New to the field - literature advice needed - (Apr/13/2013 )

I'd say most important for plants are mycorrhiza fungi which you should not forget. You can detect them even with simple microscopy and suitable staining methods. Even quantification is possible with quite easy methods (e.g. percentage of roots with mycorrhiza).

Anyway your approach is quite challenging esp for a beginner as you work with an extreme complex and dynamic system which you have no idea when (or only when it's too late), how and why it changes. And you cannot control changes in terms quality and quantity and possible direction of changes, as you have no measures except the proper soil smell.

A more scientific approach would be to work with a standardisation (only one soil type with defined characteristics as I write below) and simplification (i.e. one or few MOs) so that you can tell which changes cause which results and then go to more complex experiments.

Don't forget that also other factors such as humidity, soil texture, pH, nutrient content and organic matter content highly influence plants, MOs and all other species in soil and that these factors also influence each other to a high degree (e.g. influences the pH value the availability of nutrients). You should consider to measure these values as far as possible (humidity regime, pH measurements).

For pH and nutrient measurements kits for gardeners are available, that you can get an idea about this and they are quite cheap.
For inoculation of soils with beneficial MOs also ready-made cultures are available that should support the fertility of soil. Esp. many organic gardeners use them to avoid synthetic fertilisers. You should check this (also to avoid double work ).

hobglobin on Mon Apr 15 09:39:09 2013 said:

Actually mycorrhizal fungi is indeed important but they mainly supply phosphorous to the plant, other MO supply other nutrients. As I said, I have the organic gardening bit down - it is the scientific explanations to what I am doing that I need to acuire. The books on the subject are very simplified in biological terms, that's why I feel the need to learn more of microbiology. At this point I don't feel the need to "prove" that different MO impact the plants in certain ways, there's already research done in that area. What I am interested in is to know what I feed the plants, exactly - and how to produce it, and why the guides on how to produce it is designed in the way they are, and how to impact the quality. Hence, again I need to learn about microbiology.

Using store bought MO kind of defeats the purpose, I'm interested in the biology - not in buying branded bottles with unknown content (yes, the manufacturers are very restrictive with declaring the contents of the bottles).

The goal is to not use any bottles at all, which I am very close to accomplish. I only use ONE store bought product and that is kelp extract, which I will produce myself as soon as the algae in my local sea starts to bloom (it won't be kelp but algae with similar nutritional content). The other bottled fertilizers I have made myself out of enzyme digested fish, fermented plants, fruits etc. They work well, in fact they work much MUCH better than inorganic fertilizers. The plants grow like crazy and are completely disease free!

I don't mean to be an ass but I came here to discuss the biology behind these methods, not whether to consider not using them. There are other forums with very knowledgeable people to discuss what works and what not, but not the biology at a higher level.

Thanks!

I doubt yo';d recommend that we pursue engineering endeavors by just reading. Suggest you complete some appropriate courses in microbiology. At minimum you should learn aseptic technique, limitations of culture - esp. in soil application and the practical aspects of mycology.