One of the most effective ways to boost microbial activity in the soil is to add\u00a0minerals\u2014minerals that have been depleted from many of the world\u2019s soils yet which can be readily introduced through remineralization with rock dust.<\/p>\n

Soil remineralization with rock dust is the process of returning minerals to the soil by mimicking the Earth\u2019s own natural methods. Instead of glaciers and volcanoes, however, remineralization is the process of adding finely crushed rocks to soil that has been depleted of minerals over the course of decades either through natural weathering or by over-farming. Silicate rocks like basalt, in particular, contain the broadest spectrum of minerals and trace elements that are essential to plant health and nutrition, including calcium, magnesium, manganese and iron.<\/p>\n

What might\u00a0you expect? Here’s one potential scenario:<\/p>\n

\n
• More minerals lead to more soil microbes.<\/li>\n
• More soil microbes make it easier for legumes to turn wild soil bacteria into domesticated bacteria.<\/li>\n
• More domesticated bacteria leads to more nitrogen fixing.<\/li>\n
• More nitrogen fixing leads to increased crop yields without requiring more fertilizer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Cascade Minerals is committed to the restoration and remineralization of our earth\u2019s depleted soils. Our all-natural Remineralizing Soil Booster<\/strong> is made from massive basalt stones from Central Oregon\u2019s legendary Cascade Mountains. Rocks are crushed to produce a finely milled, 100% natural product that is approved for organic production and releases the essential minerals and trace elements that plants and humans need to flourish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Known as nature’s fertilizer, legumes like peas, beans and clovers have long been used as\u00a0natural nitrogen fixers. \u00a0Also referred to as \u2018green manure,\u2019 legumes are typically planted as rotational crops to help feed the soil organically. At the most basic biological level, legumes attract soil-dwelling bacteria called rhizobia to their roots and \u2018invite\u2019 them inside… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[78,5,15],"tags":[82],"class_list":["post-2171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commercial-agriculture","category-soil-amendment","category-soil-minerals","tag-legumes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Nitrogen-Fixing-Cover-Crop.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YalT-z1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2171"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2176,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171\/revisions\/2176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}