Soil’s main mineral base consists of decayed rock with soil creation occurring via several natural processes. Glacial activity accounts for the bulk of soil creation as each ice age (with the last one ending about 12 000 years ago) having covered the planet with glaciers from the poles halfway to the tropics. During the 90 000 year phase of each ice age, these glaciers (up to 3 km thick) would grind away at the surface bed rock of the planet underneath. When the glaciers receded they left beds of pulverised rock of up to 3 meters deep in their wake.

These new beds of freshly ground rock contained all the minerals and trace elements necessary for the foundation of good soil. The result was an incredible richness of life. The trees in the ancient forests of Europe and America were huge – often over 30m to the first branches!

Volcanic activity also accounts for soil fertility – people will farm on the slopes of dormant volcanoes (despite the inherent risk involved) because the volcanic ash causes the soil to be exceptionally fertile. Remineralisation occurs more frequently via volcanic activity, but it is localised and not on the same kind of scale as per glaciers.

On an ongoing basis, weathering and basic microbial and plant life accounts for further breakdown of rocks, releasing minerals and trace elements, but at such a slow rate as to be negligible in our current scenario.

After centuries of ever-increasing pollution and squander, our soils are a mere shadow of what they once were. Deforestation and intensive cultivation have imposed a vicious cycle of soil destruction. Over the last century acid rains and other air pollutants have accelerated the aging of many soils, whilst the increasing use of water soluble, poisonous chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides have also increased the exhaustion of soil nutrients and biological life.

The symptoms of mineral depletion are everywhere and getting worse each year. Not only is the acreage of arable farmland shrinking worldwide, but we are also experiencing accelerating deterioration in the fertility, tilth and productivity of our remaining soils. Our soils are compacted, nearly lifeless and easily eroded away. Plants and trees are sickly, stunted and sensitive to frosts and droughts. Crops are insipid, diseased, nutritionally inferior, and susceptible to insect attacks. 

Poor soil quality is the bottom-line common variable responsible for widespread physical and mental deterioration. Poor soil quality makes for nutrient deficient crops, which in turn creates weak bodies and minds. Diets lacking in nutrients, especially trace minerals, lead not only to physical maladies and impaired learning, but also to antisocial behaviour and even violence. It’s no coincidence that both degenerative disease and crime are escalating, as IQ and nutritional status decline. These things are all connected. At the bottom of the chain is the connecting link of impoverished soil delivering nutritionally inferior foodstuffs – a global problem.

Soil renewal has been the subject of much research over the past two centuries, with the South African connection being one Octave D’Hotman de Villiers, a renowned agronomist (soil scientist). His work in both the sugarcane industry, as well as with trials at Cedara Agricultural College, spanned over 50 years and culminated in his granddaughter realising his deathbed wish by launching Turbo Grow, a uniquely South African soil remineralisation product.

To restore topsoil we require an abundant supply of minerals and trace elements – complex combinations of chemical elements. Minerals are usually metals combined with oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, other non-metals, and water. These minerals are blended together in crystalline and amorphous forms as the rocks of Mother Earth.

The raw, elemental minerals are digested, reformed and transformed by microbes, algae, lichen and other simple life forms. The simplest organisms perform the primary task of transforming rock minerals and trace elements into protoplasm. Plants then combine these carbon-bound soil minerals with sunshine, water and carbon dioxide to create sugars, the universal fuel for biological life. Through the miracle of photosynthesis, magnesium in chlorophyll liberates oxygen and sunshine is captured in carbohydrates. As in the chlorophyll molecule itself, the minerals form the heart of biological cells, and supply the electric charges required to fire nature’s chemical reactions.

All rocks are not equal in their ability to provide nutrients. Volcanic rock contains the broadest spectrum of elements, in proper balance with the highest count of silicon, the forgotten element.

The ideal natural form to feed elements to soil is as the insoluble minerals available from finely ground up rocks. This process is called soil remineralisation. To maximise the conversion of rock minerals into protoplasm and plant nutrients, the best strategy is to grind the rocks to powder. This increases the surface area of rock that is exposed and accessible to soil microbes. A normal fist-sized rock has a surface area of a few square centimetres, but ground to the consistency of talcum powder, the rock has a surface area of several thousand square metres. This means microbes can much more rapidly access and consume the rock’s minerals, and thus more rapidly digest them into plant nutrients. The finer the rock is  powdered, the greater the exposed surface area, and the more rapidly the soil microbes will digest it. Turbo Grow’s particle size is 80 micron and smaller, ensuring maximum assimilation in minimum time.

For maximum vitality, it’s important to supply soil with all the nutrients that are essential for plant and animal growth. Not merely NPK and major elements – Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, as well as Calcium and Magnesium (NPK and Ca & Mg) – but all the elements, especially the trace elements which are so sadly neglected in conventional agriculture. Since the very beginning of life itself 72+ minerals and trace elements have been incorporated in the basic functioning of all life. There are at least a dozen other elements, beyond the major seven, that mainstream science now accepts as necessary for healthy plants. Many more are needed by specialised soil microbes, which fulfil special functions to create soil and fertility, such as synthesizing certain enzymes, vitamins, antibiotics, or other critical bio-molecules. Most are required in extremely tiny amounts (micrograms or less) and thus are called trace elements.

Most trace elements dissolve into water faster than the major elements. So, in an average soil, trace elements leach out of soils faster than major elements. Acid rain, soluble chemical fertilisers and excessive tillage accelerate this removal of trace elements. The consequence is that all soils eventually become deficient in minor or trace elements. Continued doses with NPK and lime fertilisers will not resolve these deficiencies, but make them worse.

Trace elements play a key role in the function of many enzymes and hormones. One consequence of this is that a very tiny amount trace element has an exceedingly great effect on the healthy function of plants and animals. For example, it is well known that insufficient iodine will induce goitre, a disease of the thyroid gland. A cobalt deficiency will leave us without vitamin B12, and thus unable to manufacture red blood cells. Neither is needed in more than a microgram per day – an amount that will easily fit on a pinhead.

To supply soil with a balanced, complete source of these essential elements, certain simple principles apply. Plants and animals require elements in specific proportions, not simply in specific quantities. Mineral nutrients must be supplied at certain ratios. The principle of proportion means that the least exert the greatest effect. A tiny amount of a trace element can be more crucial to proper growth and health than a large amount of the major elements. Thus, the least is often the greatest.

Another principle is to feed the soil, not the plant. Microbes consume and digest minerals, and thus convert them to forms more easily absorbed and used by plants. Conventional agriculture shortcuts this microbial feeding chain by using synthetic chemicals to supply nutrients as soluble salts that are directly absorbed by plant roots. But we now know many bacteria and fungi actually pump nutrients into roots ten times or more faster than soluble salts are absorbed. In return, microbes receive sugars and other carbon compounds secreted by plant roots.

Compost (the amount depending on the organic content of the specific soil) and Turbo Grow worked into the soil will create perfect conditions for soil processes to take place and to stabilise releasing mineral nutrients for plant assimilation. Extensive international trials have shown that remineralising the earth with rock dust is the only effective and sustainable means of restoring minerals and trace elements to depleted soils, with the consequential increased microbial action also speeding up the conversion time from conventional to organic agriculture (as an added bonus) as the breakdown of soil pollutants is accelerated.

By growing your plants in remineralised soil you enable the plants to reach their full genetic potential, with natural resistance to insects, disease, frost and drought. You can expect higher yields of more nutritious foodstuffs with less input costs (compared to conventional chemical fertilisers) coupled to the commercial premium that organic produce demands.

Turbo Grow is South Africa’s very own remineralisation product and, as such, rock dust is a free natural input. It is an invaluable aid to the organic farmer (and gardener), because even after successfully converting from conventional agriculture the sad fact is that the minerals, the base of all life, are not replenished. The food may be grown without chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and other poisonous agro-chemicals, but eliminating the poisons is only half the cure. One still has to replace the minerals and trace elements that have been lost over the years, and here remineralising with Turbo Grow provides the solution.