Hey All!

Dr. Christine Jones will be doing 90 minute masterclass with Grow Great Fruit on August 23rd (22nd here in the states) on the fundamentals of soil. Check out the details here (https://event.webinarjam.com/register/59/44o42sg6). And here is the Facebook event page from Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op!

—From the Masterclass Site—

Imagine ... it's possible to heal our agricultural soils.

What would that look like? What ecological processes would we need to activate? What practices would be required? Where would we start and how would we know we were making progress?

In this 90 minute online Masterclass, guest presenter Dr Christine Jones will explain what soil needs in order to thrive, have high water-holding capacity and support highly nutritious crops and pastures.

Research has shown that plants, animals and soils function at their best when living in symbiotic relationships with a wide diversity of microbes from many different functional groups. For this reason, our vineyards, orchards, vegetable gardens, crops and pastures are much more productive - and have fewer pests and diseases - when growing in biodiverse soil.

The key question is, how do we create microbially rich environments around plant roots, as well as within plant leaves, stems, flowers, fruits and seeds?

Furthermore, how do we build on these relationships from year to year, creating transgenerational improvements in plant productivity, rather than the downward spiral frequently observed in many of today’s agricultural soils?

During this presentation Christine will explain the symbiotic relationships and feedback loops that enable the performance of crops and pastures to be markedly enhanced when plant diversity and biostimulants are used in place of synthetic fertiliser.

She will also explain how the interactions between plants and microbes enable organic nitrogen and organic carbon to build rapidly in healthy soils.

Who will benefit from this workshop?
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The Fundamentals of Soil is the perfect starting place for those beginning their exciting journey into regen ag. There are some simple steps you can take to activate the life in your soil and stimulate plant growth.

There will also be new insights for those already well down the track. For example, an explanation of how quorum sensing switches on the nif genes that code for nitrogenase and facilitate N-fixing in the absence of legumes.

Or you might simply be curious about how plants extract genetic material from the soil microbiome to help fight pests and diseases and tolerate stresses such as frost, drought and salinity.

This on-line masterclass will consist of a 45-minute presentation followed by 45 minutes of Q&A. Christine will answer all of the questions submitted during this webinar (though if we run out of time the answers to some questions will be provided afterwards in writing).

By the end of this webinar you will:
* Have a deeper understanding of how soil functions
* Understand how to activate key ecological processes
* Know where to start and how to track your progress in repairing your soil
* Be armed with simple and effective practices for establishing thriving species-rich plant communities
* Know how to stop the never-ending fight against weeds.

Should be rad!

Yeah, that last part was us. No less true, though.