"No farm in South Africa is 100% sustainable from a fertiliser perspective yet, as they all still rely, to some degree, on purchasing fertiliser from an outside source. At Waterkloof, we aim to become the first farm in the country to be entirely sustainable when it comes to natural fertilisers. Natural fertilisers include both nutrients and living bacteria to make those nutrients accessible for plants, whilst chemical ones do not offer any living life forms at all. Natural fertilisers allow farmers to add both nutrients and the critical microbes to the soil at the same time," he explains.
Loots is in the process of making his own completely natural fertiliser, using everything available at the estate and is using a few approaches, none of which are new by way of age - they have been used for thousands of years extensively in the East - but new by way of application in modern wine farming in South Africa.
"What works best for a specific area should ideally come from that specific area. We utilise what is already available to us and our natural methods include Bokhashi - a Japanese method of producing completely natural fertiliser that is high in nutrients - as well as worm cast tea high in aerobic microbes; biodynamic compost; green cover crop methods and stable manure," concludes Loots.
For more information, go to www.waterkloofwines.co.za.
