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July Book of the Month: A Grower’s Guide for Balancing Soils

This month, our theme is plant nutrition for pest management. You will see this theme reflected in Acres U.S.A. magazine, in our weekly email newsletters, and in our July Book of the Month feature: A Grower’s Guide to Balancing Soils by William McKibben.

A Grower's Guide for Balancing Soils

Original Price: $25.00
Book of the Month Price: $19.00 – Buy it now!

About the Book

Whether you’re a serious home gardener or a full-time farmer, A Growers Guide for Balancing Soils will help you expand your understanding of the science behind plant nutrition. It all starts with the soil, but, as you’ll read, just spreading compost and hoping for the best isn’t a strategy for success.

Drawing on 40 years of experience using the Albrecht philosophy of balancing soils, William McKibben will walk you through a data-driven, time-tested process that starts with soil analysis, but doesn’t stop there. Productive soil that has the right balance of bio-available minerals and maximizes crop production and quality is the goal, and McKibben outlines a common-sense approach for how to get there.

For example, readers will learn how to:

  • build a more complete soil-health management system;
  • balance pH consistently across your fields with mineral balancing;
  • create more resilient crops by knowing how soil health affects disease and pest pressure;
  • and convert raw testing data into real action.

For both organic and conventional farmers, A Growers Guide for Balancing Soils dives deep into how macro-nutrients such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and sulfur — along with potassium and micronutrients (cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, and zinc) — affect the development of healthy crops. It’s a problem-solver’s handbook for building soil health.

Praise for  A Growers Guide for Balancing Soils

William “Crop Doc” McKibben has shared his 40-plus years of research and experience in A Growers Guide for Balancing Soils to make nutrient management a key to unlocking the potential production and joyful reward that comes through a vigorous and well managed garden. It will be a valuable reference and guide for the home as well as commercial gardener who wants to reap the benefits produced through the miracle of plants.

– Don M. Huber, Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology, Purdue University

About the Author

William “Crop Doc” McKibben is an Ohio-based consultant specializing in soil fertility balancing and managing crop yields, as well as livestock nutrition. He holds a master’s in soil science from Ohio State and has worked as an agronomist in the Midwest for more than 30 years, much of that with Brookside Laboratories. In addition to consulting to farmers, he has experience with municipalities, golf courses, and specialty crops.

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