plants. Healthy plants = more resilience to pest & disease.

So before you load up your veggie patch with fertiliser to feed your plants, consider feeding your soil. Your plants will thank you for it longer term!