Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Where do you all get your compost?
- We get our compost from a variety of places. Making sure the quality is in the compost is the most important step we make in working your land with our liquid compost extracts. While the US Compost Council tests can be helpful, we also ask our suppliers to get biological tests from one of the Soil Food Web labs. Nature's Way in Houston is one of our favorites in Texas. Variety and diversity are important to us, so we don't use one supplier all the time.
- We want our compost to smell fresh, like earth if ordering bacterial dominated compost or like mushrooms if ordering fungal dominated compost. If it smells of amonnia we don't want it! That usually means it has gone anerobic, nutrients have been lost, and compost life has been severely damaged.
- Once we get good compost to the farm or one of our other shops, we will start adding special amendments such as humic acid, molasses, soft rock phosphate, etc. and let the microbes ingest them so they are ready to go out on the lands. Remember, we are trying to match the underground soil communities to the plants we are trying to grow and this starts with specialized compost. See our road map we follow to accomplish this.
- We discuss some of our concerns that arise from compost made from GMO-fed manures, offals & herbicides in what's happening in agriculture.
Question: How do I get started on one of SGTX's agriculture or yard program?
Easy Answer:
- Call or email us - ask us to come on to your place - we will give you a general price quote and tell you when we can get you in the schedule. Usually potential customers want to talk first, then ask us to come, then think about our proposal. However, if you have heard us speak somewhere or seen what we have done to your neighbors place, you might just say 'come on'. If we are not already familiar with your place we will want to see it before we make our custom blend of Liquid Compost Extract (LCE), trace minerals and other pripriotary mixes.
Longer Answer:
- Step 1: Contact us, either by phone, email, or the contact us form which will tell us where you are located, what you are wanting to grow, whether you are pasture or crop land, etc.
- Step 2: We will call or email you back and give you a general price quote, talk about our type program, and then, based upon your response, work out a time to come to your land. We will also tell you the amount we charge to come for this initial visit depending upon distance we travel, and amount of land we explore.(Does not apply to yards. There is no charge for us to come by your yard.)
- Step 3: When/If (your decision) we visit your land we will have a better understanding of your goals and what you are trying to do with your land. We will be able to see what is growing there. See our 'pasture walk story' for pastures and more details. We will pick up copies of any soil samples you have. Or we can collect more samples to send to either biology or chemistry labs or both if that is your decision.
- Step 4: Before we leave, depending upon your goals and discussions while we are there with you, we will give you a proposed general plan and cost of proposed services.
- Step 5: Now the ball is back in your court. Call us to discuss or answer any question that may have come up when you have had to think about this. If you say to come start the program, we will give you an estimated date for us to come.
Question: After we begin your soil fertility program, when will we see a change? And what should we be looking for?
Building a functioning eco system is a process - that's for sure. This is not an instant happening! We are trying to get the soil microbes working and setting up their underground communities. They will need time to integrate with the microbes already there. But they are already working for you. Look for:
- calcium and magnesium ratios in the soil. When they get this ratio right, it will become easier for them to build air and water passages and move around. Improvements you should see within 3-4 weeks: Soil should be less 'gummy' - should be able to walk without picking up mud as much on your shoes WHEN it rains.
- Soil will become more friable - more crumbly. 3-6 week see improvements. If you had a long screwdriver you could insert it deeper into the soil more easily.
- As the above items begin to improve, water should infiltrate into the soil more readily.
- The ground will become softer - spongy - to walk on.
- Plants will develop more 'feeder' roots and they will be whiter in color (signifying more calcium is being taken up by the plant) - this may not show up until next Jan/Feb. One of the SGTX team always tries to get back to your place in late Jan and Feb to check these items cause it tells us how we need to make adjustments in the next round of applications.
- You should see more plant vigor and diversity. I hope you see some winter natives - both grasses and forbs - move in. Not spectacular show, but present and coming in the first year.
- Want to see earthworms castings and then followed by dung beetles. Want to see fewer grubs, skunks, armidillos and possibily feral hog diggings as compaction disappears.
- If grazing, look for dung to break down faster than it use to.
- Long term we want to see an increase in soil organic matter.
Question: Does weather matter? Are your treatments wasted if no rain occurs soon?
Sure weather matters. I would rather it rain 1" on your land each time after we make a liquid application. We use liquid compost extract in our program so not all microbes we add are awake and looking for an immediate job. If the plant doesn't need them when they arrive, they most likely remain in their spore, cyst or dormant form. In this form they can weather the dry spells and hang around during the really wet times. When the plant says 'wake up, wake up, I have a job for you,' up they jump and are alive and well. Certainly some of the microbes are lost to the plant the longer the plant has hunckered down during a drought. But these are tough little guys. Want to check this out? Mark off a spot, flag it, pour 1 gallon of water over 3 square feet and see what happens over the next week.
Question: What am I, the on-the-ground manager, managing in this program?
Soil microbes. You want lots of them, and you want a lot of different kinds (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes). Since all living organisms need air, water, food and shelter, your job, as you do your work taking care of the land is to develop cultural practices in which more organisms get more food, more water, more air and more shelter.
For instance, if you decide you must deep plow, then you must realize that you will wipe out most all the air and water passageways the microbes have built; lots of microbes will die. You may have to start the building process over again. Think of the microbes and how your actions may affect them. Sometimes we just need to figure out a different way to handle our lands.
Question: What is the 'New Ag' you all talk about?
It is a new understanding about what it means to leave the land better than found! The New Ag is about low, natural inputs, using subtle energies, with the goal to leave the land more alive than we found it! The New Ag wants to go in a natural direction ( not meaning to 'let the land fallow.' New Ag wants to rejuenavate life below ground - they want to quit leaching precious nuturents into our streams, making it someone else's problem - they want to rebuild a functioning eco system! They want to learn new cultural practices (the way one does the work, the practices). The New Ag wants to work in safe environments, wants to eat safe foods that they grow, wants to walk among livestock they respect and appreciate as living creatures. They like diverse pastures more than monoculture pastures cause they know diversity supports a more robust below-the ground soil communities and above-the ground plant communities.
Question: What is the real work you are doing on the land besides building forage?
Our work is to help you build soil that is alive - that functions as it should - that brings harm to no one - that produces nutrient dense foods - enhances subtle energies, to help develop and adopt culture practices that build organic matter, hold on to the carbon, the phosphorus, the nitrogen, the WATER - that surrounds our livestock, our wildlife, our space above our land with energy and clarity, that becomes 'easy living space'. We help you build soil that needs no synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or insecticides. This invites back to the land the dung bettle, the hawk, the owl, the upland plover, the egert, the raccoon, the squirrel, and yes, even some of those skunks and those loud coyotes,- city folks, too. Call us if you also think this is what stewartship of the land is about. We would like to work with you! Betsy at 512-636-3711 or JR at 512-567-2024.
