About Us

Duncan is trained to assess your soil health.

The first step is identifying the organisms present. Presence or absence of certain species will indicate the soil condition. For example lots of ciliates means the soil has less than 4 ppm oxygen (anaerobic) and that is not a good sign. Most plant and animal pathogens are anaerobes. No ciliates and plenty of flagellates means it's aerobic, and is a good sign. Lots of thick stands of dark fungi - like seen in the picture suggests the presence of beneficial mycorrhizal fungi which benefits most plants enormously, but is not desirable if you're growing early successional plants like brassicas or broccoli.

The analysis will also provide a fungal to bacterial biomass ratio.
If the soil is high in bacteria and low in fungi it's selecting for early successional plants, if it's got loads of fungi and relatively few bacteria then it's soil where early successionals won't easily grow, but bushes and trees will thrive.
If you choose to make a change to your soil in order to improve its health it's best to get in touch with a SoilFoodWeb trained consultant.

Duncan studied Biology at Aberdeen University and qualified as a SoilFoodWeb lab technician in July 2022.

Duncan is based in Aberfeldy in Scotland where he runs a small farm, and works as an ecologist for www.riverrevivers.co.uk

Soil microorganisms