Bio-stimulants

 

There is life in the soil.  Any good grower knows that the soil underneath a producing crop is teeming with life. Bacteria, fungus and earthworms all thrive just beneath the surface of the soil.  Healthy soil leads to more healthy and abundant life in the soil.  Inversely, life in the soil that is more healthy and abundant life leads to healthy soil.  This is the basic idea behind bio-stimulants.  If the health and abundance of life in the soil can be increased, the health of the soil is increased in turn.

Any good grower also knows that every successful crop depends on the soil foundation.  Many ideas for good soil management are currently employed in the agriculture industry.  Simple ideas such as crop rotation have lead to better soil.  As outside pressures increase the grower knows it is more imperative that the soil is in the best condition possible.

There are many examples of bio-stimulants.  Some can be as simple as elemental nutrients that are required for microbial life.  Others, such as composts, require special care and equipment.  Certain bio-stimulants are really bio-augmenters, which add a live culture to the soil.  The need for bio-stimulants is recognised by more and more growers each year.  With greater demand more options are developed with some options working better than others.

The GROlogic products which are manufactured by Ag Concepts Corp utilise several different bio-stimulants. Examples of these bio-stimulants are enzymes, Humic Acids, Seaweed Extracts, micro-nutrients and other bio-logicals.  Ag Concepts Corp has chosen these bio-stimulants through exhaustive research and planning.  Ag Concepts Corp bio-stimulants are backed with years of university and private research. 

Why is Soil Bacteria Important?
Many of the concepts discussed above are the basis of soil biology.  In a healthy soil ecosystem, the soil biota regulates the flow and storage of nutrients in many ways.  Examples of important processes carried out by bacteria are: decompose plant and animal residue, fix atmospheric nitrogen, and transform nitrogen and other nutrients to various organic and inorganic forms. Soil microbiology also releases plant available forms of nutrients, mobilise phosphorus, and form mycorrhizal associations for nutrient exchange.  In many instances even fertiliser applied to the soil passes through soil bacteria before crops can utilise it.  Other soil bacteria help to bind soil particles together into stable aggregates that improve water infiltration and protect the soil from erosion, crusting, and compaction.  Good soil structure is crucial for enhanced root development.

There are three functional groups of bacteria within the soil:
1. Decomposers:  Consume simple carbon compounds converting soil organic matter into forms useful to the rest of the organisms in the soil food web.  A number of decomposers break down pesticides and pollutants in the soil.  However, the most important service provided is immobilising or retaining nutrients in their cells.  By doing this, decomposers prevent the loss of nutrients, such as nitrogen, from the rooting zone.

2. Mutualistic bacteria:  Form symbiotic partnerships with plants.  Well-known nitrogen-fixing bacteria are mutialistic bacteria.

3. Lithotrophs or chemoautotrophs:  Bacteria that obtain energy from compounds other than carbon sources. Members of these species are important in nitrogen cycling and degradation of pollutants as well. (See also Microorganisms.)

Bacteria from all these groups perform important services related to water dynamics, nutrient cycling, disease suppression, and are critical to healthy, thriving soils.  Due to these actions and the fact that certain means of agricultural practices over the past few decades have diminished bacterial populations, it is important to regenerate these populations.  Ag Concepts product AgZyme is an important tool in the regeneration and increase of soil microbiology.