Many of the agricultural and landscaping practices that we have today are ones of tradition and habit that have been passed down throughout just the last few decades. With the deciding factors being those of above ground symptoms, and straightforward ideology. We diagnose the needs by looking at symptoms of a broken system, unaware of the cycle that we are driving a wedge through the middle of.
In a natural setting there is a process that takes place that combines a numerous set of biological functions into what we see and interpret as an environment, growth and displays of life. The primary ones I am talking about are those of microbial symbiosis, rhizophagy and environmental succession. All major players in the invisible force that drives plants to function as the biological superpowers that they are!
These processes are how plants actually get their nutrients, alter their surroundings and even communicate beyond their own root networks. Plants have evolved to become the masters of photosynthesis in order to be the controlling body within a soil environment, using the sugars that they create through sunlight as a currency for all the microorganisms and fungi beneath the ground. Think of your plants roots as an exchange network in which all the little creatures are bidding for pay to provide something for the plant, and they know it. Roots actually exude these nutrients and shed their caps in which to create openings. Leaking out attractant compounds while leaving space open for microbes to enter within the plant and get their cell walls broken down, only to be spit back out for more nutrient cycling.
Normally this is a very symbiotic process in which the plants and other organisms are quite literally signaling for one another to approach, being selective for who to invite when it is needed as well. Yet with the invention of synthetic fertilizers we have created a gap within that cycle, a food web cut wide open within our soils.
In great quantities these fertilizers trick the sensory systems of plants into no longer releasing the attractant and feeding nutrients from their roots. Ultimately leading to the dying off of these populations of beneficial microbes and fungi. As time goes on the plants become more and more dependent on chemical intervention.
And by quite literally adding salt to the wound, synthetic fertilizers are often bonded with sodium in order to stabilize the compounds. Increasing salinity and making the surrounding soils even less hospitable to microbial life. Pairing this with quick release nutrients that often leech away from the soils before being fully absorbed and you now are left with an environment that cannot provide for itself.
You have hooked your landscape on chemicals, requiring a quick fix repeatedly or else fearing total shutdown. Pests, disease, yellowing all just a missed treatment away, this is not a functional or independent loop.
We’ve been tricked into one that requires our effort and our wallets. Which is why we produce an intervention for the junkies on your property, to give those plants the microbial support circle that they are truly meant to have. Improving the environment will improve the expression.