Assessing Soil Biology with Troy Hinke

Join us as we have fun with the microscope in this workshop hosted by soil food web expert Troy Hinke of Living Roots Compost Tea. Learn how to identify soil food web characters in your soils, compost, and more so you can know what is truly happening beneath your feet. We will be looking at several samples of composts and soils to view and identify the varieties of microorganisms found within. We will be assessing the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, and microarthropods. We’ll likely also see some soil aggregates, minerals, and organic acids as well as possible other soil microbes.
This class builds upon the microscope class held at Living Web Farms in 2018 and assumes a basic knowledge of all soil food web characters. Discover how to use your own microscope to see if your soils are a bustling microbial metropolis or a withered wasteland. Troy will go through each sample and show how he performs an assessment of soil microorganisms step by step. Tune in at 7p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Thursday, March 17, 2022. This event is part of the Organic Grower’s School Spring Conference which is partnering with Mother Earth News to jointly produce the 2022 conference.
Our new workshop format welcomes live participants via LivingWebFarms.org and our RUclips channel. No registration is necessary. Workshops will average less than 2 hours in length, with a 5-minute intermission after the first hour and a Q & A period at the end.

[@joeyhinds6216]

I love the little tips like flaming the slide. I would never have thought of something so simple but spend an hour waiting for it stop long enough to get a picture

[@paulmcwhorter]

Wow, it would really be nice on something like this to have known active samples to show what you are talking about. I am perplexed by watching this for an hour and a half and seeing nothing but a fungal strand. Also, you did not seem to be methodically scanning the sample as you described, but seemed to randomly change magnification and focus. Would really be great if you could make a shorter video with a known active sample, then scan with the technique you described, and then show us under the microscope the things you described in the intro. I have the same microscope you have, but in looking at samples, I really dont know what I am looking for. Thanks.

[@13Jerred]

To be fair, there were also a number of protozoa, such as amoebae in the slides they looked at. And the methodical-ness is slow and isn't as important when you aren't needing to do scientifically accurate counts.

[@jug5469]

Great job teaching!

[@ppacal1098]

Arrrrhhh Matey, 😂 Despite the pirate patch great presentation. Lots of great information Thank you

[@chuckbowen5024]

My thanks to the lady that asked how to prepare the slide.

[@13Jerred]

Thanks so much for sharing this. Not all of us can dedicate the time and finances to the Soil Food Web program right now, but we do want to know what’s going on with our soil!

[@B01]

Nicole Masters has some incredible videos on the same topic, soil analysis! She's one of the people who inspired so much I have an interview for a geotechnical soil analyst job tomorrow 🤣🤣

[@patrickblack9374]

Awesome video! Any recommendations on microscopes? I’m a small home garden operation but want to learn as much as possible

[@Ioperzu]

All of the sudden I want to play Spore.

[@WillowandPup]

Fascinating

[@tmhalula]

What does it mean to “ shadow”? Are you using phase or doc to see flagella?

[@heyphilphil]

I've ever heard of flatulence amoebas, sweet!!!

[@thetruth45678]

Well, this is a first. Land lubbing soil science by a bonafide pirate. Shiver me timbers!

[@ktownc936]

Are you ready kids ?

[@donlourie769]

It would help if you put dates on the videos.

[@leedavis8555]

March 17 2022 it's in the description

[@B01]

2:43 exuding* lol

[@JohnMarsing]

Can automation with maybe Machine Learning help with this process?

[@harveyacosta2352]

Needs to adjust your condenser

[@GrowingwithAnastasia]

I’m disappointed I thought you were a pirate