Soil Secrets

Please see the following Power Point No Till and Water , by Mark Scarpitti.

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

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...

Level 1 - This post is intended to introduce terms which describe the essential components of a healthy soil. This discussion is complicated, so we will provide increasingly detailed levels of information, at the risk of oversimplifying in the beginning. All plants, found on earth today, evolved to thrive in a soil system filled with variety. Ancestral soils teamed with organisms and carbon compounds, which supplied abundant nutrients and water. What does a varied soil system look like when compared to a conventionally managed soil system? A varied, or healthy, soil system contains the following essential components: Carbon Compounds :   Labile Carbon:  Carbons which easily decay, such as those present in microorganisms, compost, crop residues, manures, and mulches. These materials release mineral nutrients back into the soil. Recalcitrant Carbon: Contains Humic Acids which are essential to a healthy and productive soil, Humic Acids ...

In Response to: Fruits and Veggies are Not as Vitamin-Rich as in the Past, Says New Data    Larger Fruits and Vegetables Mean More Plentiful but Less Potent Bounty March 1, 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures Story by Megan Carpenter Staff of Soil Secrets Responds to this story:   The population of the earth is growing by approximated 86 million people per year, according to a recent National Geographic Special Issue; this is a net gain after accounting for population mortality.   This means that on average 235,000 babies are born each day, which is 235,000 new mouths to feed every day.   The USDA and food protection studies performed by Sandia National Laboratories have determined that according to our Ecological Footprint - 6 acres of land is required per person for annual food production, based on the standards of the United States.  If the goal is to modernize the developing world to the same standard of living as the developed world, then the same ...

I was recently asked to provide a simplified explanation on the importance of Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) values. My Response:  CEC is the ability of a soil to hold onto plant nutrients.   The finer the particle size the higher CEC value, generally speaking. For example sand particles are course and visible to the naked eye, where as clay particles are fine and are not visible to the naked eye. So clay will have a higher CEC value than sand. It is obvious to most of us that sand cannot hold onto water or nutrients as well as a soil with a finer texture. Therefore, soils rich in Clay and Loam size particles are universally recognized as being better for farming - CEC explains this.  The numerical value for CEC represents how much nutrition can be held by a given amount of soil. For example one pound of a clay loam soil with a CEC value of 20 will hold 4 times as many nutrients as a sandy soil with a CEC value of 5. 20/4 = 5 .  It's all about math, for examp...

While Humic Acids may have a personality, what's really important is whether or not they work and how much of this active ingredient is actually in a given product. To determine this, Soil Secrets LLC,  initiated a study to characterize the Humic Acid molecule found in our products.  What do we mean by asking if a molecular substances has Character? The characterization process measures the geometry and the functionality of the targeted molecule, in this case Humic Acid.  So what does this mean to our clients or to the staff at Soil Secrets?   For us, it provides the evidence we need in order to talk intelligently and accurately about what the active ingredient is in our product.  For the client, its proof that the active ingredient is indeed present in the product and that it does function in the way we claim it should.  The " Characterization of the Functionality of the Humic Acids "  found in our products was performed in collaboration w...