Supersoil- Snake oil?

It's working for the lad making it anyway.

Some demand for it this year with all the newly organic people trying to shortcut the system.

I'm definitely tempted but I think it'll be going out in strips to see if there's a difference.

What is the difference with Bacteriosol?

What I find dodgy about it is that it has no ingredients displayed on the packages or anywhere on the website, "guarding their secret recipe" as they put it.

And what's even more surprising is that they got it fully certified as organic. They do however have great marketing behind them, the ads are popping up everywhere.

I had asked them in the past about independent research and the answer was that they do their own independent field trials using NRM labs in UK.

You could try it on pasture, but I wouldn't be trying it on the silage ground until a bit more proof. Might be that it needs a couple of years to get going properly, but it needs someone truly independent to undertake a soil/grass analysis, applies it and then subsequently takes another soil/analysis and compares to prove the effect.

The worms that operate vertically (anecic) are at the apex of the life in the soil. First item is to get the balance of bacteria and fungii correct. As said above, of all the 'icides' applied as sprays, fungicides do the most damage.

The cotton underpants 90 day test is a good one to try. That is burying it, not wearing it for 90 days😉

Getting your pH right is a big help too. FYM covered above, cides covered above. Limit compaction, Seaweed, humic, fulvic, molasses, all feed the ground and provide food for worms. Even a drop of coffee in the mix does no harm and feeds the craturs. Some people report biological treating slurry before spreading is a help too. But mostly anyway it's going out in bands now so it's more friendly than it was.

You'd be waiting for a long time for teagasc to get on board with some like this. They have way too many connections with the fert industry anyway. It's only very recently that they have got on board the clover train, about 30 years too late but here we are.

When they do it in NZ, we will eagerly follow like sheep.

I was at the soil health info/ teagasc wokeness coming of age day thingy in Johnstown Castle recently.

There was a bit of a discussion on straw chopping and the teagasc advisor mentioned about nitrogen probably needing to be spread to help the straw breakdown especially in min/no till.

Me with my big gob (the dairy farmer) suggested instead of nitrogen and wasting your allowance that maybe humic acid and molasses be applied to aid breakdown. In fairness the advisor was very open to the idea and they'll have to look at it. Not in fairness, there was a seller of humic acid present and tillage farmer and who should be all over this but is seemingly not on their home farm never said a peep. The frustration continues when a well known tillage farm manager with experience gave that bit of info to a dept official and I was there when he did so years ago.

And yet here we are years later and a teagasc advisor saying that nitrogen will probably have to be spread to aid breakdown and a dairy farmer telling teagasc and tillage farmers present what to do. 🤷‍♂️

Specific case: I've a tank of slurry to go out on silage ground in May after sheep have gone away from it.

If I made a concoction like this guy did, would it be better off going out ahead of the slurry or after?

Or could it (or anything else) be added to the tank before spreading to help.

I was considering supersoil.

Organic so no bag.

Thanks in advance.

I had actually considered spraying it on the field rather than adding Supersoil to the slurry, I was more wondering if a solution like this guy made would be helpful either sprayed on or added to the tank.

sorry, misread your post

None. All the better.

Is there a calculation for the amount of LAB that would need to be added to the slurry? I.E. will a person need 5l of LAB per bay for 3 months for it to be worthwhile using. (Assuming it will need time to work anaerobically before spreading) I'm guessing some added at housing and possibly a top-up halfway through housing season would be the ideal scenario.

LAB is Lactobacillus usually made with rice wash and milk.

A rudimentary run through of the process here https://www.thenutrientcompany.com/post/how-to-culture-lactobacillus-lab-for-horticultural-use

I listened to the Organic Matters podcast hosted by the brilliant Hannah Quinn Mulligan yesterday. She had a rep from Supersoil on talking about their product. I’m still not convinced by it and even more sceptical than before to be honest.

I really don’t like their marketing. Comes across like they are telling the brainless farmers that they could have been doing this all along and that they don’t know better. I don’t think and the testimonials they are are convincing. I would be dubious of testimonials (could possibly be paid/receive a discount) at the best of times anyway.

I honestly don’t see the difference in the trials done on the fields they show.

Seems like they are the first to market/loudest voice in an empty room with this product and will surely be outcompeted by some larger company in the future. Maybe their business goal is to be bought out and that’s the plan around the loud marketing.

Anyway, this type of thing should be taught by Teagasc or passed from generation to generation in my opinion. Microbes are what makes the soil go round!

You'd want to be sitting down when pricing the Sobac.

It's gone out of reach from commercial farming.

Biofertz group on Facebook if ye have the time and inclination.

Quoted €1800/t.

I heard a price previously and would have pulled the trigger on that. But couldn't justify this.

Bacterosol used to be around the €1200 mark for 600 kgs but it will cover 30 acres from what Tom Stapleton has said. €60/acre doesn't seem too bad to me. I do intent to try a bag of Bacterosol and I've a pouch of supersoil to spray now that the temps are rising hope to see which gives the best result.

Had the figure of €55 per acre in my head for Bacteriasol. Either Tom said it or I read it somewhere.