News

Other than a nice continuing movement toward organic production, it's hard to find any significant changes in how we grow our food compared to 50 years ago. Sure, the process has become much more mechanized and farms have become much larger, but the basic plow, soil-testing, and fertilizing routines are mostly the same. Even in organic farming, the major difference is usually just a switch to natural rather than man-made plant foods. Most farmers still feel that they need to provide all the nutrients that their crops require, while the harnessing of microbial soil organisms that can nourish plants remains...

My recent move to the central coast of California gives yet another opportunity to create a new garden and orchard. I've left some wonderful soil and fruit trees behind me over the years. The soil here is mostly sand that drains quickly and lacks organic matter. It is quite a different situation than working with clay but both extremes are relatively easy to turn into prime garden soil, especially when I employ microbiological helpers. My first task here was to convert the scraggly front lawn from chemically-dependent grass growing in lifeless sand that allowed water and nutrients to simply run...

Reestablishing good populations of beneficial soil organisms after years or decades of synthetic fertilization is no overnight process. Residual overdoses of chemical elements, especially Phosphorus, will have lingering disruptive effects on sensitive fungi and other important microbial life in soil. Why do growers, both farmers and home gardeners, put damaging amounts of fertilizer in their soil, much of which is not taken up by plants and washes away to end up in streams and underground water supplies? Well, the concept of total surface area (TSA) is one explanation. Picture an individual asparagus root - long and rope-like. It is relatively...

As the use of biological methods becomes more widespread and common, it seems odd to me that our state agricultural university researchers are not doing more to further knowledge about this topic. After all, if there are ways of growing our food crops with far less fertilizer and water, while building up soil health instead of depleting it, plus cutting back on the contamination of drinking water aquifers, shouldn't that call for some fairly intensive study? If not, why not? Where are the side-by-side test plots comparing plant performance when grown with chemical-based inputs versus biology-based techniques? Where are the...

The news this issue is that BioOrganics has moved, leaving the high desert of Central Oregon to relocate in the mild coastal climate of Santa Maria, California. This northern part of Santa Barbara County was recently featured in the movie "Sideways" and has become a major wine producing region. Besides bringing the company closer to many of our vineyard customers, it will be nice to not have to deal with snow during the winter months. I am also looking forward to having more than a 90-day growing season here. Our customers and dealers should not notice any significant change in...