About Integrated Nutrient Management

Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) is nothing but tried and true ideas made modern. Nobody wants to apply more NPK than a plant needs; fertilizer costs money, and what the plants don‘t use just runs off and becomes a problem instead of a solution. The key to tuning nutrient availability is to tailor applications to growing conditions, and there are really only two ways of doing that. One is to use water soluble, immediately available nutrients and time the applications based on the weather, climate and the growth of the plants. That works, but takes a lot of skill and attention; and once you get up to scale it can start to get complicated. The other way is to supply the nutrients in the form that the soil microbial community (the Soil Food Web) wants them... as readily available organic matter. That way - since both are driven by weather and climate - the microbes will do their work at the same rate that the plants are growing and release nutrients the plants need at exactly the rate the plants are prepared to utilize them. That means no waste, no excess, and no problems. And it does not need any attention beyond looking at the plants to see that all is well: no tuning of applications, no rush when the weather is prime and down time when it‘s not. Once you get the Soil Food Web established and Integrated Nutrient Management in place, you have a self regulating system that provides exactly what the plants need when they need it, and that means less stress, less staff, and more profits for you.