7 Reasons To Use Our Soil Mixes in Your Garden
We have spent time researching how we can improve our soil for our vegetables, flowers, plants and trees. What can we do to give perennials and tress the best start in life? We also wanted to know how we can improve the nutrient density of the vegetables we grow as todays vegetables are less nutrient dense than they used to be.
Our research led us to create some living soil mixes for your garden, including a veggie box soil mix to increase nutrient density of your veg, and a tree and perennial planting mix.
So what can our soil mixes do for your garden? Our mixes contain biochar, humates, vermicast, volcanic rock, wood ash, bonemeal and vermiculite. (For those who prefer not to have bone meal in your mix let us know and we can make one that has no bone meal in it).
Here are 7 reasons why our mixes are great for your soil and plants.
1. Increases Crop Yield
Soil is a living ecosystem containing billions of bacteria, most of which are beneficial. We add biochar to our soil mixes as biochar helps these microbes flourish. This is down to the uniquely porous structure of the biochar, which provides an ideal habitat for the microbes. These beneficial microorganisms perform multiple plant growth-promoting activities and provide you with a bumper crop yield.
Here is what Andreas had to say about using our mixes on his vegetable garden,
"Hamish has helped me with building our garden beds and with preparing the soil and installing the irrigation system. The results have been astonishing:
We produced 26 Kg of potatoes over a surface of 4 sqm (I have been growing veggies in Europe over the last 50 years and never seen anything like that before!)
We also planted broccoli and cauliflowers with amazing results (the cauliflowers had an average diameter of 30 to 35cm!)
Of course all the veggies also taste very good!
Andrea, Far Horizon Park, Wanaka"
2. Increases the Nutrients Available to Plants and Lowers Rates of Nutrient Depletion During the Growing Season
The biochar in our mix attracts nutrients and then stores them, making them available to plants when they need them. This stops the feast and famine scenario which chemical fertilisers create. Because of this it also lowers the rate of nutrient depletion during the growing season. Volcanic Rock, wood ash and bonemeal provides calcium and trace elements which are lacking in our silt based soil here in Wanaka and Central Otago. Castings from the vermicast we add, also feed beneficial soil microorganisms that produce, store and slowly release plant nutrients into your soil to feed plants.
3. Aids the Uptake of Nutrients to Plants
The humates in our mix have many benefits. They increase root growth. The length, density and radius of plant roots dramatically increase which is critical to the nutrient uptake ability of plants.
4. Increases Nutrient Value and Physical Appearance
Humates improve the quality of fruit and vegetables and flowers by increasing the nutrient value of vegetables and fruit and the physical appearance of the fruit, veg and flowers. Humates do this by mobilising nutrients into forms the plant can accept. The uptake of nitrogen phosphorous, iron and trace elements is improved which is important to plant health. The vermiculite also retains water and nutrients which is then released over time.
5. Better Water Retention and Drainage
Biochar’s porous structure means it retains water and improves soils ability to hold water. As a result it can keep beneficial soil bacteria and fungi alive during a long dry summer. This is one of the main reasons why Wanaka soil is not as fertile as the microbes get killed off during summer when there is no rain for a long period. Vermicast is added to the mix as the humus in earthworm castings help increase soil’s water retention, improve soil aeration and anchor plant nutrients that would otherwise leach away with water. The vermiculite also helps to aerate soil.
6. Great for Improving our Central Otago Soil
In Wanaka our soil is mainly silt. Silt is a tough soil to grow in as it does not aerate and it does not pass nutrients to plants so anything to combat this really helps. And as we now know the biochar also looks after the microbes over the dry summers that we can get. The volcanic rock dust adds nutrient into a region were the soil is silt.
For those in the Wanaka area, NZ, if you would like to buy soil you can buy it here.