Skip to content
Landfill diverted, garden approved — 16 million pounds of regional waste upcycled in 2026 🌱
Humble Acres Organics

Proof, not adjectives

We sent our dirt
to a DNA lab.

Anybody can call their soil “rich” or “premium” on a bag. We wanted to know what was actually living in ours, so we paid an independent lab to sequence it. Here is the full report, published in the open.

1,589

distinct species

bacteria, fungi and viruses identified

18

functional traits

scored and published, including the middling ones

69:1

bacteria to fungi

the ratio annuals prefer

What that community can actually do

The lab scores functional potential — what the living organisms in the bag are equipped to do once they reach your soil. All twelve results, published in full.

Low-oxygen function

89%

Very high potential

The biology keeps working in the wet, packed pockets where most soil life stalls.

Denitrification

89%

Very high potential

Completes the nitrogen cycle instead of letting it stall — a sign of a mature, balanced community.

Carbon fixation

89%

High potential

Builds stable organic matter, so the ground holds together and holds water for years, not weeks.

Iron acquisition

85%

Very high potential

Unlocks iron the plant can actually take up — what keeps leaves deep green instead of pale.

High-oxygen function

84%

Very high potential

Fully aerobic and mature — the sign of compost that was finished properly, not rushed.

Plant stress adaptation

83%

High potential

Helps plants ride out a Carolina heat wave and a dry spell without checking out.

Organic nitrogen breakdown

73%

Medium potential

Feeds steadily all season instead of spiking and crashing like a synthetic.

Nitrogen fixation

69%

High potential

Pulls nitrogen out of thin air and hands it to your plants.

Phosphorus mobilization

64%

High potential

Frees up locked phosphorus — the fuel behind big blooms and heavy fruit set.

Methanogenesis

61%

Medium potential

A normal part of a mixed community with both aerobic and anaerobic pockets.

Potassium solubilization

61%

High potential

Makes potassium available, which is what stiffens stems and firms up fruit.

Calcium transport

61%

High potential

Moves calcium where it is needed — the mineral behind blossom-end rot when it is missing.

Anoxic environment

60%

Medium potential

Function continues even where oxygen runs out, deep in a compacted bed.

Organic carbon breakdown

59%

Medium potential

Turns raw organic matter into food for the soil at a measured pace.

Nodulating bacteria

58%

Medium potential

The partners legumes need — beans, peas and clover form root nodules with these.

Sulfur reduction

57%

Medium potential

Part of the sulfur cycle that keeps proteins and enzymes building in the plant.

Sulfur oxidation

54%

Medium potential

Converts sulfur into the sulfate form roots can absorb.

Nitrification

41%

Medium potential

Converts ammonium to nitrate, the form roots absorb most readily.

Who’s in there

A few of the residents worth knowing by name.

The bodyguard

Streptomyces

10.22%

The single most abundant organism in the sample. Produces natural antibiotic compounds that suppress soil-borne disease.

The recycler

Mycobacterium

4.23%

A widespread environmental genus that breaks down tough, waxy organic compounds other organisms leave behind.

The scout

Pseudomonas

2.32%

A plant-growth-promoting bacterium that frees locked phosphorus and drives dense, fibrous rooting.

The heat-lover

Sphaerobacter

2.06%

A thermophile — its presence is a fingerprint of a pile that genuinely ran hot.

The nitrogen finisher

Nitrospira

1.49%

Completes nitrification, turning ammonium all the way through to the nitrate roots take up.

The nitrogen crew

Bradyrhizobium & Mesorhizobium

1.93%

The root-nodule partners behind the nitrogen-fixation score. Combined 0.97% + 0.96%.

The trainer

Bacillus

0.45%

Primes the plant's own immune response — systemic acquired resistance — before trouble arrives.

96.9%

Bacteria

1540 species

2.33%

Fungi

37 species

0.75%

Viruses

12 species

Where these numbers come from

Independently sequenced. Publicly published.

Every figure on this page comes from independent DNA sequencing by RhizeBio, test ID HA 01-24, run on our chicken manure compost. We paid for the test, and we publish the whole result — not a cherry-picked headline.

That is the standard we hold ourselves to. If we say the biology is in the bag, there is a lab report behind it with a name on it.

See the lab report →

Certified Organic

Clemson University

Certified South Carolina

SC Dept. of Agriculture

Independently sequenced

RhizeBio DNA analysis

100% peat-free

No bogs, ever

A handful of the finished compost — dark, crumbly and full of structure