Podcast Extra: Ask Me Anything with John Kempf - April 9, 2026

Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

AEA Marketing

Earth Sciences, Science, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 546 Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this Podcast Extra, Join John as he answers a wide range of grower-submitted questions covering real-world challenges in regenerative agriculture. The discussion focuses on the practical application of biologicals and biostimulants, nutrient management strategies for specific soil types, and the use of AEA products to improve crop resilience. John emphasizes the importance of synergistic "stacking" of products and the role of microbial diversity in achieving disproportionate yield responses. Other topics discussed include:

Distinguishing between biological inoculants for the soil rhizosphere and those designed for plant foliage.
Defining biostimulants as non-living materials, such as humic substances, seaweeds, and organic acids, that trigger plant or microbial responses.
Achieving geometric yield effects, where one plus one equals five or more, through the synergistic stacking of diverse inoculants and biostimulants.
Recommending BioCoat Gold and Seed Flare as the primary choices for seed treatments to enhance the native microbiome.
Including molybdenum in all nitrogen applications because it is a necessary enzyme cofactor for nitrate reductase.
Improving nitrogen use efficiency for both plants and soil biology through the use of Rebound Molybdenum.
Adding ammonium thiosulfate to nitrogen mixes to help achieve a proper 10:1 nitrogen-to-sulfur ratio.
Utilizing Pinion as a broad-spectrum biocontrol that activates the plant's own immune, genetic, and microbiome pathways.
Acknowledging that the effectiveness of Pinion is heavily influenced by the amount of oxidative stress a plant is under.
Identifying plant species and family diversity as the most effective practical steps for improving soil microbial communities.
Using single-species inoculants, such as Rhizobium or Mycorrhizal fungi, to disprove the myth that small amounts of microbes cannot be successful.
Remediating high sodium in soil and water by combining gypsum, humic substances, and Spectrum DS.
Treating hard water with an RO water purifier for foliar sprays to ensure the best possible crop response.

Additional Resources
To learn more AEA's Nitrogen Effeciency Program, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/land/nitrogen-efficiency/
To learn more and purchase Pinion, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/land/pinion/
To learn more about AEA's seed treatments, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/land/seed-treatments/

About John Kempf
John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA). A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who grow it.

Through intense study and the knowledge gleaned from many industry leaders, John is building a comprehensive systems-based approach to plant nutrition – a system solidly based on the sciences of plant physiology, mineral nutrition, and soil microbiology.

Support For This Show & Helping You Grow
Since 2006, AEA has been on a mission to help growers become more resilient, efficient, and profitable with regenerative agriculture.

AEA works directly with growers to apply its unique line of liquid mineral crop nutrition products and biological inoculants. Informed by cutting-edge plant and soil data-gathering techniques, AEA's science-based programs empower farm operations to meet the crop quality markers that matter the most.

AEA has created real and lasting change on millions of acres with its products and data-driven services by working hand-in-hand with growers to produce healthier soil, stronger crops, and higher profits.

Beyond working on the ground with growers, AEA leads in regenerative agriculture media and education, producing and distributing the popular and highly-regarded Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, inspiring webinars, and other educational content that serve as go-to resources for growers worldwide.

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right. So first question here is from Dennis. Could you please explain the basic difference between the intended use of a biological versus the intended use of a biostimulant? I know the lines are often blurred, but I'm thinking about the concept whereby more is not better. All right, Dennis. And Dennis also has a follow-up question here, but I'll start with this question first.
0:21.0	So it's worth creating a distinction saying there is a regulatory framework and then there's
0:30.3	practical application framework. There are certain regulatory frameworks for what gets called
0:36.3	a biostimulant.
0:50.9	And I think generally many biologicals, unless they are registered for disease control or something like that, many biologicals are called biostimulants from a regulatory perspective.
0:52.9	It's interesting that that wasn't always the case.
1:04.3	And that's why there's this historical language shift. So the way that I think about, maybe I'll say it this way. I think of biologicals and biostimilance as being in several distinct categories. I'm just going to
1:10.7	run through this mentally. First, there is a
1:14.2	biological inoculent for the risosphere, for the soil. Second, there is a biological inocculent
1:21.8	that is an appropriate fit for plant foliage. Sometimes, a single product can overlap and be an appropriate fit for both,
1:31.0	but there are also distinct microbes that are best, or that are exclusive only to soil, say,
1:36.9	microisophonchite, for example, or exclusive to leaf foliage, like phytosanitary bacteria
1:42.8	and others,
1:49.6	a variety of different species that are only effective when applied,
1:52.9	or that are only colonized and live on plant leaf surface as far as we know,
1:55.2	or as far as I understand right now.
1:59.9	So there are those different groups of microbeinoculants in two distinct categories.
2:06.7	One is for plant foliage application. One is for soil and risosphere application. And then you have biostimulants. And here in this particular use case, I'm trying to describe this, I'm going to
2:15.6	say biostimulants other than inoculence,
2:19.4	other than living microbes. So these might be stimulating materials such as humic substances,
2:25.5	such as seaweed, such as amino acids, and organic acids of all types, and on and on the list goes.
2:32.8	From a practical application perspective,
	...

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