Scott Hortop, a retired volunteer and now student of soil, located in the Ottawa Valley, Ontario, Canada, shared with us how ONfungi is using microBIOMETER® to test the fungal dominant compost in their Johnson-Su bioreactors.
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 the paired fields farmed with mineral fertilizers – and in bad weather, and disease years significantly better. Rodale is only one of many studies showing the increased nutrient value of organically and sustainably grown food.
microBIOMETER® was proud to have a booth at the Commodity Classic Conference and Trade Show in New Orleans. The show was an extravaganza of BIG Ag; huge tractors and heavy equipment along with country singers at the Bayer Booth!
We were excited to connect with lots of old friends as well as meet many new people that share our passion for soil biology. Our booth was busy all three days demonstrating and talking about microBIOMETER®.
microBIOMETER® attended the 33rd Annual MOSES Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, Wisconsin February 24-26th. The trade show was back LIVE after two virtual years with days full of keynote speakers as well as sessions on homesteading, livestock, water management, and soil health (our favorite!) Our own Laura Decker hosted a booth and spent most of the time running soil test demos and talking to folks about using the microBIOMETER®.
Austin Arrington of Plant Group NYC performed a research study on hemp’s capacity to sequester carbon. Austin utilized microBIOMETER® in this research. We originally had the pleasure of meeting Austin through Indigo Ag’s Terraton Challenge, Plant Group is a fellow semi-finalist and alumni.
Prolific Earth Sciences, Inc. (PES) and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) collaborated on a study to compare the gold standard of laboratory soil microbial biomass testing, Chloroform Fumigation Extraction (CFE), with microBIOMETER®. The multiple steps, time, and labor involved with CFE require pricing at up to $500 per sample.
microBIOMETER® is the only non-laboratory test for F:B.
The methods of measuring F:B ratio give very different values (1-11). The Gold Standard for estimating fungal biomass is microscopy, which calculates fungal biovolume. Note that microBIOMETER® detects the same range as microscopy- not surprising as it was validated by correlation with microscopy. For review of these measures see Appendix 1. For measuring progress, stick with one method.
We are very excited to share this latest update to the microBIOMETER® app! With this update, customers will now receive instant, visual feedback for their results.
For microbial biomass, the range is reflected as low to excellent. The fungal to bacterial ratio available for soil and compost is displayed as below, mid or above range based on your microbial biomass reading.
Nature article reports that microbial biomass estimates by microBIOMETER® correlates with soil health and yield stability.
The microBIOMETER® soil test was used to report microbial biomass in a recent Nature publication*. Scientists Dr. Judith Fitzpatrick and Dr. Brady Trexler of microBIOMETER® collaborated with a University of Tennessee team headed by Dr. Amin Nouri.
PLANT Group is a team of designers, engineers, and ecologists building systems to connect humans and nature.
Through their partnership with Blue Forest Farms, Austin Arrington and the team at PLANT Group are currently using microBIOMETER® to research the soil health and carbon sequestration implications of growing hemp at their research farm, Honeysuckle Hops & Hemp, in Iowa.
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