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Earth’s Medicine Fertilizer Review
A common misconception with houseplants is that you need to have sterile soil. As a soil scientist I am here to tell you that is not the case and actually the opposite of what you’re aiming for. I have officially found a product that will satisfy both fertilization and your microbial colonies within the soil. This product is called Earth’s Medicine.
When you have a living potting soil you have higher rates of nutrient cycling and the ability to control harmful pests. Microbes are essential to turning nutrients into available forms for our plants. With a sterile soil set up we lose our ability to cycle nutrients. When we have sterile soil we also remove our beneficial microbes and microfauna that eat the harmful pests.
Why I top dress pots with manure
For years I’ve been top dressing my container garden and house plants with manure. As a soil scientist I have advocated for this addition in secret. I would tell friends and family to add manure to the tops of their plant pots. The reason why I hesitated to tell my YouTube followers or blog readers about this method was due to the mess and hydrophobic nature. To learn more about reusing potting soil check out this post.
If you did not know compost and manure tends to be hydrophobic. This is a natural feature of any organic material that is being added to soil. What happens when you top dress with straight compost/manure is you end up with a bubbling mess of saturated and unsaturated soil.
Why is manure hydrophobic?
This means you could end up with areas that your roots are unable to penetrate. Roots tend to maneuver around areas that are very dry. However, when compost and manure is added to a soil system correctly it can be incredibly beneficial because it feeds the microbes. When we increase the microbial counts in our potting soil we increase the rate of nutrient cycling. This increase in available nutrients results in a healthier stronger plant.
This is where the product Earth’s Medicine comes in. Earth Medicine is not just a fertilizer but also a soil amendment. It can be used in an outdoor soil setting but it also can be used in a container garden or with houseplants. This product completely eliminates the factor of hydrophobicity. This means you will not have any dead zones within your soil but will gain all the benefits of a manure.
How to apply Earth’s Medicine?
Due to its simple application there are no special steps required to ensure success. What makes earth medicine fertilizer so unique is its physical design. Earth medicine is made from cow manure, straw and flax. That has been processed into micro beads similar to that of a slow release granular fertilizer.
The microbead is the key to the Earth’s Medicine fertilizer success. The small pebble’s help reduce the hydrophobic nature of manure while providing the nutrients for the plant. This means you’re able to top dress with Earth’s Medicine without the mess and zero dead zones.
Why I top dress with Earth’s Medicine?
I personally use earth medicine as a top dressing method. The reason for this again goes back to the fact that I’m using Earth’s Medicine as only a small fertilizer but as a soil amendment. When we top dress with this product there are a few things that take place. First off being that most nutrients are water soluble. This means the where the water goes the nutrients follows.
When we water the nutrients is taken with the water and leached through the soil profile. If we place Earth’s Medicine lower in the soil profile we are wasting that nutrients by washing it away. When we top dress with Earth’s Medicine we are able to move nutrients through the profile gradually to the plants roots.
Feed your soil microbes for a healthy plant
The second reason for top dressing goes back to the microbes. In manure products there are a lot of sugars and unuseable nutrients for the plants. While this is not available to the plant it is available to the microbes. That means as we water we will move those sugars through the profile and feed our microbes. The convenience factor is that most soil microbes reside in the top 5 inches of our soil. As we move lower in the soil profile we end up with fewer and fewer microbes. This is due to the lack of oxygen lower in the profile.
This brings me to my third reason for top dressing with the Earth’s Medicine fertilizer. When we top dress with the Earth’s Medicine fertilizer we allow for mechanical features to degrade the product. Because the product is coated in a flax seed oil we need mechanical processes to help in its breakdown. Keep in mind it will still break down naturally through microbial activity lowering the soil profile, it just happens slower.
Mechanical weathering will allow for faster release
When we top dress with Earth’s medicine we allow for sunlight, wind, and water to help with the process of breaking down the product. That means we will have a quicker delivery system for both microbes and plant food. Mechanical weathering is just as valuable as microbial breakdown in a soil system.
Overall I am very satisfied with the Earth’s Medicine product. If you were looking to up your game in your house plant or container garden set up, this is the answer. It is impossible to over apply with Earth’s Medicine Fertilizer due to its organic nature and it benefits both the plants plus the soil microbes. Remember sterile soil is a dead soil. Earth’s Medicine is your solution to correct this issue.
