The most important part (and possibly the most time consuming) of starting your 1 acre farm is building a good soil. Good soil is the building blocks of a healthy farm. But what exactly is a “good” soil? How do you build a healthy soil that can support your plants throughout the growing season?
Soil is made from sand, silt, clay, and organic matter. Once you mix up the perfect starter soil, the sweet spot for planting your seeds or sprouts is about 2 weeks after the soil is inoculated.
We are going to be making a super soil inoculated with tons of beneficial microbes and fungi with a sandy loam consistency. It’s important to have Sandy Loam soil for most herb and veggie plants because it both holds water and drains fairly quickly. If your soil is made up of too much clay, then add more sand, silt, and organic matter. Below is a nice graphic to visualize how to fix your soil. We will be making a guide soon on how to test and amend your soil at home, so be on the lookout for that!
Once you’ve reached a sandy loam consistency it’s time to move on to amending and preparing the soil for planting. For starters, lets mix up about 1 cubic yard of soil. You can scale this recipe up or down as needed to fill your rows or raised beds. Ideally this dirt will be free of root eating pests and certain anaerobic mold and fungus spores. If this is the first time you are building your soil, or if you don’t have clean soil to work with, then you will need to sterilize your soil. If you live in a warm environment then you can solarize the soil to sterilize it. If you live in a colder environment, you can use anaerobic soil disinfestation. Once you’ve got a good base dirt, go ahead and mix in the following ingredients:
All measurements are for 500kg or 1 cubic yard of dirt
(adjust recipe up or down to fit your needs)
- 1/2 cup – Kelp Meal (1 time per cycle)
- 1 cup – Alfalfa meal
- 2 cups – Gypsum, Limestone, Azomite – 2 cups
- 50kg or 110lbs – BioChar
- approx. 150kg or 330lbs – Rice Hulls (You want 30% aeration. Apply as a 1″-2″ layer and till into the top 6″-12″.)
- 2qt – Leaf Mold (apply in fall, it takes 6mo to breakdown, hold off if soil building in spring.)
Mix these ingredients in until the soil is uniform. If you’re doing this on a small scale or by hand, then laying out a tarp, spreading the soil out over the tarp, adding the ingredients evenly over the soil, and then folding the corners of the tarp in is the easiest method. If you are doing this on a larger scale you can spread your ingredients evenly over the surface of the soil and then till them in once you have everything down. If you are lucky enough to have a cement mixer then you can also use that to quickly and easily mix your soil.
Once the soil is mixed and put into it’s final spot its time to inoculate it. Our goal at this time is to put all the nutrients in the soil that the microbes and fungi will need to colonize the soil before you plant you seedlings into it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
To make your soil inoculation spray you will need to mix the
following ingredients with 200 liters or 50 gallons of water:
- IMO-2 – 500mL
- FPJ – 500mL
- OHN – 500mL
- BRV – 500mL
- LAB – 300mL
- WCaP – 300mL
- FAA – 300mL
- SeaWater – 3 liters
- Garlic infusion – 1qt batch (helps to prevent damping off)
*to make a garlic infusion, boil 4oz peeled garlic in 1qt of water with the top on. Allow to infuse for 1 hr. Strain and collect liquid, discard used garlic in compost pile
After mixing your soil inoculation spray, set it aside 3-4 hours so that it can bloom. This allows all the microorganisms we just mixed up to multiply before we add them to the soil. While you’re waiting you can move on to the next step, topping your soil.
For your next step you will need:
- Manure – 1000kg or 2205lbs
- IMO-4 – 1500kg or 3306lbs
In the late afternoon to evening (not in the heat of the day) scatter your IMO-4 and your compost. I recommend spreading the IMO-4 first and then topping it with compost to protect the microorganisms from the sunlight. After you have scattered the IMO-4 and Manure, drench the soil with the soil inoculation spray you made earlier.
Congratulations! You’ve Done It!! In about a week you will have a healthy base soil to start your 1-acre farm! I like to apply this soil inoculation spray and manure/imo again around mid-veg when the plants start to really stretch, and again at a later stage when the plants have fully started to bloom. Let me know how this method works for you!