Across the great American plains, where the seasons are stark and natural grasslands still dot the prairie, the land is mostly covered in the rich dark loam known as chernozemic soil which have developed since the glaciers receded a few millennia ago. There are five key factors that determine the type of soil that is …
Author Archives: Dustin Hilderman
If it ain’t in the ground, it ain’t in the food
“You’d think, wouldn’t you, that a carrot is a carrot – that one is about as good as another as far as nourishment is concerned? But it isn’t; one carrot may look and taste like another and yet be lacking in the particular mineral element which our system requires and which carrots are supposed to …
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Fertilizer: past, present and future
Throughout the history of the human species, there have been innumerable inventions and discoveries that have left an indelible but often unappreciated mark on history. Many of these discoveries, like paper, the compass, and the clock changed the course of history and have allowed humans to achieve new levels of greatness. Though today, these discoveries …
Mycorrhizae: Meet your friendly neighborhood fungi
Healthy soil is alive. It is a living, thriving cesspool of microorganisms feasting on decaying organic material. And that’s just the way plants like it. Many of these microorganisms reside in the rhizosphere, a micro-biome directly surrounding a plant’s root system. These soil microbes (e.g. bacteria, fungi, algae, etc.,) host functions beneficial to both the …
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Soil Types and Texture
Not all soil is equal. Dozens of factors, like colour, mineral content, salinity, and pH level, all affect the productivity of soils and create unique agricultural challenges for farmers and gardeners around the world. One particularly useful characteristic used to classify soil is texture. Identifying soil texture gives valuable information about how to condition the …
Welcome to the Prairie Serf
Hello friends and welcome to the Prairie Serf. Modern farming has come a long way in the past hundred years; the changes so vast, so drastic that the pioneers who first broke the prairies would hardly recognize their own trade. New technologies and techniques have allowed the modern family farm, once capable of tending to …
The Prairie Serf 