Sustainable Growing Solutions Offers Microbe Products to Help Improve Soil Health and Fertility

Gus Olson started using organic inputs 45 years ago on his family farm, and 35 years ago he started working with microbe products. He found that organic inputs and microbe products worked best together but didn't really see anyone else approaching biologicals in this way.

So Olson developed the first microbe inoculant product, and that became the foundation for Sustainable Growing Solutions (SGS), a Clarksburg, CA-based company that specializes in the development and production of microbial inoculants and plant nutrition products for the agriculture industry.

“It was from this experience that we learned that the entire soil microbiology needed to be addressed in biological products, not just a few selected species that are how almost all other microbe inoculant companies have developed their products for the ag market,” said David Olson, Gus's son and co-owner of the company. “As farmers, we did not see the types of products and the practical integrated approach we wanted, so we thought we would start a company to do it for other growers too.”

David Olson, Co-Owner, Sustainable Growing Solutions

With a tagline that reads, “Made by Farmers for Farmers,” SGS offers products that help growers solve problems. Most of its products are OMRI Listed and all are shelf-stable and safe to use with no application restrictions on days to harvest and with zero hours for field reentry. 

Olson explained that many ag soils have been damaged by cultural practices over time, which has resulted in impaired biology, often severely impaired—like one millionth of what a healthy microbe population should be in population size, diversity, and function.  

“It was from this experience that we learned that the entire soil microbiology needed to be addressed in biological products, not just a few selected species that are how almost all other microbe inoculant companies have developed their products for the ag market.” - David Olson

“These damaged unhealthy soils are missing out on the many plant beneficial functions that a healthy soil microbiology performs and suffer many out of control pathogen pressures that do not occur in healthy balanced soils,” he said. “Our microbe products contain 20,000-plus different species and are in extremely high populations with the objective to restore all of the plant beneficial functions that the microbes do for plants.”

Microbe functions that are beneficial to plants include: nitrogen fixing and cycling, phosphorus solubilizing, cation chelating, plant immune system and defense support, plant growth regulator production, biocontrol protection from pests and pathogens, reduction of abiotic stressors, and crop residue decomposition and carbon sequestration.  

“Our microbe products contain 20,000-plus different species and are in extremely high populations with the objective to restore all of the plant beneficial functions that the microbes do for plants.” - David Olson

“Among the thousands of species of microbes in our products, we have a dozen or more different microbe species that perform each of the above plant fertility-related functions and each are present in hundreds of thousands to billions per drop,” Olson said. “By restoring all of the plant beneficial functions with this broad species diversity inoculant, we have found consistent increases in plant nutrient status—often with less fertilizer applied—a reduction in most types of production problems, and a significant increase in yield, crop quality, and product shelf life.”

These days, most growers are seeing increased cost of fertilizer, and many are also seeing reduced reliability in their water supplies. A healthy soil microbe population can help with both of those problems.  

“Microbes help plants capture more nutrients both from the fertilizer applied as well as from the natural soil nutrient potential,” Olson said. “This means we can use less fertilizer, save input dollars, and still have a healthier and higher-nutrient-status plant that yields as well or better. Microbes also increase plant water use efficiency by intercepting and mining water from spaces plant root hairs can’t reach, expanding root mass, buffering and protecting the plant from salts, and increasing stomatal and photosynthetic efficiency.”

These days, most growers are seeing increased cost of fertilizer, and many are also seeing reduced reliability in their water supplies. A healthy soil microbe population can help with both of those problems.  

In addition to SGS's microbe inoculant MetaGrow ST, the company has several new products that it’s launching this year. These include MetaGrow BioFERT, a microbe inoculant focused on maximizing plant fertility; MetaGrow C, an inoculant with a chitin-based metabolism; MetaGrow D-COMP, a crop residue decomposer inoculant; MetaGrow F, a very fungal dominant microbe inoculant; MetaGrow G, an inoculant with a glucans-based metabolism; and MetaGrow 5X+, a 5x concentrate of its MetaGrow ST product.

“We also have microbe food products which complement each of the above inoculants [and] which enhance their colonization efficiency, increase their population size, and sustain their directed beneficial functions,” Olson said. “We have always been into continuous improvement of our products, and the goal is to do that faster and better than anyone else can keep up with.” 

The company has a great track record of success on all the higher-value tree, vine, vegetable, and berry crops, and in the last couple of years, it has been able to put together much more modest programs that fit the economics of lower-capital-intensive broadacre crops with surprisingly great success.  

“We have always been into continuous improvement of our products, and the goal is to do that faster and better than anyone else can keep up with.” 

“We are excited about what the growers are seeing and the feedback from the field,” Olson said. “Our integrated microbe programs, which typically cover several different applications at different crop growth stages, each with their specific objectives in terms of beneficial impacts, are working and providing consistent and high returns on investment on the program cost.”