Amy Gardner of Kalispell, Montana serves farmers in the Flathead Valley as an agronomy coach through her business, Lower Valley Consulting Inc. Amy has been scouting soil health trials as part of gathering third-party research for the company AgriGro. Farmers have been applying AgriGro’s prebiotic technology to boost soil health
Your soil is a unique mixture of sand, silt, clay, and organic matter. The particular make-up of your soil determines its color, texture, and nutrient storage capacity. Knowing your soil’s texture and nutrient storage capacity is important when deciding how much and how often to feed and water your plants.
Seasonal dynamics are a major driver of soil microbial communities. Much like you and I, microbes are more active during some seasons, and more dormant during others. This can be attributed to the different responses microbes have to nutrient inputs, climatic conditions, and other soil properties. As there are a
An interview with the San Antonio Food Bank who is using microBIOMETER® in their Farm and Garden Program. How are you using microBIOMETER®? We are using microBIOMETER to track the soil health on our farms, gardens and compost. This test allows us to understand if we are providing an environment
microBIOMETER® can tell you if you are increasing the nutrient value and disease resistance of your crop. A Rodale study showed greatly increased levels of the vitamins and minerals in sustainably farmed soils as opposed to mineral fertilized crops. And at Rodale, the sustainable practice yields are the same as
Informal science education is a key for community engagement and healthy gardening. Community gardening brings numerous benefits such as fresh produce, therapy, physical exercise, reduction in grocery bills, improvement of mood among many others. “Last weekend I had the privilege to teach community gardeners on the importance of soil testing
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
Jeff Lowenfels, a valued advisor and member of our Board, was recently featured in the New York Times Sunday Magazine article, He Wrote a gardening column: He ended up documenting climate change. For 45 years Jeff has written a gardening column for the Anchorage Daily News and over this time
We were excited to hear from our long-time customer Marcelo Chiappetta of Chiappetta Agricultural Company on how his microBIOMETER® testing has been progressing. Below is what he shared with us. “Here in southern Brazil the past 5 years we’ve been working with biological agriculture and changing the way we see and
The microbial population or microbial biomass (MB) reflects soil fertility. For over 2 million years, plants and soil microbes have worked together to create what we call fertile “soil”. How do they work together? The plant supplies the microbes with carbon rich food. The microbes then mine the soil for
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