All things lead back to Carbon
Olivia Bye
Crop Health Consultant, South
Unlock the secrets of Carbon
There are many different forms of adding carbon into soils, but deciding what form is difficult.
Carbon cycling provides the means for energy flow through the ecosystem. The ability of grassland to perform as an ecosystem service to provide for livestock, is determined by the ability of carbon to cycle between all aspects of the soil. This includes, the plants, atmosphere, and the microbes. To maximise the level of output it’s important to recognise the key role that carbon has.
Increasing carbon levels aids in many physical soil health pathways including, soil aggregation, microbial populations, increasing storage of water and aiding in better nutrient uptake of crops. Which in turn, benefits the growing crop.
Topics getting more traction in this conversation is whether humic or fulvic acids are a better spend of money. Quite simply, humic acts as a nutrient buffer in the soil and can aid in decreasing leaching of nutrients, if performance is more aimed at prolonging effectiveness of an input, while fulvic acid is for prolonging efficiency. Fulvic acts as a transporter of nutrients into the plant effectively and is far more powerful than humic. Both humic and fulvic acids contribute as a carbon and food source for a biology population.
Enhance Your Soil: The Power of Composting and Microbial Inoculation
The method of composting is a great way to add extra carbon, more specifically, humic acids into your soils. A clean IBC, a bubbler and the equivalent to a tea bag of matured compost is all it would take to make a compost tea. Although there are many benefits, the main issue with composting is that there is a possibility you could be brewing something you don’t want. Getting the compost tested, using a total fungi/bacteria count, can help to tell you if you’re on the right track. Of course, if you wanted to skip a few steps, adding Aiva’s Nurture N or Citadel will give you a known and reliable amount of carbon to either add directly into the sprayer or in the process of brewing.
Which brings me on nicely to talk about Aiva’s Consortium and Bioplus-T, which are powdered forms of bacillus and Trichoderma bacteria. If on the occasions your compost brings an unbalanced level of bacteria and fungi, inoculating your compost brews with a known microbe count can give you the best of both worlds - the humic from the compost and the reliable microbes from Aiva. Getting microbes right can be a long process, placing microbes with the right food source can ensure long term repopulation of the soils, as long as there is a host plant.
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About the Author
Olivia Bye
Crop Health Consultant, South
Nice to meet you, my name’s Olivia, and I’m a Crop Health Consultant here at AIVA. My passion is creating healthy, nutritionally dense crops within a system that benefits ecologically. Education is key to the way I work. Providing my clients with knowledge allows them to make informed decisions to benefit their systems.
Got a question? Contact Me.
