A holistic microbiome test for your soil (or compost) that uses cutting-edge soil microscopy to quantify your soil health and give you tips on how to improve it.
You can't improve what you can't measure, so let's get you measuring so you can grow stronger, healthier, and happier plants!
We test for the following parameters:
- Fungal Biomass
- Bacterial Biomass
- Fungal-to-Bacterial Ratio
- Actinobacterial Biomass
- Nematode Population
- Flagellate Population
- Ciliate Population
- Amoeba Population
The Fungal-to-Bacterial ratio is among the most important indicators of soil health. It reflects what type of plants your soil is ready to grow. Most common vegetable crops prefer a 1:1 ratio, while weeds prefer 0.1:1 and mature forests can go all the way up to 10,000:1. Most farm and garden soils around the world have been depleted by harmful practices such as applying pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers. The F:B ratios of these soils are usually far less than the minimum recommended value of 0.3:1. Test your soil to see where it lies on this spectrum. Get it closer to 1:1 and watch as weeds disappear and crops thrive!
The Nematode, Flagellate, and Amoeba populations are all beneficial indicators of soil health. If you have the minimum recommended amount of 10,000 individuals per gram of soil, it indicates that your soil food web is up and active, cycling nutrients for your plants.
The Actinobacteria and Ciliate populations are less desirable, and can indicate anaerobic conditions. We always want our soils to be aerated, but through the natural structure created by soil biology--not through over-tilling. In fact, excessive tillage can lead to compacted soil layers, anaerobic conditions, and high actinobacterial and ciliate populations. Follow no-till farming or no-dig gardening to protect your precious but fragile fungal populations, and you'll see less and less of these harmful creatures in no time.
We provide our results as a PDF document, sent directly to your email inbox. This document details all of the parameters as well as recommended ranges and charts to help visualize your soil microbiome. We also provide comments on the sample including recommendations based on what we've observed. All you have to do is scoop out a soil sample using our sampling guidelines and send it our way. Get your soil tested today to learn where you are on the path to a healthy soil ecosystem!
Your first soil microbiome test is a baseline for your soil health. After that, we'll advise you on best practices to improve your soil health and monitor the results!
