What is The Approach?
Most agricultural land has been heavily tilled and sprayed with toxic chemicals, to the point where the life in the soil is decimated. This lack of soil life leads to lack of fertility, the need for costly inputs and an annual decline in production. Lack of soil life also leads to the contamination of groundwater due to leaching and a host of other serious environmental issues.
Biotilth will help assess the biology of your soil, compost, mulch, inputs etc. with quantitative and qualitative methods developed by Dr. Elaine Ingham using the “Direct Shadowing Microscope Assessment Method"
We also helps clients decipher soil and water chemistry reports.
As a company we thoroughly understand the role of proper mineral balancing and how to achieve this in an environmentally
sound way that works in symbiosis with soil biology.
These initial assessments give us a baseline guide to see what particular organisms are present or, more than often, not present in your sample. Certain organisms must be present to have a healthy soil food web, proper nutrient cycling, and disease resistance. Biology in the soil is very crop specific. We custom balance the soil depending on what we observe during our initial assessment and what crops are to be grown.
This biological assessment, along with soil chemistry testing
determines the course of action moving forward on any project.
As opposed to relying solely on soil chemistry reports or randomized, and often unnecessary applications of fertilizers and other amendments, this approach is much more balanced and ecologically sound.
And most importantly it WORKS
This makes you a smarter grower and saves you money!
This is an electron microscope image of a healthy micro biome on an organic corn leaf. Notice the thick web of bacteria, fungi, etc. Protozoa and nematodes were also present in this image but cant be seen here. This thick mass of biology (Soil food Web) is what protects and feeds the plant; In return the plant feeds the biology. Every time you apply salt or chemical based sprays or additives to the plant or soil, you destroy this delicate balance. In return, production and crop resilience are affected negatively.