Reports received in 7- 10 Business Days
A standard soil test measures nutrients. It cannot tell you whether your soil can deliver them.
Quick Answer: A biological soil assessment tells you which organisms are living in your soil, compost, or compost tea, and in what numbers. It is different from a chemical soil test. A chemical test tells you which nutrients are present. A biological assessment tells you whether anything is alive to cycle those nutrients to your plants. You mail us a sample, we examine it through the microscope, and you get a full report with recommendations.
Closer Look: Nutrients in soil are mostly locked up until biology releases them. Bacteria and fungi mine nutrients out of organic matter and hold them in their bodies. Protozoa and nematodes eat those bacteria and fungi, and release the nutrients right at the root, in the form plants can take up. No biology, no delivery. You can have a soil test full of nutrients and still have hungry plants.
A biological assessment looks at that system directly:
Microbial health and diversity. Which organisms are present, in what numbers, and whether the groups are in balance with each other.
Weaknesses and imbalances. Missing predators, absent fungi, anaerobic conditions, or an overabundance of the organisms associated with disease.
Targeted amendments. Once you know what is actually missing, you can choose the right amendment instead of guessing. That means less wasted money on inputs that were never going to fix the problem.
Better resource management. Biology builds soil structure. That structure creates a soil sponge that holds water and nutrients right at the root zone, which reduces what you need to spend on fertilizer, water, and pesticides.
Plant resilience. A robust soil microbiome supports plant resistance to disease, pests, and drought stress. Building the biology is indirect plant protection.
A basis for decisions. You move from guesswork to data. You can also retest later and see whether what you did actually worked.
From an actual assessment report
Nematodes are the slowest group to recover and the first to disappear. They are wiped out by tillage, by compaction, by drying out, and by anything that kills soil life broadly. Protozoa bounce back within weeks. Nematodes take seasons. So a soil with huge bacterial and fungal populations, healthy protozoa, and no nematodes at all is telling a story: the food is there, most of the predators are there, but the top of the predator chain has not returned yet.
That also partly explains the high biomass. Nematodes eat bacteria and fungi. With that grazing pressure absent, populations build up beyond where they would otherwise settle.
Do not add more biology to this bed. That is the instinct when you see a report, and it would be the wrong move. You do not have a shortage. Adding compost or extract now would feed populations that already lack their predators.
A chemical test would have shown this soil as fine. The biology tells you the actual problem, and it tells you that the fix is management, not another input.
Links to Biological Soil Assessments
MicrobeGrower
Every assessment includes a written report emailed to you, covering:
Bacteria. Whether bacterial populations are strong, adequate, or poor, and what shapes and forms are present.
Fungi. Whether beneficial fungal hyphae are present, and whether the strands are robust or thin and weak. Fungi are the most commonly missing group in cultivated soil, and their absence is usually the most important thing we find.
Fungal to bacterial balance. Where your sample falls on the range from bacterial to fungal, and how that compares to what you are actually growing.
Protozoa. Whether flagellates, amoebae, and ciliates are present and in what relative numbers. High ciliate numbers are a warning sign we will flag directly.
Nematodes. Whether beneficial bacterial-feeding and fungal-feeding nematodes are present, and whether root-feeding nematodes are showing up in your sample.
Aerobic or anaerobic status. Whether your soil or compost has oxygen and functioning aerobic biology, or whether anaerobic conditions have taken hold.
Microscope photographs. High-resolution images from your actual sample, showing the organisms we found, or documenting their absence. These give you a visual baseline you can compare against when you test again later.
Interpretation and recommendations. What the findings mean for what you are growing, and specific, practical steps for what to do next. This is the part that makes the rest of it useful.
Findings are reported as rankings rather than exact counts. In practice, knowing that fungi are poor and ciliates are high tells you what to do just as clearly as a decimal would, and it gets your report back to you faster.
1. Purchase your assessment. Click the Buy Now button below to begin.
2. Fill out the submission form. After purchase you will be sent to a page with the assessment form. Fill in as much detail as you can. More detail means a more useful report. Use the notes section for anything about your soil, your growing conditions, or your site history that would help us read your sample correctly.
3. Check your email. You will receive a confirmation email with full sampling instructions. The sampling guide is available in two places: on this page right after the buy now button and in your confirmation email.
4. Take your sample. Follow the instructions for your sample type. Label the bag on the outside with your name, the sample name, and the date.
5. Mail it to us. Send it so it reaches us quickly. Biology does not wait.
6. Get your report. We will email you a complete report with recommendations within 7 to 10 business days of receiving your sample.
Questions at any point? Call (207) 256-0799 or email support@microbegrower.com. We will walk you through it.
Full instructions come with your confirmation email, but here is what to expect.
Lawns and row crops: take 5 representative cores about half an inch in diameter, within the root zone, usually 3 to 6 inches deep.
Shade trees and ornamentals: take 5 to 7 representative cores about 1 inch in diameter, 6 to 12 inches deep, within the root zone.
Combine and place approximately 2 cups in a sealable plastic bag, leaving room for air.
Record the depth of your cores and your site history on the intake form.
Take several samples from throughout the pile, at least 12 inches in, halfway between the ground and the top of the pile.
Place approximately 2 cups in a sealable plastic bag, leaving room for air.
Use a clean, dry 1 liter bottle.
Draw from the center of your brewer.
Fill the bottle half tea and half air.
Send by next day delivery.
Label the outside of the bag with a sharpie. Never put anything inside the bag with your sample.
Leave air in the bag. A sealed airless bag goes anaerobic, and the biology you are paying us to look at will die before it reaches us.
Collect your sample as close as possible to the time you are shipping it.
Where to send it:
MicrobeGrower
P.O. Box 103
Porter, ME 04068
FAQ section
You've got questions. We've got answers.
A chemical soil test measures nutrient levels. A biological assessment looks at the living organisms in your soil through the microscope. Nutrients only become available to plants when biology cycles them, so a chemical test tells you what is there and a biological assessment tells you whether your soil can actually use it. Many growers run both.
You will receive a complete report with recommendations by email within 7 to 10 business days of the day your sample reaches us.
Because you are paying for a picture of living biology. Organisms begin dying and shifting the moment a sample leaves the ground, and a sample that sits in transit for a week no longer reflects your soil. Collect close to shipping, leave air in the bag, and send promptly.
Yes. We assess soil, compost, vermicompost, and liquid compost extracts and teas. Compost is one of the most valuable things to test, because it tells you whether what you are about to spread is biologically alive.
That is useful information, not bad news. Most soils that come to us are missing something, and knowing exactly what is missing is what makes it fixable. Every report includes recommendations for what to do next.
No. Home gardeners, market growers, orchardists, landscapers, and farms all send us samples. The process is the same regardless of scale.
Yes, and many people do. Our soil microscopy courses teach you to identify the organisms and read your own samples. Seeing is believing.
$95 per sample. Full report with recommendations in 7 to 10 business days.
MICROBEGROWER
MicrobeGrower uses the Soil Food Web biological analysis method developed by Dr. Elaine Ingham over more than thirty years of studying and improving soils. That work established the optimal microbial ratios for compost, compost teas, and specific crops, and it is the framework behind every assessment we run.
Samples are processed within the timeframe established by the Soil Food Web School, because biology changes fast once a sample leaves the ground. Delay is the single biggest threat to an accurate result, so timing is treated as part of the method.
Wendy Mickle, founder of MicrobeGrower, is a Soil Food Web School Certified Consultant, trained under the late Dr. Elaine Ingham.