WILD DIRT NATURE-SOURCED SOIL AMENDMENTS
Since before humans walked the earth, plants have gotten the proper nutrients in the proper quantities to thrive through their symbiotic relationship with soil microbe communities. Wild Dirt soil products are going back to our "roots" with blended amendments that enrich soil with both nutrients and the beneficial microbe communities found in the healthiest soil ecosystems in the world.
To craft our Wild Dirt Mycelium amendment, we mix plant-fed compost, sifted vermicast (worm poop) from worms fed with only proven clean plant matter, wild oak leaf litter harvested on the Ranch and other carefully selected nature-sourced microbe feedstocks. To kill possible pathogens and build up the beneficial microbe population prior to blending, we use a large bubbling tank or "compost tea brewer" to mix the ingredients. This mixing process exponentiallly increases the number of beneficial microbes at the same time that it wipes out the anaerobic pathogens, which cannot live in the oxygenated water. Once the beneficial microbe population has peaked in the brewer, we spray the resultant "tea" at specific ratios onto one yard lots, turn the lots with a tractor a couple of times, then let the newly inoculated Wild Dirt Mycelium finish for a few days before use or sale.
This thoroughly tested and proven process greatly increases the diversity and overall health of the beneficial microbes in the soil ecosystem that Wild Dirt Mycelium is applied to.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN ABOUT THE WHOLE WILD DIRT STORY- ITS FUN!
WILD DIRT PRODUCTS
Wild Dirt Worm Castings are pure worm castings, harvested from worms grown and raised in the barn on Restoration Oaks Ranch with locally sourced, plant-based feedstock. Worm castings (also known as vermicast) are full of prey-level microbes that are foundational to a healthy soil habitat. The predator-level microbes you need in a healthy soil ecosystem need a lot of prey to flourish, and worm castings are an excellent source of these prey microbes.
Wild Dirt Mycelium is composed of clean (not green waste street recepticles or "organic" sludge) plant compost, worm castings grown in our own barn, mycelium harvested from our own oak leaf litter and other nature-sourced, non-synthetic microbe feedstocks.
Wild Dirt Mycelium adds top-of-the-line working microbes, nutrients and structure to the soil straight from nature. It accelerates the natural propagation of beneficial microbes and the subsequent nutrient availability to the roots of plant partners in the soil ecosystem.
We have tested the biology and nutrition of a half-dozen popular biology-based organic and non-organic soil amendments purchased at local nurseries and compared them to Wild Dirt Mycelium. Wild Dirt Mycelium is, so far, the most balanced combination of biology, nutrition and sustaining soil habitat we have tested. We'll keep testing. Contact Ed via email and he will send you a copy of the comparative report:
If there is a particular amendment you want us to get lab reports on, bring us a sample and we'll do it. We need 2.5lbs to get both biology and nutrition tests run.
ABOUT OUR OAK LEAF LITTER
We harvest our oak leaf litter on from the wild oak woodlands on Restoration Oaks Ranch. Oak tree leaf litter is very high quality food and habitat for mycelium fungi, an apex predator in soil ecosystems and perhaps the greatest symbiotic partner of plants on the earth. It takes a long time for mycelium to naturally grow. Old growth trees like ours have expansive mycelium fungal networks in and around their deep and broad root systems. The soils of these old growth trees is nutrient-rich, diverse and healthy. No fertilizers needed, or allowed....
“Healthy soil stores carbon, stores water and naturally feeds terrestrial plant life.”
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INORGANIC AND ORGANIC FERTILIZER?
Encyclopedia Britannica definition of fertilizer: "Fertilizer, natural or artificial substance containing the chemical elements that improve growth and productiveness of plants. Fertilizers enhance the natural fertility of the soil or replace chemical elements taken from the soil by previous crops." (Stewart, R.E. (2025, March 26). fertilizer. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/fertilizer)
Soil scientists generally agree that most plants require a total of 17 elemental nutrients to complete their life cycle (Singh, B. & Schulze, D. G. (2015) Soil Minerals and Plant Nutrition. Nature Education Knowledge 6(1):1. Nature.com. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/soil-minerals-and-plant-nutrition-127881474/ )
At the molecular level, these elemental nutrients feed plants and, to some extent, organisms in the soil ecosystem. Fertilizers that provide nutrients to the soil can be inorganic or organic.
Inorganic fertilizers are synthetic, manufactured primarily by global agrochemical companies. They are added to the soil for direct and immediate uptake by plant roots, bypassing the symbiotic interactions that occur naturally between plant roots and soil microbe communities. Direct uptake speeds up some or all stages of plant growth and may even be used to manage the plant life cycle stages themselves. Excess inorganic fertilizer that is not immediately taken up by plants can become pollutants that are particularly troubling when they get washed into waterways.
Nature-Sourced fertilizers, like our compost and worm castings, are not manufactured by mankind. They are harvested from natural materials that are continuously regenerated in the natural world. Nature-sourced fertilizers are added to the soil for mostly indirect and long-term plant uptake through soil microbe communities. Natural fertilizers work over long periods of time. They fuel plant growth through the symbiotic interactions between roots and microbes that convert the mineral nutrients of the soil into nutrients accessible to plants. Unlike inorganics, natural fertilizers cannot pollute because there is never excess and there is never runoff. The microbe communities in the soil ecosystem are frugal, only converting soil minerals into nutrients when the plants need them.
So the difference between inorganic and nature-sourced fertilizers is primarily in how they effect the existing natural soil ecosystem. Inorganics deplete the soil of biology to feed plants directly while bypassing natural ecological processes. natural fertilizers increase and diversify the soil biology while combining with natural ecological processes. Please contact us for more.
“Healthy soil stores carbon, stores water and naturally feeds terrestrial plant life.”
THE WILD DIRT STORY
In February 2019, the Wild Farmlands Foundation and Santa Barbara Blueberries collaborated on a three-year pilot project to transition established berry plants from organic and chemical fertilizers & supplements to natural biology-based nutrition, specifically vermicast. The pilot took place entirely on Restoration Oaks Ranch. Partners included the Community Environmental Council, Santa Barbara City College, Soil Life Services, LLC, Tritech Agriculture, Regenerative Soils LLC, New Frontiers Market, The Coffee Cabin and Gaviota Coast Conservancy (Funder). The pilot was called the Gaviota SOIL (Saving Organics Investing in Land) Project.
The project had many objectives, but a primary one was to see how healthy established perennial berry plants would fare after they stopped receiving the conventional & organic fertilizers & manufactured supplements they were raised on and started receiving only biology-based nutrition. The pilot’s nutrition program consisted of worm castings (vermicast) from organically fed worms raised on the Ranch. Biology-rich castings in bulk and as liquids were applied with discipline to the test field for three years. Click to download the results of the Gaviota SOIL Project.
The SOIL pilot project was a surprisingly simple-to-implement success. In April 2022, the berries and underlying soils in the pilot field were thriving, and the fruit yield was as good or better than the yet-to-be transitioned berry fields still receiving fertilizers and supplements. Science supported the observed evidence, with soil tests showing good levels of nutrients, beneficial biology and other indicators reflecting strong plants in a healthy soil habitat.
In June 2022, after learning how to raise worms and three nervous years of observation and testing, Santa Barbara Blueberries stopped applying inorganic fertilizers and supplements on all their berry fields. We were all thrilled about being another success story for nature-based solutions. The Gaviota SOIL Project was an excellent proof-of-concept for replacing fertilizers with nature-based soil nutrition on a prominent commercial farm.
The associated food-growing, carbon storing, water storing, landfill, waste stream, pollution and ecosystem benefits of partially or completely replacing fertilizer with biology-based soil nutrition are immense. That’s why we executed the pilot project in the first place. Knowing this, our team also recognized that not everyone growing food or caring for plants is going to acquire and maintain worm bins and build compost windrows. Nor is everyone going to take the time to completely transition away from traditional inorganic fertilizers and practices like Santa Barbara Blueberries and a few other local farmers and ranchers have done. The organic fertilizer products for sale on the market in 2023 were predominantly focused on chemical nutrients, not biology, and most were little more than expensive microbe food, devoid of meaningful levels of diverse or targeted soil biology.
In 2023, Wild Dirt was established as a business entity in Santa Barbara County to provide the benefits of biology-based soil nutrition, initially proven through the Gaviota SOIL Project, to the South-Central Coast of California. Along with Wild Dirt Mycelium, we provide hands-on implementation assistance, advice and education.
“Healthy soil stores carbon, stores water and naturally feeds terrestrial plant life.”