Crop trials with GOGO Juice
This week, Neutrog’s Microbiologist and R&D Manager, Dr. Uwe Stroeher talks about soil nutrient cycling, and how you can influence this to benefit your plants.
The story of nutrient cycling is very interesting – many people think that in order for lush plant growth in your garden, you need lots and lots of nutrients. This is true to some extent, however in rainforests or tropical areas, in many cases the soil itself is nutrient poor, so the lush growth is due to rapid cycling of those nutrients.
When leaves or other organic matter fall in these tropical areas, the insects and microbes quickly get to work in breaking down the material in order to make the nutrients available for the next round of plant growth. It is by the action of bacteria and fungi that the rainforest can support the diversity and vigour, however we can’t all have a rainforest in our gardens. What we can do however, is to influence the nutrient cycling in our own garden.
At Neutrog, experiments were conducted to look at nutrients within plants when our microbial probiotic GOGO Juice was applied. We grew wheat in a glasshouse and in fields, both with and without GOGO Juice. It was applied twice in the growing period, and it was discovered that the level of micronutrients was lower in the leaves and stalks which were given GOGO Juice compared to the ones that had not received GOGO Juice.
Considering that the growth itself was not reduced in the GOGO Juice-treated plants, this indicated that the plants don’t actually need the level of nutrients stored in the stalks and leaves when they are given a ready supply of nutrients in the soil due to increased cycling by the action of GOGO Juice. The plant can then use the nutrients to increase growth, flower production and/or harvestable yield that it would normally store as reserves for times of lower nutrient availability. (When the nutrients in the grain were examined, there was no indication that the use of GOGO Juice reduced the nutrient value of the grain).
In other words, the results indicated that nutrients were being made more readily available for the plant because the GOGO Juice was helping to break down the organic matter in the soil. The plant then potentially responds by altering the way it uses nutrients. A similar response was seen in all of the plants that were tested, not just in one or two plants. Other experiments conducted with GOGO Juice in vineyards resulted in a 10% increase in flowers, so it would appear the research and trials with GOGO Juice show that it influences plants in a positive manner.
About GOGO Juice – literally teeming with beneficial micro-biology and essentially a pro-biotic for your soil and plants, GOGO Juice combines the “catalystic” power of providing a wide diversity of beneficial bacteria and fungi with the well documented benefits of applying kelp and humates. Applications of GOGO Juice provide a huge boost of the living micro-biology necessary for your soil and plants to perform at their optimum level, increasing their ability to resist pest and disease and to withstand &/or recover from, heat stress and frost.