RESEARCH BY SOIL SECRETS

Michael Melendrez

There's a huge interest in using CBD oil/extracts and infused products containing CBD as medicine. Soil Secrets with the cooperation of a professional medical cannabis grower did a grow out experiment with spent/used soil compared to brand new Fox Farm Forest Floor soil. We cleaned the used soil using our Soil Secrets trommel screen and the treated the used soil with molecular biology made by Soil Secrets. Most growers throw away soil after one use so wanted to see if the used soil could be made good and repurposed for a second or third use. The image provided is from the starvation group where no fertilizer input had been provided to either the SS treated spent soil or the brand new Fox Farm soil. Both groups were treated with a Mycorrhizal product and bacteria. The Fox Farm was treated with the mycorrhizal product called Great White used per label instructions. Great White also contains a bacteria blend. The SS spent soil was treated with the Soil Secrets mycorrhizal product called EndoMaxima and the Soil Secrets Microbial Consortium BIOpack for the bacteria. The image I'm providing clearly shows that the Soil Secrets repurposed soil grew larger and healthier appearing plants than the Fox Farm soil. The plants have been stepped up int o 15 gallon containers using the same soil treatments so our next step is to test and measure the yield from the plants and measure the THC and CBD concentrations produced from all the groups. Stay Tuned for those results.

Soil Health: Level 2 - Description of Terms (Carbon Compounds)

The Labile Carbon is also known as the 'Rapid Cycling Carbon' and its composed of all the Soil Organic Matter that is dead and actively decomposing. It's benefit to the soil is that it provides a source for minerals that are being recycled as potential plant nutrients, so in a sense it's Nature's fertilizer. Active Carbon also known as Reactive Carbon is more complex than the Labile Carbon in that its composed of all the dead and actively decomposing organic matter plus all the living soil microbial community that will eventually die and begin decomposing. For example, the hyphae of mycorrhizae only live about 5 to 7 days before they die and start to decompose, while the fungus organism itself may live far longer. Recalcitrant Carbons are the Humic substances made up of complex organic chemistry, some of which is inert and some of which is very reactive and are powerful biologics, such as the Humic Acids. Recalcitran...

Fertilizers formulated for alkaline soils of the Southwest

Recently I was in an Albuquerque retail nursery where a fertilizer was being sold that stated it was formulated for alkaline soils of the Southwest. It contained high levels of iron and sulfur, plus the N, P and K major nutrients. Do any of the readers care to comment on this type of product? Pros, Cons, etc. I have my take on it, but I'll entertain what you want to say about it. Michael Martin Meléndrez

How does nitrogen work in the soil and where does it come from when we don't have a bag of fertilizer to supplement it?

I've spoken many times on this subject at conferences and it was the main theme of my talk when I represented North America at the World's 1st Humus Experts Meeting in Vienna Austria back in 2013. Most of the Nitrogen used by the vast tropical rain forests, or the fastest growing biomass place on Earth, the Coastal Redwood Forests of California, comes from the production of protein by the Free-Living Nitrogen Fixing bacteria in soil and the massive biomass structure of the mycorrhizal fungi. The proteins as it breaks down in the soil into amino acids are the building blocks of life and the explanation of the Soil Food Web. However, in order for those amino acids to enter a plant and be part of the nitrogen budget of the plant they must have the assistance of the mycorrhizal fungi. It's much more efficient for a plant to uptake amino acids whose molecules include nitrogen needed to build tissues than to uptake just nitrogen minus the amino acid. ...

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