Gardens used to be the world’s most-tilled, “flowerpot seedbed” patches of dirt. Now, as biological knowledge multiplies and organic home-grown food enthusiasm spreads, gardeners are looking for ways to aerate soil without molesting the mycorrhizal fungi down under. November 8, 2018  By Jerry Carlson — Our 20-acre Renewable Farming farm has essentially been converted from […]

Here’s another benefit from growing a wide array of cover crops in your no-till or minimum tillage system: That deep-rooted network reaching down from multiple cover species builds a firmer soil profile. When your combine and grain cart absolutely, positively must get through before corn goes down, you can roll. Even through standing water. November 5, 2018  By Jerry Carlson —

Consulting agronomist Bob Streit describes the fungal invasion of many Midwest soybean fields, and suggests some remedial answers for healthier crops in future seasons. Oct. 31, 2018   By Bob Streit — The latest NASS figures tell that corn harvest still has about 40% left to go. Bean harvest is further along and with the shorter

Darker shades of color in corn and soybean fields offer evidence that persistent rains which delayed harvest have also multiplied an array of molds. And for the first time, a farmer has sent us visual evidence from running combines that GMO soybeans shed more dust — and molds — than non-GMO beans.  October 23, 2018 —

We’ve always encouraged corn growers to look inside cornstalks in spring, from about the four-leaf stage on, to detect early signals of brown, rotting gunk in the xylem tubes near the root crown. That’s a barometer of season-long root health, thus showing the stalk’s ability to transport water and nutrients to leaves and kernels. October 18,

Healthy, 300-bu. plus corn on rolling hillsides with a corn suitability rating in the mid-50s? See the photos below taken at the Dave Schwartz farm a few miles west of Guthrie Center, Iowa. October 13, 2018 — The photos below were shot Oct. 1 by crop consultant Bob Streit of Boone, Iowa. He and Dave

The rivers of rain which lashed much of the upper Midwest in September and early October spawned an array of stalk rot fungi and bacteria which are now threatening substantial corn yield losses. Here’s a tool you can use this fall — soon as possible — to keep corn alive longer in future years. The final 40 bu. or

Caius Rommens, a genetic engineer who first worked at Monsanto and then for J.R. Simplot, published an editorial today on the Independent Science News website saying that he “renounces” his development work at Simplot and urges that the genetically altered potatoes he personally developed for that firm “should be withdrawn from the market.” October 8, 2018