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, compost, worm casting and any liquid bio-amendment (extract, tea, EM, IMO etc) in terms of:
- Soil health: microbial biomass of 4 essential classes of beneficial soil micro organisms which are at the foundation of the natural soil nutrient cycling (SFW) process allowing plants to grow healthy, disease and pest free: bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes.
- Presence of pathogens, disease causing organisms
- Soil toxicity, pollution, heavy metals
- Fungi to bacteria F:B ratio.
Assessment report & interpretation
Biological Assessment: 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
- Written comments about the numbers
Full Assessment: (requires to send 500ml of sample)
You will receive a report assessing :
- Everything from the biological assessment
- Soil characterisation: structure, pH and an indication of the soil organic matter content.
- Soil texture: aerated or compacted anaerobic or waterlogged.
Follow up call
We recommend a follow up call to clarify the results, answer questions and we can provide options and recommendations.
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…
How to send a sample for assessment?
Contact us if you desire an assessment. Please indicate what is your operation, your objectives, challenges, problems and what you would like us to assess. Please specify if you want a Biological or a Full Assessment. We will send you the sample collection and shipment protocol and answer any practical question.