If you can measure it, you can manage it.
GenTrek Labs shows you the precise makeup of your soil microbiome. With this powerful data, you now can see the impact of your farming practices and product choices on your soil’s health, tailoring them for maximum response. Benefits include:
Disease and pest resistance
Drought resilience
Nutrient density
Decreased inputs
Erosion control
Testing, Insights, and Solutions
Advancing Eco Agriculture is a strategic partner and investor in GenTrek Labs. AEA has 20 years of experience helping farmers grow a wide variety of crops on over 4 million acres of farmland. AEA’s expert agronomists can work with you to interpret your test results and build regenerative programs designed to boost your soil health and crop quality.
More about GenTrek Labs
Doing good for your farm, your bottom line, and your legacy
GenTrek Labs will provide insight into your soil health and help you discover the farming practices that will be most beneficial.
Healthy soils can produce higher-yielding, disease & pest resistant, better-quality crops with fewer inputs: resulting in more money in your pocket. Not only that, but the regenerative growing system we’ll help you create will become healthier and more resilient every year.
Your legacy will be a farm with thriving, healthy soils, that’s more resilient to future challenges, and provides bountiful yields for generations to come.
“GenTrek Labs was created to help growers see and understand that biology, so it can be managed with the same confidence as chemistry and fertility.”
How does it work?
When you send a soil sample to GenTrek Labs, they extract all of the DNA contained within that soil. They sequence the DNA, and send you the result, along with analysis and recommendations. You’ll discover the exact makeup of your soil microbiome: its species composition and relative populations. They can detect all species in the soil ecosystem, including archaea and higher order organisms, unlike other services which only identify bacteria and fungi.
Results are fast: 7-21 days. This way, they can quickly inform your farm management decisions. You can compare results from tests taken before and after an intervention to see the outcomes of your practices in real-time.
The soil food web
There is a vast array of life in the soil. The soil food web contains organisms of all sizes and shapes, including bacteria, fungi, archaea, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods, and worms.
All of these organisms interact to exchange nutrients and feed your plants. The microbes in the soil food web can extract nutrients from the soil that the plant cannot. Plants “pay” soil microbes for these nutrients by feeding them sugars. Each organism in the web brings its own “super-power” to the party–some are particularly adept at solubilizing phosphorus, others at extracting molybdenum. The combined effect is a thriving cycle of life that is extremely resilient and sustainable.
This explains why crops raised in a regenerative system, where plants have an intimate relationship with the soil food web community, produce more nutrient-dense foods. It also explains why farmers can minimize inputs in a regenerative system, allowing the plants and microbes to do most of the work. In a thriving system, the plants and soil food web organisms have all they need to thrive. The farmer only does some tweaking to optimize plant growth.
What GenTrek offers
- Soil Test
- Root Test
- Leaf Test
- Seed Test
Soil Test
This is a good starting point for growers new to GenTrek Labs. The bulk soil sample is a general test of the baseline microbe levels in your soil. A single test can show your soil’s baseline level of microbial activity. You can also take tests before and after an intervention–like a nutrient application, tillage, or pesticide application–to understand its precise effect on your soil’s microbes.
Order from GenTrek LabsRoot Test
See how plants interact directly with the microbial world at the root level. GenTrek offers two approaches: one capturing both rhizosphere and root-associated biology, and another focused on endophytes after washing. Ideal for farmers and researchers evaluating plant–microbe relationships and treatment impacts.
Order from GenTrek LabsLeaf Test
Understand how management practices influence the biology on and within plant leaves. This test is especially useful for evaluating the effects of foliar sprays and comparing different product applications.
Order from GenTrek LabsSeed Test
Explore the biological potential carried within seeds before planting begins. This test helps compare seed sources, evaluate microbial richness, and understand how seed biology may influence plant performance.
Order from GenTrek Labs
Get Started
1. Order a sample.
2. GenTrek will ship you a kit with soil sample containers, instructions, ice packs, and a return shipping label.
3. You’ll collect soil samples, freeze them, and ship them to their lab in North Carolina.
That’s it! Within 7-21 days, you’ll get a notification that your report is ready.
