About the open soil research events

04.05.2018 - 06.05.2018 Hackteria soil retreat

About 10 km outside of Schaffhausen (Switzerland), nested between the hills and woods just below 1000m of altitude - lies a comfortable little hut commonly known as Randelab. In the beginning of May, this was the setting for a special kind of gathering: the «Hackteria soil retreat» where scientists, biohackers, artists, makers, educators, ecologists and farmers came together to work on DIY methodologies and develop workshop concepts on the topic of soil ecology. Special Guests: Lucy Patterson & Urs Gaudenz .

After a few intense days at Randelab some of the participants travelled to other locations in Europe to continue their work and share the inspirations from the retreat.

20.07.2018 - 22.07.2018 mikroBIOMIK soil retreat

About 30 km from Munich city-center, in the middle of pristine woods and right next to the river Isar, lies the hermitage ‘zum Schindergraben’, commonly known as Projekt Draussen ( http://projekt-draussen.com ). From the 20th to the 22nd of July the surrounding woods and waterways as well as the house itself became the setting for the «mikroBIOMIK soil retreat».
We gathered a colorful mix of experts from different disciplines, curious gardeners, skilled hobby microscopists and passionate artists. The event was flexibly structured (as a barcamp/unconference) to address as many questions and approaches as possible and to develop the program together with the participants. There were many discussions and networking sessions, but also a lot has happened in practice: excursions, microscopy, composting, electronic crafts, comic drawing, yoga, a jazz concert,...

25.10.2019 - 27.10.2019 HUMUS sapiens retreat 2019

Soil creation and regeneration requires a tightly intertwined and interwoven network of organisms and matter, from microbes to animals and plants. The crosstalk between all of those compounds enables seeds to sprout on fertile soil. We believe that this diversity is always the key to creativity and innovation: HUMUS sapiens creates interdisciplinary crosstalk and collaboration from scientists, biohackers, artists and ecologists to farmers and gardeners, to share and build knowledge and tools for soil analysis and regeneration.

If you want to get your hands dirty and learn more about soil ecology, send us an email and ask for our next event: humus@mikrobiomik.org .

Some of the questions we would like to ask:

1) What is humus?

The word originally just meant ‘earth’ and is related to homo (“human being”). This beautiful term alllows many different interpretations...

2) What are the most effective methods for building humus?

We are investigating polycultures, agroforestry, mulching, cover-crops, rotational grazing, static composting and many other practices of regenerative agriculture. As with microbial populations, diversity of methods is the key to resilience. Let’s try our best to diversify the way we use our land.

3) What is the difference between conventional and organically farmed soil?

Although there have been numerous studies and comparisons of soil health on conventional and organic farms, their methods often focus on chemical composition and are not easily accessible by interested individuals. Also, scientists and farmers are now getting more aware that microbial communities are the central players for soil health. An interesting publication on the topic can be found here.

4) How can we measure soil health with low-cost and open-source technology?

Humidity and soil respiration has been measured with simple self-made tools and microbial diversity can be estimated with the help of microscopy. Hackers and tinkerers all around the world have been working on soil ecology for many years. We will start to collect these ideas and use them as a basis for further experiments and protocol development.

5) How does microbial diversity influence plant growth?

Healthy soil has a high diversity of microbial and invertebrate (e.g. earthworm) activity. It is not very well understood how these organisms influence plant growth and the nutritional quality of the resulting crops. We do not expect to answer these questions within the scope of this project but we might be able do develop new strategies and tools to catalyse further research.

6) How can we expand and share this knowledge efficiently?

Open access publication, wikis, and workshops are an established and successful way of spreading knowledge and experience. But how do we reach people who rarely use the Internet?

Documentation & downloads

All publications of mikroBIOMIK are released under a CreativeCommons license (CC BY-NC-SA) and can be used for non-commercial purposes with attribution of the authors. We are happy if the material is further distributed. High-resolution and print-versions of the works can be requested via email.

Documentation

• Event Overview
• Collection of videos
• About the RandeLab Soil Retreat
• About the mikroBIOMIK Soil Retreat
• About the HUMUS sapiens retreat 2019

Downloads

• Project description - 2 page .pdf document (English)
• Soil-life illustration for handouts or posters
• Soil-life illustration for A4 printing (German lables)
• Booklet for the installation Humus, Humanity & Humility (English)
• Short guide to soil microscopy (English)
• Breve guía sobre microscopía de suelo (Español)
• Kurzer Leitfaden zur Bodenmikroskopie (Deutsch)