Understanding the Role of Soil Microbes with Laura Decker

Summary

Laura Decker, from Prolific Earth Sciences, discusses the importance of soil microbes and their crucial role in sustainable agriculture. She explains how conventional farming practices using chemical fertilizers and pesticides have disrupted the symbiotic relationship between plants and microbes, leading to soil degradation. Decker emphasizes the need to rebuild a balanced microbial community by reducing chemical inputs and fostering conditions for microbes to thrive. This includes using cover crops, implementing microbial inputs, and adopting bio-stimulants that enhance soil structure and nutrient availability. By understanding the significance of a healthy soil microbiome, farmers can reduce input costs, increase crop resilience, and potentially earn carbon credits, making farming more profitable and environmentally sustainable.

Takeaways

• 🌱 Microbes have a symbiotic relationship with plants, feeding each other and contributing to soil health.
• 🚜 Conventional agriculture with chemical fertilizers and pesticides has disrupted the natural microbial communities in the soil.
• 💪 Healthy soil relies on diverse microbial communities for plant immunity, nutrient cycling, soil structure, and carbon sequestration.
• 🌳 Microbes help build soil structure by secreting sticky substances that bind soil particles together, creating pockets for air and water.
• 🍽️ Microbes create both fresh and stable soil organic carbon (food stores) for plants and themselves.
• 🌻 A balanced, diverse microbial community is key for optimal plant growth, immunity, and weed control.
• 🚫 Direct microbial inputs may not work if the soil conditions are not suitable for microbial growth.
• 🌏 Microbial communities can vary widely based on soil composition, climate, and region.
• 📈 Monitoring changes in microbial biomass over time is more important than the absolute number.
• 🔬 The microBIOMETER helps farmers and growers assess their soil microbial health and the impact of their practices.

Q & A

What is the main topic of this presentation?

The main topic of this presentation is the importance of soil microbes and their role in agriculture, with a particular focus on how they contribute to soil health and plant growth.

What are the negative effects of conventional agriculture on soil microbes?

The extensive use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides in conventional agriculture has led to a decline in soil microbe populations. The chemical fertilizers provide nutrients in a readily available form, reducing the symbiotic relationship between plants and microbes, and the herbicides and pesticides can directly harm the microbes.

How do microbes contribute to plant health and soil structure?

Microbes provide immunity to plants against pathogens, help plants acquire essential nutrients and minerals, digest plant litter and convert it into soil organic carbon, communicate soil conditions to plants, and build soil structure through the secretion of sticky substances that bind soil particles together.

What is the relationship between root structure and microbes?

Plant roots serve as a means of communication between plants and microbes. When plants are fed chemical fertilizers, they have a decreased need for microbes, leading to reduced root structure. A diminished root structure then creates a vicious cycle, as fewer roots mean less decomposition and less soil organic carbon for microbes to thrive.

What is the importance of microbial diversity in soil?

Microbial diversity is crucial for a healthy soil ecosystem. Different microbes have different functions, and a diverse microbial community can provide a wider range of benefits to plants, including micronutrients, immune responses, and resilience to pathogens and environmental stresses.

How do microbes build soil structure?

Microbes secrete a sticky substance called EPS (extracellular polymeric substances) that binds to soil particles, creating small cavities or "caves" around them. These caves can hold oxygen, water, and other microbes, forming soil aggregates. As microbes die, their bodies become soil organic carbon, further contributing to soil structure.

What is the difference between fresh and stable soil organic carbon?

Fresh soil organic carbon is readily available for microbes and plants to consume, similar to food in a refrigerator. Stable soil organic carbon is more complex and needs to be broken down further, like food in a freezer that needs to be defrosted and cooked before it can be consumed.

What is the purpose of priming meals in soil?

Priming meals, such as compostees or other inputs with sugars and microbes, can provide a burst of readily available food for soil microbes. However, if the existing soil cannot sustain microbial life, these microbes will eventually die off when the priming meal is consumed, leading to a temporary boost in microbial activity.

How can microbial inputs like mycorrhizal fungi or compostees affect soil microbial communities?

The success of direct microbial inputs, such as mycorrhizal fungi or compostees, can vary. If introduced to soil that cannot support microbial life, the added microbes may not survive. However, research is ongoing to understand how microbial populations vary across different locations and how to effectively introduce beneficial microbes.

What is the purpose of the microBIOMETER product mentioned in the presentation?

The microBIOMETER is a product developed by the presenter's company, Prolific Earth Sciences, that allows farmers and growers to test their soil microbial biomass in real-time, over time. This enables them to assess the impact of various practices and products on their soil microbiome and make informed decisions to improve soil health.

Outlines

00:00

🧫 Introduction to Soil Microbes and Their Importance

Laura Decker, an employee at Prolific Earth Sciences, introduces herself and explains the importance of microbes in soil. She discusses how conventional agriculture, with the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, has disrupted the symbiotic relationship between plants and microbes, leading to soil degradation. Microbes play a crucial role in providing nutrients, immunity, decomposition, and soil structure. A healthy soil relies heavily on a diverse microbial community.

05:00

🌱 Microbial Communities and Their Layered Interactions

Decker explains that microbial communities are extensive and layered, with each microbe having limited DNA and the ability to produce only one or two compounds. Microbes rely on each other's byproducts to thrive, creating a chain reaction where one microbe's growth enables another's. As the microbial community becomes healthier, it becomes more diverse, resilient, and beneficial to plants. A diverse microbial population is essential for providing various micronutrients, immune responses, and other benefits to plants.

10:01

🧪 Microbes and Soil Structure

Decker discusses how microbes play a crucial role in building soil structure by secreting a sticky substance called EPS, which binds soil particles together, creating aggregates and pockets for water, oxygen, and other microbes. This process helps prevent erosion, increases water-holding capacity, and improves soil resistance to drought. As soil structure improves, it becomes easier for microbes to thrive and contribute to further soil development. Decker emphasizes the importance of soil organic carbon, both fresh and stable, as a food source for microbes and plants during times of stress.

15:02

🌳 Building a Balanced Microbial Community

Decker acknowledges the difficulty in providing a simple solution for building a balanced microbial community, as it depends on factors like soil, climate, and crop type. The goal is to create optimal conditions for microbes to thrive by providing the right food and environment. Practices like cover cropping, where plants are grown continuously, help feed microbes and support the symbiotic relationship between plants and microbes. Decker discusses various types of inputs, including chemical fertilizers, microbial inputs, and biostimulants, and their effects on microbial communities.

20:03

🔍 Assessing Microbial Health and Diversity

Decker addresses questions about optimal microbial biomass and fungal-to-bacteria ratios, stating that it depends on factors like soil composition, pH, compaction, organic carbon stores, temperature, salts, crop history, and water availability. The important metric is not the absolute number but the change in microbial population over time, indicating whether practices are improving or harming the soil microbiome. Decker introduces Prolific Earth Sciences' microBIOMETER, a tool that allows farmers and growers to test microbial biomass in real-time and assess the impact of various inputs on their soil microbes.

Keywords

💡Microbes

Microbes, also known as microorganisms, are microscopic living organisms that are crucial for soil health. In the context of this video, microbes refer to the diverse community of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that exist in the soil. They play a vital role in maintaining the soil's fertility and structure, as well as supporting plant growth. The transcript emphasizes the importance of microbes in the soil microbe cycle, their symbiotic relationship with plants, and their ability to provide nutrients, immunity, and soil structure.

💡Soil Structure

Soil structure refers to the arrangement of soil particles into aggregates or clumps, creating a network of pores and spaces within the soil. According to the video, microbes play a crucial role in building soil structure by secreting sticky substances that bind soil particles together, forming aggregates. This process helps prevent soil erosion, increases water-holding capacity, enhances drought resistance, and improves oxygenation in the soil. The transcript highlights how soil structure is essential for mitigating drought risks and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a healthy soil structure through microbial activity.

💡Symbiotic Relationship

A symbiotic relationship is a close and long-term interaction between two different organisms that is mutually beneficial. In the context of the video, the symbiotic relationship refers to the interdependent relationship between plants and microbes in the soil. Plants provide microbes with organic matter and nutrients, while microbes help plants access essential minerals and nutrients, provide immunity against pathogens, and contribute to soil structure. The transcript emphasizes that this symbiotic relationship is crucial for maintaining a healthy soil ecosystem and supporting plant growth.

💡Chemical Fertilizers

Chemical fertilizers are synthetic compounds that contain essential nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK), which are necessary for plant growth. The video discusses how the extensive use of chemical fertilizers in conventional agriculture has disrupted the symbiotic relationship between plants and microbes. When plants are provided with readily available chemical fertilizers, they tend to become "lazy" and rely less on the microbes for obtaining nutrients, leading to a decline in microbial populations and soil health. The transcript highlights the need to reduce reliance on expensive chemical fertilizers and explore alternative solutions that support microbial communities and restore soil fertility.

💡Soil Organic Carbon (SOC)

Soil organic carbon (SOC) refers to the carbon-based compounds found in the soil, derived from the decomposition of plant and animal matter. The video emphasizes the importance of soil organic carbon, both fresh (readily available) and stable (more long-term) forms, as a source of food and energy for soil microbes and plants. Maintaining adequate levels of SOC is crucial for soil health, as it supports microbial life, soil structure, and plant growth. The transcript also discusses the potential for farmers to receive carbon credits for sequestering carbon in their soils, making farming more profitable while promoting sustainable practices.

💡Microbial Diversity

Microbial diversity refers to the variety of different types of microorganisms present in a given environment, such as the soil. The video emphasizes that a diverse microbial community is essential for soil health and resilience. Each microbe can perform specific functions, such as producing certain compounds or enzymes, and a diverse community ensures that various processes are carried out efficiently. The transcript underscores the importance of building a diverse microbial population layer by layer, as microbes rely on each other for food, nutrients, and immune responses.

💡Cover Crops

Cover crops are plants that are grown specifically to cover and protect the soil, rather than for harvesting purposes. The video recommends using cover crops as a practice to maintain continuous plant growth on the soil, allowing for the ongoing symbiotic relationship between plants and microbes. By keeping something growing in the soil at all times, cover crops help feed the microbes and support the microbial community. The transcript suggests that cover crops are one of the most important practices for maintaining a healthy microbial population in the soil.

💡Microbial Inputs

Microbial inputs refer to the practice of introducing specific microorganisms, such as mycorrhizal fungi or compost microbes, directly into the soil to enhance microbial populations. The video discusses the varying success rates of microbial inputs and highlights the importance of ensuring that the soil conditions are suitable for supporting microbial life before applying these inputs. The transcript emphasizes that while microbial inputs can be beneficial in some cases, they may not be effective if the soil cannot sustain the introduced microbes due to factors like lack of food, water, or suitable environment.

💡Bio-stimulants

Bio-stimulants are products that enhance plant growth and health by improving the environment for microbes to thrive in the soil. The video mentions products like Rhyzogreen® as examples of bio-stimulants, which create conditions that allow microbes to grow and multiply, rather than directly introducing microbes. The transcript emphasizes the importance of using bio-stimulants that perpetuate a system that reduces reliance on chemical inputs and supports microbial health.

Highlights

Microbes and plants have a symbiotic relationship, where microbes feed plants and plants feed microbes.

Extensive use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides has reduced the growth of microbes in the soil.

Healthy soil is deeply reliant on the microbial community, which provides immunity to pathogens, minerals and nutrients, decomposition of plant litter, and builds soil structure.

Microbes help build soil structure, which increases water holding capacity, prevents erosion, and makes plants and soil resistant to drought.

Microbial communities are extensive and layered, with each microbe producing compounds that support the growth of other microbes in a chain reaction.

A diverse and resilient microbial community is essential, as microbes barter micronutrients and chemicals among themselves.

Microbes attach themselves to soil particles and secrete a sticky substance called EPS, which creates soil aggregates and holds oxygen and water, building soil structure.

Soil structure is important for mitigating drought risk, as it can hold more water.

Microbes make soil organic matter from plant material, which becomes fresh and stable carbon stores that are crucial for plant and microbial food security.

Building a balanced microbial community depends on creating optimal conditions for microbes to thrive, which varies by soil climate and crop.

Cover crops are important for keeping microbes healthy, as they allow plants and microbes to continue feeding and supporting each other.

Microbial inputs like mycorrhizal fungi and compostees have varying success, and direct microbial inputs may not work if the soil cannot support microbial life.

Bio-stimulants create environments that help microbes grow, perpetuating a system that reduces reliance on expensive chemical fertilizers.

The optimum microbial or fungal to bacteria ratio depends on various factors like soil composition, pH, compaction, organic carbon stores, temperature, salts, crop history, and water availability.

The microBIOMETER allows farmers and growers to test their microbial biomass in real-time to assess the impact of practices and products on their soil microbiome.

Transcripts

My name is is Laura Decker. I work

with a company called Prolific Earth Sciences,

and we make the microBIOMETER which

is an in-field test for soil microbes.

And Trevor asked me to come give

a quick little talk about the importance of microbes

and the role, a little bit more scientific

based, of microbes in the soil.

I think sometimes when we talk to people,

we sort of assume that everyone is on

the same page with microbes,

and understands fully what they do

and why they want them. So this is just

a quick

overview of

some of the important parts

of the soil microbe cycle.

Next slide.

So,

in conventional, what I call conventional

agriculture, which has been agriculture used

sort of traditionally in the United States

which uses perhaps

some irrigation, perhaps some chemical

fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides

and what we've been learning, as

the soil starts to degrade naturally,

is a lot of that is because the chemicals,

NPK, that we have been feeding

the crops, which have been incredibly

effective, essentially

in increasing yield, which has been a

wonderful thing... What it has done

is taken away the role of the microbes

in the soil. So plants and

microbes have a symbiotic relationship.

Microbes feed plants and plants

feed microbes. But plants,

like all of us, are a little bit lazy, and if

you do put down chemical fertilizers,

it's much more readily available to the plant.

So instead of... for them bartering

with the microbes, and working

that relationship, they will just eat up

the chemical fertilizers that

have been put down.

So really the effect of

the extensive use of chemical

fertilizers, and frankly pesticides

and herbicides, is that the microbes

have not been

growing the way they used to, or

in a system that's sort

of untouched by agriculture.

Next slide.

A healthy soil is deeply

reliant on the microbial community,

and I can't go into all of these, but I'll do a

couple of them today. One is

that microbes give

and provide immunity to pathogens

to plants. This is

a presentation in itself, how

microbes and plants communicate

the existence of pathogens,

and how microbes feed

plants immune

chemicals to help them with that. Plant

also gets the required

mineral and nutrients from microbes

that mine it from the soil, or create

it and trade it with the plant.

Microbes also digest the litter.

So, as the roots of plants

that are left in the soil start to decompose,

those microbes will eat those and decompose

them and turn them into soil organic

carbon, which we'll talk about later,

as an important part of

the food stores for microbes

and plants in the soil.

Microbes also feed information

to plants about the soil conditions.

Okay,

and more importantly, I think we'll

talk about this a lot more, is that microbes

help build soil structure. We know soil

structure is incredibly important for a lot

of different reasons.

It helps prevent erosion.

It increases the water holding

capacity

of soil. It makes plants and

soil resistant to drought,

and it also increases the oxygenation in

soil... erosion.

And then also,

and I'm not gonna hit on it now because

it's sort of controversial, a little hard,

but sequestering carbon is one of the things

that microbes can

help do. And I certainly hope

this is certainly...

there we go... something that could be

talked about later, that when we talk about making

farming more profitable, right,

we talk about reducing

input costs and also

hopefully we will, at some point, be talking

about farmers, not just

farming crops but farming carbon

to make farming

more lucrative.

Next slide.

So this is just a picture of a control

plant. You can see the roots down there...

that says, here's a control plant on the first

one. And then you can see the root structure

if the plant is fed chemical

phosphate, nitrogen, ammonium

and Potassium. And you can see

that really what happens is the plant

is like "Oh I have all the food I need,

I don't need microbes to help me." So

the roots are how the microbes

and the plant communicate. And so

there's a decreased root

structure.

Decreased root structure then creates

essentially a vicious cycle. If there's

fewer root structure,

roots also break up soil, aerate

it, do all that good stuff. But also roots

decompose in the soil, make soil organic

carbon which we'll talk about later.

Next slide.

One of the things to understand about

microbial communities is that they're

very extensive,

and they layer. A microbe

has very very little DNA.

So each microbe can only make

one or two compounds, ok? So,

and what we like to say, is that

if you have a... like this is a Petri

dish, I don't know if anyone has kids in school,

but they always do this, right? You take a clean

Petri dish and you put your hand on

it. The first thing that will happen

is one microbe will start to grow,

and it'll look like a certain color, and

then as that microbe grows, it

starts creating the enzyme,

the chemical, and the food that another microbe

needs. So that microbe will perhaps

have a spore there, but until

it gets woken up by another microbe,

it can't thrive. So there's

a chain reaction.

Bacteria A can't grow until

bacteria

have provided the food. So

as your microbial community

gets healthier, it gets more diverse

and bigger. So it's not like

you can just,

in one day, get the microbial community

back up, you have to build it layer

by layer. So just as the

plants and the microbes barter micronutrients

and chemicals,

so do microbes, okay. So microbes,

you need to have a diversity of microbes.

Now there are, I don't even know

if millions is the right word to use, but many,

many, many kinds of microbes. We

know almost nothing about them. We know

that some are good and some are bad,

but we don't quite know. And the other

thing we don't quite know, is how

do they vary across the globe and

in different areas? Right, so

that's one area that's getting kind of exciting

right now. But what we do know is the bigger

your microbial population becomes,

the more diverse it comes and

the more diverse it is, the more

resilient it is, and the healthier

it is. So

this is just sort of a primer on

why you want a large microbial

community, right? Not just because you want a lot

of the same microbes, but you want lots

of different microbes to provide

micronutrients and

different immune responses to your plant.

Next slide.

Soil structure. I think we talked a little

bit about this. This is kind of cool.

I think people, you can look at soil

and know if it has good soil structure or not,

right? You don't need to run any

fancy tests. But the way microbes

build soil structure is that microbes are

sort of running around in the soil.

and they get eaten by other

microbes by nematodes, by all kinds

of things. It's sort of a tough world

underground, these microbes.

So they attach themselves to soil particles

by secreting a sticky substance called

EPS, ok? And what

that does is make a little cave around

them, right?

That cave can hold oxygen and

water and other microbes and

soil debris. When the microbes

die, right, their bodies

become soil carbon, but the sticky

substance remains, okay, creating

soil aggregates and

soil carbon from their dead bodies

in it. Next.

So here's a little life cycle

of a soil aggregate. You could see on

the top left, they start forming,

right, a microbe will start secreting the substance,

it'll bind to soil particles.

It'll maybe have some roots going through

it or some old debris, maybe other

microbes will join them, then it'll be

stabilized, right? Will be this nice little

home. It's got a pocket for

a little bit of oxygen, a little bit of water.

And that's one of the things why soil

structure is so important for mitigating drought,

risks because you can hold a lot more water

if you have structure. And

then they disintegrate. These are... it's a very,

very fast cycle. Some microbes

reproduce every 15 minutes or so.

So there's a lot happening down there.

When they disintegrate, the sticky substance

is still there. But again, the bodies

of those microbes

become food for new microbes.

So again, it's just a virtuous

cycle as soil structure gets to get built,

it becomes easier to build it with

all those microbes.

Next slide.

Microbial food security.

So...

our carbon stores. So there's a lot

of talk about soil, organic carbon, both

fresh and soluble. Fresh,

I think about, is sort of the food in

your fridge, right? You can just grab it and eat it

and stable is like the stuff in your freezer,

right? You have to defrost it and cook it, okay?

So soil microbes

make soil organic matter

from plant material that's being broken

down and it becomes sort of fresh

and then it goes down, it becomes stable.

Ok.

That is incredibly important because

when soil and plants become stressed,

right, they'll eat up the fresh soil

organic matter, but they need additional stores

in your soil, which is why you

can't rebuild your soil structure

in a year. Right?

You need to work on those

stable stores

of carbon in your soil. This

is also gonna be the key to

hopefully getting growers

and farmers access to soil carbon

credits, right? So to be paid

to make the soil healthier to have

carbon sequestered will also

cut back on your input costs.

Right? And hopefully make

everything more profitable, which is ultimately

the objective.

Next slide.

This is just a funny picture of sort of a priming

meal. One of the things that we, we talk

about is that the effect of priming.

When you have soil that can't

sustain microbial life, right...

and you throw down what would essentially

be sort of an easy meal, right? The

equivalent would be feeding you a bowl of cereal,

right? You prime it. You can eat it right

away but the food is gone. So

sometimes compostees

can have this effect, right? Compostees

will have sugars in

it and microbes in it. You can put

it down

and it'll give you a burst of microbial

activity, right? Because there's microbes with

readily available food. But

over time those microbes

won't have anything to eat in the existing

soil and they will die. So when

we talk about building soil organic

matter, it's so that you have stores

of food for those microbes and

the plants. Next.

Building a balanced microbial community. I wish

I could tell you a super easy way to do it.

I can't, I'm actually not an agronomist.

We work on making the test.

But we will say it depends a lot on your

soil climate and your crop, okay?

When we talk about

healthy soil, the goal is to create optimal

conditions for microbes to thrive

in the soil. When your microbes

are thriving, your plants do

better both in terms of

growth, immunity,

and weed

control.

The microbial community can

thrive and survive itself, given the right

food and environments, okay.

Again, this is not a one size fits all,

this is sort of where the till,

no-till debate comes in. It's

not really meaningful at a high level,

but at a field

level, it might make a difference

for you to decide, is tilling the right thing

to do, selective tilling or no tilling.

And feeding the microbe will enable the

microbial community to start rebuilding

the cycle of healthy soil

and a healthy symbiosis

between plants and microbes.

One of the most important things

we talk about to keep microbes healthy

is cover crops right? Or to keep something

growing on the soil all the time

so that those plants and microbes can

continue to feed each

other, support each other and grow,

okay. Next.

So, this is just a discussion

of sort of very high level about the different

kinds of inputs there are. Chemical

fertilizers, we all know about them, MPK.

They're expensive and because of the activities

in Europe, are getting even more expensive

and perhaps even going to be quite

difficult to get. So,

and also the regulatory

and public pressure on reducing

chemical inputs and herbicides and

pesticides is getting pretty strong.

So, for a lot of different

reasons, we need to find

solutions that are more cost-effective,

and easier to do.

Certainly chemical fertilizers are effective

with judicial use. There's absolutely

no debate on that. Microbial

inputs is one other area that people are

working on. The example would be mycorrhizal

fungi, additive compostees...

people have

differing success with direct

microbial inputs. I think I covered

it before. If you put microbes

down on soil that can't support

microbial life, they will die.

Okay, so, you know, it's like

taking people and throwing them in the desert and

saying, good luck, they just can't do

that. They need to have water and food

and houses and things like that.

So often,

that doesn't work, sometimes

it does.

And the research is ongoing and unclear

about how much microbial populations vary

by location.

The other thing we know is that

microbes and bacteria and

fungi are all over the place.

We kind of want to say, like, it

literally falls from the sky. There

are microbes everywhere. You don't necessarily

have to worry about putting them into the soil,

although there certainly are times when

it makes sense, but you do need to

work on

making the soil a good home

for those microbes, okay.

And the third category, and it

uses different names, but we

call them for the most part bio stimulants

like Rhyzogreen®, right? These

are inputs that

create environments that microbes do

better in, okay. So they work because

they provide better conditions for microbes

to grow.

You need to, you need to make sure that they don't

just give you a 2-week boost in microbes

but they help microbes build

over time. And as the microbial

population will grow, the

plants will grow and you'll

have a community that is getting stronger

both in terms of above the ground, and below

the ground.

So a product that perpetuates a system

that reduces reliance on expensive

chemical fertilizers, right, as

the microbes grow and they can mine

the phosphorus and the nitrogen that's naturally

in the soil, and they can fix nitrogen

from the environment

and put it back into the soil, then

you will have a much more profitable and healthy

growth. Next slide.

What is the... this is the other question we get a lot, what's

the optimum microbial or fungal to

bacteria level? And our answers

to all these questions are, it depends! It's

really, really hard to know. There

are lots of different levels

of microbial biomass and fungal to bacteria

ratios for different kinds of soil. It depends

on where you are. Different soils have

different capacities. I live in the pacific

northwest.

Okay, even our most

terrible soil here is

teeming with life. We

have a lot of very temperate climate, we have

a lot of organic biomass in the

soil. And so that's naturally

the case. If you live in the desert,

right, it's gonna be a little bit different, even

if you've done the most

wonderful stewardship of your

land, you're not probably going to get the same levels

I get in my front yard.

So the limits and the

the things that determine how high your

microbial count can go is soil

composition.

The pH of the soil, both natural

and created, so depending on what you've been doing

to your soil, the compaction of

your soil. Again, some soil is more compact

than others, and then we've also done things

in the last

hundreds of years to create different

soil compactions.

How many stores of soil organic

carbon is in the soil? Both naturally

and created. Temperature and the season.

The salts and other chemicals that have been in the

soil, either naturally or things

that we've put down, either

on purpose or from residual

industry, your crop history and

your water availability. So the important

thing when you think about microbes, and I know Trevor

showed a bunch of numbers, is not necessarily

the number right? But it's the change

in the number. Are you taking the dial

and making your microbial population

stronger and more diverse so that

your plants can be healthier,

and mine naturally

the chemicals in the soil and the air.

Next.

And so I'll just tell you a little bit about

our company. We make the microBIOMETER.

We did it so that farmers and growers can

just go out in the field and test their microbial

biomass in real time over

time, to sort of see what's happening,

and to assess products

like Rhyzogreen®, and fertilizers,

to see what are they doing to my soil

microbes, right? Once I understand

how important it is for my crops to have

healthy soil microbiome. What

are my practices doing

to impact that? Am I making the situation

better or worse?

So that's just sort of why we're here

and why we talk about soil all

the time, because we get a lot of questions from

people,

about interpreting their results.

And that is it. I think I tried to go as quickly

as I can through some of that. We

have more content, you can do the next slide,

on our website and blogs and

videos that actually are a lot

more scientific based.

But I didn't want to bog and anyone down

with tables and charts,

but I'm happy to take any questions

that anyone would have.

Either here or

offline.

There has been a couple of questions

come in, and I wanted to address

them. One is,

when there's increased

nutrient value in the plants,

is it gonna attract insects?

And I'm gonna throw that to Laura.

I'll just put my 2 cents in

first. We have measured brix

on plants consistently

and we know, B-R-I-X,

that the higher the brix, the more

resilient

that plant is against weed

pressure, insect pressure and disease

pressure.

That is not something

we came up with. That is

just one of the principles...

the healthier the animal,

or the human, or the plant, the

more resistant and resilient

they are

to different pressures. But I'd like to throw that

to Laura. I would say exactly

the same thing. I mean that's sort of funny

to think that like a healthier you know,

crop would be more,

would would taste better to the bugs.

We do know that when you have healthier

plants, particularly that

are relying on microbes for their immunity,

they are naturally more immune.

But

I don't have any direct science

or done any studies for that. I just know

that the people who studied it have have

have got at least anecdotal and real

evidence that that's the case.

We've done one study. I mean

we did it inadvertently in North

Dakota where there was

a treated part of the field and a control,

and the control had much worse

Grasshopper invasion

versus the treated.

So I believe it.

The basics in terms of,

you know we work in animal health, have

done for 20 years, a healthy calf

or a healthy child.

They are naturally more resilient

to the disease pressure

and insect pressure,

weed pressure.

And I will also say that the more

plants, like people, are exposed

to pathogens, the healthier their immune

system is, so if you have a system that

is sterile,

then the plants don't have any natural

immunity and anything that comes by

will be much more virulent than it would

if you know, just like kids in day

care. Right? They have higher

immune systems.