Yeah we're a far throw from understanding it all, though I'd say we do know enough to harness the power of nature by simply offering a maximum of choice to the plant and entrusting her with the rest. Because, yeah, the plant selects for those microorganisms that provide the nutes it needs in that moment (still trying to absorb the fact that these processes happen in seconds, whole generations of bacteria flowing and ebbing, wow!). The condition being:
that those microorganisms are around
I think unlearning certain notions is more important to achieving this than actually knowing the the specifics of single microorganisms (as in who provides which nutrients), and I constantly catch myself thinking in the wrong direction even though I've never used fertilizers in the sense of the moron farmer
It's crazy how pervasive the mechanistic world view - which IMO is at the bottom of the chemical interpretation of plant life - is! Add to that the subtle pressure of mostly growing under stealth conditions, making us especially interested in getting all we can out of those tiny gardens... So thanks for saving me from myself, once again?
So taking another step back.
All the nutrients a plant could ever want ARE in the soil.
We just need to provide a rich and diverse pool of microorganisms, from which those will thrive that like the soil conditions (temperature, humidity, aeration), and the plant will additionally select for those that are useful to it.
So basically we're set once we have that diversity of soil life going.
Knowing this, why would I ask such a question? Because I would like to maximize, and while my soil life is getting better and better, I still see room for improvement.
The composts I have been using have been mainly bacterial/amoeba-dominant, and my soil, while it has gotten really bouncy and spongey, was still less fungal last time I checked (maybe I should recheck haha, last time was in August).
So maybe that improvement will come when I get that part of the microbial pool better represented?
But what can I do in the meantime, maybe even promoting fungal expression (assuming I have enough spores in there). That's when I turn to these brews and juices hoping for magic, whereby I am really liking the feel of the SSTs and my improvised smoothies most - maybe also because of the Norwegian Herwig Pommeresche.
He is all about the "humusphere" and Raoul H. Francé's "edaphon" (=soil life, term coined at the turn of the 20th century), references Lynn Margulis and all them, and is convinced that feeding plants LIVE matter (fresh, not composted, fermented or anything) is the best way to go, better than compost, because it provides large molecules, mitochondria, chloroplasts.... for the plant to "eat" directly.
The basis for this being the ability of plant roots to perform endocytosis, and the principle of endosymbiosis, which Hugo Schanderl proposed happens all the time - when a cell "dies", its parts like mitochondria can wander off and form new organisms..
So Pommeresche collects his kitchen scraps, throws them in the mixer with water, and waters all his plants, indoors and out, with that. Fresh plant smoothies. In example of his success with this: 18kg of onions on 1 m²
haha!
There isn't much in English out there, but here's a video of him doing that (the English is pretty bad, but I couldn't find the one where Pommeresche himself explains it in English):
I'd love to know what you guys think of this!
Cheers!