Scientific Protocol
The scientific protocol in our soil microscopy laboratory work has been pioneered by Dr Elaine Ingham, a world renown soil microbiologist accompanying food growers all over the world to transition to regenerative farming practices. More over Elaine Ingham Research work. She is also the founder of the Soil Food Web School. We are a Soil Food Web Certified Laboratory.
Equipment
Our SFW soil microbiology laboratory is equipped with a Euromex iScope Tripod compound microscope, a high definition 4K camera and NA1.25 Abbe condenser with iris diaphragm allowing us to do shadow microscopy and see the living micro organisms present in the soil sample magnified up to 400x.
Service
We assess soil or compost or compost extract & teas samples in terms of:
- Microbial biomass of 4 essential classes of beneficial soil micro organisms (bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes) which are at the foundation of the natural soil nutrient cycling (SFW) process allowing plant to grow healthy, disease and pest free.
- Presence of pathogens or disease causing organisms
- Fungi to bacteria F:B ratio.
Assessment report & interpretation
You will receive a report assessing :
- Is it Biocomplete®? The sample has a minimum recommended biomass of all the 4 beneficial families of microorganisms to support the soil food web nutrient cycling.
- What is the biomass of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes, and how high or low they are compared to the recommended value?
- The fungi to bacteria F:B ratio of the sample compared to the recommended F:B to grow what you want to grow
- The presence of pathogens or disease causing organisms
- The presence of toxic metals, pollution in your sample
Remediation
We can put you in direct contact with a SFW consultant that can advise you on the corrective actions to take to improve your soil and plant/orchard/field health and production, and we accompany you in the application of the remediation process and follow up in assessing in our laboratory the effects of your actions:
Soil Assessment – Corrective action – Soil assessment of the outcome – Decision on the next corrective action – Soil assessment of the outcome etc…
In this way, we accompany you into your transition, controlling step by step that you go in the right direction.
If you manage an orchard or a market garden, we can also assess the sap sugar content in your plants and produces to monitor the positive effect of the biological corrective actions on their nutrient content.
Training
We can train you in building a SFW Biocomplete compost, thermophilic or worm casting, and then make extract that you can use on your garden/field/orchard. For more information about our training / workshops…