NUTRAFIX
NutraFix® 1-4-1 is an innovative and patented fertilizer product formulated to restore micronutrient availability to perennial grassland plants and to increase soil organic matter by promoting the growth of long-lived and deep-rooted perennial grasses.
Through natural soil-based (edaphic) processes, nutrient additions are further cycled and enhanced by soil microorganisms, fungi, and insects, allowing late-successional plant life to thrive while outcompeting early successional species that are intolerant of the nutrient-rich soil solution.
The Edaphix® discovery is that by promoting micronutrient fertility in nutrient-depleted soil, plant succession can be accelerated, resulting in rapid increases in vigor and density of desirable plants. Secondary benefits include augmented infiltration caused by improved granular soil structure, leading to diminished runoff and increased soil water content. In companion, improved soil biological activity increases levels of dissolved organic carbon, fueling further microbial activity and mobilization of nutrients, thereby, restarting the near-dormant process of soil-building and nutrient cycling in unhealthy soil.
Degraded and low-productivity soil may be caused by many factors, including, but not limited to, climate change, overgrazing, fire, floods, and development. Natural soil-building processes commonly require hundreds, if not thousands, of years to develop an inch of soil. Waiting for natural soil renewal and rebuilding is beyond human time scales. NutraFix 1-4-1 represents a new tool in the land manager and grassland health practitioner toolbox for empowering natural soil processes that lead to healthy soil and healthy perennial vegetation communities.
HOW DOES NUTRAFIX WORK?
In much of our landscape, soil disturbances have resulted in degraded lands that are nutrient-depleted, allowing invasive undesirable plants to thrive. NutraFix 1-4-1 is a soil amendment that helps to restore the natural, edaphic soil conditions that native plants evolved under.
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Native plants are “picky eaters”: Native plants evolved in healthy soil conditions that are nutrient dense. Accordingly native plants are more selective in the types and amounts of nutrients they “drink-in” from the soil solution. Native plants are more selective in the amount of micronutrients they absorb and have been observed to thrive under applications of NutraFix 1-4-1.
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Invasive plants are greedy: Invasive plants, adapted to low-nutrient disturbed soils, are less able to regulate the uptake of additional micronutrients applied. This isn't because the micronutrients are specifically toxic to them but because they lack the natural mechanisms to regulate nutrient uptake.
NutraFix 1-4-1 re-establishes the higher micronutrient fertility levels of late successional grasslands that are resilient and able to discourage invasive plant invasion.
Wildfire fuel reduction
Allowing native perennial bunchgrasses to outcompete annual grasses such as cheatgrass, which is implicated in accelerating fire intensity and frequency.
Creates healthy soil
Promotes development of deep-rooted and long-lived perennial plants that capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide by increasing soil organic matter.
Promotes the growth of native vegetation
Increases growth of common rangeland grasses important to wildlife and livestock, such as bluebunch wheatgrass, western wheatgrass and Idaho fescue by improving overall plant health.
NutraFix 1-4-1 harnesses natural processes to revitalize soil health. By supplying vital minerals and reducing abiotic stressors, rhizosphere activity and nutrient cycling are enhanced. Fertilizer applications improve water penetration and soil structure through the mobilization of dissolved organic carbon.