This research is yielding some fasc

This research is yielding some fascinating information. Different plants require different sets of organisms in the soil. Select for the plant you want by making certain the organisms in the soil support the needs of that plant. Once you have the right balance for the plant you want, you can maintain its growth and maximize productivity by building the soil and improving life in that soil. Weeds, brassicas, and early successional grass species grow best in soils dominated by bacterial biomass (there are fungi in bacterial-dominated soil, just more bacteria than fungi). Old-growth forests are at the other end of the scale, dominated by fungal biomass. There may actually be more bacteria in a fungal-dominated soil than in earlier stage of succession, but the fungi have even greater biomass than the bacteria in perennial systems. Most flowers and vegetables grow best in soils that have balanced bacterial and fungal biomass.