What is the difference between microbial biomass (MB) and microbial respiration rate (RR) ? Both parameters are used to assess soil microbial health. The respiration assay measures the amount of carbon dioxide produced by the microbes in a given weight of soil. The soil is dried and then rewetted and

We appreciate your taking the time to join our Acres webinar “How Microbes Protect Plants” presented by Dr. Judith Fitzpatrick. There were quite a few questions posed during the webinar that unfortunately went unanswered. Dr. Fitzpatrick has answered them below. Missed the webinar? Click here to watch!

Ben Taylor-Davies, also known as Regen Ben, is a farmer and bioagri-ecologist working from Herefordshire in the UK. His farm is based in Ross-on-Wye and has been focused on environmental improvements for the past 22 years.

We began offering microBIOMETER® Academia Classroom kits last year and are excited with the interest we have received so far from universities, high schools and other academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Professors are utilizing our soil test to introduce their students to the world of microbes and soil health.

We are very excited to be releasing a new feature to the microBIOMETER® soil testing app. Project Management allows users to create custom projects utilizing unique fields and enables team members to contribute their microBIOMETER® soil test results to the project.

Sometimes the wisdom we need to build a great future is buried in the past. Regenerative agriculture isn’t an entirely new concept, it’s actually more of a return to the wisdom of farmers from days gone by. What’s old is new again and its popularity is spreading around the globe

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 0.6 grams of soil.

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 the fungi to bacteria ratio so easy.” – Frans

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 nitrogen and phosphorus and other nutrients from them.

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 on soil microbes and soil invertebrates. Her most recent publication (See Figure 2) shows microbial biomass increasing on day 7 in both the Roundup

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 water, you just wasted the priming water.

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 the soil, the climate and perhaps most importantly the microbes