Managing Relationships Between Vegetation & Soil with WaterSOLV™
December, 2022
Managing Relationships Between Vegetation and Soil with HCT's WaterSOLV™ chemistry and processes, is a culmination of years of empirical results supported by long-term results and technical data on crops, soils and tissues from locations and laboratories across the USA. HCT's founder and technology developer, Todd Eden, has been operating for decades in the realms of water saturation, biology, corrosion, evaporation, heat transfer, pressure, process and environmental variables since the 1970’s and dove deep into the soil, vegetation vitality and analytical methods, across the U.S.A. and for nearly a decade. HCT's chemical technologies, organic listed and conventional formulas certified by the CDFA, along with HCT's matured analytical testing methods and application techniques, have evolved into breakthrough advancements in the remediation an sustainability of soils through the treatment of water.
These findings are increasing crop grade and production volumes with positive data trending year after year. They are the results of tens of thousands of hours, hundreds of thousands of dollars and data points as well as by a vast variety of industry professionals, across the country and internationally as well.
All findings documented can be demonstrated, as the elements we all deal with in soils, water and environmental conditions are addressed by HCT chemistry from the foundational perspectives of science, chemistry, biology and physicality, simultaneously.
Industry wide problems are identified through conventional and matured analytical testing methods. The science is technically supported from published documents from Universities as well as agencies (UC Davis / USDA/NCRS).
HCT's purpose and privilege is providing sustainable and cost effective solutions to the chronic problems that plague soil health in the world of water and agronomy. We consistently reduce water demand 15% and increase crop yields 20% and more. When you treat water ‘well’ with WaterSOLV™, you increase efficiency, decrease costs, increase yield and improve aeration. You stabilize soil solubility just by treating water, and with a detailed water and soil analysis, we can show you how.
The Participants – Water, Nutrition, Soil, Biology & Environmental Elements
We all are dealing with the same “Participants”, the elements in the water, which are the elements in the soil and the nutrients added.
Whether it’s water, soil, nutrition, available soil nutrition, exchangeable soil nutrition, total soil nutrition, water/soil toxins, bacteria/bacteria toxins and their toxic as well as detrimental exudates (H2S/Polysaccharides) / pathogens, we may all have unique problems, but all soil reacts the same to unfavorable conditions. It becomes unmanageable. Traditional remedies may improve conditions for a short time, but the issues always return and are often worse than before treatment.
We are looking to the biology, their exudates, the total physical properties of the soils, as well as the following components, which all are necessary for vegetation vitality.
Vegetation Vitality depends on;
Pore Space, Infiltration Rate, Moisture Penetration & Retention
Available Nutrition
H2O, Oxygen (water can turn septic)
Sodium & Chloride Detoxification
Remediation of Iron Bacteria bio-films
Remediation of Black Layer exudates including toxic
Pest and disease protection
Traditional Analytical Data: (condensed, elements/transient indicators);
Water: N, P, K, Ca, Mg, HCO3, Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu, Na, Cl and B
Available Soil Nutrition: Same
Exchangeable Soil Elements: Same
Transient Indicators: pH, CEC, SAR, anion/cation ratios
What’s Missing:
Oxygen content
Pore Space
Infiltration rate and depth
Moisture/depth
Biology
Black layer/SRB - (H2S toxicity and sulfurous acid, oxygen scavenger)
IRB – Biofilms from iron reducing bacteria
MB – Manganese bacteria (not much known)
Fungi, Mold, Mildew, Yeast
All the Elements HCT Considers:
Beneficial mineral salts: Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, Phosphate
The primary cause of the formation of scale: Bicarbonate (the gas that is released when dissolving scale) with Ca and Mg.
The beneficial metals: Fe, Zn, Cu, Mo
The toxins: Na and Cl (B is usually hanging around as well)
The scavenger: Cl (likes to bond with Ca, Fe, Na, Zn, K and P but we need these available, not locked up with Cl).
Valence: The bond of electrical charges not associated with Cl or HCO3, anion to cation - calcium phosphate, potassium phosphate, zinc chloride, potassium chloride.
The biology: Pathogens, algae, bacteria but moreover their exudates; biofilms impervious to acids. Bacteria primary sources of survival - some O2 and iron, others no O2 but S, SO4-S, Mn and Fe are their preferences. Bio indicators can include the accumulation of Cu, Zn, confining infiltration layers, all which trend toward biological challenges of either biofilms, or bio-toxic exudates of toxic acids and gasses.
pH: Yes, but in a completely nontraditional sense. With our chemistry optimal vitality can be achieved at a pH of 8.0 units.
CEC and SAR: Totally disrupted by our solubilization chemistry.
EC & TDS: Totally disrupted by our chemistry as well. For example; if you have salts complexed in the soil, and you dissolve them the EC /TDS go up. Dissolving salts is beneficial though traditionally thought to be a negative due to increasing EC/TDS. If the increase of salts is to make them more available for plant uptake, or to break them down so they can be flushed (or both), then the higher EC is part of the soil’s remediation process. During soil remediation we expect to see EC/TDS go up, and when they go down, we see improved infiltration and the need for nutritional soil replenishment across the board.
All these elements of data help us pinpoint specific areas of need, addressing the interconnected relationships between water, soil, available nutrition and total soil nutrition reserves, as well as infiltration, pore space, confining layers and biology. We have done away with secular “exchangeable” data to get a more complete picture for more predictable results.
Properties of Water & Bacteria
Properties of Available Nutrition from Actual Water, Treated
Soil Properties as Total Nutrition (& Toxins) in the soils to be harvested, treated, detoxified and eventually replenished
Matured Analytical Data - What you have been reacting to versus Actuality
As discussed / presented prior in our blog post, the current methods of “Available Soil Nutrition” (and interpretations of “exchangeable”), also referred to as soil paste extraction, have led an industry to saturating their soils with accumulated, unused nutrition. Cases are so severe our nutritional zones in turf and ag have become the first 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 inch of soil versus the plants natural root zone, or in many cases, the grower can't get water down.
Where the soils contained the nutrition in the “exchangeable” reporting, it was not deemed “available” to the plant based on the available test method utilized (Saturated Paste Extract, using AA and DTPA or Mehlich III solutions) usually resulting in more nutrition being continually added. All the while we see standing water, no infiltration, no moisture depth and biomatter set in, Yet exchangeable levels stay fairly constant and available nutrition shows a deficiency. It's a lot like using a level that is broken. Expanding and modifying testing methods typically revealed even perhaps less available nutrition, or in some cases more available nutrition.
The typical and common application of unnecessary nutrition causes the soil to lose permeability which usually causes already biologically compromised water in the soil to turn septic. Over time, soil becomes less receptive to sustain growth, retain moisture, or accept oxygen from rain and we find countless cases of soil either so hard from accumulated beneficial cations that its breaking coring tines or so soggy and mushy from the colonization of bacteria that they’re looking at installing drainage. Drainage rarely will reduce the existing biology from receding.
We have watched WaterSOLV™ gradually liberate decades of accumulated nutrition, even caleche, while restoring pore space, adding oxygen, killing bad bacteria, perpetuating good bacteria, permanently detoxifying sodium and chloride while also releasing the beneficial cations for plant uptake, that have been tied up chloride, bicarbonate and natural valence. Complete soil restoration with no manual aeration. And we see nothing but improvement year after year from the most problematic conditions, including turf to boxed trees, shrubs, even seedling operations.
Hard water is loaded with beneficial cations, the same as in a bag as a fertilizer (P & K with Ca and Mg), less the bicarbonate that would make them complex and form scale – like getting a bag of cement wet and letting it dry, or the hard water spots left behind when washing a car. But as soon as the nutrition applied on the ground or with the water, it’s exposed to bicarbonate (HCO3) and when evaporated to dryness – cementation is created. Not when using WaterSOLV™.
To address this, the traditional method is to add sulfurous acid (which contains N) with calcium and sulfate, known as gypsum, also known as drywall in the building industry. Consistently our total digestion data shows the soils are more drywall than soil, mass saturations of calcium, sulfate, also P, K and Fe. What if we could liberate the accumulated nutrition in the soil, gradually put it into solution, so that when the plant drinks, it gets its nutrition - not just the Na and N, and Zn, but the more difficult insoluble yet essential elements of calcium, potassium, phosphate and iron? Hello WaterSOLV™. What if the soggy soil was anoxic bacteria you could treat, reduce the bacteria that has been producing water, H2S and sulfurous acid? See our blog posts including Anaerobic Bacteria of Water & Soils and The Gradual Death of a Well is Industry Wide: How to Finally Stop Hurting Your Wells.
The reports for “Exchangeables” only account for reserves in the soil and either their sufficiency or deficiency. These numbers only represent what a weak acid (AA) or mixture of acids (Mehlich III) will release that are supposed to resemble the acids the roots exude to break down the nutrients from the soils. By observation, don't we usually find roots struggling just to find a reliable source of water that is not loaded with sodium? Yet the acid used in the test, ammonium acetate and DTPA on the west coast of the United States, and Mehlich III in the eastern United States), these do not consider the relationship between nutrients and toxins, nor does it account for physical factors such as pore space, infiltration rate, bulk density or oxygen.
These methods (AE/DTPA – Mehlich III) do not consider what we believe to be the root issues that hinder water infiltration, specifically the accumulated nutrition’s not quantified or the biological exudates (slime from iron, or H2S gasses and sulfurous acids from black layer which also depletes oxygen).
The traditional solution is N, aerification, top dressing, all the while leaving the root cause behind, beneath the vegetation we are trying to sustain (saturated salts and bacteria, confining layers and toxins) which the bacteria are growing and will only re-present themselves in due time. Time and testing have shown that we cannot cover up the problem, especially if it is biological. We don’t mitigate biology by core aerifying and top dressing, nor air injection. We cannot make the problem better with toxic or rancid water. The WaterSOLV™ solutions use nothing but 3-6 gallon per million gallons of water in most cases, and even in some of the worst water (reclaim included), to infiltrate and remediate the soils, allowing vegetation to finally thrive. Define thrive? Users say 1) the best they have ever seen 2) the best in the history of the company 3) Increased production volumes beyond belief 4) the only grower in the are using WaterSOLV™ and the front didn't affect their production, when it affected everyone else in the area.
In place of Exchangeable Soil Analysis, we defer to Total Soil Digestion, as we likely need to reduce the amounts of beneficial nutrition for the plants to consume in order to create pore space. We need to break down the good salts as well as detoxify the toxins, detoxify the biology and exudates, provide adequate oxygen, beneficial water, and track the salt levels. We track total soil elements, monitor moisture and infiltration rates, and adjusting the chemical additives for available nutrition and adequate soil reserves, eventually adjusting the chemistry for the water to sustain optimal soil conditions. Nutrient availability, nutrient reserves, pore space and oxygen.
Analytical Tests
Source Water and its Total Bacteria - what are we dealing with, water wise that can be made beneficial, detoxified and bio-remediated. Primary toxicity would be Na, Cl and Bacteria.
Available Soil Nutrition from your Treated Source Water - when you water with “your treated water”, what is released to the roots, beneficial and toxicity, available and deficient? They need a healthy drink when they drink.
Total Soil Elements / Nutrition - just how much salts/nutrition, beneficial or detrimental, are accumulated in the soils and is the program reducing the saturations.
This green dye was flushed out of compromised greens. While infiltration was compromised, the dye, a culprit, was never picked up in the analytical data.
This bio-film was lifter from the soil. No conventional analytical methods could detect it. Wet, this was like a sheet of plastic. Use of the Curative and BC broke down the biofilm, causing it to lift and restoring infiltration.
This UC Davis Study shows us how we are making our soils into drywall / plaster paris, using sulfurous acid and gypsum (calcium sulfate).
Water & Soil
Almost everything in water & soil, including hard water, as well as reclaim water, can be liberated to provide beneficial nutrition with WaterSOLV™.
Bad items in water (and soils) are specific;
Bicarbonate, the gas released when scale dissolves, is what lets minerals complex to form scale. The minerals are essential for vegetation but the bicarbonate locks them up. This is very common, visually observed on shiny surfaces when water evaporates to dryness - scale. In the car wash and electronics industry, they strip the water of minerals and metals to eliminate evaporative scale formation. In agronomy we maintain scale forming elements in our soils for nutritional purposes and traditional practices dictate we add acid to release them. The minerals not consumed tend to re- complex to a denser scale not redissolved by more acidification. The long term result is more cemented soils and a persistent downturn in soils operability.
Chloride in water is another major detrimental player, as it bonds many essential nutrients such as calcium, iron, zinc and potassium. Chloride also bonds with sodium and boron. The problem becomes evident when we water, or days after a rain, when the benefits of rain, oxygen and nitrogen are consumed, then the next elements made available from the presence of the water become sodium and zinc, hence the stress observed on vegetation usually several days after rainfall. High levels of chloride in the water would indicate if the soils are not permeable, there may be a confining layer, the chloride then accumulates, ties up essential nutrients and then readily release toxic sodium while still harboring what does not get consumed, which we actually need released because they are essential. Sodium is so soluble, if it is accumulated in our soil, we likely have a soil drainage issue due to the accumulation of salts and or a confining layer of unavailable nutrients and detrimental toxins.
Valence is the third and final major player complexing agent, the energy that causes bicarbonate to complex with calcium, magnesium and chloride to complex with sodium, boron, calcium, iron and the like, but also complexes with potassium phosphate, calcium phosphate, zinc phosphate. Two or more elements connected are complexed. Complexed minerals and metals are highly insoluble, and by size alone difficult for plants to drink. HOWEVER, the soluble salts of complexes are readily released and easily drinkable, which are, in sequence;
Oxygen > Pure Water > Nitrogen > followed by sodium > then zinc.
The more insoluble, less available, essential complexes necessary include Ca, Fe, P and K.
Biology - We’re looking at bacteria levels in the water that are distributed onto the soil, where usually, toxic bacteria can populate. Population of pathogens, which include bacteria, is not only exponential, multiple of the multiple, but in their ideal conditions (warmth, septic water (O2 depletion), dirt, food sources), they usually replicate every 15 minutes. When we show 10 to the 4th in the water, in 15 minutes that can go from 10,000 (ten thousand) colony forming units per mL to 100,000,000 (100 million) colony forming units per mL. We have to offset this process to restore health to the soil.
Symptoms: “Water” with Bac T of greater than 3 exponents plus excessive levels of either/or S, SO4-S, Mn and or Fe. “Soils” where accumulations of Fe, Mn, S, SO4-S, Zn, Mo and potentially Na are in significant excess. Accumulated soluble salts like Na, Zn, Mn, Cu, should flush and be reduced if not contained by biomatter or a confining layer. Black layer is not film forming, it is toxicity producing. Black layer, technically called sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB), thrives on sulfur and sulfate (gypsum/ calcium sulfate, copper sulfate / any sulfate). SRB produces sulfurous acid reducing scale, H2S as deadly gas to humans as well (the rotten egg odor, and water (the slosh soil that will never dry up). SRB scavenges oxygen and is only going to get worse unless physically removed or adequately bioremediated. The combination of WaterSOLV™ Curative and BC are more than exceptional at solving these problems as well as preventing them. In many cases this is visualized by overall soils holding water.
If we control the bacteria in the water, with added chemistry to remediate, then control the bacteria in the soil, we solve a major sector of soil vitality that is essential for consistently optimal vegetation vitality.
Confining Layers
Confining layers are where the infiltration of water through the soil is minimized. Like a filter, the dirtier it gets, the more it will filter as the pore space reduces, it catches more. Though in water, bacteria and pathogens find these blockages exceptional places to seed their colonies for growth, thereby causing either toxins from the SRB’s or blockages from the bio films. What else happens is the water not consumed by the vegetation or treated or flushed, become stagnant, further propagating disease and anoxicity. These confining layers hold other toxins as well, predominantly damaging toxins of accumulated sodium and chloride, contained in a layer of Ca, P, K and Fe. The total digestion of the soil of the confining layer will show you this.
What to consider in overcoming these conditions; releasing complexed nutrients in your water - true core aerifying to break through and break down confining layers – water and soil treatment that will sustain uniform infiltration rates.
When you core aerify, you remove 10-20% of the soil, leaving behind 80% of the potential problem. If the soil is the problem, and you brush it over the turf, you are most likely brushing problematic soil onto 80% of the soil sustaining vegetation like turf. Likewise, this 1⁄2 or 3⁄4 inch hole then is going to receive sand, and we’re going to traditionally fill that hole with rancid pond water and nutrition.
If I have a wound, I need to clean it and keep it clean. If I have sick soil, and I’m spending thousands of dollars to aerify it, I need to impact 100% of the soil. These holes should be used to administer good medicine for the 80% of the adjacent soil. The change we have seen treating the water before application has superintendents across the country in year round disbelief.
Grade and Soil Type (collection, run-off)
Slopes versus water collection areas will have significantly unique characteristics to their treatment needs. As water runs off slopes and evaporates to dryness, you find a significant amount of scale. Where water runs into low lying collection areas, they usually evaporate to dryness and form dry spots, but over time they may become a wet bog. Usually, you’ll find the soils have been treated with significant amounts of varying products that have also accumulated, and where anoxic bacteria has set in and is generating toxins and waste products.
Corrective action is Total Soil Analysis, then likely a supplemental topical treatment which might be primarily the BC with some Curative until the biology is curtailed, then the accumulated minerals and metals using the Curative - also utilizing needle tine to get the chemistry into the soil, having it work within versus it having to work from top down.
Root Zone
All of this work is to get treated, healthy water, nutrition and oxygen throughout a healthy root zone by remediating the soils, then sustaining it. Sustainability comes from managing moisture and depth, infiltration rate, nutritional reserves, and nutritional soil availability. This is the purpose of HCT chemistry, to make even the ‘worst’ water a beneficial solvent.
HCT – What We Do and What We Don’t
We do not add nutritional value.
We do liberate the nutrition already in the soil to reasonable levels and we do work to sustain those levels according to your specific data.
We do not replace aerification, we reduce and eventually remove the necessity.
We do not remove compaction – but your water can.
We do reduce the anoxic characteristics of septic water and organic matter of soils.
We do make water and soils beneficial for plant productivity, vitality and sustainability.
Contact HCT directly for a list of qualified distributors, dealers, representatives, engineers, PCA's and CCA's.
HCT, LLC | info@hctllc.com (888) 788-5807 Making Water a Better Solution™ | Sustainable Chemistry & Biology to Water™ Well-Klean©, WaterSOLV™, Water Treatment for Agronomy™, Water pHix™ & WaterSOLV™ Grow are trade names of HCT, LLC
