The Right Microbes Matter
Promoting healthy soil with the ‘Exceptional Seven’
Whether you’re growing crops in a field or turf on a putting green, healthy soil is the foundation of your success. While that universal concept may feel intuitive enough, maintaining healthy and sustainable soil structure throughout growing seasons and during ever-changing environmental conditions can be far more complicated than it initially appears. Sometimes it can feel like you need multiple advanced degrees just to navigate the many variables involved in managing the combinations of minerals, organic matter, gas, water and living organisms in your soil.
Soil Microbiology
This can be especially true when digging deeper into soil microbiology and understanding the impact of the countless microscopic organisms that are at work beneath the surface of your soil. Organic soil in nature is teeming with microbial life – but not all naturally occurring microorganisms are beneficial to your plants and soil. While promoting healthy populations of the most beneficial microorganisms can provide numerous benefits for both plant and soil health, enabling harmful microbes (often called pathogens) to thrive in your soil can have quite the opposite impact, such as causing diseases, stealing essential nutrients, or producing toxins that limit plant growth.
Dr. Haim Gunner, a PhD microbiologist and Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, adds this perspective:
“In general, the goal is to maximize the number of cells that remain viable subsequent to inoculation. This can be accomplished by inundating the soil with concentrated inoculum that consists of multiple complementary and compatible microbes. Supplying a variety of food sources, including sugars and organic carbon, can enhance a microorganism’s ability to overcome introduction into a potentially hostile environment. The delivery method also matters. Using carriers such as peat, clay or humic acid can provide protection and serve as eco-stations until populations increase. Seed coating is another effective approach. The efficacy of microbial inoculants depends on their ability to adapt to soil conditions and resist antagonism and predation. The more we understand about the microbial habitat and environmental stressors, the more consistent and effective our biological interventions will become.”
The Exceptional Seven
Not all beneficial microbes provide the same level of benefits to your plants. The key is to promote healthy colonies of many types of these beneficial bacteria to maximize their positive impact on your plants. At Performance Nutrition, we offer blends of naturally occurring microbes that work together to convert resources already present in the soil and atmosphere into usable plant nutrition. We have strategically selected seven beneficial microbes for our product formulations that have the most positive impact on your plants:
1. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens
- Helps solubilize phosphorus and potassium, making them more available to plants
- Secretes complex chelators that bind iron and make it more accessible to plants
2. Bacillus licheniformis
- Solubilizes key nutrients like phosphorus and zinc, making them more available to plants
3. Bacillus megaterium
- Has ability to solubilize insoluble forms of phosphorus, critical for root development and energy transfer
- Produces vitamins (like B12) that boost root and shoot development
- Enhances nutrient use efficiency (NUE) by producing organic acids and enzymes
4. Bacillus subtilis
- Solubilizes phosphorus and potassium, making them more available to plants
- Enhances iron availability by producing siderophores that bind and transport iron to plants
- Encourages a healthy, diverse microbial community around roots which benefits long-term soil health
5. Trichoderma atroviride
- Improves seed germination, emergence rate and plant height
- Enhances nutrient uptake and plant vigor by inducing systemic resistance in plants (ISR), priming them for stronger defense responses
6. Trichoderma harzianum
- Directly attacks pathogenic fungi (e.g., Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, Pythium) by coiling around their hyphae and producing cell-wall-degrading enzymes like chitinases and glucanases
- Releases organic acids and chelators to free up P, as well as Fe, Mn, Zn in soils
- Decomposes organic matter by producing cellulase enzymes, enhancing soil structure, water retention, and nutrient renewal
- Releases chitinases and proteases that parasitize nematode eggs and larvae
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
- Decomposes organic matter by producing cellulase enzymes, enhancing soil structure, water retention, and nutrient renewal
- Secretes compounds that stabilize soil aggregates, improving soil porosity, water retention, and aeration
- Releases organic acids and chelators to free up phosphorus
- Serves as a nutrient source for other soil organisms (bacteria, protists), fueling microbial food webs
In addition, each of these seven selected microbes also:
- Produce peptides that suppress pathogens like Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, Alternaria, Botrytis, pathogenic Pseudomonas, and Pythium
- Inhibit competition by effectively colonizing root surfaces to outcompete pathogenic microbes
- Improve plant resilience to drought, salinity, heat, and oxidative stress
- Trigger an Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR), or the plants prime defense system, making plants more resistant to future attacks
- Secrete enzymes that can break down organic matter
- Produce auxins (like IAA) and cytokinins
Our Microbial Solutions
Performance Nutrition’s carbon-based bio-fertilizer product line, NutriWise, blends five naturally occurring microbes (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus subtilis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Trichoderma harzianum) that work together to convert resources already present in the soil and atmosphere into usable plant nutrition.
The five specifically selected microbes in NutriWise form a symbiotic community of mutually independent, nutrient-releasing microbes. NutriWise enhances nutrient use efficiency (NUE) of blended chemical fertilizers, improves soil fertility and organic matter, and reduces fertilizer leaching.
NutriWise® WSP is a water-soluble microbial powder for spray or soil applications. It is used in both agricultural and turf programs to promote higher populations of native nitrogen-fixing microbes, which help convert nitrogen into available forms. It also initiates the conversion and delivery process by solubilizing phosphate into plant-available phosphorus and unlocking potassium in the soil into exchangeable forms. NutriWise WSP should be applied throughout the season with a source of fulvic or humic acids to maintain microbial activity.
RemeD8 is Performance Nutrition’s line of premium water-soluble microbial soil inoculants, designed to enhance soil health and support strong, resilient plants. Each formulation features a diverse blend of naturally occurring beneficial microorganisms including Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus subtilis in a sucrose-based culture medium. RemeD8 improves nutrient use efficiency, maintains turf health and vigor, and enhances stress tolerance.
RemeD8® WSP is formulated specifically for turf applications. It helps create a more vigorous soil ecosystem for higher Cation Exchange Capacity (C.E.C.), faster nitrification process and better nitrogen uptake, enhanced plant stress tolerance, quicker recovery from pathogen attack, prevention of excessive hydrophobic organic matter and enhanced root development.
RemeD8® AG-WSP Plus is formulated for agricultural applications for both row and specialty crops. The nitrogen-fixing microbes can supplement applied nitrogen and provide faster nitrification for better nitrogen uptake. It also improves the breakdown of cellulose in the field. RemeD8 AG-WSP Plus contains the addition of Trichoderma atroviride, which improves seed germination, emergence rate and plant vigor.
EMBELLA (1-0-0) is a liquid fertilizer designed to promote beneficial microbial activity. It feeds microbes that enhance nutrient breakdown and availability. Formulated with three carbohydrate sources (monosaccharides, disaccharides, and oligosaccharides), it provides immediate, quick, and slow-release energy that sustains and expands microbial populations. Embella also encapsulates nutrients, improves water holding capacity, reduces leaching, and enhances soil aeration.
Curious which microbe-based product fits your program best?
Reach out to your Performance Nutrition rep or get in touch with our team to learn more.