Ep. 162 – Talking Soil Health with Sam Baker from Wrigglebrew

Sam Baker from Wrigglebrew and I talk about soil health, and what does nitrogen poisoning look like?

• My leaves turned brown, despite enough watering. Maybe I gave them too much nitrogen?
• Overuse of phosphorus causes plants to not be able to uptake zinc, magnesium, calcium. That’s another reason why our food is mineral deficient.
• Wrigglebrew is even used by soy farmers to reduce their nitrogen load and move a little more toward regenerative farming methods.
• Compost tea only has a shelf life of 24-48 hours. How does Wrigglebrew maintain the flora and be shelf stable?
• Sam also shares about Wrigglebrew’s research – a scientific gov’t grant to use worms to digest plastic.

Wrigglebrew is a fertilizer made from worm castings, but it goes farther by adding helpful soil bacteria, mycorrhizae, and mycelium. The mycelium is a species that will not grow into mushrooms, if that is a concern. You can use it as soil fertilizer or foliar feed spray. Wrigglebrew started as a project at the University of Central Florida (UCF) to offer a solution to combat the nitrogen runoff that causes red tide – algae bloom in the Gulf (of America).

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Times are tough. You want to be more self sufficient and grow more food, with enough to share with family and friends or even sell some of that surplus.

You’ve heard of this “food forest” thing, but it’s so overwhelming to get started. I can help.

My Thriving Food Forest Design can help you realize your dreams of an edible foodscape or perennial paradise that will come back every year so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule your FREE Discovery call with me at:

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Buy my chestnuts, hazelnuts, elderberry, and comfrey that are adapted to the Midwest.

GrowNutTrees.com

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Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:

Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5′ x 3.5′, 17″ tall).

I use this for a perennial kitchen garden – growing herbs to use daily in the kitchen. Just come along and pick what you need for tonight’s dinner.

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Meadow Creature Broadfork is my favorite tool for starting new garden beds. I turn over the sod, add a layer of compost, then Milpa, and cover with woodchips.