Who is

MidAtlantic Microbials

About Us

MidAtlantic Microbials is a Healthy Soils company, founded in Centreville, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, comprised of 1 million acres of farm land, and the greatest concentration of tree nursery and poultry production in the United States. Our mission is to develop the practical applications of that body of science. Several years of iterative development work evolved an all-natural, zero-chemical soil amendment which is purpose designed to contain the full community of beneficial soil microorganisms (bacteria, protozoa, beneficial nematodes, endomycorrhizal fungi inter alia) naturally resident in the soils of the region. Such a community is the defining element of healthy soil. (So acknowledged in Line 1 of “Definitions” in the Maryland Healthy Soil Act of 2017.)

The specific initiative MidAtlantic started on in that realm has been to convert a high-visibilty “Bay-polluting waste stream” (chicken manure) into a potent soil amendment (a valuable renewable asset) which has the advantage of reducing or eliminating the pollutive effect of its phosphorus content on the Chesapeake Bay, while retaining P’s all-important effect (as nature’s prime growth agent) on agriculture, greenhouses, gardening, and general horticulture.

Chesapeake Bay Area - where it all began

The Product

The purpose of the product is not to directly feed the plants, but to install a thriving community of microorganisms which form a symbiotic relationship with the plants. Upon specific signal from the plants, they source and convey naturally resident minerals and nutrients to plant roots, processing them into a form ingestible by the plant (“plant available”). The best “time-release” synthetic fertilizers cannot match the natural mineral/nutrient- and time-specific communication between plants and microorganisms.

In nature, 85% of all non-synthetic mineral and nutrient uptake by plants must first be processed by these microorganisms.

This process goes on ad infinitum. Synthetic fertilizers directly feed plants…until the material that is in contact with plant roots is exhausted. Then they must be re-applied. Hence the MidAtlantic Microbial process of plant nourishment is self-sustaining. Synthetic nourishment is not.

Once the product is applied, the microbes become active in the immediate environment of the product itself, and then begin to work out into the existing soil, creating a nourishing “rhizome” which can extend as far as 20 feet beyond plant roots, sourcing water as well. Hence the MAM process promotes drought resistance. Synthetic nourishment does not.

The constant activity of the microorganisms creates constant microscopic movement in the particles of the soil enabling aeration. In short, the MAM product naturally de-compacts the soil. Synthetic products do not. They enable soil compaction.

Aerated soil is a hostile environment to disease-causing bacteria, which, alternatively, thrive in anaerobic (compacted) conditions. Hence MAM treatments establish a naturally disease-resistant environment while synthetic fertilizers establish a disease-prone one.

 The decomposition of organic matter by the microbial community is the essential step in nutrient cycling. Hence MAM treatments are an innate match with modern farm best management practices such as “no-till” and cover-crop regimes – literally making them work. Synthetic fertilizers bear no interactive relationship to these practices.

Hi macro and micro-nutrient content. Hi in trace element content. Altogether a condition referred to as “Healthy Soil”.

Small pine tree grown in a glass box reveals the level of white, finely branched mycorrhizal fungi threads or "mycelium" that attach to roots and feed the plant, and bring it water – from far beyond where roots can reach. (David Read)

“Healthy Soil” describes soil rich in plant nutrients and resistant to erosion, drought, and disease. And healthy soil produces equally healthy plants. Most importantly, it is soil which hosts a diverse and active community of microorganisms as the engine of all that – bacteria, protozoa, beneficial nematodes, fungi, and so on (billions to the spoonful) – that thrive in a symbiotic relationship with all plant-life, wherein plants and microbes proactively nurture each other. These microbes have been naturally resident in soil for over 3 billion years, but their existence and activities were discovered only an approximate 40 years ago (roughly when it was discovered that similar microbes inhabit and perform similar functions in the human gut…”probiotics”). They are the sine qua non of “regenerative” farming practices.

Specifically, the microbes source and deliver specific nutrients on signal from the plants. This is Nature’s own “time-release” mechanism, which no man-made fertilizer can hope to match. Those signals are in the form of tiny carbon sugars exuded from the plant roots, which, in exchange, nourish the microbes. The carbon is a product of the living plant’s photosynthesis and respiration – inhaling carbon dioxide (and exhaling oxygen, replenishing the stock of oxygen in the atmosphere). By directing the carbon from the atmospheric CO2 to sub-surface microbes, the plant has removed it from the air and deposited it in the soil – ie: it has “sequestered” carbon there.  Finally, when the plant dies, it decomposes, replenishing the stock of elemental nutrients in the soil (“nutrient cycling”). It is all a continually repeating cycle - an elegant, self-sustaining ecology of Nature. And it can be powerful, as we learn how to use it.

From the introduction on the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service website :“The creatures living in the soil are critical to soil health. They affect soil structure and therefore soil erosion and water availability. They can protect crops from pests and diseases. They are central to decomposition and nutrient cycling and therefore affect plant growth and amounts of pollutants in the environment. Finally, the soil is home to a large proportion of the world's genetic diversity.”

What We Do

Specifically, we are engaged in developing practical and economic ways to employ this science to create healthy soil conditions in a farm field, a lawn, a greenhouse, a flower garden…, or to restore health to soils depleted often due to years of chemical treatment. In recent times, general movement in that direction has been evident, particularly in Maryland agriculture, as practices such as “no-till”, and planting cover-crops have evolved. But these are efforts discovered to “work” but without a widespread understanding (appreciation?) of how/why they work.  In fact, respectively, these practices improve conditions for the microbes, and they contribute another round of nutrient cycling in the given year. Our focus is directly on the microbial community, and on optimizing the sub-surface environment for its vigorous expansion and activity.

How We do It

Chicken manure, and our product:  We have targeted the Eastern Shore’s high-visibility problem of an ever-growing stock of chicken manure (400,000 tons in 2021), as the poultry industry here continues to expand, even importing ever-greater amounts of phosphorus-bearing grain for feed. We have developed a formula and production process (which begins with co-composting with woody materials, and includes certain inoculations and additives) to convert the material into both dry and liquid forms of the soil amendment described above – high in natural nutrient content and charged with a vibrant, diverse microbial community, which will infuse itself into any soil to which it is applied. It can restore distressed (“depleted” and compacted) soils to an aerated, healthy condition, and it can become self-sustaining. In time it can replace (indeed outperform) man-made chemical fertilizers (and pesticides) – important given today’s exploding synthetic fertilizer prices. Three billion years of natural history prior to the invention of man-made chemicals would attest to that…as have research studies in recent years.

Our production is DE-centralized by design, being situated at the chicken growers’ sites, has a low capital cost, and is an all-natural process. Following several years of R&D, we brought it to commercial scale at our first site, and are now expanding to others. Our first (and repeat) customer was the Maryland Dept of Natural Resources, in a program to restore farmed acreage in parks to natural vegetation. Another is the leading organic farmer on the Eastern Shore. Another is a prominent high-end Mid-Shore landscaping service. And so on. We are currently initiating programs with row-crop farms, vegetable greenhouses, and residential landscape settings. We are pleasantly surprised to have been well-received by the farm community – known for its general resistance to change.

Informative References:

·       Science of Soil Health – YouTube Dec, 2014 (3 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgy9ArBpNiI&authuser=0

 

·       NetFlix Documentaries:

-       “Kiss The Ground”

-       “Fantastic Fungi”

 

“The creatures living in the soil are critical to soil health. They affect soil structure and therefore soil erosion and water availability. They can protect crops from pests and diseases. They are central to decomposition and nutrient cycling and therefore affect plant growth and amounts of pollutants in the environment. Finally, the soil is home to a large proportion of the world's genetic diversity.”

Meet the Team

  • Anthony Biddle

    CO-FOUNDER

    Operations Manager

  • Ohryn Valecourt

    Operations Manager

  • Selina Fox

    Soil Analyst

    Communications

    Social Media Manager