The purpose of this trial was to make a determination on two points. One, will this kit improve lettuce growth? And two, is the improvement worth the investment on the farm? Throughout the process, I noted germination numbers, week over week growth, and ultimately the harvest weight of each head. I also expanded on my own test to determine if back to earth works would be a worthy option for other growers by studying a variety of different soils. My findings may or may not be consistent with each grower, but the trial was an attempt to provide a basis of information others may find valuable on whether they think the kit could be a viable option for them.

The initial planning of this trial was to attempt to eliminate as many variables as possible. All the seeds were of the same type and from the same seed container. I used a pelleted Muir lettuce seed purchased from Johnny's Selected Seeds. I selected lettuce because it is a quick growing crop, is easily measurable, and is the most-planted crop on the farm. All seeds were planted at 3:00PM on April 1. The tray was placed on a grow rack in our living room where we heat with wood, so the temperate ranged from 67-77°F during their entire time indoors. I selected six different soils available to me at the time in order to create a range of starting conditions and see what affect the kit would have on each growing medium.
We have a local compost delivered on a regular basis to our farm that we use to build and prep our growing beds.
This was the obvious first choice as it is also what we use to start all of our lettuce seeds in 1020 germination trays. The second soil I selected was a bagged potting mix from Walmart, as this would be a likely medium in which many home growers would be using to start seeds or pot up small plants. Third and fourth were soil straight out of local farmers' fields. The farmland to the north and the south of us are owned by different farmers, so I selected both to see if they potentially had different soil health. I got a little more curious and decided to use soil directly out of our chicken coop's earth floor. I wanted to see if the high nitrogen level would create huge lettuce heads.
If successful, it would give me good information as to whether this could be a good addition to the growing beds. And the final soil selected came from an area next to the coop in the pen where we dump all the farm scraps for the chickens to scratch at and eat on. It is like a chicken composting factory over there, so in theory this should be prime growing soil. With each soil, I created one six-cell section for the soil and another six-cell section with 10% by volume of the kit utilizing Earth's Embrace. In total, I planted 72 lettuces.
Exactly 72 hours after seeding, I recorded the number of all the lettuces that had germinated.
1.) Compost = 3 W/Kit = 0
2.) Potting Mix = 1 W/Kit = 0
3.) South Farm = 4 W/Kit = 2
4.) North Farm = 4 W/Kit = 6
5.) Coop Soil = 0 W/Kit = 0
6.) Pen Soil = 4 W/Kit = 2
Interestingly, the initial observation was that germination appeared to be better in only one of the six soils mixed with the kit. It was not a great start for half of the soil types, with the coop soil failing to germinate any lettuces.
24 hours later, I did another recording as more lettuces had appeared the next morning.
1.) Compost = 6 W/Kit = 1
2.) Potting Mix = 2 W/Kit = 0
3.) South Farm = 5 W/Kit = 4
4.) North Farm = 5 W/Kit = 6
5.) Coop Soil = 0 W/Kit = 0
6.) Pen Soil = 5 W/Kit = 3
11 more lettuces had germinated, but the majority of them were still in the non-kit soil. Within the next three days, one lettuce from North Farm and one from Pen Soil died in their cell. No signs of a spreading disease were present, so everything else was left as it was.
On Day 7, another recording was made of the number of germinated lettuces.
1.) Compost = 6 W/Kit = 6
2.) Potting Mix = 6 W/Kit = 6
3.) South Farm = 5 W/Kit = 5
4.) North Farm = 6 W/Kit = 5*
5.) Coop Soil = 0 W/Kit = 0
6.) Pen Soil = 5 W/Kit = 2** Each type that had a lettuce die.
BOLD = Type that had the larger plants at this point.
Many observations were made at the one week mark. Many of the BTEW kit soil types had an increase in germination between Day 4 and Day 7, producing six more plants over the three days. No new germinations occurred after Day 7. The best performer at this point was Compost with the kit incorporated. The coop soil still had no germination, as I was having trouble with the soil surface remaining moist, and it was getting hard and crusty. It had also made the bottom tray of water smell like wet chicken manure, so I made the decision to remove the coop soil from the remainder of the trial as it was apparent nothing was going to happen, and it presented the potential for disease and foul smells. I emptied the bottom water and refilled with fresh water. One week later, the tray was then moved to one of the caterpillar tunnels where it remained until the transplant into the field.
At 3 weeks, growth was increasing more rapidly. As with the past two weeks, the best performer was still Compost, which also possessed larger plants than its non-kit counterpart. However, in each of the other remaining soil types, the larger plants were all in their kit version. The most notable improvement in growth was in Potting Mix with Back to Earth Works Regenerative Gardening Kit.
4 weeks was transplant day into the field. An observation made during this week was that both Compost types appeared to develop a small amount of drying of the bottom leaves. It was undetermined at the time what had happened, but later in another lettuce tray unrelated to the trial, also located in the tunnel, I had an issue with some mildew, so it is possible this could have been the cause, but it is unknown for sure.
We had recently extended some beds by 5-6 feet, so this was where I decided to place my transplants. The soil should have been the most consistent since it was new bed space. I had built the section with our supplied compost, which is also the same compost used in one of the test varieties. This is what is used in all growing beds on the farm, so with all things assumed to be equal in the soil, the trial would show if early exposure and growth in a kit-rich environment would lead to a healthier, and hopefully larger, lettuce head come harvest time. On this date, I did a final count of lettuce plants. Excluding Coop Soil, 54 of 60 seeds germinated, and on transplant day, four lettuces had died, leaving 50 plants. I selected the single largest plant from each of the ten soil varieties to be transplanted into the new bed. Below are each of the selected transplants. Unaltered soil is on the top, and Back to Earth Works kit soil is on the bottom. It can be seen now where it was pretty consistent across the board that the soils with the regenerative soil kit were beginning to outperform the unaltered soil. (From left to right: Pen Soil, North Farm, South Farm, Potting Mix, Compost)

Harvest date came on June 14. Lettuces were cut off at the base of their crown at ground level and weighed. An interesting observation that was made during the growing time in the bed was that both Compost types continued to lag in their growth and were overtaken by the other soil types. Another theory I devised with the underperformance of the Compost lettuces was they were right on the edge of where the existing bed met the bed extension. The existing bed consisted of a garlic crop planted last fall, and had not been top dressed with any new soil improvements since then. As a side note, compost has continued to be used on the farm for lettuce starts, and performance is consistently better than what was recorded during this trial, so I have determined one or both theories contributed to the anomaly.
Final head weights listed below (in ounces):
1.) Compost = 9.12 W/Kit = 9.44 (3.51%)
2.) Potting Mix = 7.68 W/Kit = 13.60 (77.08%)
3.) South Farm = 11.84 W/Kit = 11.68 (1.35%)
4.) North Farm = 8.64 W/Kit = 15.04 (74.07%)
5.) Coop Soil = 0 W/Kit = 0
6.) Pen Soil = 18.40 W/Kit = 20.64 (12.17%)

Overall, it can be determined that Back to Earth Works improved growth in the lettuces. Only one variety of the five performed worse than with the kit, with only a mere 1.35% difference. Since the conclusion of the trial, all lettuce starting soil on the farm has been prepared with compost and Back to Earth Works. I have theorized the lettuce starts are developing larger root systems early on, which allow for more explosive growth in its later stages. If this theory holds true, it stands to reason that Back to Earth Works regenerative soil kit is a viable option for many plant starts to get well established early on for better late-stage growth and potentially larger harvests.
The trial was performed by a member of staff on the BroxonBerry farm using Back to Earth Works Regenerative Soil Kit.
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