Education & Training
Promoting Soil Health Education
Jesse from Hiwassee and Natalie Forstbauer of Heart & Soil spoke with authors Anne Bikle and David Montgomery about the evolution of their understanding of soil and health, their four published books and what food production might look like in twenty years.
Helping Growers Implement Soil Health Practices
Brad Hobrock, formerly of AgriBio Systems, now working with VisionX Ag, spoke with Simeon about his agronomy practice. Brad helps farmers introduce biologicals and targeted nutritionals to build plant health while reducing inputs.
Decoding Microbial Diversity in Vermicompost
Craig Hartsough manages a vineyard for De La Montanya Vineyard and Winery in Sonoma County, California. He is working on his Ph.D., focusing on beneficial microbes and DNA testing in the vineyard context. Craig has written multiple articles for Acres USA; please refer to article list at the end of the post
The Vermicompost Microbiome with Dr. Zack Jones
This afternoon we’re speaking with Dr. Zack Jones in Fort Collins, Colorado. Zack and I first met at the last vermiculture conference put on by NC State, run by Rhonda Sherman, the godmother of vermicomposting. We were doing market research, coming in from the manufacturing side, how to design a good vermicomposting system and from there to producing extract.
Grozome corn trial
Everest Holmes describes a metagenomic study on the effects of Grozome compost extract on corn seedlings. The study demonstrated improved growth in treated vs. untreated seedlings.
Compost extract at agribio systems
Jesse spoke with Adam York of AgriBio Systems about Adam's journey from conventional to biological farming and the founding of AgriBio.
Tribute to Eddie King
On July 19th, 2025, our team at Hiwassee Products lost a great friend, mentor, and member of our extended family with the passing of Eddie King, a livestock and vegetable farmer of many decades in Chester, New York. Eddie’s passion for pursuing new, better methods to grow vegetables in a market farm environment led him to pioneer many practices that contributed to greater awareness of soil health and nutrient quality. Eddie was an inspiration and frequent collaborator during the development of Hiwassee Products, and his input, patience, and enthusiasm will be missed. His son Jeff continues his legacy and farming operation in the Hudson Valley.
New Product: Cordless Drive
Tired of cranking that manual extractor? You'll be interested in our newest accessory, the Gearbox Drive Package that lets you drive the auger of a manual Bio-Extractor with any cordless drill.
Design award for the Bio-Extractor
It's an honor that the Bio Extractor X350, X250 and X150 are among the top 10 new products highlighted by the Sunbelt Ag Expo 2025 Innovation Awards program. See the announcement here.
Interview with Miles Sorel
Today we are joined by Miles Sorel from Terraforma and Miles, do you want to introduce yourself and tell us a bit what you're about what Terraforma is all about?
What's in Grozome?
Everest Holmes, head of product development for Grozome describes his stringent quality control procedures and explains the roles of various microbes in promoting plant health.
Interview with Graeme Sait
Today we have the privilege of speaking with Graeme Sait, world renowned educator and ag specialist from Australia and founder of Nutri-Tech Solutions. Graeme could you give us a brief overview of yourself, your work and a little bit of how you got you got into this whole business of soil health?
Large Scale Vermicomposting at AgriBio Systems
Matt Drane of AgriBio Systems showed us how they produce 40,000 lb of vermicompost each year to produce compost extract on a commercial scale.
Liquid Compost Extract
A vibrant microbial ecosystem plays a critical role in agricultural soil. Where this ecosystem is inadequately developed, microbial populations can be extracted from biologically rich compost and applied to the soil as a liquid compost extract.
The Rhizophagy Cycle
Today we are going to be hearing from Dr. James White out of Rutgers University and Dr. White's fame in the ag sector has exploded over the past five years with his research on rhizophagy and a lot of the soil health nerds realizing the implication that this research has in determining the connection between the microbial health of the soil and the health and nutrition of plants and crops.
Compost Extract at Neese Farms
Gary and Cole Neese, who grow corn and soybeans on 2,400 acres in Western Indiana, sat down with Colin Boller from Hiwassee Products to talk about their experiences using compost extract, and other regenerative practices they have implemented.
Comparing the Three Bio-Extractor Models
Taylor Henry of Acres USA and Simeon Kleinsasser of Hiwassee Products got together to discuss the three models of Bio-Extractor, their features, and who they are designed for.
Comparing Composts with Matt Powers
At Acres 2024, we got together with Matt Powers to compare the biological activity in samples from 3 different composts.
Talking with Cory Miller
We had a great conversation with Cory Miller of Grass Valley Farms about biological farming, health and of course, compost extract.
Compost Extract at the Henderson Farm
Bob Henderson and his sons use the Hiwasse Products Bio-Extractor on their 2,000 acre farm in Iowa. We stopped by to talk about their experience with compost extract and regenerative farming.