Easy Container Gardens for Growing Food or Testing Innovations

Today’s informed consumers are growing food at home to ensure that what they are consuming is both free of pesticides and rich in nutrients. These growers are quick to learn there are a lot of confusing so-called best practices for gardening, pest management, and soil amendments. No doubt, some of this confusion centers around over-anxious … Read more

Spring Gardening In New Mexico

First time gardeners may be tempted to focus on the plants they want to buy, but if you are growing a garden to feed your family, soil health and nutrition comes first.   In Episode 15 of Microbes, Minerals, and Mindsets, horticulture specialist Libby Hamilton shares tips to help New Mexico gardeners succeed growing vegetables at … Read more

Can Global Warming Reduce Nutrition?

  According to a recent report in Science Advances (summarized in the Vox) increased atmospheric CO2, a key feature in global warming, can result in reduced crop nutrition.  They demonstrated this effect using rice, a staple crop that feeds much of the world.  This would seem threatening, since poor crop nutrition impacts food webs all the way from … Read more

Why Is Living Soil a Disruptive Innovation?

We know soil is alive.  Why do we treat it like dirt? The first lesson in the first soils class I ever took covered what soil is made of.  We learned soil contains minerals, air, water, organic matter, and “critters”.  Yes.  That’s right.  Critters.  All those little squirmy, wiggly things that live underground.  Bacteria.  Fungi.  … Read more

The Johnson-Su Bioreactor Enriches Beneficial Soil Fungi

Stop Turning Your Compost Composting offers a terrific way to culture native microbes that benefit your soil. However, there is more to a good compost than simply building a pile of manure and yard waste. Proper aeration is important to prevent overheating and to ensure that aerobic bacteria-bacteria that consume oxygen, dominate the mixture.  While … Read more

Microbial Analysis As a Tool for Second Responders

2017 Will Be Remembered as a Year of Disaster The year of 2017 will no doubt be remembered for its stream of natural disasters.   From the fires in Montana to the hurricanes that struck Houston and Puerto Rico…from the earthquakes in Mexico City to the floods in Peru…we are most cognizant of the disasters striking … Read more