YOUR UNIQUENESS: As a reader of this newsletter, Acres USA, Stockman Grass Farmer, etc. you are very much in a minority, although a growing one. You obviously think for yourself and have the ability to discern and seek information outside the university/chemical company system (which has controlled & dominated our agriculture/food system since the 40’s). Their approach has resulted in increased costs to this country for sickness care and remedial education that may threaten our entire economy making it a National Security issue! What progress has been made in breaking this paradigm appears to be largely consumer driven with credit to the organic farming pioneers who grew first on a philosophical basis and then created markets. Please keep learning and trying to educate/influence your neighbor growers and the consuming public as best you can!

WE ARE VERY CONFIDANT: CSI is confidant that we now have enough tools and techniques to help you produce any crop with very little if any disease and insect pressure, obtain higher than normal yields, and crops that are more nutrient dense(better flavor and nutritional value). We are basing this confidence on grower successes the last few years. The tools that allow you to do this are all NOP or OMRI listed and consist of:   1. A supply of all major, minor and rare earth minerals available for corrective replacement.

2. Some of the same minerals ground to 500+ mesh that can be used as broadcast stimulants, seed treatments, in-row starters, sidedress or foliar feeds. These suspendable minerals are mixed with large numbers of very effective microbes including VAM (Mycorrhizea) and are in convenient powder form.

3. The availability of the highest protein N fish fertilizer (Organo Fish) that, when combined with the Blooming Blossom line of nitrogen fixing Azobacter, can produce all the free N from the air that your plants can use.  All this applied usually at less cost than conventional programs.

PROCESSES & PROGRAMS: Successful sustainable farming requires a process withthree steps: soil testing, re-mineralization, and bio-activation. (I recently read a pamphlet from a land grant intuition on getting started in organic agriculture. Their entire process was to apply compost and rotate crops. How typical of the “organic” approach and how limited!) You can go beyond my three steps to also include Steiner/Quantum Energy programming. This additional paradigm will greatly help you move to more Nutrient Dense production with fewer inputs.

Once you do the first step – CSI’s soil testing – you will have a clear picture of what is required in the second step. We want growers to have both CEC (Albrecht) and LaMotte (Reams, only available from us) tests done so the facts are laid out for you in black and white. The CEC tells you what minerals you have and what minerals are missing. The LaMotte test tells which of the CEC minerals are actually available to the plant.  This allows you to make logical decisions – add more mineral(s) or activate to make them available. You can replace the missing minerals either all at once or gradually over time. You can use products /practices that gradually raise the LaMotte numbers closer to the CEC numbers. You can also apply products /practices that help suppress excess minerals.

The second step, re-mineralization, would appear to be straight forward – if a mineral is lacking, replace it. But most fertilizer materials, natural or otherwise, are compounds: Gypsum=calcium and sulfur; Epsom salts=magnesium and sulfur; or mixtures and compounds such a KS+ with a broad spectrum of both mixtures and compounds. This makes it a little more difficult to decide on the right material to use, which is why most growers want to have recommendations from a knowledgeable service. In many cases, the two-element compounds fill in two missing minerals, such as calcium and sulfur, or the mixture fills in 2 or more major minerals and many rare earth and trace minerals that may or may not be on the test so everything is cool.

There is always the question of whether or not to replace a mineral all at once on one field or put lesser amounts on all fields. This is strictly a management question based on cost. The two minerals I would prioritize to get replaced are calcium and boron. Calcium will last a long time but boron may need to be replaced yearly. Both are relatively inexpensive, but represent major driving forces in your crop. It always amazes me how many acres are planted each year using a simplistic N-P-K approach and then the results are passively accepted as being the supposed maximum yield obtainable under the given weather circumstance. Probably not so and our growers proved it in 2010.

The third step, bio-activation, can be the most frustrating because the response to microbial application may not occur immediately and/or may not be observable even though changes in plant immunity and yield are occurring. Soil structure, mineral balance, contamination and moisture may hold back the biology applied since micro-organism survivability can be an issue. The biggest problem for most growers is that they reduce microbial populations when they use conventional NPK fertilizers and toxic rescue chemicals. Most providers of microbes have learned to include “survival kits” composed of supporting food; enzymes and/or humic substances with their microbes but these can be relatively short lived if you don’t also use microbial stimulants like fish and seaweed. Today many microbes come from overseas sources and appear to have excellent storage, viability and rapid multiplication under a wide range of conditions. Always add fish/seaweed to microbial products!

HELPING WITH THE CO2 PROBLEM: It is the plants’ photosynthetic capacity and root extrudates delivery via mycorrhizea fungi that are the main drivers for soil carbon (glomalin) storage and not residue breakdown.Think of carbon storage as a root-system “weather” solver or as “money in your pocket”. Carbon not only improves aggregation, it also holds soil moisture helping to keep micro-organisms alive and active. For this reason, forward thinking growers ponder how they can keep a plant mix growing most of the season – field crop, intercrop, cover crop, etc – to capture/store this liquid carbon. They treat seed with a microbial blend containing mycorrhizea or use in-row in order to ensure mycorrhizea colonization of roots. An additional benefit of intercropping and cover cropping is the mycorrhizea guild or interconnection that can form with all the plants in the field allowing exchange of both nutrients and water. Plant a row of soys and/or white clover next to your corn. Plant annual rye grass and clover in bands or broadcast in your soys. Try to have only a 2-3 wk window of open soil with no plants to support the mycorrhizea.  

SAVE A TREE: Send your email & we’ll email our newsletter–team@cropservicesintl.com

IMPORTANT PRODUCT CHANGES: Fish Agra is now OMRI® listed as ORGANO FISH® 4-1-1. (Same product, new name.) This ocean fish has the highest % solids on the market. The solids give it more N than most other brands…most tests coming back as 5-1-1. Organo Fish is screened at 300 mesh for ease in use. Nitrozyme seaweed is now SeaCrop16 with same 400 ppm cytokinin hormone count and NOP. Cytokinins are naturally occurring growth hormones plus you also get all the trace minerals and other growth factors of the plant. All our mineral suspension products are now available as dry powders for you to mix on site. (1-2 pounds per acre.) This saves on freight and stabilizes the included beneficial microbes. The products are warehoused in MI as well as NM. All of the ingredients in the powdered mineral products are NOP listed…the manufacturer has a staff member who will provide all the info needed for your certifier to approve the products.

OUR RECOMMENDED PROGRAMS: I am making the assumption that you have had the soil tested and are applying the corrective mineral materials per CEC test.  For soils low in available minerals (LaMotte) I recommend using the appropriate powdered mineral & microbial product such as Phos Cal 30, K-35 and Luna Cal 50 Plus. These products contain pulverized mined minerals (Tn Brn Phos, 0-0-50) plus a potent microbial package including phosphate/calcium/potassium solubilizing microbes. I am also assuming you have used some process or products to incorporate your crop residue from last fall. If you did not or are breaking new ground, I urge you to broadcast 1-3 gallons of Organo Fish & 1 lb of COMPLETE that consists of equal parts Sea Star, PKS & Ca, Crop Recycle & Soil Infusion. Use 3 lbs of COMPLETE in the row for a dynamite product for high value crops. A similar program is available for row crops. This program applies to all annuals or perennials including trees, bushes and vines. Just broadcast the 1 lb and band the 3 lbs for perennials. It is designed to do away with soil borne diseases, provide wide spectrum biotic life and all the major nutrients except N.

NOTE: PKS&Cal is recommended for all programs as it is loaded with microbes including a total spectrum of VAM, both endo and ecto, mycorrhizea. It contains the 5 MAJOR ELEMENTS other than N. There is 1% magnesium but is not included on the label.

VEGETABLES /CSA /TRUCK GARDEN: Use the above program with the additional in-row of 1 pint SeaCrop16 (new name for Nitrozyme seaweed), 3-6 gal Organo Fish and 125 ml Bioplin. This will be a very energetic starter and provide enough starter N for any crop. You may sidedress additional Organo Fish with sugar or molasses to keep the N and microbes going. Foliar feed with 1 gal Organo Fish, 1 pint SeaCrop16, 1# Complete and 250 ml NutriFoliar for continuous N fixation. Repeat every 14 days. Add NutriFoliar only every other spray & reduce the NutriFoliar to 125 ml by third foliar and maybe add a ½ lb of K-35 Plus. But please keep it going! The N and growth factors produced by NutriFoliar late in the season gave a great response on a variety of crops in 2010. This included organic field corn. The neighbor’s conventional corn barely made it with “gobs” more chemical N. No one would believe the grower had so little N and such a “good green” crop, not a “black green”. Be prepared for Crop Stress. Biological programs are your best hope!

VINES, BERRIES, TREE FRUITS & NUTS: This program can be the same with minor adaptations. Be sure you broadcast/band the program used on Vegetables above involving the COMPLETE product. Amounts of foliar per acre can be doubled to accommodate larger trees.

CORN: Consider the broadcast program above. If you just do it all in-row, try this: ½# Soil Infusion, ½# Crop Recycle, 1# PKS&Cal, 125 ml Bioplin, 5-8 gallons Organo Fish, 1 pint SeaCrop16. You can use more fish and sugar or molasses as side dress and be sure to follow through with the foliar program. If you believe there won’t be weather stresses next year, I have some ocean front property for you in Arizona. Minerals & Microbes build plant immunity.

SOYBEANS: Soys don’t start out making N as a seedling and some don’t do better later on due to lack of inoculation, trace minerals or toxic environments. Therefore it makes sense to start with 1-2 gallons Organo Fish, ½# Infusion, ½# Crop Recycle and 1# PKS&Cal. Definitely foliar feed with 2 qts fish, 1 pint SeaCrop16, 1# PKS & Cal, ½ # K-35, ¼ l# Luna Cal 50 and NutriFoliar for continuous N, growth factors, disease resistance, & much bigger yield potential. World Record 160 bu. used N.

SMALL GRAINS: Much the same as corn, except cut back the Organo Fish to 2-3 gals and use in row formula as a broadcast. Organo Fish, Sea Crop16, Bioplin, PKS&Cal, Infusion and Crop Recycle. Don’t apply microbes in freezing temps. Top dress winter grains when they break dormancy.

NOTE: We are not putting sugar or molasses in the pre-broadcast or in-row programs as you want the microbes to digest the residues, minerals and other microbes instead of going on a “cookie” eating binge. Use “cookie snacks” for the microbes in your sidedress applications or foliar programs.

DON’T’ MESS UP YOUR PROGRESS: MAP & DAP are detrimental to mycorrhizea and so are most commercial N products, pre-emergence herbicides, fungicides and excess tillage! N-Serve preserves nitrogen by killing your microbes! The long and short term damages done by glyphosate products are now well known, and the product should be removed from your program as soon as possible!

FUNGAL DISEASES AND ADEQUATE N: CSI and our product manufacturers feel that the above programs should mitigate most soil borne diseases because, when used as directed, the applied microbes should remove the crop residue harboring the disease organisms. Air borne diseases will also have a hard time establishing themselves on leaves or stems because of the microbe populations from both Bioplin and PKS&Cal. Grower’s experiences this year with our Organo Fish & Bioplin (N fixing Azotobacter) have convinced us that N is not a limiting factor in an organic program and the N provided by this program can help move yields toward genetic potential. Although Bioplin has 30 years research behind it, I doubt if fish fertilizer was ever used as part of the research. Bioplin and NutriTech are supposed to only be able to survive from root or leaf extrudates, which is why it is recommended by the manufacturer that you apply after the plant is above ground and use large amounts of water to get the Azotobacter down to the root zone. I feel that the potential N fixation is beyond what the research without the fish showed and allows you to put them together in the row with the seed and not worry about survival of the Azotobacter until the root extrudates begin to flow.

GET THE SIZE YOU WANT: Since the N-Fixing line of Bioplin, NutriTech and NutriFoliar are starting to be used on the larger field crop acreage, maybe you would like to have larger sizes available to you. All the products start in India and it takes about 8 wks to get to Orlando by normal shipping. The 250 ml of Bioplin and NutriTech are now officially a 2 acre bottle (125 ml/acre). The 1000 ml covers 8 acres and the 5 liter covers 40 acres. Want these sizes? IF SO, Please, Please, give us a call. These larger sizes need to be prepaid and ordered to arrive when needed. TALK TO US!

WHAT ABOUT SILICA?: There is a good bit of silica in Tn Brn Phosphate and other mined minerals. It’s added to the Terra Biotic powders. If you want specific sources, we have Calcium Silicate, 45% Silicon Dioxide (not NOP) and Green Sand, 52% Silicon Dioxide (NOP). Both are only available by truckload bulk, but you can mix Calcium Silicate/TN Brown on-site. Morgan Composting, MI (231-734-2451) will stock Greensand by March to blend with compost orders or in totes & 50# bags.

NOTE TO GRAZIERS: Alan Nation, the publisher of Stockman Grass Farmer, has written a column about the “off flavor” problem with some grass fed beef. His solution is the same approach we take, i.e. mineralization. In many cases, the application of lime will solve the “sour beef” problem, but it is more complicated than that. Flavors are a result of the minerals in the plants, the water source and the mineral box. If you don’t measure, you don’t know. Test soils and forages!

COMPOST & COMPOST TEAS: CSI certainly encourages you to use local, quality compost. We also encourage you to make or use compost teas to keep the microbes fresh and active. Please note we now have a powder instant compost tea that is NOP compliant. (Its regular, not de-café J)

REFER TO OUR PRODUCT LITERATURE PACKET: Go online to find our literature pack under Our Approach” OR Call and we’ll send you a new one. CSI is known for its diversity of mined mineral products containing lots of trace minerals. We are pleased that Terra Biotics uses several of them in their pulverization process. Mined minerals in a drip line or foliar spray – Who would have thunk it?

RECORDINGS OF CSI SUSTAINABLE GROWERS SEMINAR: Our 3-Day, Jan. 2011 Sustainable Growers Seminar was professionally recorded and is available on DVD, CD or MP3. Each option includes the 200 page presentation manual from the seminar.   DVD $450,   CD $410,    MP3 $275    Call the office to order!

RON IN CALIFORNIA: Ron will be a presenter at the EcoFarm 2011Conf. in Pacific Grove, CA held Jan 26-29. Although I don’t agree with the title, The Fringes of Agriculture, Radionics and Electro-Magnetic Frequencies, he will be talking about Radionics, Broadcasters, Sound Machine, Symphony Units, at in Session F from 4:00 – 5:30 on Friday, Jan 28^th.  Call 831-763-2111 for more info.

Good Growing in 2011. May Health and Prosperity Be With You.

Dr. Phil, Louisa, Sue and Ron