More than ever, we will be spending time in the lab this autumn. Finally, the big step has been made: we are digging belowground! It had been high on my wishlist for a long time, but besides a few interesting trials, it never really happened. Too expensive, too much work and, most of all, not the priority to find the answers to the questions we were looking at.

Now we are going for it head-on, without looking back: pH measurements, nutrient analyses, root staining, even DNA-analyses, no technique is being overlooked. It turns out the soil is hiding countless answers to our follow-up questions, which all arose after we answered what happened above the surface. So we are down for a new and exciting trip, as we slowly open the ‘black box’ the soil has always been, and take a look at what’s inside.

Highly promising stuff, I can assure you, and stuff we will want to dig deeper into even more the next years.