Blog

Often, we are asked about variance – different results when you test the same sample. Our answer is that nature produces most of this variance. To explain, when you measure out 0.5 cc of soil, you have on average about...

In learning how to develop healthy soil for healthy plants and people, Frans Plugge of New Zealand discovered the importance of increasing the fungi population in his garden and this led him to microBIOMETER®. “The microBIOMETER® soil test makes measuring...

A summary of James F. White’s presentation at BioFarm, 2020 (Nov. 12, 2020). The rhizophagy cycle is an amazing process recently discovered by James White’s laboratory at the University of New Jersey, by which root tips “ingest” bacteria and absorb...

microBIOMETER® reports the microbial biomass as ug of microbial carbon/gram of soil. The chart pictured here shows how much carbon can be stored in an acre just by increasing microbial biomass alone. (Chemically fertilized farmland averages about 100 ug/microbial C/g...

Katharhy G. is an agroecosystem and ethnoscience researcher who traveled to Ecuador to investigate the relationship between microbial biomass and crop health, as well as to study the local indigenous agriculture practices. He visited 28 different farms growing 15 different...

The effect of various Roundup formulations and microplastics on soil. Dr. Sharon Pochron and her students at Stonybrook University in New York have been using microBIOMETER® for two years. Dr. Pochron studies the effect of various Roundup formulations and microplastics...

Carbon Sponge is an interdisciplinary collaboration exploring the potential for urban soils to sequester carbon as a means to mitigate anthropogenic greenhouse gases and build healthy soil. At microBIOMETER® we were very excited to work with Brooke Singer and play a role in this...

Priming is currently a hot topic as it affects whether the fertilizer you are using is effective. For instance, when you prime a pump, the water you add allows the pump to start pumping water. If there is not enough...

Terroir /terˈwär/ began as the French word to describe the effect of a given agricultural environment on the characteristics of a wine. It is now recognized that terroir affects all foods and it is the effect on the plant of...

We had the pleasure of speaking to Mike Ellis of Mt. Hope Farms as he shared his experience with microBIOMETER®. We also learned a lot about his family farm in Molalla, Oregon. “Had a great opportunity to take my new...