How to Get Microbes Working for You:
Revive Dead Dirt
At this time of year we all start thinking of spring planting. We also start thinking about what to do with those pots and planters sitting out on our patio or in our garage that have been neglected all winter.
Instead of going to the trouble and expense of purchasing new potting soil for your pots, dumping out and disposing the old stuff, then filling them up with fresh new soil, consider reusing your soil from last year with an extra microbial boost from our Worm Manure.
Soil doesn’t “go bad”. Soil doesn’t “run out of nutrients” either. This is a fallacy that stems from the “Green Revolution” in the 1970s and perpetuated by big chemical companies to encourage growers to purchase expensive, man-made chemicals and reapply them at higher doses every year.
What can happen is that living soil can turn into dead dirt, especially if chemicals have been used in the past or the soil biology hasn’t been adequately looked after.
Mother Nature has no such problem, she doesn’t need to go to Home Depot every spring to stock up on these products. Instead she has her regenerative growing toolkit that ensures every spring her soil comes bursting back to life.
Containers especially have to be renewed with soil biology on an annual basis because there is less protection for the microbes over winter and they don’t have access to the vast underground networks when spring comes alive and microbes wake up and begin proliferating again.
Reviving the dead dirt in your planters with Worm Manure is easy - easier than you may even realize. There are few important tips:
- Don’t dig more than you have to! As regenerative growers, we always want to minimize disruption to the soil. This is because the microbes in the soil do not like to be disturbed and are easily damaged when we dig or mix the soil. The less soil is disrupted, the higher the fungal life which will grow healthier plants.
- Add the Worm Manure at the same time as you are adding your plants. Do not add Worm Manure in advance. The microbes in the Worm Manure must have access to root systems in order to create the synergistic relationship that forms the foundation of a healthy soil food web and living soil system. Without roots available (and more specifically, the sugars these roots release know as root exudates), the microbes (which eat the root exudates) will not have the necessary food to grow their population and improve the overall quality of the soil.
By inoculating dead dirt with the microbial diversity in Worm Manure, you can save money and the planet while growing healthy plants, healthy people, and a healthy planet!