Getting started the Biological Way

Why do we use it?

1.		Get a microbiology soil test done with the Soil Foodweb Institute (biological diversity, not merely minerals & chemicals) if you want to base your decisions on data.
2.		Consider your compost source – ask us .  We  have a list of approved composters and compost suppliers
3.		For ease of application to get the biodiversity back in the soil, consider brewing actively aerated compost teas.
4.		Look at Compost Tea Brewers. Go for one that is proven to work. If you’re DIY, make sure you get advice on the pumps and design. Call us, email us, view our Brewers page. We have 2 kinds of brewers for sale.
5.		Order a brewer – they sometimes take between 3 days and 3 weeks to arrive – even longer in peak periods. Don’t buy a brewer that doesn’t reveal its testing data!
6.		Consider a Soil Foodweb Institute Growers Programme or a SFI Compost Programme. This helps with a supervised approach to ensure your SFI approach is truly an SFI approach. Contact SFI for this – it takes weeks to get a proper management system prepared for your property that you can rely on.
7.		Only use proven ingredients for your compost and compost teas. Cheap imports have not proven to produce reliable foods for the Australian Soil Foodweb and have no guarantee of ethical production (including avoidance of mangrove destruction, ecosystems habitat exploitation, proper waste and pollution management and other sustainability issues). There are hundreds of products out there, but only a handful consistently test as reliable for the Soil Foodweb. Try us for size - we’re all Australian and committed to Sustainability – plus we have Australia’s longest serving SFI advisors on our team, who understand the Australian soil foodweb.
8.		Get a quality microscope capable of observing the life in your soil, or rely on soil tests to make your key decisions. You need at least a 40x lens for seeing those ciliates whizzing across the slide.
9.		Get rid of all nematocides immediately (including "naturals" like neem) – they’re the first chemical to go, in your transition to the Soil Foodweb Biological farming method. Prepare to cut down on the use of all salt-based fertilisers and chemicals including Lime, Gypsum and glysophates. Avoid feeding your complex plants purely bacterial foods – animal manures are bacterial foods – not great for the Soil Foodweb when you’re growing fruits and trees. See our Succession Cycle page for advice.
10.		Map out your areas for feeding the soil biological foods. Work out your application rates (dilution with pure water is possible with a good compost tea brewer, such as the Microbrewer and GeoTea Brewer) – talk to us about this – it can be quite complex, and usually if you’re not using a programme we need time to work out your amounts to fit expiry dates and shipping.
11.		Order compost – it must be proven Soil Foodweb complete compost. Not putrifying organic matter or mulch or bacterial-dominated so-called compost. Real compost with the full soil food web present and monitored.
12.		Start with quality tested compost and expand your own locally-produced composts… brew tea with the best compost and then innoculate your own emerging compost heaps.
13.		Order foods with groundgrocer.com– 20, 200 or 1000 litre containers are available – and sometimes 20,000 litres can be arranged in your district.
14.		Get a Dissolved Oxygen Meter (DOM) to monitor the activity in your brew. This helps understand the breeding and eating going on in the Tote, and lets you know if your recipe, water source, compost, foods and temperatures are all suitable for YOUR SOIL, YOUR ENVIRONMENT, YOUR MICROBIOLOGY. Go to our Composting Equipment page to browse the full range.
15.		Perhaps, depending on your climate, you will need a thermostatic heater for your brewer – protozoa do not like breeding when it’s very cold. Sometimes the unique wave action of the GeoTea brewer and the Microbrewer create enough heat while all the breeding and feeding is going on, and additional heat is not required for the extraction of microbes from the compost.
16.		You may also want a compost temperature probe for monitoring your pile – how hot is it???
17.		Start compiling carbon materials for your compost… wood chips are the best fungal food and sometimes are required at up to 50% of the heap’s total ingredients.
18.		If you’re going into big compost production, visit our compost equipment page to see our full range of windrow compost turners and windrow compost covers… We also have composting equipment to suit small-scale composting.
19.		Consider an groundgrocer Biological Applications Support Pack…we can come to your site and assist you setting up, or we can assist you online & by phone (61-2-6680 77 88).
20.		Start feeding your microbes and seeing your plants work with nature once again.

Improve your soil food web, with groundgrocer's BioActive compost.
Make your own compost tea with a BioActive compost tea brewer. Our compost tea brewers have been quality tested, and provide consistent & reliable compost tea of a high quality.

Groundgrocer's  website has a wealth of information on sustainable agriculture & biological farming, including information on composting, brewing compost tea and many other topics.