Thanks, Elmar. Great questions.

My primary goal is to kick-start soil biology which in turn should make the rest happen.

I just watched one of John Kempf’s videos per Brians’s recommendation and in the Q&A session he was asked “If the right amount of minerals are required for optimal photosynthesis, doesn’t that indicate that we need good soil first in order to grow healthy plants?” John’s answer was that it was a conundrum. We need healthy soil to grow a healthy plant, and I believe that ‘soil primer’ is what is missing. We can get there eventually with compost, etc., but even then ‘healthy soil’ does not contain the extra nutrients needed for year-after-year crop production. Our goal is to provide the ‘primer’ with enough fertilizer built-in to feed the crop through harvest.

1. I agree. We hope to provide a ‘broad spectrum’ primer to get things going. If there are special needs beyond that the producer would need to be aware and add nutrients and microbes as needed.

2. Testing shows we can apply this as late as the same day as planting. Germination and emergence are typically less than 72 hours (soil condition dependant), and mycelium activity in the form of hypha is visible on the surface all over the field within a couple of days. In the right light conditions, the field sparkles as the light reflects off the hypha webs. Pretty cool to see. We don’t have any trouble kick-starting microbial activity.

3. We have been successful in this area based on root comparisons, and residual nutrients driving cover crop growth.

4. I agree.

5. Once a property is inoculated and ‘healthy’, fertilizer becomes the primary need. If we’re just growing ground cover, we probably don’t need either one once it is established. If we’re trying to produce a cash crop, it will need to be fed each year. From our perspective, the inoculants are almost an afterthought and not expensive. We just dust it over the pellets, so we would probably add the inoculant each time because it can only help.