Engineered Soils
Pt 6–21st Century Growers Guide to Sustainable Farming
All Growers have the same goal: To have financially successful business. Farmers, planting in the ground, are also stewards of the land and need sustainable farming. SymSoil believes this is based upon healthy biology, based upon the soil microbe biome. For farmers, healthy soil should improve over time, reducing costs, growing better tasting crops and increasing yields over the years.
Complex chemistry in the soil is necessary for complex flavors. SymSoil has a number of products which positively impact soil health, increasing the soil microbe biome and thereby increasing the complexity of the soil chemistry. Master cannabis cultivators know that the more complex the soil biology, the more complex the terpene and cannabinoid profile.
Robust Compost, sold under the brand name SymSoil® RC is our complete biological solution. A DNA analysis found over 2,000 species, including 184 species/families of fungi and almost 300 families of bacteria. It also contains a significant number of amoebae, flagellates, and beneficial nematodes.
For most farmers, we recommend use of RC in a compost extract or tea, as a soil drencher to infuse biology into soil and lower value compost. We recommend the GEOTea 250, which can turn 1 cubic foot into 250 gallons of compost extract or 1 cubic yard into over 6,500 gallons. Most farmers are using 20 to 50 gallons per acre per year.
For cannabis growers, and others with a high value crop, RC can be blended into soil — at a ratio of 25% to 30% or as a ½” soil topper.
Fungal Infused Biochar, sold as SymSoil® FIB, is conditioned biochar, loaded with fungal spores, fungal food and biochar. This product is a soil conditioner for a long-term improvement in soil quality. (Biochar is inert carbon, and has a half life of over 1,000 years!) FIB helps soil hold water, and has pockets on its surface which create homes for soil microbes of various sizes. FIB also contains 10% SymSoil® RC. We have discovered that the complete soil microbe biome is necessary to activate the beneficial fungi spore, even the mycorrhizal fungal spores.
SymSoil® V50 is our most popular product with cannabis growers and is a 50/50 blend of RC and FIB. A complete biological solution combined with a soil conditioner; most growers add one cup when transferring the clone to a pot. The roots then grow through the material, and the biology expands with the rhizosphere. One cubic foot contains 120 cups.
The biochar and fungi increase the plant’s tolerance to drought, and saved many growers crops in 2019 when the Northern California electrical grid was challenged. One of the early customers who used V50 was a winner in the Emerald Cup’s Sun Grown category, considered one of the most competitive.
SymSoil® Amazing Grow Cubes are our newest product.
Two years in development, these cubes are infused with the full range of biology from SymSoil® RC. Additional biology has been licensed to increase the plant health and to reduce growers’ costs through nitrogen fixing. Customers report higher THC and terpene levels, with more nodes, larger blooms and stronger branches to support the flower.
Assume, an indoor grow, with 1.4 pounds of flower per light, 4 plants per light, and $300/lb. price for cured flower, then each SymSoil® Amazing Grow Cubes will add $20 per plant to the grower’s bottom line, after the cost of the cube. If a grower is getting $1,000 per pound of flower, the national average in 2019, each cube is expected to add more than $50 per bottom line. Contact a Soil Maven (info@SymSoil.com or 833-SYMSOIL) for a calculator to use your own assumptions.
This calculation does not include the higher clone success rate, nor the impact of healthier plants with greater resistance to powdery mildew, root aphids, fungus gnats, thrips and fusarium.
Customized Solutions, Soil Maven Consulting and On-Farm Composting
SymSoil’s science team has 35 years of experience in the area of soil health and are focused on solutions to growers’ problems based upon a deep understanding of the complete soil microbe biome.
Among our solutions are active biocontrol’s, beneficial organisms that actively attacking crop pests and keeping them in check. Some of the microbes release antibiotic compounds to combat pathogens. Others can stimulate the plant’s own immune system to resist attack. This is a picture of a fungi killing a thrip, a pathogen insect.
SymSoil offers living products which use biology to solve specific problems. SymSoil’s Astro Nematodes, as an example, are a living, biological product (nematodes) that reduce insect pests. The nematodes eat insect eggs, larvae and adults.
SymSoil’s Grow Cubes, are infused with all 2,000+ species of SymSoil’s RC, plus additional biology added because of its ability to reduce pathogenic fungi, insects, increase nitrogen absorption and THC production by a cannabis plant.
Functionally-targeted microbial inoculants represent the next-generation of green technologies which will support cannabis and mainstream agriculture in the 21st century. Talk to us about your challenges.
This is the sixth article in the series, which begins with 21st Century Farmer’s Guide to Sustainable Farming, An Overview which can be found here. We encourage you to follow us for all the updates.
More on the 21st Century Grower’s Guide to Sustainable Farming
Pt 3 Benefits of a Healthy Soil Microbe Biome
Part 4 Healthy Soil has 7 Types of Life
Part 5 The Right Microbe Biome Balance for Your Crop
Part 7 20th Century Farming vs Biological Farming
For more information, please visit our website SymSoil.com
SymSoil Inc. is an evidence-based, soil health company with products and services for regenerative agriculture. Our flagship products are Robust Compost, Fungal Infused Biochar and Grow Cubes for the cannabis and hemp cultivators. Our science team has 35 years of experience developing solutions to growers’ problems based upon a deep understanding of the complete soil microbe biome. A core belief is regional soil microbes can be restored to regenerate the soil, which will significantly increase plant health, crop yields, flavor profile and nutrient density, as the plants access nutrients the way nature intended.
