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The return to indigenous and holistic agriculture, and subsequent advent of organic agriculture, was signaled by the destruction of the green revolution. In maximizing production, synthetic fertilizers were developed – blind to the destruction it would cause our waterways, soils, and ecosystems. Part of healing the land organisms we steward involves finding symbiotic means to replenish our soils, support a robust crop, and not contribute to the harm agriculture can pose to communities. Often, farmers have incorporated systemic methods of reducing the need for artificial fertilizers, like crop rotation and cover crops. Still further, orchardists and other food growers are experimenting with incorporating herd grazing into land management, allowing chickens to peck through sections of orchard, depositing their valuable manure onto the turf. What’s ultimately interesting here is the question: can we replace the need for artificial fertilizers while still supporting full crops and established orchards?
Following this inquiry, let’s look closer at what needs replacing...
What Does Fertilizer Bring?
Supplying the constituents for maximum growth, fertilizers often deliver nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus to the soil. Some fertilizers ma y bring other chemical elements to be utilized by a crop. Although some fertilizers can be better suited to the agriculturist’s needs (slow-release, a balanced blend vs. a nitrogen-heavy blend, etc.), this delivery system weakens soil overtime. Improper fertilization use may overload soils with components that leach into waterways, or otherwise disturb the soil’s nutrient cycles.
Know Your Soil
Supplying our plants with nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus depends highly on the type of land, fertility, soils, and drainage we have. These characteristics guide nutrient flows through soils, pointing towards what will need to be supplied outside of natural cycles. Water-logged and poorly drained soils lead to denitrification losses, whereas excessively drained soils lose nutrients through leaching. The latter may call for a more intense focus on organic matter inputs or green manures to hold nutrients closer to the soil surface. Whereas, for poorl y drained soils, it might be beneficial to regularly sow and mow nitrogen fixing cover crops to replenish denitrified soils. A soil’s cation exchange capacity will signal how sensitive the soil responds to fluctuations from inputs. The higher the CEC, the more robust potential fertility is implied, the more inputs can be efficiently absorbed.
Timing & Inputs
Timing alternative sources of NPK is as important as the supply. Seedling stages and senescence calls for less nitrogen than the rush associated with photosynthesis-heavy growth phases. Green manures should be timed appropriately to ensure that residues are decomposed before the field is transplanted with a new crop, to ensure that the nitrogen involved in breaking down the cover crop is freed up to feed the growing plant.
Exploring Alternatives
In returning nitrogen to the soil, protein nitrogen sources, such as manure, fermented plant teas, fish hydrolysates, and compost can be utilized via foliar sprays and direct application to roots. Mulching with ramial woodchips (made primarily from branches) and compost can re-up potassium stores in depleted soils. Bone meal or fish meal inputs can be mixed in to enrich soils with phosphorus, alongside foliar sprays with kelp.  Given soil tests that proclaim adequate amounts of these constituents in soils, yet signs of deficiency in leaves, our crops may call for a different approach to improving the availability of these nutrients. This might look like improving the life in the soil by collecting indigenous microorganisms from nearby forests and the roots of old growth trees, or inoculating seed with mycorrhizal fungi.
Ringing in the New Paradigm of Agriculture
A main distinction between industrial agriculture and regenerative agriculture often points to time lines: industrialization aimed to make agriculture more efficient, producing the highest yields from the land. This of course, proved to be hazardous to our communities and our earth. Regenerative agriculture has presented itself as a healing process that supports land in a symbiotic capacity increase through soil building, with the understanding that it is a long-term, ongoing process. This means that whatever we use in the process of making artificial fertilizers obsolete will need to be understood as distinct from the quick-fix mentality of the milieu.
However you approach moving away from synthetic fertilizer application, know that the approach will look different than how we acquired such a dependency on them. This switch mirrors a changing paradigm in the agricultural spheres, one that emphasizes a sustainable, holistic approach. Learn more about how to transition your operation to the new wave by tuning into our webinar series, and attending some of the awesome workshops and events this growing network has lined up!
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