Frequently asked questions.

We’re developing a system for producing microbial inputs at a farm or through a local agricultural business. A mesh starter cartridge holds bacteria and material that supports their growth. It goes into a reusable reactor, with an included feed pack added partway through the cycle to supply more food for the microorganisms.

The reactor is reused, and each new cycle starts with a fresh cartridge. Growers could operate a reactor, share production locally, or purchase from a future local producer.

Tell us a little about yourself, what you grow or do, and what caught your interest. You might want to try the inputs, produce at your farm, purchase from a future local producer, or help with testing. We’d like to hear from potential production and distribution partners too. Good Growth is still in development, so you don’t need to arrive with a proposal or know exactly where you fit. A question or an idea is enough to start.

No. Some growers may want to produce at their own farm, while others would rather buy what they need from a nearby retailer, co-op, or local producer. We’re developing the system with both options in mind. If you prefer purchasing locally, you wouldn’t be responsible for running the production equipment. We’re still identifying potential local producers, so telling us where you’re located helps us understand where there’s interest.

Yes. You can register interest in purchasing from a future local producer without operating equipment yourself. You could also explore producing for a small group of nearby growers, with one site hosting the reactor and an agreed operator looking after it.

Farm size alone does not decide the best route. We would discuss your production needs, application schedule, and shared arrangements. Local purchasing availability is still being developed.

Register purchasing interest or discuss shared production.

We’re open to hearing from growers across all crops and types of operations. Part of this work is finding out where the system can be most helpful and which applications are worth testing first. Tell us what you grow, where you’re located, and how you’d like to use the inputs through our contact form.

You or someone on your team would look after the system. Current estimates are about two hours for initial setup and 5–10 minutes a day for routine checks and tasks, plus cleaning between cycles. Site integration can affect setup time, and cleaning time is still being established.

The work includes checking the run and adding the included feed pack partway through. We would review your setup, operator responsibilities, and support needs together before a trial.

Plan for the reactor, control box, and pump together in one area: an estimated equipment footprint of about 4½ ft wide × 3 ft deep, plus room to operate and clean the system. The reactor is approximately 36 inches tall and 27¼ inches across, including the transducers. This is a planning estimate for a side-by-side layout, not a measured installation clearance.

It operates at approximately 50 gallons of working volume, with access to municipal water and a standard wall outlet. A GFCI-protected cord is included. We would review water preparation and the site arrangement with you before use.

The design goal is flexibility across farm setups. Depending on the site, the liquid could be fed into a larger irrigation system using a suitable pump and hose, or transferred into mixing tanks for smaller, modular, or mobile systems. We’re also exploring compatible spraying methods. We would review filtration, delivery, handling, and application requirements with you before a trial; compatibility is still being evaluated.

We’re currently planning around two weeks per cycle, with testing ahead to narrow down the best production endpoint and application timing. Early reactor observations suggest there may be some flexibility in when the output can be used, which we’re working to confirm through biological measurements. The goal is to give growers room to plan applications around their operation while maintaining the quality of what they apply.

It starts with a discussion about your operation and what you’d like to try. That might be comparing the inputs with your usual practice or finding out what running a Good Growth reactor at your farm would involve. Together, we’d work out what to test, what to record, when to do it, and who handles each task. We’d also discuss costs before you commit. Your feedback on anything that adds work, causes confusion, or could be simpler would help us improve the system.

We’ll start by discussing what you want to try, then put together a plan covering equipment, inputs, testing, and support. You’ll know the costs and who is responsible for each part before deciding whether to participate.

For an on-site production trial, the reactor would be loaned for the agreed trial period. You or your team would handle the day-to-day work, with Ian helping with setup, integration, and troubleshooting. The plan would also distinguish project testing from routine soil tests your farm already carries out.

We want to find out whether the system makes sense on a real operation. That includes how the inputs perform, how they move through application equipment, how much work production takes, and what it costs. A trial might also look at plant establishment or root growth, with a comparison agreed beforehand. We haven’t established those benefits yet. The results—and your experience using the Good Growth reactor—will help us decide what works, what needs changing, and what to test next.

We need to check which microbes are present, how many are alive, whether there’s contamination, and how consistent the output is from one batch to the next. We also need to understand what happens during handling and application. Those checks are part of the testing we’re developing, including the standards a batch would need to meet. Appearance or visible activity alone can’t tell us whether the output is suitable to use.