Pioneer Living Survival

This is my first blog.  Within the past ten years and especially the last five, there has been some exciting new research being conducted in the organic world.  The humus molecule (aka humic substances) is being analyzed down to the sub-atomic level.  The findings are rewriting the textbooks.  Questions and misconceptions are being addressed concerning how humus gets formed, how it gets into our soils, what it does, (new scientific papers galore about its many benefits) etc.  These are new findings, not known until now.  Humic substances have been studied many times before in history but not in depth or to the extent that they are now.  SoilSecrets, a New Mexico LLC, has spearheaded this humus research.  Michael Melendrez, the owner of SoilSecrets, put together a team of chemists about 4 years ago to do this research.  It is being carried out at the National Laboratories at Los Alamos and Sandia, New Mexico.  The Department of Energy (U.S. Gov.) found out what they were doing and gave them a substantial grant to further the work.  This has grown to become a technology transfer program composed of SoilSecrets, The Department of Energy and New Mexico State University.

What does this mean to us growers?  Faster soil building with less effort, less water use (up to 30%),  improved flavor and nutrition in our food, improved sequestering of carbon in our soils, minimum to NO tillage required, in short, a completely new growing method giving faster results with much less work.  I have been road testing these products and methods for two years now (1st year start-up garden last year and 1st year start-up garden this year in different location) and am astounded by the results.  I have been gardening and growing organically for 39 years and I have never experienced results like I am getting now. I am an avid and thorough researcher and the original doubting Thomas.   I have composted, manured, mulched and tried most of the organic fertilizers available over the years and have had results ranging from mediocre to pretty good but nothing close to what I am getting now.  By the way, I am in Cochise, Az. in extreme alkaline soil (ph 8.8), organic matter .7%, excessive heat, etc.  My soil has delivered very well but is steadily building fertility.  Each year will be better than before.  Oh, yeah.  I want to prove what I am sharing here.  I have had my soil tested by A&L Laboratories in Plains, Tx. and am having it tested again to measure the improvement. I have used A&L Labs for decades.  True professionals.  We're not talking home soil testing here which unfortunately is mostly useless.

If we are truly serious about quality survival and full flavored nutritious food production, we need to learn as much as possible about the right way to build our garden soils.  History is scattered with dead civilizations that died or moved because they couldn't maintain the fertility of their soils.  Unfortunately, many of us in the organic world spend too much time guessing and not enough time taking advantage of what good science has discovered for us.  Results walk, BS just talks.

My next blog will discuss a beneficial root fungus called mycorrhizae.  Roughly 95% of ALL plants on Spaceship Earth form a symbiotic association with mycorrhizae if they are in a natural landscape undisturbed by man.  We are pretty good at destroying them.  They must be restored to our plant's roots if we are to achieve optimum results.  More on this next blog.