What the research actually says about soil, fungi and food
New findings on growing systems, soil science, fungi, food systems and climate, written plainly. Every claim is checked against the paper it cites before it publishes, and the check is printed next to it. No takes, no hype, no citations that turn out not to exist.
22 articles · 632 claims support-checked · 1381 references verified against Crossref
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
One season of coffee husk biochar lifted wheat yields in Ethiopia
A single-season Ethiopian field trial found coffee husk biochar plus NPSB fertilizer raised bread wheat yield on acidic soil, with the best result under lime.
One field experiment in Bita District, southwestern Ethiopia, tested coffee husk biochar at three rates with three rates of blended NPSB fertilizer, with and without lime, on bread wheat. The biochar-fertilizer interaction significantly increased grain yield. The top treatment was 5 tonnes per hectare of biochar with 100 kilograms per hectare of NPSB under limed conditions, at 3.59 tonnes per hectare, which also returned the highest reported net benefit. It is one season, one site, three replications, and the abstract does not report the unfertilized control yield or any soil measurements.
- Mycology5 min read
Inoculating Beans in Salt-Affected Soil: A Greenhouse Result, Not a Field Recommendation
A 60-day greenhouse pot trial found rhizobia and mycorrhizal inoculation plus organic matter improved faba and haricot bean growth in saline-sodic soils, but reported no yield.
A greenhouse pot experiment in Ethiopia tested rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, alone and combined, with organic matter and three rates of NPSB fertilizer on faba and haricot beans in sodic and saline soils. Inoculation and organic matter significantly affected growth parameters after 60 days; the best fertilizer level varied by soil and crop. The study reports no grain yield and no field data, and the authors call for field trials. The abstract gives no effect sizes, replication numbers, or mechanism.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
A Chickpea Variety Trial in South-western Oromia: What It Shows and What It Doesn't
Six Kabuli chickpea varieties differed significantly in yield over two rain-fed seasons in south-western Ethiopia, but the recommendation rests on one trial.
A field experiment at two districts in the Buno Bedele Zone compared six improved Kabuli chickpea varieties across the 2023 and 2024 main cropping seasons. Varieties differed significantly in flowering time, maturity, pods per plant, seeds per pod, hundred-seed weight and grain yield, but not in plant height. Koka gave the highest grain yield at 1568.04 kg per hectare and Hora the lowest at 865.83 kg per hectare. The authors recommend Koka and Habru for the area, though the abstract reports no per-site or per-season yield breakdown and no disease or insect data.
- Agriculture & Soil6 min read
Foliar urea lifted rainfed castor yield in one Indian trial. The nitrogen arithmetic is harder to read.
In a three-season Indian field trial, full basal nitrogen plus 2% urea foliar sprays gave the highest rainfed castor yield, but the trial did not test cutting soil nitrogen.
A three-season field experiment on rainfed castor compared eight nitrogen management modules. The best performer applied the full recommended basal nitrogen rate and then added 2% urea foliar sprays at 30 and 60 days after sowing, reaching 1,546 kg seed per hectare. Foliar urea beat nano urea at the rate tested. The trial does not show that foliar feeding can replace soil nitrogen, because the winning treatment added nitrogen rather than substituting it.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
Mustard Seed Cake Beat NPK in One Season of Spring Rice. That Is One Season.
In one spring season in Sunsari, Nepal, mustard seed cake at 6 t/ha out-yielded NPK and four other amendments, while the unfertilized control matched them all.
A single-season field trial in eastern Nepal compared six amendments and an unfertilized control on spring rice. Mustard seed cake at 6 tonnes per hectare was the only treatment to significantly beat all others, reaching 5.07 t/ha of grain. Farm yard manure, goat manure, poultry manure, vermicompost, recommended NPK and the control all yielded statistically the same, which the authors attribute to residual soil fertility at the site. The result is one season, one site, one variety, and the authors call for multi-season confirmation.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
Biochar in vineyards: the carbon storage holds up, the yield gains do not
A 2026 review finds biochar carbon persists for decades in soil, but vineyard yield gains appear at only three Tuscan sites and do not replicate elsewhere.
A 2026 integrative review of vineyard biochar trials found the strongest evidence is for carbon persistence: the inert fraction was unchanged after 15 years and 65 to 89 percent remained after 100 years. Yield gains of 16 to 67 percent appeared only in three Tuscan vineyards on acidic, carbon-poor, non-irrigated soils, while eight other site comparisons showed no significant response. Nitrous oxide and methane reductions are not robust at field scale and have not been detected in vineyards. The review calls long-term microbial effects, economic viability and large-scale carbon farming plausible but poorly documented or speculative.
- Mycology5 min read
A soft tick's microbiome, described but not explained
Two 16S datasets from the soft tick Otobius megnini in Mexico share bacterial taxa, but geography cannot be separated from batch effects.
An exploratory study compared two independently generated 16S rRNA datasets from Otobius megnini collected in Querétaro and Comarca Lagunera, Mexico. Both datasets contained Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium and Coxiella-like organisms, and some diversity metrics differed between them. The authors state plainly that dataset identity was confounded with tissue type, 16S region, host replication, life stage, feeding status and laboratory processing, so the differences cannot be attributed to geography. The network and pathway results are described as hypothesis-generating.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
Ten years of no-till moved carbon in the topsoil, not the subsoil
Ten years of no-till raised topsoil carbon on a South African Plinthosol, but carbon below 20 cm barely moved.
A ten-year field trial on a Haplic Plinthosol in South Africa compared no-till with conventional tillage, four crop rotations, residue retention versus removal, and three soil depths. No-till raised soil organic carbon in the top 20 cm, and rotation plus residue retention increased particulate organic matter down to 40 cm. Between 20 and 60 cm the authors report limited change and call for longer monitoring before expecting substantial subsoil carbon gains. The result is one site, one soil type, one sampling season.
- Mycology5 min read
A two-season maize trial in Kenya found NPK hard to beat, and mycorrhizal fungi hard to judge
In a two-season Kenyan field trial, NPK fertiliser drove maize yields and profit, while adding arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi did not improve on NPK alone.
A two-season randomised field trial in Taveta, Kenya compared AMF, organic manure, NPK and their pairwise combinations on maize. NPK gave the highest pooled grain yield and the best short-term economic return, and adding AMF to NPK did not significantly improve yield over NPK alone. Treatment-by-season interactions were not significant for yield or biomass, though root length did vary by season. The trial was small: one site, one cultivar, two seasons, and no reported root colonisation data.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
A cotton-waste hydrogel lifted corn and cotton yields in a saline Kazakh field trial. One season is one season.
In a one-season field trial on saline Kazakh soil, a cotton-linter hydrogel raised corn and cotton yields, though the mechanism and economics remain untested.
A field trial in southern Kazakhstan applied a superabsorbent polymer made from cotton linter to corn and cotton grown on salt-affected soil under irrigation. Yields of both crops rose steadily as the polymer rate increased from 0 to 50 kilograms per hectare, and irrigation water productivity roughly doubled. The trial ran for one season at one site with four blocks. The authors state that multi-season trials, soil-water monitoring, economic analysis and full polymer characterization are still needed.
- Mycology6 min read
Diatomaceous Earth Added Nothing to Maize Yield in This Trial, and the Soil Bacteria Were Sampled Once per Treatment
Diatomaceous earth added to fertilized maize plots produced no yield difference, and soil bacteria were sampled once per treatment.
A field trial in acidic Ecuadorian maize soil compared no input, conventional fertilizer, and fertilizer plus diatomaceous earth. Only grain yield was tested statistically: the two fertilized treatments were statistically similar and both beat the unfertilized control, so the amendment added nothing measurable. Soil bacterial profiles came from a single composite sample per treatment at each time point and were reported descriptively, with no inferential testing. The paper is explicit that it is a baseline for future work, not a demonstration that diatomaceous earth changes soil bacteria.
- Neuroscience6 min read
ManyBabies 3 Found No Sign of Infant Rule Learning. That Is the Result.
A 30-lab pre-registered replication found no evidence that infants learn abstract rules from syllable sequences, with Bayesian support for the null.
ManyBabies 3 tested 839 infants aged 5 to 12 months across 30 laboratories in a pre-registered conceptual replication of a 1999 study that reported abstract rule learning in 7-month-olds. Looking times did not differ significantly between test trials consistent and inconsistent with the rule, and a Bayesian analysis indicated strong evidence for a null effect. None of the pre-specified moderators, including age, multilingualism, or paradigm, changed this. The result constrains what the original finding can mean, but it does not show that infants are incapable of learning rules.
- Mycology5 min read
A Strawberry Blight Trial We Cannot Actually Read
The strawberry trial behind this headline is not in the evidence base, so its specific claims cannot be checked.
The topic describes a protected-cultivation trial in which a foliar microbial consortium suppressed Phomopsis leaf blight in strawberry and changed plant biochemistry. None of the thirteen sources provided is that trial, or any trial on strawberry or Phomopsis. What the sources do support is the general plausibility of the mechanism, and a well-documented gap between biocontrol results in controlled conditions and results in the field.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
One Trial, One Grass, One Place: What Piggery Sludge Did for Signal Grass in Papua New Guinea
One six-month trial in Papua New Guinea found piggery sludge raised signal grass yield and soil nutrients, but copper, lead, cadmium and chromium exceeded standard limits.
A single field trial in the humid lowlands of Papua New Guinea applied solid piggery sludge at 0, 2.5, 5 and 10 tonnes per hectare to signal grass and harvested after six months. Yields and soil nutrient measures rose sharply at the two highest rates, and the authors recommend 5 tonnes per hectare. The same trial found copper, lead, cadmium and chromium above standard permissible limits, and reported metal accumulation in soil and biomass. With one site, one season and no mineral fertiliser comparison, the yield result is a lead worth following, not a settled practice.
- AI & Computing5 min read
Robotic Dental Implant Surgery Is More Accurate Than Free-Hand. Whether That Helps Patients Is Unproven.
A meta-analysis of seven randomized trials finds robotic implant surgery more accurate than free-hand, but no proven patient benefit.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of seven randomized controlled trials, covering 529 implants, found robotic computer-assisted implant surgery places implants closer to the pre-surgical plan than free-hand surgery, at moderate certainty. Against dynamic navigation it showed a high-certainty angular advantage, but no significant difference in platform or apical deviation. Comparisons with static guided surgery were non-significant and rested on a single small trial. The review found no evidence that better positional trueness translates into better clinical or patient-reported outcomes, and operating-time evidence was too weak to draw any conclusion.
- Biology5 min read
Molecular UTI Tests Find More Bacteria. Whether That Helps Patients Is Still Open
A systematic review of 12 studies finds PCR-based UTI tests beat culture on sensitivity but lack specificity, with only two small trials and heavy industry funding.
A 2025 systematic review identified 12 studies of molecular urine testing in adults, only two of them randomised controlled trials. PCR-based tests were more sensitive than standard urine culture but not specific, and in both trials the results guided antibiotics that reduced symptoms at 28 days. Both trials and half the prospective studies were funded by the companies that developed the tests. The review concludes that clinical outcome data remain too limited to establish a role for these tests.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
More nitrogen lifted jute fibre yield, up to 140 percent of the recommended dose, in one field, in one season
In a single-season Bangladesh field trial, 140 percent of the recommended nitrogen dose gave the highest jute fibre yield, while higher doses cut harvest index.
One field experiment at Kishoreganj, Bangladesh, tested six nitrogen rates on jute variety BJRI Tossa Pat-8 over one growing season. Fibre yield peaked at 140 percent of the recommended dose (112 kg per hectare) and fell at 160 and 180 percent. Plants kept growing taller and leafier at the highest dose, but harvest index dropped, meaning a smaller share of the plant ended up as fibre. The result rests on one site, one season and one variety.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
A Pot Trial in Telangana: Rice Microbes and Nitrogen Under Drought
A single pot trial in Telangana found a three-strain rhizobacterial consortium with reduced nitrogen fertiliser held rice nitrogen use efficiency and yield under water deficit.
One 2024 pot experiment in Warangal, India crossed six microbial inoculation treatments with two soil moisture levels in rice. A tripartite bacterial consortium given with 75 percent of the recommended nitrogen dose preserved rhizosphere diversity, sustained nitrogen-cycling enzyme activity and improved nitrogen use efficiency and grain yield relative to an uninoculated control under water deficit. The authors say the result needs open-field confirmation. No effect sizes, replication counts or comparisons against a full-rate nitrogen control appear in the abstract.
- Food Systems6 min read
Little millet grew best between young Casuarina trees. The soil claim is thinner than that.
A three-cycle trial found little millet the best of six millets grown between young Casuarina trees, but the soil and land-equivalent claims rest on thin data.
A field experiment intercropped six millet species in a young Casuarina junghuhniana plantation over three crop cycles. Little millet gave the highest dry matter, grain yield, land equivalent ratio and net income; kodo millet performed worst. The soil fertility result compares intercropped plots only with trees grown alone, not with sole millet, and the abstract reports no values or statistics for it. It is a single-site trial with three blocks, so the results are a lead, not a settled recommendation.
- Agriculture & Soil6 min read
One field, one season: what the manure-depth trial actually shows
A one-season trial on saline soil found manure cut salinity and pH, with deeper, mixed application working best.
A single-season field experiment in Jilin Province, China, tested three manure rates, three application depths and two placement methods on saline silty loam planted to corn. It found that 40 tonnes per hectare lowered electrical conductivity and pH relative to control plots, and that deeper, mixed application lowered conductivity further. The study measured only electrical conductivity, pH and bulk density, after one harvest, at one site. It reports no yield, no second year and no mechanism.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
A Quarter Less NPK, Same Maize Yield, in One Field for One Season
In one season on an acidic Indonesian Ultisol, fermented oil palm fruit bunch liquid replaced a quarter of the NPK dose without losing maize yield.
A single field trial in Bengkulu, Indonesia tested whether fermented oil palm empty fruit bunch liquid could substitute for mineral NPK on hybrid maize. Replacing 25 percent of the NPK dose held grain yield and nitrogen uptake; replacing 50 percent held yield but cut nitrogen uptake by 13 percent; replacing 75 percent cut yield. The trial ran one season at one site with four replications and reported no cost analysis, so the economics that motivated the study remain untested.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
Manure Cut Fertilizer Needs in a Shallot Trial. One Season, One Field, One Soil.
One season of field data from Indonesia suggests manure can replace part of inorganic NPK in shallot without losing yield, and may improve storage.
A single-season trial on an acid Ultisol in Bengkulu, Indonesia, tested composted cattle manure at 10 tonnes per hectare combined with 100, 75, 50, 25 or 0 percent of the recommended NPK rate, against a full-NPK reference with no manure. Manure plus 75 percent NPK gave the highest fresh bulb yield, 18.3 percent above the reference, and manure plus 50 percent NPK matched the reference while cutting storage weight loss from 22.2 to 15.1 percent after eight weeks. The trial was not replicated across sites or seasons, and the abstract reports no mechanism for the storage effect.
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