Summary

One-year-old macadamia transplants, in the Botanic Gardens, were struggling to grow and survive. Bio-Booster was applied and gave excellent growth in 100 days.

Background

In mid-April 2020, 11 young macadamia trees, Macadamia jansenii, had been transplanted in the Botanical Gardens. Commercially grown macadamias are another subspecies of macadamia. These 11 are being grown to ensure some genetic diversity is maintained. After transplanting, the trees were irrigated and mulched with wood chips – all standard procedure. From then on, they received the same treatment as the rest of the gardens. In May 2021, two had died, and the others were not doing well, mainly due to wind and soil conditions. Topsoil was not present and the silty loam subsoil was very compact and dense. On 10 May 2021, two of the surviving nine trees were treated with Bio-Booster and minerals detailed below. On 30 August 2021, 112 days after treatment, they were inspected. Another three untreated ones had died and the remaining four were not doing well.

The contrast with the treated ones could not be starker.

Photos 1 – 4 were taken 30 August 2021. (The same whiteboard was used in all photos.)

In May, the trees had shown leaf chlorosis and very little growth. This was taken into account in the treatment. The soil into which they were planted showed no crumb structure or softening, which indicates an almost complete lack of soil-biology activity. 

The treatment consisted of:

Bio-Booster (1 Litre/tree)

Calcium (10 g/tree of very fine lime)

Zinc (10 g/tree of zinc sulphate heptahydrate)

Humic acid (10 ml/tree)

Sea Minerals (10 ml/tree).

The Bio-Booster and minerals were applied in a watering can, half a metre from the tree. The treated trees showed two to four times increase in size and healthy leaves. Most importantly, the top 10 mm of soil showed crumb structure and more roots. This indicates that the introduced soil biology had developed and multiplied rapidly. The trial confirms our view that to get healthy trees, we need to supply and balance the nutrients and soil biology. This requires a much wider range of minerals than has been realised until recently. Where the biology is not present, it can be reintroduced in a much shorter time than is currently believed. To indicate how fast that can happen, the tree below grew about one metre in 112 days - from being stunted about knee-high to what the photo shows.

Summary

More than double the growth, no yellow leaf deficiency softening soil. All that in 112 days and in lifeless, compact subsoil – and after 13 months of no growth whatsoever. It shows the awesome power of Nature when given the right ingredients.

View the original article here.