THANKS FOR ANOTHER GREAT YEAR OF SERVING YOUR NEEDS IN 2003!

MORE ON CROP RESIDUE: Can you afford to lose the equivalent of an application of 116-27-209. That’s the fertilizer value of the stover from a 200 bushel corn crop when it is broken down correctly/biologically. Bt corn is harder than normal to break down. When we do a recommendation on your soil, we “radionically” check a group of biological stimulants that include Restore, Liquid Bacteria, Agri-Gro, SP-1 and Soil Biological. This covers several possible approaches: homeopathic products, enzyme products and live bacterial mixtures. If it is on the recommendation, your soil will very likely “respond” to the application of any of the above that are used. One of the responses will be better residue breakdown. We almost always recommended Fish Agra [fungal stimulation] and a carbohydrate/sugar [bacterial stimulation], which are also bio-stimulants.

MORE ON SUGAR: When sugar or molasses is applied to soils, two things usually happen. The microbes can use it to help convert N into NH2 forms for easier utilization by the plant, or sugar can go directly into the roots/sap stream and feed any part of the plant. When sugar is supplemented in this way, additional energy may be available for fruiting instead of most of it being used for growth. If you want to shock a plant into fruiting and reduce internode length, then apply an “overdose” by foliar or drip. According to Texas Plant & Soil Lab of Texas, the results will occur within hours and last 5-10 days. If you produce more potential fruit/grain, be sure to be prepared to support the continued developing and ripening by good soil base fertilization, drip, fertigation or foliar. Otherwise, you may end up with some empty pods, small beans, etc. A plant “knows’ how much sugar/energy is available, but it can’t discern where it came from. Use your brix, pH and Ergs meters to keep track of the crop.

TO RECOVER SOME SOILS: Word coming from Australia is that buildups of Atrazine and Glean herbicides can cause a problem. When barley and triticale are stimulated into greater than usual root penetration [right through a hard pan], the roots can run into toxicity levels that may produce a temporary set back. There is a rumor that the herbicides may contain nickel, and an excess nickel buildup may also be causing a general biocide effect. I will be “down under” most of Feb., so will check on this then.

MORE ON BORON: I will guess that as many as 80-90% of you are not providing adequate boron for your crops. Recent field studies show it can leach more than the “old textbooks” indicate. On eastern and mid-western soils, most of you are already short as per the soil tests coming through our lab. Boron is essential for the use of calcium and recent plant tissue analysis studies show shortages of both at many stages of growth. So working so hard on getting calcium built up in your soil is to little avail if you don’t supply boron as well. Most boron products should meet NOP standards as they probably come from mined sodium borate. CSI does have a liquid OMRI boron spray available.

MORE ON SULFUR: One of the ways to make Ca soluble for plant uptake is to apply sulfur in the sulfate or other oxidized forms. We constantly recommend ammonium sulfate for this purpose on non-organic farms. Gypsum [calcium sulfate] can be used on organic farms, but has little effect if base saturation of calcium is below 60% and is usually not recommended at pH’s below 7.0. Gypsum also fails in many very high pH and/or high calcium soils. Sulfate of Potash is quite expensive, and sul-po-mag is not appropriate on high magnesium soils. Elemental S is expensive and is not usable until oxidized. Our Natural Potassium Sulfate Plus [0-0-7-15S-1Fe] product is the best answer. It contains multi oxidations states of sulfur [SO2, SO3, SO4, S2O5, etc.] making it very “reactive”. These are the same oxidation states that phosphorous can occur in. The deposit has natural sulfating/oxidizing bacteria which will continue their activity in your fields. In field tests, NKS plus releases K from soils in addition to the 7% K2O it contains. The 1% iron is a nice addition for increasing chlorophyll production. Again, your soil tests are usually short of sulfur. Regretfully, at this time, NKS Plus is only available in bulk semi-loads from the Nevada desert. Still, it costs much less [including freight] than elemental sulfur locally and is 100’s of times more “reactive”. Hopefully, bulk bags will be available sometime in 04. At 200#/acre, a semi load would cover about 240 acres. Higher amounts should be used on heavier and higher pH soils. Tests using 1000# per acre in Colorado, broke up pH 8, high calcium carbonate soils [onions] in one season. Those of you still using high nitrogen without additional sulfur are still “missing the boat” in that you will attract insects and waste a lot of the N that could have gone into making good amino acids and complete proteins. Neighbor farms could consider sharing loads and CSI is working with some of the Tenn Brown blenders to have NKS Plus used and available in smaller quantities as well.

QUANTUM AG BROADCASTERS : Because Hugh Lovel has emigrated to Australia, he has asked that I take over installation of US, Canada & Mexico broadcasters. [CAVEAT: Lorraine, his assistant is going to continue to advertise in Acres. If you call there, she will sell you the tower and make your preps. However, she says “I may not be able to install your tower, and if I do, I will not be able to provide general agronomic consulting as Phil or Hugh would do.”] Therefore, to avoid confusion, please order your Quantum Ag Broadcaster from our office. We expect a significant # of orders [we received one from IL while typing this], so PLEASE order early and we will schedule you for this spring and summer. Hopefully, we can combine installations and trips to areas, saving time and money for CSI and you. (If you order a tower from UAI, we will install it as part of our schedule.)

SOME PROBLEMS SOLVED: 1. Less than semi-loads of Tenn. Brown Phos will be available at P & L Fertilizer in Middle Point, OH 800-393-2230 and Honeyville Elevator, Topeka, IN 260-593-9943 [no bags or shipping, just bring your truck]. 2. CropGuard and other materials will be stocked at Daylight Enterprises, Fairgrove, MI 989-693-6127. 3. Bulk bags of paramagnetic rock are available by semi or by single metric ton bags or pallets of 55# bags. 4. Sol-po-mag is available by less than full semis at various warehouses around the US.

CROPGUARD: One application with spreader/sticker provided aphid control during two generations on beans in Michigan. Manufacturer is also making a CropGuard EC or Extra Concentrate to save shipping costs. New prices, new rates. See Price List.

MORE ON PREVENTING APHIDS: There is no substitute for prevention. Any natural pesticide treatment is going to cost a lot more than some basic fertility practices. I would suggest a minimum program in row for beans of: 1 Gal Fish Agra, 2oz Restore, 1pint Crop-Guard a sugar or molasses, and possibly a pint of Agri-Gro or Soil Biological or a gal. of SP-1. Other combinations including trace minerals that you know you’re short of should be considered. Consider having all planters or cultivators set up to do liquids. Drenching over row with a field sprayer is also an option.

Dr. WHEELER’S GARLIC & YUCCA: It meets NOP regulations for feed additives AS IS! If you fed it continuously, as per recommendations, would that make it a feed? Would that require using organic garlic, which would raise costs. How would OMRI certify a yucca plant grown naturally in the mountains of Mexico? If you just use it periodically, does that make it OK? It is perfect for periodic use as a wormer and antibiotic replacement on any farm. PLEASE CHECK WITH YOUR CERTIFIER BEFORE USING CONTINUALLY!

Dr. WHEELER’S ANIMAL TODY: I was very surprised when I tested the Toddy with an ergs meter [soluble salts]. It read an incredible 30,000 ergs/micro siemens! This means it is chocked full of soluble, ionic/charged minerals, in a fulvic acid medium, ready to go into the cells of your livestock for increased performance and health. The cost works out to about 9 cents a day for a full grown steer. This is NOP official even if fed continually.

NEW PRODUCT: CSI is pleased to announce the addition to our line of a 20% natural horticultural vinegar [store vinegar is about 3-5%]. This 200 grain product, made from fermented grain can be used for lowering pH’s of spray solutions or soil as well as the USDA suggestion for killing weeds. Product can be sprayed directly on foliage to dehydrate plants. Works best in mid-day heat. Very waxy plants may require second application. Large root system plants such as Bermuda grass and Ivies may require soil drenching with undiluted product to lower pH enough to kill. Soil area will recover in time or may be treated with lime and compost. Meets NOP standards.

TENN BROWN IS A “REACTIVE” PHOSPHATE!: I conferred with a Canadian geologist at Acres, and he pleasantly surprised me by emphatically stating that Tenn Brown is a reactive phosphate similar to the North Carolina Black that appeared a few years ago and then disappeared a few years later. According to the expert, Tenn Brown is associated with a clay in its structure that gives it the “reactive” property. That is why two different states have pulled samples at blending sites and came back with reports stating “labeled 0-3-0, found 0-10-0”. That is also why it is fast becoming the choice of mid-western and western blenders in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Arizona, New Mexico and Idaho. Some of “Reams” proponents might find it performs the same or better than “colloidal clay”, since it is also clay based and cleaner. Paradigms are difficult to change.

RADIONICS TRAINING CLASSE: My original instructor, Steve Weston, is presenting beginning [3day] and advanced [1day] sessions on January 25,26,26,28 at the Charmont café in Cass City, Michigan and Feb. 15,16,17,18 at American Legion Hall in Canistota, South Dakota. Call Steve at 920-825-7225 or 920-559-7226. Michigan contact is Gary Blackwell @ 989-864-3008 and SD contact is Don Beaner @ 800-529-5988. Enjoy!

SENDING IN SOIL TESTS: PLEASE make sure you identify yourself and your samples inside the box when you send them in. NEVER put info on paper inside soil test bag. PLEASE tell us what tests you want done. NEXT, please send in the payment according to our price list. You may call anytime for a price list to be sent, faxed or emailed or go to our website, cropservicesintl.com. We will credit, debit or return overages or under payments. Samples do not have to be dried, and we only need about a pint maximum to do any and all tests on one sample. Thanks for your cooperation in saving us time and money.

SCHEDULE: Office will be closed Jan 20-28 while Phil & Louisa are soaking up “rays” somewhere south of the border. “Wish you were here!” We won’t be sending postcards.

Phil will be in Australia from Feb 3-20, giving two, 3-day classes, installing a broadcaster and Veges Sound Machine near Cairns, QLD [Sub-Tropics] and dowsing for wells on a large grazing property near Charter Towers, QLD. Sorry, no room in my suit case left for you.

MINERALS FOR TESTING: CSI has a selection of individual liquid minerals in 20 oz bottles. They are from Eniva and sold for human use. However, if someone was doing plant or animal research, they would provide and ideal way to test the reactions benefits, detriments under research conditions as they are in an ionic, soluble, pure form. Because they are excess inventory, I would take any reasonable offer. They sell for about $18.00 ordinarily. I have molybdenum, vanadium, manganese, potassium, selenium, germanium, chromium, sulfur and copper. They are still fit for human consumption too.

FREE SEA SILVER: Email me at pawheeler@cropsericesintl.com if you wish to receive a coupon that you can redeem only online for a free bottle of this excellent health product. If you are already a customer in their computer, you can’t use the coupon under the same name. THE CATCH IS, you have to pay $4.95 shipping and sign up to get a bottle every month after the first two weeks. [Which you can cancel again in a month.] THE BENEFIT IS that it gets you on an excellent vitamin, mineral, herbal product and you too can get the coupons to build a network if you wish. Don’t confuse this with the elemental, ionic Silver that comes from Eniva that I use for colds, flu, warts etc.

YOU ARE TALKING TO ME FROM WHERE?: On or about May 15, we will launch our 35 ft pontoon, outboard cabin boat about 50 miles north of Grand Rapids. We expect to have wireless computer, fax and cell phone connections back to our home office. We hope to run CSI from the boat for at least 2 days a week up till mid-October. When you call in on our toll free #, your call should be automatically forwarded or, if technology fails, you can leave a message as usual or try our cell phone directly at 616-915-5255. Always leave your phone # please, as your (customers & suppliers) #’s are on hard copy and not in computer.

Good Luck & Good Growing in 2004. Phil & Louisa Wheeler