Some of our first-time customers have started using the MycoGold® Bio-Inoculant seed treatment and their soil-appropriate fertilizer program. While this is an effective and successful “stand-alone” input strategy, we have experienced all positive results using an additional carbon source along with MycoGold®. Over the past decade, a group of MycoGold® customers and we have been testing MycoGold® Inoculants and various additional carbon source inputs. Our customers and we obtained excellent results using multiple carbon sources such as sugar and other soluble carbon-rich products. Testing included applications both in furrow and as a foliar. Carbon provides an additional food source for the microbial organisms contained within MycoGold®. Think of it this way. The biostimulant package in all MycoGold® Bio-Inoculant product blends are an adequate three-course meal for the live organisms. Adding carbon sources is like offering a twelve-course meal for the critters, resulting in better plant growth at the most crucial growth cycles, increasing production.

There are multiple carbon source conditioner products available. Considering all the different carbon source products tested, we recommend using Complex Bio-Carb for its low cost, chelated form, extended-release properties, performance, and overall efficacy. Complex Bio-Carb is available exclusively through MycoGold® and may be applied in furrow with or without fertilizer. It can also be applied as foliar with or without pesticides.

Adding carbon to the soil is critical to restoring health to the soil by increasing the organic matter content. Producers in today’s modern agricultural systems are working with soils that contain far less carbon than our soils originally contained prior to the implementation of modern agriculture. All of our soils are now degraded. The good news is we now know how we can regenerate our soils and put the carbon back in the soil. So why is carbon so important? It’s the building block for soil health. As you increase the carbon content, you improve aggregate stability. Excretions from these aggregates from the soil microbes begin to stabilize the soil particles into more significant sums. This provides the home for all the soil microbes living in these aggregates.

The carbon, nutrient, and water cycles in a healthy soil are all interrelated. For these cycles to perform to the best of their abilities, the soil must contain all of the necessary ingredients. If the soil lacks carbon, the nutrient and water cycles cannot perform to their highest capabilities.