Regenerative Soil Primer | How to Provide Nitrogen and Calcium Through Robust Microbial Activity

Good day. This is Nathan Harmon with Advancing ecoagriculture. Here to explain how and why a spring application of our regenerative soil primer can work for you. To stimulate soil biology, release soil nutrients, break down crop residues, reduce compaction, and increase water and gas infiltration, we recommend our regenerative soil primer. This soil primer application was originally developed as a fall broadcast spray onto the soil where heavy plant residues are a problem, and it's proven to be extremely effective for that purpose. Fall applications provide the longest time span of stable conditions for microbes to do their work. Lower temperatures are ultimately less challenging to microbes than is soil disturbance or biocide applications, especially for fungi. However, fall application is not always practical due to crop timing or the weather. Over the years, we found that spring soil applications are also effective for residue digestion and improving the physical characteristics of a soil. Many growers apply the soil primer in both spring and fall, but certain benefits of the soil primer are better achieved in spring. By far the most relevant aspect for many growers will be in modifying nutrient availability to be more in line with a young plant's needs. When the soil primer is used in spring, there is a tremendous flush of biology that has two primary nutrition impacts, altering both the nitrogen and the calcium available to a quickly growing crop. Heavy nitrogen applications are often used in spring to get crops off to a strong start. This can be practical but also lead to pests and disease. A major benefit of the spring primer is that whether the nitrogen is coming from microbial activity or applied nitrogen, the soil primer stimulates soil microbes to rapidly sequester a majority of the nitrogen in amino acid form. By preventing plants from absorbing surplus nitrogen up front, we increase fertilizer efficiency and reduce disease and insect susceptibility without slowing down growth. Also, when nitrogen is converted to an amino acid form and held by living microbes, it is much less likely to flush out of the system for a sustained nitrogen release that lasts much longer than an unstabilized nitrogen application. The second big benefit is a flush of plant available calcium, which is critical during and after the bloom period for developing embryos. During cell division, it is nearly impossible to supply sufficient calcium to the plant at this early stage without significant microbial activity. Without the stimulating effect of our regenerative soil primer, many cool, wet soils are unable to mobilize the calcium needed for unparalleled crop quality and disease resistance in spring. AEA's soil primer application typically consists of rejuvenate seashield and a biological inoculant. Our standard inoculant material is Spectrum. This combination of materials provides routinely consistent effect across most soil types and crops. When agrochemical or hydrocarbon residues are primary limiting factors to biological function, we suggest using OP8 as the inoculant. This inoculant material has created astounding improvements in fields where it has been otherwise very difficult to establish thriving microbial ecosystems. In fields where low organic matter and limited nutrient holding capacity are a primary issue, we add humicarb to the mix to help safeguard and prolong the effective working time of any biological and nutrient additions. Where bacterial populations are dominant but fungal populations are underrepresented, it is helpful to replace Spectrum with mycogenesis to add beneficial species of fungal spores to the soil. Using higher rates of seashield is also recommended as it is an ideal fungal food source that promotes many classes of fungal expansion in soils to balance out bacterial dominance. To get started using the regenerative soil primer, contact your consultant or reach the AEA Customer Care team at 800-495-603 or email info@advancingecoag.com. thanks for tuning in. Grow well and prosper.