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 like a prairie fire.
While regenerative agriculture gives a well-earned nod to the past, its relationship with science and technology allows it to effectively transform the way we currently grow food. microBIOMETER®, with their customers all around the world, are leading the way with technology that shows farmers when their soil health practices are working and when they are not.
“I believe biological agriculture is the way to regenerate and create more resilient soil that will supply nutrients and higher immunity to the plants. This is why microBIOMETER® has become an invaluable asset to my soil management efforts.” ~ Marcelo Chiappetta of Chiapeta Empresa Agricola in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Creating healthy soil may take the wisdom of generations of farmers, but microBIOMETER® supplies the knowledge farmers need to best manage potential outcomes.
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 of soil, that means you have 600ug of microbial biomass – we divide the number we get by ½ because the literature tells us that 50% of the dried MB is carbon. As dried bacteria is estimated to weigh 1pg, if this were all bacteria, it constitutes 600,000,000pg or 600 million bacteria.
Now imagine that I have 600 apartment buildings in NYC that each contain 1 million people, and I decide to check 10 apartments in 10 buildings at 4 p.m. to estimate the number of people actually in the building. Obviously, it would vary because people are not always in their apartment and different apartments have different numbers of inhabitants – the same is true for soil.
Soil contains microscopic aggregates of different sizes and the number and type of inhabitants in each varies on the physical and chemical composition of the space as well as the nutrient, pH and hydration level. Each sample you take is like looking at a number of different apartments in a number of apartment buildings.
For this reason, when conducting research, soil and medical researchers run duplicates or triplicates. Because of cost, soil labs generally do not run duplicates and they see 10- 25% variation. We are recommending running duplicates when using microBIOMETER® unless you are doing academic research. Generally, we see <10% variation for a given sample, and for a field that looks homogeneous. Pastures can have much higher variation because the nutrients level across the area varies tremendously.
Source: How Plants ‘Farm’ Soil Microbes and Endophytes in Roots
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 the University of New Jersey, by which root tips “ingest” bacteria and absorb nitrogen and phosphorus and other nutrients from them.
The microbes pictured here in roots are called endophytes because they can live inside plants. The bacteria are attracted to the root tip by root exudates. They then enter the root where the cell walls are dissolved using superoxide, allowing nutrients to leak out to the plant. But the plant does not kill the microbes instead the microbes stimulate the formation of root hairs, which are escape routes for the microbes.
After ejection from root hair tips, bacterial cell walls re-form. The bacteria fatten up and are soon ready to acquire soil nutrients and become another meal for the plant.
Source: How Plants ‘Farm’ Soil Microbes and Endophytes in Roots
Not only does rhizophagy provide mineral nutrients, it is also the stimulus for formation of root hairs, which are critical to the establishment of a healthy root as can be seen in this photo of a plant root with and without endophytes.
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 soil quality. It is the bodies of dead microbes that build humus/soil organic carbon, returning carbon to the soil and building soil structure which prevents erosion and pollutant run off. (Chemical nitrogen fertilizers have been shown to inhibit microbial biomass.)
The literature reports that lab measurements of soil organic carbon are not sufficiently accurate in monitoring an increase in carbon sequestration in less than 3 years but that a yearly increase in microbial biomass can indicate that the process of carbon accumulation is occurring.
microBIOMETER® has been used to demonstrate increases in soil carbon due to increases in microbial biomass on the Apple campus in Texas and for 3 years by the NYC Arts and Science Carbon Sponge Project.
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 crops. 14 of these farms are practicing conventional farming, while the other 14 farms are practicing indigenous regenerative farming. Most sites are not receiving irrigation. He tested the soil with microBIOMETER® and ranked the crop health as poor (1), average (2), good (3), excellent (4).
As the graph shows, microbial biomass correlated with crop health under all these different conditions. Samples with microbial biomass lower than 225 were all poor (1) and samples above 400 were all excellent.
The take home lesson is that to improve your plant health and yield, increase your microbial biomass by feeding your microbes with organic amendments.
If you have microBIOMETER® research data you’d like to share with us, please contact us. We would love to share it with our readers!
Contact:. ka*******@***il.com
Earthworms recover from Roundup exposure
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 on soil microbes and soil invertebrates.
Her most recent publication (See Figure 2) shows microbial biomass increasing on day 7 in both the Roundup treated and untreated soils – the 0 line depicts the microbial biomass on day 0. This increase is probably due to the soil microbes responding to rewetting. By day 14 the microbial biomass in the uncontaminated soil is back to baseline, but the Roundup treated soil has dropped well below baseline. By day 21 both soils have returned to baseline. This study shows only total microbial biomass recovery, but there is evidence that Roundup can affect microbial composition.
Prolific Earth Sciences is supporting research at various universities. Feel free to contact us to discuss your project and how we can assist.
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 grow in peace.
Considering the wealth of benefits, it’s no surprise that it is recommended that you do everything you can to maximize the microbial biomass in your soil. While there’s complicated science behind it, nourishing and increasing the amount of microbes in your soil is simple, and can be accomplished with a few tried and true methods. And thanks to the microBIOMETER® soil test, even amateur gardeners can track their microbial biomass levels.
First, let’s detail how you can take care of those important microbes and enhance their numbers. It’ll involve shedding some old gardening habits, along with taking on some new ones, but we promise the end results will be worth it.
What To Avoid
Before you start taking extra steps to care for and increase your microbial biomass, you should ensure you’re avoiding certain tactics that are known to hinder their growth.
While you might think avoiding pesticides wouldn’t enhance plant health, a close look at the ingredients of most pesticides will show you they do far more harm than good. Amongst a variety of issues, one of the most harmful is the fact they decimate microbial populations in the soil. If you want to ensure pests will stay away in the absence of pesticides, try utilizing companion plants instead.
While pesticides are bad, fungicides are even more of a threat. Some of the most vital microbes in your soil, being fungi, would be directly targeted by these treatments. The harshness of these chemicals would also wreak havoc on the non-fungi microbes, all but eliminating any trace of a microbial biomass. Even if you can’t do everything on this list, ensure you at least abide by this particular rule.
Lastly, while many gardeners and farmers consider tilling a standard gardening process, you’ll want to abstain from it if you’re focusing on your soil’s microbes. That, of course, is due to the level of soil disturbance that occurs during the process. The process leads to lost microbes (especially fungi), and any benefits gained from additions made to the soil end up being cancelled out. By avoiding tilling, you’ll allow the delicate environment in your soil to function undisturbed and, in turn, at full capacity.
What To Do
Now that you’ve cut those bad habits out of your gardening routine, you have room for a few that’ll greatly benefit your soil in the long run.
Nothing gets microbes into the soil like a nice big pile of compost! All that food breaking down in one big pile is basically a feast for all the helpful microbes you want around your plants. Once you add it onto your soil, then turn it to make sure air hits every part of it, you’ll be ensuring the microbes have plenty of energy to break down nutrients. To ensure the best compost possible, make sure you add in natural components like grass clippings, fruits, vegetables, wood chips, and straw. There’s no need to exclude other foods, even processed ones, but a healthy blend of green and brown material is a must.
Following the same logic, compost teas can do wonders for the microbes in your soil. All you have to do is take some compost and put it in a water permeable pouch, add some microbe feeding nutrients (perhaps like molasses), and let it brew (bubbling air into it) until the microbes in the compost have multiplied and the tea is full of microbes. Once done, pour it all around the base of your plants. One round will do your plants good, but repeating this process a few times during your growing process will really make a difference.
This last step is actually three steps and if these conditions aren’t met, virtually nothing else on this list will have a noticeable effect. To start, making sure you have adequate moisture is as simple as regularly watering your plants. You may also want to consider purchasing a moisture meter to assure your levels are ideal. Next, the ideal pH range for soil is between 6.0 and 7.0, so you’ll have to test your soil to see where you’re at. If your soil pH is too low try adding limestone and if your pH is too high you can add aluminum sulfate and sulfur to get things balanced. Lastly, mulching is a great way to help your soil maintain an even temperature.
Incorporating these simple tactics into your crop management is an important first step to building the microbial biomass in your soil. Another critical step is testing and quantifying the results of these inputs since decision making without data is like driving blindfolded. microBIOMETER® is a rapid, on-site soil test for microbial biomass. Microbes respond very quickly to any changes in the soil, therefore, you can set a baseline then retest within a week to see if you are heading in the right direction.
With a small R & D grant awarded from the Dutch government, Jo Ploumen of the Netherlands is using microBIOMETER® to determine fungal to bacterial ratios in vermicompost filled in a Johnson-Su Bioreactor versus residence time. Jo also uses microBIOMETER® to measure microbes and F:B ratio in select soil samples as a member of a garden club. He found the differences by method of gardening; organic vs fertilizer and bare vs covered soil to be striking!
“I like microBIOMETER® as it is a cost-effective tool with a high impact, potentially,” Jo said.
Jo’s impressive resume includes studying Chemical Technology at the Technical University of Eindhoven, employment at multinational AKZO Nobel as an R & D specialist and co-founder of Pulsed Heat BV. In 2019, Jo founded Ploumen E.S. Compost to begin research based on the findings of Dr. David Johnson. Johnson is the developer of the Johnson-Su Bioreactor which delivers a compost with very unique properties.
We are honored to have Jo as a valued customer, data collector and partner on our journey to increase awareness of soil health, regenerative practices and carbon sequestration!
Photo source: Taos News
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 protects against pathogens, thereby reducing the need for pesticides. MB can predict success before plant outcome. The Fungal:Bacterial ratio (F:B) of the MB provides crucial information regarding colonization by Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF), and the recycling metabolic processes of saprophytic fungi (SpF).
Soil stewards all over the world are seeking to understand the microbial levels in their soil and the ratio of fungal to bacterial life. The higher the microbial biomass, the more nutrients will be available to plants naturally, decreasing or eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers. Higher fungal to bacterial ratios are critical for building soil structure that prevents erosion and runoff off of pollutant chemicals while building moisture holding capacity of the soil and sequestering carbon.
Soil health is fast becoming one of the most important factors in agriculture and in the growing efforts to improve the earth’s stock of agricultural land. Farmers, industry, and environmentalists are looking for cost-effective and reliable ways to measure soil health and to assess impacts of progressive changes to soil and harvest management.
Testing soil in homogeneous sections at similar stages of the growth cycle can set a baseline for microbial biomass and fungal to bacterial ratio. That baseline can be used to assess how different stewardship practices are impacting the soil and allow for refinement to soil management plans and show soil health improvement over time. While every soil steward’s situation is unique, microBIOMETER® can help measure, follow, and assess efficacy of improvement to soil health.
Lyons Worm Works
Ben Rodman is a vermicomposter with a love for all things biology and horticulture. His vermicomposting operation, Lyons Worm Works, has grown from simply diverting and reclaiming their household organic wastes into a small-scale but growing community effort.
Combined with all the spent substrate from their gourmet mushroom cultivation and gardening and brewing waste, Lyons Worm Works creates high-quality, microbially dense and diverse living vermicast for regional consumers. For Ben, providing quality vermicast to customers means having objective measurements of its quality for multiple reasons: integrity and trust, quality assurance, marketing, and constant experimentation to improve his product and process.
“Experimentation and real data has always been important to me; bridging my idealism with the real world we live in and grow our food and medicine in. microBIOMETER® is giving me fast, quantitative data to assess important considerations like feedstock quality, evaluating the impacts of process changes, durability and storage for finished product, and for fine-tuning my compost tea kit recipes so customers can make high-quality aerated teas at home. Having a fast, accurate and objective way to assess my products provides me with the data needed to make informed decisions. It gives my customers and I confidence that my products are going to help them meet their goals. What a great product for the small producer like me, for whom a home lab isn’t practical and routine commercial lab testing is prohibitively costly!”
