Soil Secrets

Conserving Water in Agriculture and in Urban Horticulture; The Past by Michael Martin Meléndrez In recent years I've written about techniques that could play a vital role in helping us conserve water in urban horticulture and in agriculture, particularly since the Southwest and the Western States are so dependent upon irrigation to grow crops, parks, sports fields and home landscapes.  Water is an issue that's growing and will not ever go away in our life time, so we better be on the learning curve of how to deal with it. Soil Secrets has gotten better and better at what it does as a Soil Ecology company, with our Material Science and product line-up performing at a cutting edge pace.  For example, what we were doing 20 years ago was pretty fantastic and got the attention of many new clients and industry leaders, however compared to what we can do today, it was pretty crude stuff.  And compared to what the typical retail nurs...

Soil Secrets LLC develops products that instigate the natural biochemical process required for healthy soils and proper plant nutrition. All Soil Secrets products meet the benchmark of the USDA National Organic Program, and with Certifier approval, can be used on Organic Certified farms. The products are also safe for use on home gardens and lawns, without fear of damaging the environment or exposing our bodies to hazardous chemicals. Our products can be used on landscape, construction and maintenance of a variety of buildings with benefits such as: Improved water drought tolerance of crops Improvement of water storage in soils Maximizing efficiency of photosynthesis Improving sequestering of CO 2 into plant liquid energy In addition, Soil Secrets science in humic acids is the best in the world, using a “Commercial Proprietary Information Contract” at the National Labs. Soil Secrets owns the only molecular science on the species description of soil car...

The link below takes you to a web site that gives old outdated information about how to solve the problem of Iron Chlorosis.  The nurseries and garden centers of the world need to get on the learning curve about this, as do the agronomists that advise farmers.    Click here: AOL Image Search result for "http://landscapelawninorder.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/iron-chlorosis-maple. From Michael's paper  'The Journey to Better Soil Health'  which will be presented at the 1st Humus Experts Meeting in Austria.  January 22nd, 2014 where Michael is one of eight global experts invited to present at this conference.  For more information about this conference: Click on the link below to view the brochure on the event.  International Humus Experts Meeting 2014.pdf T he following are bullet points that will be used in Michael's lecture.  These points are also in his paper, in the conference proceedings.    ...

A common malady of irrigated agriculture in arid parts of the world is the gradual accumulation of sodium, salinity, or both.  This is often compounded by arid climate soils being high pH where many of the mineral nutrients such as iron and phosphorus are chemically tied up in the soil.  In the case of excess salinity, water will move in the wrong direction away from the vascular system of the plant resulting in dehydration.  What many of us call burning.   Where water is expensive and a limited resource, the last thing a farmer needs to contend with is excess salinity and sodium that robs his crop of water.  This story is a Case Study in Merced, California where a raspberry grower is experiencing salt burn and where TerraPro was applied as an experiment to try and remedy the situation.  TerraPro the product used on this project is not organic matter like compost or manure.  It's a formulated biologic substance that we de...

White Lightning® is a professional grade ultra-concentrated Mycorrhizal inoculant containing 9 species of beneficial fungi to promote growth. This professional grade Mycorrhizal inoculant intentionally does not include other microorganisms, nor does it include bio-stimulants, as the intent of this product is to be a mycorrhizal inoculant only of the highest purity available! The viability, purity and high concentration of White Lightning® ensures the highest degree of potential success. White Lightning® contains Glomus intraradices an Arbuscular Mycorrhizae species and 8 species of Ectomycorrhizae. Individual species counts listed on reverse. Glomus intraradices associates with the vast majority of agricultural short term crops! Ectomycorrhizae associate with many conifers (i.e. hemlocks, firs and spruce) and hardwoods (i.e. pecans and oaks). For a list of plants and how they associate with mycorrhizae type, visit the Soil Secrets Web Site via this link:    Plant-S...

Humus that contains supramolecular humic molecules (generically called Humic Acids) and plants that are mycorrhizal are the key to successful agriculture.  So implementing the use of humics that are guaranteed to be supramolecular and inoculating the crop with the mycorrhizal species Glomus intraradices will play a significant role in producing the maximum yield of any short season crop including the production of World Record Pumpkins.  Trace Minerals:   Kelp is for trace minerals and since we use kelp in everything we produce at Soil Secrets, using our protocol always results in plenty of trace minerals.  Don't use more if you are using TerraPro, Earth Nectar, Earth Ambrosia or Protein Crumblies at minimum label rates.  Since Kelp and Raw Whole Organic Milk are major ingredients in formulating our TerraPro's humic characteristics and kelp is also used in the formulation of the other listed products, our protocol provides a healthy dose of t...

Folks, Most agree that the most essential part of a healthy and productive soil is the amazing carbon rich substance commonly called "Humus", the black stuff that makes a top soil different from dirt. Regardless of what you are attempting to grow, wither it be trees, turf, a park, a sports field, or a crop, you cannot excel without the soil first being healthy.   That characteristic is contingent upon the soil containing enough molecular carbon with the proper characteristics.  This has been mysterious at the least for most of us, however for the first time a gathering of the worlds leading experts on this topic will meet to cuss and discuss the science of Humus.  The 1st International Humus Experts Meeting will be held in Kaindorf, Austria in a few days, January 22nd and 23rd.   There are eight experts that have been selected from around the globe, to present at this event, each noted for areas of experti...

Sandy soil has large particle size, as compared to clay soil, with large air spaces between them. Therefore, it tends to drain and dry out quickly. In addition, water-soluble nutrients leach out rapidly before the plants can use them, carried away with water. When amending sandy soils, one goal is to increase the sand’s ability to hold moisture and retain nutrients. Humus incorporated into sandy soil acts like a sponge, holding water and the nutrients dissolved in it. This retained water and nutrients are available for plant growth. Humus consists of decay resistant recalcitrant carbon compounds that help to give soil its life and structure. Humus added to your soil can last for centuries unlike compost and fertilizers which are rapidly used up by soil microorganisms and plants. Compost and fertilizers only have a short duration in the soil perhaps weeks or months. On the other hand, added humus can have long lasting benefits, for example, increased water and nutrient retentio...