Join No-till on the Plains and Joel Williams from Integrated Soils for this unique, all-day opportunity to gain more in-depth information about the living soil, carbon cycling, nutrient utilization and how the biological processes in the soil can improve fertilizer utilization and costs. This is a pre-Conference Workshop for the 2019 Winter Conference. Payment is required separately. 

Joel Williams is an independent plant and soil health educator, a healthy soils advocate and presenter on soil biology, plant nutrition and integrated approaches of sustainable farming. Joel has worked on conventional and organic farms improving biological farming practices in Australia and the UK, integrating soil chemical and biological assessments along with plant nutritional analysis as a joined-up strategy for plant management. Find out more about Joel on his website and Twitter feed.

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED, A LIMITED NUMBER OF SPOTS MAY BE AVAILABLE THE DAY OF THE WORKSHOP

Session Runs 8:30 Ends at 5:00

Topics:

• The Living Soil and Organic Carbon: The Centerpiece of Soil Health

  • Functions, roles and symbiosis of life in soil ecosystem

  • Understanding the interactions of the soil food web toward nutrient supply and crop production

  • New findings on the emergent and critical role of root exudates in plant-microbe communication and soil carbon sequestration 

  • Plant diversity as the key driver of soil microbiome and ecosystem services

  • Ecological Succession and fungal:bacterial balance

• Soils in Transition: Improving Input Efficiencies and Unlocking Soil Nutrients

  • Leveraging existing soil fertility and optimizing purchased inputs

  • Nutrient behavior in soils; nutrient synergies/antagonisms

  • The role of carbon-input complexes in improving input efficiency and protecting soil life

  • Foliar applications – tips for a top response

  • Intercropping and cover crops – nudging towards system redesign

• Integrated Pest Management: Understanding Plant Health and Resilience

  • ​T​he management of disease, insects and weed pressure as an integrated nutritional and biological approach toward plant health

  • Understanding the nutritional drivers of plant immunity

  • Disease management and novel approaches to managing plant immune responses – biostimulants, bioinoculants, compost extracts and key disease fighting nutrients – Si, Ca, B, Cu, S, K.

  • Plant health and nitrogen management – not enough or too much? Nutritional synergists for free nitrogen

  • Weeds as indictors, fungal:bacterial ratio, detoxifying herbicides

​Cost $200, includes lunch

ONLINE REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED, A LIMITED NUMBER OF SPOTS MAY BE AVAILABLE THE DAY OF THE WORKSHOP