Humus and Nitrogen

We learn more about how microbes work every day, but we still have a long way to go in understanding the things they do as groups (several species of microbes together), individual species, and individually as a single microbe. It is hard for us to believe today, but until industrial production of nitrogen was created, plants depended entirely on microbes for all the nitrogen they needed for growth. We know that for many reasons such as past tillage practices, overuse of chemicals, and fertilizers we have compromised the ability of the indigenous population of microbes to keep the soil open and friable as it was 80 to 100 years ago. Microbes in Bio S.I. products break down plant debris and recycle all those nutrients for future use. Growers have already paid for these nutrients once, microbes just help recycle them. Microbes convert debris from plants into humus (carbon) which holds water and nutrients in the rhizosphere. This helps improve both water and fertilizer efficiency so we use less of both in most cases. Here is agricultural research and development company Bio S.I. spokesperson and molecular biologistTodd Spigener: "What we have seen over the past few years is that the organic fraction of the soil is diminished, so if you can find a way of rebuilding that organic fraction in your soil, that increases the nutrient holding capacity and the water holding capacity within that soil and the long term applications are that your soil is open to water longer and it can with stand droughts and any plants that are in that soil can also withstand drought."