You’ve probably read how important it is for your soil to have a large, diverse microbial population, but how do you know that all those microbes are good? Well to start, a healthy and optimal microbial population in your soil will always have a mixture of good and bad microbes.
University study demonstrates legumes are more efficient at improving soil MBC than grasses Under the direction of Assistant Professor Denise Finney, Kylie Cherneskie, biology student at Ursinus College, conducted an experiment on the impacts of nitrogen fertilizer addition on soil microbial communities. Kylie measured microbial responses using microBIOMETER®. Click here
We recently received the following questions from one of our customers and below are the responses from Dr. Fitzpatrick. Part of my research is surrounding the soil organic carbon results we attained from microBIOMETER®, and I am wondering if someone from your team could provide more information on what this
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. If your microBIOMETER® results read 300ugMBC/gram
UPDATE: Dr. White sat down with Dr. Fitzpatrick and Jeff Lowenfels to discuss rhizophagy. Click here to view the webinar. (Jan. 15, 2021) 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
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 of soil.) Microbial biomass is the best single estimate of
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 important project. Brooke initiated Carbon Sponge during her residency at the
Healthy soil is brimming with beneficial microbes, and those microbes are one of the important keys to ensuring the health of your plants. Along with breaking down key nutrients for your plants, they’ll aerate the soil so nutrients are evenly distributed, and fend off parasitic microbes so your garden can
Microbial biomass (MB) is the best single indicator of soil health (Doran, 2000). Microbes feed and protect plants, build soil structure which prevents erosion, increase water holding capacity, and build soil organic matter (SOM). MB is low in any situation that is harmful to plant growth (and vice versa) and
Many first-time cannabis growers don’t think too hard about the soil their plants will be growing in. If the soil looks healthy enough, it should be good to go, right? Well, it might be, but that isn’t enough information to tell for sure. If you really want to know whether
We receive this question often and the answer is no. How do we know this? microBIOMETER® shows that soil removed from the earth and plants lose microbial biomass every day which we have confirmed with microscopic studies. The literature also confirms this. Why is there confusion? Most of the microbes