Hay produced by the products Agriculture Pro Source represents, which customers use in warmer climates, is greening, indicating their hay is emerging from its winter dormancy. When hay emerges from its winter dormancy, it is an opportune time to apply Agriculture Pro Source’s Biological/Microbial Product Line. Please consult Our General Mixing and Application Guidelines for more details. When this newsletter is written, other hay producers will still have one to two feet of snow in their hayfields. Springtime is a great time to remember that light energy from the sun’s ultraviolet rays hitting the cumulous clouds as they reach tens of thousands of feet high, combined with certain atmospheric gases, produce the beginnings of life in plants, and then, as the rains come to the earth the activated rain reaches throughout the soil. Those atmospheric gases are carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen.
Despite many adverse claims regarding carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it is an essential component of photosynthesis. Plant leaves capture the light energy from the sun, carbon combined with oxygen (carbon dioxide), and oxygen fused with hydrogen (water vapor, H2O). Through the cellular respiration processes, these collective plant-captures create natural chemical energy. Much of that natural chemical energy is stored as sugars within growing plants’ cells. Some of this sugary material produced by photosynthesis can be seen in the picture below, oozing out of the roots of a corn stalk oozing out of the roots of a corn stalk.
Phloem within the vascular systems of growing plants delivers this sugary energy source into the soil, nourishing beneficial soil organisms immediately surrounding roots through which the sugar oozes. The corn pictured on the front page was in a field cultivated for weeds a day or so before the picture was taken. We often refer to the sugary material oozing from its roots as photosynthate. Through photosynthesis, sunlight is transformed into life-giving energy for all life on earth, including microorganisms, macro-organisms, plants, animals, and humans. The efficiency of growing plants to make these captures, transformations, and transportations is unmatched by any other function known to man. It is not an exaggeration and is worth emphasizing: Without photosynthesis, there would be no life on Earth. Without carbon dioxide, water vapor, and the perfect intensity of light energy from the sun, there would be no photosynthesis.
Weather and its patterns have permanently changed for various reasons, not the least of which is solar flares and the gradual altering of the position of magnetic poles. One of our goals for providing the products Agriculture Pro Source represents and distributes is to help develop the soil structure so that the plants that grow out from it become resilient to all types of weather extremes. We also strive to have these products and protocols deliver benefits when weather patterns do not present extreme challenges. Agriculture Pro Source also encourages producers to use considerably fewer synthetic fertilizers and chemicals or to use none if producing organic crops.
Earthworms fertilize the soil by eating organic matter and excreting castings rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These are the critical minerals needed for plant growth an,d having them available in the soil can help plants thrive. Earthworms leave behind excrement and castings that contain 5 to 11 times the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium they have ingested by concentrating the organic constituents in their food and making it more available to plants. Earthworm castings also help bind critical minerals such as calcium, iron, and sulfur to soil particles. Furthermore, when earthworms die, they decompose quickly, adding nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil.
Earthworms can also help create good soil structure. When they burrow through the soil, they make a channel for the gases produced to reach the leaves, as 70% of a plant's uptake of these gases is via their leaves. The plant's feeding via its root structure is readily achieved by breaking down these essential elements. Oxygen quickly reaches the plant’s root system, and the microbial civilization does the work to feed the plant. The burrows of these worms break up hard soil as well, thus allowing plant roots to reach deeper. They also create better drainage by making channels in the soil; soils with earthworms can drain up to 10 times faster than soils without earthworms.
Earthworms can be very beneficial to crop production; one study found that, on average, earthworm presence increases crop yield by 25% and aboveground biomass by 23%, all while increasing the quality of the crops.
WORMS AND MICROBES WORK HAND IN HAND!
In addition to solubilizing and mineralizing nutrients, microbes make nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium available by breaking down crop residue. Crop residue is filled with valuable nutrients. WHEN WORMS ARE IN ABUNDANCE, THE SOIL IS HEALTHY!!
Photo Source: Wix.com
Written by Agriculture Pro Source
March 4, 2024