Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Why We Need Energy in the Soil
It takes various forms of energy transfer for rock to become soil, for plants to grow and
for birds to fly. A plant is an antenna. It receives and broadcasts energy. It has millions of
tiny hairs that act as tiny antennas, capturing energy from the sun. A plant can also get a lot
of its nutrition from the air. In order for a plant to do these things and reach its full poten-
tial, it needs all of the things we've looked at so far, plus various forms of energy in order
to do the receiving and broadcasting.
In the soil, this energy comes from microbes and animals, water, air, plant roots, and nu-
trients, and from the interactions of all of these things. It also comes from fertilizers. We
can measure one form of energy in the soil with an electrical conductivity meter. Soluble
fertilizers have the biggest impact on this form of energy, especially nitrogen.
Energy is one of the main reasons biological soil consultants recommend some chemical
fertilizers. These products have a large amount of energy potential. This energy helps the
microbes to break down and rearrange other nutrients in the soil. Not only that, but certain
fertilizers seem to attract or magnify energy. Putting a tiny amount of the right fertilizer on
in the fall can result in a seemingly impossible increase in the availability of certain nutri-
ents in the spring, as confirmed by a soil test. The recipes at the end of the chemical fertil-
izers chapter are used to provide an energy boost to plants. Biostimulants provide energy,
too. Even plain old sugar and molasses give energy to microbes, as does the vinegar and
soda recipe from the biostimulants chapter.
Organic gardeners need to learn to create energy in order to get higher brix, healthier
crops and better yields. If I start gardening on good, virgin soil, or on soil that has just been
cleared or burned, that soil may have a lot of energy already — a mineralized soil doesn't
need a lot of fertilizer inputs. The not-so-great soil that most of us start with, however, does
need some help.
Chemical fertilizers are only one way of doing that. It can be done naturally, albeit a bit
more slowly, with naturally mined minerals and manure and compost and all of the things
we've been over. Fish fertilizer can be very high in energy. There are some other ways, too,
and that is what this chapter is all about.
In fact, by working on adding organic matter, improving the soil food web and balancing
the foundational minerals plus the micronutrients, we're going a long way in creating good
energy in the soil. We can go even further by increasing paramagnetism, spraying or broad-
casting biodynamic preparations, and using radionics.
An even easier way to manipulate energy is to start playing classical or Indian music in
the garden, or even better, get your hands on some Veges low-frequency sound tapes or
CDs that have produced amazing results in the field. These play sounds in the low fre-
