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hemp farm soil testing

Soil testing at a hemp farm in Iowa

PLANT Group is a team of designers, engineers, and ecologists. The company is building systems to connect humans and nature. In the process, they are soil testing at a hemp farm in Iowa, Honeysuckle Hops & Hemp. First, through their partnership with Blue Forest Farms, the team at PLANT Group

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Community gardening with microBIOMETER®

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

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microBIOMETER® Soil Testing in France

The Biospheres, working through the CDA*,  accompanies and trains farmers/agricultural companies in the agroecological transition based on a soil conservation approach. The group is also working on applied research projects and therefore on trials under real farming conditions in which they evaluate the impact of certain changes in practices on

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soil carbon

Soil Carbon Q & A with Dr. Judy

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

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Soil testing update from Brazil

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

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earth macro

Improving soil health and carbon content

Modern agriculture practices have led to the systematic degradation of the world’s soil and release of carbon into the environment. The effects are increased need for expensive and environmentally dangerous inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides), the loss of fertile top soil, decrease in water holding capacity of soil and dangerously

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Testing bio fertilizers in Canada

Ralph Lett, head of product development at Acterra, was kind enough to share his microBIOMETER® experience with us. We love hearing the different ways our customers are using our soil test! Please contact us  if you would like to share your soil testing story. “Thanks for taking an interest in

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Concept image showing the words CARBON CAPTURE on a green leaves (which in fact capture carbon dioxide). Carbon capture refers to capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from large burner installations like fossil fuel power plants. The CO2 is subsequently stored in order to prevent it from entering the atmosphere and therefore avoiding its contribution to the greenhouse effect.

Soil carbon is a complex creature.

Soil carbon is important to soil health because it enables microbial life. Microbes are able to obtain carbon directly from plant exudates, however, much of their carbon source is from the dead plant and plant derived materials that they digest.  We harvest much of the above ground matter from crops, but

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microBIOMETER® on the golf course!

Graham Mackie, Golf Course Manager at Edzell Golf Course in the U.K., has been using microBIOMETER® to monitor the health of the soil on the greens. Here is what he had to say about our soil test. “I really like microBIOMETER®. It is simple to use and for the first time I

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soil fertility

The Role Microbes Play in Increasing Soil Fertility

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

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