Have you ever struggled to get certain seed verities like milkweed, lupine and lavender to germinate? While this could be due to a variety of factors such as incorrect soil moisture, seed viability, soil temperature or planting depth, not all seeds are ready to sprout as soon as they are planted in soil. For some seeds, dormancy caused by a physical barrier in the form of a hard or waxy seed coat requires exposure to a period of cold, moist conditions to be broken. This process of cold-stratification breaks down the exterior seed coat and allows the seed to germinate and sprout.
Cover crops provide multiple potential benefits to soil health and to the following cash crops, while also helping to maintain cleaner surface and groundwater, prevent erosion and provide carbon sequestration. Cover crops improve soil physical and biological properties as well as supply nutrients to subsequent crops. They suppress weeds, improve soil water availability, and deter pests. Some cover crops are able to break up soil compaction, making it easier for the following crop’s roots to more fully develop.
With the development of industrialization and urbanization over the past two centuries, concentrations of heavy metals in the environment have significantly increased, raising concerns about the impacts to environmental, animal, and human health.
Most plants require an array of essential nutrients to flourish. Of these, three macronutrients, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, are needed in the greatest amounts for optimal growth. While nitrogen is essential for promoting green, leafy growth during a plant’s vegetative stage, phosphorous is necessary for energy storage and utilization, root development and growth, as well as fruit and flower formation. Phosphorous in either excess or deficient concentrations in the soil can negatively impact a plant’s growth and productivity in numerous ways.
Compost tea is a liquid biological amendment containing essential plant nutrients and a complex community of beneficial microorganisms. For centuries, farmers have soaked porous “tea bags” full of compost in tubs of water, and then used the resulting liquid (compost tea) to fertilize and improve the health of their crops. While there are infinite ways to prepare compost teas, most modern methods rely on a mechanical aeration process to extract beneficial organisms from high-quality compost products.
