The Research

Here in Australia The Camperdown Compost Company has been doing programs on cereals, pasture, vegetables and orchards.
Some of the benefits have been lower vet bills (animal health). Higher yields improved soil structure, reduced input costs, disease and insect reduction.
This is because we are adding diversity in biology and out competing pathogen organisms. Also we are releasing tied up nutrient which leads to healthier plants.

Typically a program includes solid compost and some liquid compost sprays and we are seeing a change over the first 12 months.

For the last nine years, we have been collecting information on how to properly utilize compost in an agricultural system. In this time, the most valuable source of information we have found has been The Soil Foodweb Institute, and its founder, Dr Elaine Ingham.

Dr. Elaine Ingham- Soil Foodweb Institute (SFI)

www.soilfoodweb.com

Dr. Ingham has been researching the use of compost since the early 1980’s. She has many trials and results from around the world. These tests are on many different soils and crops.
Dr. Ingham now has laboratories in some eight countries and growing. Dr Ingham has developed, over a period of some twenty years, the concept of the Soil Foodweb. Essentially, this is a categorization of the different sorts of aerobic organisms that should be present in a healthy soil. By testing the organisms present in a given soil, deficiencies in various functional groups can be identified, and products can be obtained to correct these deficiencies. This testing procedure enables us to test soils prior to the application of compost, to ensure we can add the groups of organisms that are depleted. SFI have now tested well over 100,000 soil samples.

Organism numbers in different soils

Organism Assays	Agricultural Soil	Ag-Rhizo-sphere	Healthy Soil	Healthy Rhizosphere
Total bacteria (#/gram dry soil)	1 X 106	1 X 1012	6 X 108	1 X 1012
# of bacterial species /g soil	5,000	5,000	25,000	25,000
Total fungi (ug per g dry soil)	5	20	150	300-500
# of fungal species /g soil	500	?	8,000	8,000
VAM colonization	0	0	55%	55%

The take home message from this data is that most agricultural soils are depleted in both the areas of species diversity and numbers.

The main problem with depleted numbers and species of biology, apart from a reduction in productivity, is in the area of disease control. Research has shown that adequate numbers of beneficial biology can suppress disease causing organisms. Some of the methods of achieving this are as follows:

• Use exudates to reduce food supply for pathogens.
• Production of antibodies, inhibitory compounds and toxins to prevent pathogen growth.
• Occupy infection sites on plant surfaces so pathogens cannot bridge cell walls and infect cell.

In fact, adequate beneficial biology is probably the only long term, sustainable method of disease suppression in soils. The use of fungicides etc., are the only short term fix, leaving a sterile environment, ripe for re-infection.

This photo shows after a 12 month program, of adding biology to a paddock of Red Wheat, how the root structure has grown significantly compared to the control in the same crop.

How We Make Compost

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