Soil Foodweb Workshops
August 24th - 29th, 2008
Do you find yourself battling with nature to eliminate weeds, diseases or pests in your crops, trees, lawns, or pastures?
Do your plants require more chemicals and inorganic fertilizers each year to be healthy?
Would you like to learn how to produce healthy, productive plants with minimal costly inputs?
Use up to 70 % less water! Want to improve your soil's ability to withstand drought or flooding?
Want to lean how you can keep growing your cash crop without rotating out of production?
In this life-changing seminar you will learn how to:
Eliminate soil compaction and declining fertility. Build more robust root systems in your plants, as well as organic matter and structure in your soils.
Correct pH imbalances or erosion issues on your land.
Reduce costly inputs, balance the minerals and essential nutrients for your plant, and keep those vital nutrients available to your plants and prevent them from leaching in to our water systems.
Learn how to interpret the results of a chemical soil analysis correctly.
Reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals in our food, water, air, and environment.
The truth is usually simple once revealed-healthy soil creates healthy and productive plants, as well as a thriving, livable planet. Comprehending the little-known world within the soil reveals answers to the questions above, and more. To remedy such large-scale problems requires an understanding of what is miniscule yet powerful...the importance of soil microbes that inhabit the earth and plant surfaces. Pests and diseases only perform the job that nature intends-they wipe out sick plants.
If you must use chemicals like fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides to protect your plants, understand this as a sign that signifies something is out of balance beneath your soil. This series of workshops will introduce you to the intricate web of organisms that live in soil and surround the root systems of plants, called the
soil food web. You will learn how these organisms are vital to plant's (and our own) survival.
Conventional plant management practices focus on adding chemicals and inorganic fertilizers to amend the soil. These "traditions" ignore the fact that these substances are harmful to the beneficial organisms living in the soil-as well as to other life forms. Yet the ancient agricultural societies in Greece and Rome knew of composting technologies and used them for everyday survival. That laymen's knowledge has been lost through the development of more chemically oriented technologies. Today, the typical farmer must rely heavily on chemical inputs to make a living. Even in more populated areas, homeowners depend on these inputs to keep their lawns green and pristine.
This cycle of trying to chemically feed and protect our plants from above is inadequate. Nature has its own mechanism for allowing the plants to be in control of their own lives and nutrient uptake. Humans have not developed the sophisticated systems of communication with our plant's root systems that the beneficial soil microbes have. By applying chemicals, we kill the very organisms that are vital to the plants' survival.
This unique sequence of workshops is taught by one of the foremost soil microbiologists and compost specialists in the world,
Dr. Elaine Ingham, PhD. Dr. Ingham has spent the past thirty years of her life identifying improved methods for studying beneficial organisms that live in healthy soil.
She will explain how, contrary to popular belief, it is the biology that determines soil structure, pH and nutrient cycling. She will underline the root causes that make soil and plants sick, with recognition that human and animal health relies on soil and plant health.
Dr. Ingham involves herself passionately with her research, yet she remains dedicated to teaching people from all walks of life how to create the correct balance of living organisms in the soil. She has worked with private growers and public park systems all over the world, improving growing systems for almost any type of crop imaginable-from vegetables to trees, turf, grapes and lawn grass! Likewise, she will instruct you how to return fertility and organic matter back to the soil after years of harmful chemical applications and other practices that damage soil health.
Soil chemistry tests, while meaningful; do not explain how the nutrients locked in the sand, silt and clay particles of soil actually become available to the plant. Dr, Ingham will help you understand what your soil test is trying to tell you and how to allow nature to balance the chemistry for you!
By working with the natural organisms in the soil, you can eliminate your need for inorganic fertilizers and chemicals, while improving the health and yield of your plants-without weed or fertility problems!
This series of seminars will address this in addition to the issues outlined in the opening questions. You will learn how:
- The soil food web cycles nutrients from unusable elements into plant-available forms.
- These beneficial microbes protect plants from the pests and diseases that threaten farmer's viability today.
- Restoring the proper underground balance of microorganisms will reduce, if not eliminate, the need for crop irrigation and chemical inputs.
- This "living soil", as opposed to sterile dirt, provides benefits to the entire planet that reaches far beyond its benefits to plants. Healthy soil will filter groundwater, purifying and taking out harmful heavy metals and chemicals. It will also positively impact air quality, possessing an immense potential to uptake excess carbon emissions in our atmosphere.
Dr. Ingham teaches in a dynamic and easy-to-follow format, connecting the themes in a powerful way. She provides a forum for questions and group discussions that brings to light the varied expertise of the group. Space is limited to thirty applicants, in order to allow for this personal interaction and networking.
Challenge yourself to expand your knowledge about one of Earth's most precious resources, on which so very much depends-our soil. Find out for yourself why, indeed, there is beauty in the breakdown!
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