@Jacquie Scislaw Lactic acid bacteria is one of the most common microbes in our environment. It's also very easy to get more of with a SAM brew (like MasterMix) or KNF capture method. Insanely easy. It's also one of the things we should apply the most often to help our plants and soil systems. Applying complex compost extracts? Great, but it's probably even better if you lead with a SAM first. Pest issues? SAM Plant lacking color? SAM Flies in the chicken coop? SAM Are there other things that may be necessary? Sure. But start with the cheapest, most readily available, and most relevant microbes before you decide there's a deeper issue. Nature made it easy. But that's not good for patents and proprietary solutions.

@Phillip Greenwood Agreed that we can compost with the materials we have on hand. But we can't speak with a great depth on how well it's doing without checking and testing. It very well could be excellent if we follow good compost principles, but plant response becomes our only indicator and that can be very lagging and potentially costly.

@Phillip Greenwood Sifting breaks up fungi and oxidizes the material. This can also collapse predator populations. I don't use compost for seed trays, just potting up in that context. You would have to familiarize yourself with the spil microbiology to utilize a microscope. Having a camera attached makes it possible to share video and images with others to receive feedback during the learning process. I don't think everybody needs their own microscope, but utilizing reviews from those who do have one can be highly beneficial to understanding our soil context more deeply.

@Jacquie Scislaw Yep, only 24 last night!

@Jacquie Scislaw Row cover like agribon in the fields. All the warm season seedlings are in the greenhouse.

@Matt Koehn I really enjoy my "horiba laquatwin ph-22" Great if you're testing with pH with high frequency and very accurate. For your backyard gardener it's probably overkill 😁

@Jacquie Scislaw Precisely!