Why Soil Carbon?

Commercial Growers

Soil management is a continual balancing act between having too many weeds, pests and diseases and too little nutrients and water. Through practical experience and scientific research, we’ve learned that all of these factors revolve around soil organic carbon.  We use high maturity composted soil improvers as a way of supplying stable and complex organic carbon to the soil to create conditions that promote natural biological processes, driving healthy plant growth and building powerful soils.

When you get soil organic carbon levels in balance, you get a less stressful, more sustainable way to make the most of your inputs to achieve optimum crop yields, year after year. Look what happens when you do:

Increased Water Holding

The composted organic carbon in C-Wise products has a water holding capacity of up to 250% of its dry weight. The long term benefits of using composted products to stimulate a soil to build its own organic carbon can be even greater. Soil organic carbon both acts like a sponge, holding moisture in the root zone, and also helps to transform the soil to hold more water itself. This combination reduces loss of water through seepage and evaporation from the soil, giving plants greater resilience during heat stress and allowing them to withstand longer periods without rain or irrigation

Improved Nutrition

Building soil carbon with C-Wise composted products can provide full plant nutrition or help to make the nutrients that you are already supplying more efficient. C-Wise products are meticulously crafted to create products that provide a balance of slow and fast release nutrients. The complex organic carbon (humus) that they contain also helps to store soil nutrients to prevent them being locked up or washed away, reducing losses of your valuable nutrients.

Increased Root Growth

C-Wise composted products stimulate plant root growth. Plant roots are one of the main ways of building soil organic carbon, through the decay of old roots and liquids released from root tips of live roots. These liquids are also the main energy source for soil biology. Bigger and more active root systems mean more soil carbon. Plants with bigger root systems are more efficient at searching for water and nutrients, making them more resilient in dry conditions and more efficient with fertilisers. Composted products are also shown to increase mycorrhizal symbiosis, greatly increasing the searching ability of roots again.

Improved Soil Biology

Adding C-Wise composted products to build complex soil organic carbon stimulates and diversifies soil microbes. Soil biology has roles in soil structure, water storage, humus formation, plant root growth, nutrient supply, disease control and much, much more. Keeping soil biology ticking over and healthy can save you a lot of time, money and effort. Soil biology needs plenty of soil carbon to survive and flourish, so it is important to manage soil carbon with high quality composted products and good practices.

Increased Plant Immunity

A healthy organic carbon rich soil grows healthy plants that are more able to fight pests and diseases. In conjunction with healthy plants, a healthy and diverse soil biology will suppress disease causing organisms. The complex organic carbon compounds (humus) in C-Wise composted products can also prime plants to activate their defences against pests and diseases more rapidly when attacked.