Microbes Need Mulch That Rots: CTAHR's Field Trials
Dr. Koon-Hui Wang, a UH plant pathologist and nematologist, reports on her natural farming field trials in Hawaiʻi since 2010, using soil nematodes as her measure of soil health. Microbes (IMO-4) helped soil tilth and the soil food web on most farms, but yields matched or beat fertilizer only where there was crop residue or a mulch that rots easily; on a long-fallow Maui field with bamboo-leaf mulch and no seedling treatment, the natural farming plots yielded far less. Her conclusion: the Microbes need something to recycle, and they don't replace pest management.
Found Farm 1 soybean: KNF plots darker green, more biomass, higher chlorophyll and leaf nitrogen