(Continued from Part 2.)
The microbes in the soil are master mineral miners using various acids, such as carbonic acid, to break down minerals into soluble forms that are bioavailable to the plants. The plants in turn exude sugars to feed and power the microbes during the mining operation. If you live east of the Mississippi or in commercial agricultural areas where we’ve been unsustainably exploiting the soil nutrients for decades or even centuries, there is a pretty good chance your soil is deficient in micronutrients, especially anion molecules like boron, sulfur, and molybdenum that tend to leach from the soil.
There are dozens of trace minerals that are key for various functions of your plants growth, development, reproduction, and self defence. Plants are master chemists. Some of the plants that have been studied in herbalism have hundreds of different chemical compounds identified in them. How do you think a plant defends itself from pathological viruses, bacteria, and insects? It can’t run away, so it mixes chemical defenses. By providing a broad spectrum of nutrients in the soil you are ensuring your plants have access via the soil life to a well stocked chemical laboratory to handle any attacks they face. By extension, many of the compounds that a plant uses to protect itself are the ones that nourish or heal our bodies when we eat the plants. If it’s in the soil, it will be in the plants. If it’s in the plants it will end up in you. Bottom line: The microbial ecosystem can extract, balance, and transport the nutrients in the soil so your plants can thrive without ANY fertilizers. You just need to make sure the microbes have the mineral building blocks to start with.
