Counting Microbial Life in Soil

Need help finding the procedure on how to analyze the microbial life count in a soil sample.

It seems Elaine Ingham's course provides the information but I am not prepared to pay the high price for the course
for finding out basic information and I believe the information is already out there.

Interesting that persons who have done the course are unwilling to share information.

Anyway, if anyone can steer me in the right direction it would be appreciated.

Cheers
Anthony

I used your question as a web search and found this webpage (amongst other stuff which need a lab and agar agar plates!) and the first of four youtube vids

So what I've learned if I understood correctly is that if you want to count your bacteria, you need specialist equipment to sample, culture, count and then mathematically extrapolate from your results, which is not 'basic'! I have done it, years ago. If you know how to do the maths, you can count the life in a given sample size and extrapolate that.  If you want to observe the range of life in your soil, which will tell you quite a bit, that's easier and those videos will help.

Thanks for posting the question instead of just doing your own search, as this is something I've been meaning to explore for myself for a while.

Hi Lesley,

The procedure is, you take a soil - compost sample and examine it under a microscope 40X to 400X where you can see
bacteria, protozoa, fungal hyphae, nematodes and arthropods.

I have been doing this for years but now would like to measure a before and after to see if the soil food web is improving in the soil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG5eQroUSGo

Cheers
Anthony

Hi Anthony,

For some reason my post posted twice but here's that link for bacteria counting https://www.tmcc.edu/microbiology-resource-center/lab-protocols/soil-macromorphology

Best of luck!

Hi Anthony,

From Vid 2 of that series it seems you just need to know your sample size and your dilution rate then methodically track the objective over the slide log the life then extrapolate back. I found a science project worksheet but that only relates to bacteria. Once again, thanks, your question brought this up higher on my wishlist!

Regards
Lesley