Improving Soil Nutrients for Healthier Plants

Benefits of Good Soil Structures

There are a couple of important benefits to having good soil structure in the vegetable garden. The first benefit is the improvement of crop quality. The crop quality in the soil is important because the plant roots need the ability to move throughout the soil structure to find the essential nutrients that they are dependent on. The next benefit is to reduce pest and disease pressures in the soil. Much like humans, when plants lack nutrition they can be more susceptible to diseases. However, with a healthy soil structure pest and diseases lack in the ability to live in the garden area. Another important benefit of good soil structure is the ability to conserve water. The increase in water holding capacity can prevent soil nutrients from leaching in the garden area. The decrease in leaching of soil nutrients will improve a stronger soil structure that will not be broken down by water and wind leading to soil erosion problems. Overall a good soil structure will in return improve the soil health which will lead to productive vegetable plants in the garden area. Some other ways to increase good soil structure is by incorporating good compost or organic matter and side-dressing fertilizer in the vegetable garden.

Improving Soil Nutrients

On this week's episode, Travis explains how to improve soil nutrients to get healthier plants. The first step in improving soil nutrients is to understand the importance of maintaining healthy soil biology in our soil structures. Promoting healthy soil biology will increase the beneficial bacteria and microorganisms that live in the soil will in return provide us healthier plants. A great product that will help feed the soil and promote that healthy soil biology is our Hoss Liqui-Fish Garden Fertilizer. This Liqui-Fish is an OMRI registered fish emulsion that will improve the macro and micronutrients in the vegetable garden area. Unlike other fish emulsions, our Liqui-Fish is hydrolyzed which means the fish are broken down using water instead of heat. We use water instead of heat because if you break down the fish using heat you eliminate a lot of the proteins, nutrients, and vitamins that are needed to feed your soil in the garden. So by using the hydrolized fish emulsion, we are preserving all the nutrients that are needed for healthy soil biology in the vegetable garden area. This emulsion can be used in a couple of different forms of application such as by soil drench. When soil drenching it can be applied before you plant or several times throughout the life of the plant to continue improving soil life and give plants plenty of nutrients. The Liqui-Fish works greats in our EZ-Flo Fertilizer injector if you use a drip irrigation system in the garden. However, it can also be used in a hand-pump garden sprayer and apply it to the soil that way. Travis mentions that the recommended rate of the Liqui-Fish is a cup per thousand square feet. When looking to promote healthier soil biology and grow healthier plants look into applying a hydrolized fish emulsion like the Liqui-Fish to ensure you get the best results in the vegetable garden.