Open a bag of Cascade Minerals Remineralizing Soil Booster and the first thing you’ll notice is the color—a deep, dark gray. The source is volcanic basalt, taken from Central Oregon’s legendary Cascade Mountains and turned into a finely milled product that contains the essential minerals and trace elements that plants depend on for healthy growth…
If you’re tempted to stay inside this month, just think how good you feel after a spending a few hours in the cool, crisp fresh air of fall. Inspired? Good! Because there is still plenty of work to do in the garden to get planting beds ready for the spring. Now is a good time…
Soil pH is a hot topic among gardeners and one worth taking a look at. People talk about how ‘acidic’ or how ‘alkanine’ their soil is but they don’t always consider other factors that are essential to proper soil management. Let’s start with a basic pH primer. Like the temperature of the human body, pH…
After spending spring and summer tending to the soil, you may be tempted to take a break while you wait for Jack Frost to bring your vegetable garden to its inevitable end. Yet a thorough fall cleanup and basic soil preparation now will ensure a healthy, vibrant garden in the spring. Agronomist Richard Affeldt of…
Harvest season is a great time to appreciate the fruits of your labor and to take time to reflect on the growing season. Pumpkins aren’t just a fun part of the fall garden—they are also very visible reminders of the importance of mineral-rich soil in producing large, beautifully colored and nutrient-dense fruits. (Yes, pumpkins are…
Mark Brause is the owner of Brause Family Farm, a small-scale organic CSA program in Astoria, Oregon. Always looking for ways to maximize yield using all-natural techniques, Mark knows that one of the best ways to do this is to make sure that the soil is rich in trace minerals. This year, Mark used Cascade…
Nothing signals the start of fall like the pumpkin patches that seem to pop up everywhere! If you’ve ever tried growing your own for Halloween or Thanksgiving, however, you know that the perfect pumpkin takes a bit of preparation and planning. The inputs seem relatively simple: seeds, soil, sun and water. But the perfect pumpkin…
All plants need micronutrients known as trace minerals, or trace elements. Trace mineral soil additives help improve soil health and, by extension, human health. After all, our entire bodies rely on trace minerals (like iron, zinc, copper and manganese) to function properly. Why rely on additives? Unfortunately, much of our soil has become depleted of…
Rich Affeldt is chief agronomist at Cascade Mineral Products. He’s been spending the long days of summer in a hot and toasty test greenhouse located in Madras, Oregon. Why? To help answer the question, “How much Cascade Minerals Remineralizing Soil Booster should I apply to my garden and containers?” In this short video, Rich explains…
If you took a sample of soil from your garden and looked at it under the microscope, what would you see? Hopefully, you’d see billions of microorganisms hard at work. Healthy soil should be teeming with these busy biological “workers” whose main task is to break down organic material and make nutrients available for plants…
