Biological Farming

Here's a couple of links to great Landline videos on Biological Farming. Remember you can do this on a smaller scale in your own garden.

Biological Farming Part one

Biological Farming Part two

Our Adventures in Biological Farming

Micheal Ottone explaining his brew methods

“Sustainable” and “Organic” have become popular words to throw around these days as people become more conscientious about how and where they spend their money. At El Arish Tropical Exotics we believe “Sustainable” is a lot more than a trendy word. We are committed to sustainability in our own lives and how we operate our nursery.

The packing materials we use are either recycled or biodegradable. Our shredded newspaper is sourced from Endeavour Foundation, our boxes are recycled, and our bags are biodegradable.  Our plants are all soaked in a tri kelp solution before packing. Our irrigation system is 100% gravity fed water from The World Heritage Rainforest adjacent to our property. It’s “living” water with a high concentration of positive ions that contribute to the health and vigour of our plants. We amend our soil with mulch and by-products of our local agricultural industries and prefer to use organic fertilizers to conventional chemical ferts.

Last year we took our commitment further and became distributors of Nutritech products so we could bring the same ferts and tonics we use on our own farm to our clients. In Nov 09 I attended a Biological Farming course at Nutritech headquarters. The course was an intensive look at mineral management, soil management, pest management and plant management. Biological Farming is based on understanding the natural processes that take place in the soil. If our soil is unbalanced and contains an excess of any elements it can prevent uptake of nutrients and lead to deficiencies of other elements as the nutrients are unavailable to the plants. By balancing our soil and increasing microbial mass we can improve our soils natural fertility and a plants ability to utilize nutrients.

Biological Farming is not Organic Farming, it combines the best of conventional and natural farming. The approach is very scientific with an emphasis on balancing soil, building soil carbon and increasing beneficial microbes in the soil rather than feeding the plant with an NPK blend.

Ray O'Grady

Although we had always relied on mulch and amending the soil the course gave me a deeper understanding of soil microbiology and chemistry. It was the catalyst for us to move away from conventional farming and fertilizers. Our plants have never looked better, our root systems are stronger and our cut flowers have a longer vase life.

Last week I attended another Biological Farming course given by Ray O’Grady from O’Grady Rural. The emphasis of this workshop was building soil carbon via compost teas, biochar and microbial brews. I enjoyed the course and learned an immense amount about fungi, biochar and the interaction between plant roots and microbes. Our field trip was to the properties of Ottone & Sons pineapple and cane farmers in Bilyana. It was great to attend a workshop with other local farmers and inspirational to see the work Mike and his brother Peter have done on their family farm. The fact that so many of their neighbours attended the workshop was a testament to how successful they had been incorporating microbe brews and compost teas on their farms.

Fungi brewing!

Michael’s enthusiasm was infectious. He explained in great detail his own trials and adventures and what they had learned from it. The information was invaluable and thank you Micheal and Peter so much for your generosity of spirit and sharing so much great information with us.

If you are thinking “well this is all great but I’m not a farmer, this doesn’t apply to me” you’re wrong!!! Soil is soil wether it is in a garden bed or in a farm paddock. If you can build your  soil carbon, mulch and rely on microbes to unlock nutrients already in your soil you’ll have a happier, healthier garden with better colour, better flowering and better ability to cope with stress; Often for far less money than by conventional methods.

Homemade Biochar with fungi growing

Michael examining brew microbes

Healthy root system thanks to compost teas

If you would like to learn more please explore the links below.
Nutritech 

O'Grady Rural
Compost Teas 

I’ve also included a photo of the newest member of our family Ginger. Talk about a small world!!! Ginger’s mum and dad are owned by Glenn Hughes a grazier who also attended the course. While talking about Red Heelers we discovered our Ginger was his pup. So if you ever read this Glenn here a photo of your little gal. I can honestly say she couldn’t have found a home where she was loved more. Thank you for Ginger. And thank you Ray and Moya O’Grady all the participants for making it such an inspiring workshop.

Happiness for a nine year old is a Red Heeler Pup!

An Introduction to Basic Soil Chemistry for the Home Gardener

If you are like me you would rather be out in the garden or having bamboo strips inserted under your fingernails than trying to remember your high school chemistry. Phrases like “cation exchange capacity”, “cations and anions” and “bric” give you an instant headache and leave you running for aspirin, a good glass of red and if you’re lucky a pack of TimTams. So for me to put you (and me!) through reading (and writing!) this article you know I must think that understanding basic soil chemistry is very important to your garden. Too many people think that throwing a slow release fert at their plants twice a year is all they need to do to maximize growth and flowering. And some even think if twice a year is good 4 times a year even better, Right?
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.
Yes, NPK are important but they aren’t the only nutrients your plants will need and they need to be used wisely. For any of you that don’t know or may have forgotten:
N: Nitrogen important for the formation of chlorophyll and very important for growth.
P: Phosphorus important for healthy roots and shoots. Yellowing of the leaves is a common sign of P deficiency.
K : Potassium Vital to photosynthesis and protein synthesis and improves water use efficiency ( in English, makes plants more drought tolerant) Regulates about 50 enzymes and heliconias love it. Also seems to contribute to better coloring up of cordylines.

If you are over fertilizing you are throwing your money away as plants only pick up what they need and what is “available” to them. Most likely you would be better off spending your money on a simple soil test kit.
At minimum you should know the PH of different areas of your garden. The PH is very important and affects the plants ability to use available nutrients. PH is a measure of hydrogen ions and is the result of total cations in the soil. I’m only telling you this because CEC or Cation Exchange Capacity is a measure of your soil to store nutrients. Clay soils have lots of stored nutrients but they are not always “available” to your plants. . In heavy clay soil you can add calcium (usually in the form of lime) to lower PH which allows for better nutrient exchange. Sandy soils need fertilizing more often (a little, a lot) because they can’t store nutrients well.
Aside from PH it is important to know the level of minerals in your soil and ideally work towards correcting any imbalance. That is because an excess of one element can cause a deficiency in another by inhibiting the plants ability to utilize it.
The most common problems occur when people add too much nitrogen to the soil. This can lead to burning through humus, potassium deficiency and sappy growth with thin cell walls that are more attractive to sap sucking insects. DPI studies on bananas in North Qld have indicated excess nitrogen in the Wet can feed Phytophthora. Also remember that at different parts in a plants growth cycle plants will take up extra nutrients. There’s no point on putting extra potash on a plant when it’s just starting growing it. It would be much more effective to use before flowering occurs to encourage big healthy flowers. Remember Sulphate of Potash is a much better form of potash as Muriate of Potash is %0% chloride (Salt) and can kill your soil. Wood Ash and Kelp are also good sources of K.

Often gardeners may also need to improve the structure of their soil. Fertilizer alone will not do this for you. If you have sandy soil amend your soil with organic matter and zeolite. Natural zeolite has an open box work crystal structure which is occupied by cations and water molecules.  These ions and water molecules can move within the large cavities in the structure allowing ionic exchange and reversible rehydration plus they have a very high micro-porosity.  These special features enable zeolite the ability to attract and absorb cationic materials such as plant nutrients for slow release. If you have heavy clay soil adding organic matter will help over time but adding gypsum can help get you there quicker. Gypsum breaks up heavy clay soils by chemical exchange between the clay and gypsum, causing soil to become more friable. The nutrients in the clay become more available to plants as well as an improves drainage.

I could go on and on dazzling you with soil chemistry information that I’ll plagiarized from the internet but I think it’s time to wrap this up succinctly and say if you are serious about your garden buy a simple soil test from your local hardware store or even better splash out and get a qualified agronomist or horticulturist to do a soil analysis for you. In the long run it could save you heaps of money and improve your overall soil health.
If this is all too scientific for you the bottom line is that by adding as much mulch as humately (get it, humately) will improve your soil structure and increase nutrient uptake. And when in doubt kelp and fish emulsion are excellent for giving your soil and plants heaps of yummy micronutrients.

If for some reason you are still awake at the end of this article and would like to find out more about soil chemistry I recommend the book Soils Alive published by Lawrie and 61 sustainable agriculture S.A. It goes into great detail about mineral management in your soil but is accessible to the layman.
And if you decide to ignore everything I’ve just written and throw slow release at your plants twice a year at least water it in! And choose a blend with lots of micronutrients. Mulch! Mulch! Mulch!
Now if you’ll excuse me there’s a TimTam waiting for me.
Happy Gardening

Well Drained, Rich Soil: What Does It Mean???

The majority of plants we sell do best in well drained rich soil. Although many experienced tropical gardeners are aware of this there are a few that are unsure as to what it means. This article is intended to enlighten our customers on how to get the best results with our plants.
As a general rule most heliconias and gingers originate from tropical rainforests. These rainforest soils are generally teaming with life and rich in organic matter and nutrients in the form of leaf mulch and decaying vegetation. Heliconias and gingers are quite literally built for top feeding with their shallow root systems from these rich soils. Although they can be grown in a range of conditions,the closer you can come to duplicating these soil conditions the better your results will be. There are a few things that can impact negatively on growth and flowering. Lack of water and humidity is one of them. Poor drainage is another.Torch gingers and a few heliconias like Standleyii will thrive in poor drainage but for the most part good drainage is a necessity.
Practically speaking, if you have sandy soil you'll find that by adding organic matter, watering regularly, mulching and fertilizing a few times a year(spring and summer) that your plants will do best. In heavy clay soils you'll need to add gypsum and lime to break up your clay (which increases drainage) and raise your PH (which will help make nutrients more available to your plants)
When in doubt MULCH!!! You can never underestimate the value of good preparation when creating your tropical garden. Like the saying goes, there's no point in putting a twenty dollar plant in a twenty cent hole.
Happy Gardening!
Ann