Your soil tests are accurate. Your decisions might not be.
A nutrient panel can’t see biology. A biology report can’t see structure. Each one makes its own recommendation, and nobody reads across them. The Soil Function Ladder™ does. It reads chemistry, physics and biology together and tells you where your soil really stands and where to start.
Three reports. No diagnosis.
Soil works as one system. When it’s tested in silos, you get advice that is technically correct but doesn’t build on itself: inputs that underperform, money spent in the wrong order, and soil that stays stuck on the same rung season after season.
Nutrient availability comes out of active carbon cycling and microbial function. Until a soil has the biological infrastructure to cycle nutrients, fine-tuning inputs won’t pay off. Repair comes before optimisation.
The Problem
The Soil Function Ladder™
Four rungs. Six indicators. One rung, one binding constraint, one next step.
The Ladder combines six diagnostic indicators across chemistry, physics and biology into one functional reading. It works as a readiness filter. It separates soils that need repair from soils that are ready to optimise, so your recommendations land on ground that can use them.
The Method
Nutrient availability is an emergent property of active carbon cycling and microbial function. Until a soil develops the biological infrastructure to cycle nutrients, input optimisation can’t deliver results. The Soil Function Ladder™ acts as a readiness filter — distinguishing soils that need repair from soils that are ready to optimise — so recommendations land on ground that can actually use them.
Traditional soil tests give you numbers; The Soil Function Ladder™ gives you a Road Map.
The Soil Function Ladder integrates indices from chemistry, physics, and biology into a single functional classification. Instead of three siloed reports, you get one integrated diagnosis — the functional state of your soil, the constraint that's binding it, and the management sequence that will actually move it forward.
Traditional tests give you a shopping list. The Ladder gives you a road map.
Who it’s for
• Your rung: the functional state of your soil, unit by unit
• The binding constraint: the one factor holding the system back right now
• A sequenced management plan: what to do first, what to wait on, and what to stop spending on
• What to measure next: so you can show progress up the Ladder rather than just hoping for it
• A plain-language report that you, your staff, your advisor or your procurement team can act on
• Farms. Stop putting inputs on soil that isn’t ready for them. Put the budget where it compounds.
• Nurseries and growers. Consistent substrate and soil performance, and fewer losses you can’t explain.
• Municipalities and landowners. Evidence-based soil specifications and monitoring for tree establishment and green space, in a format procurement can use.
What you receive
1. Intake. A short conversation about your land, history, goals and existing test results. Bring what you already have, since older data is often still useful.
2. Field assessment. Site walk, field observations and targeted sampling where the gaps are.
3. Integrated diagnosis. Lab, field and plant signals read together on the Ladder.
4. Road map. Report and walkthrough: rung, binding constraint, sequence and monitoring plan.
5. Re-assessment (optional). Check movement up the Ladder after a season.
Typical turnaround: 3 weeks · Region: Sweden, the Nordics and the Baltics · Fee: from 2500 SEK & moms
How it Works
Why it matters
The cost of starting on the wrong rung
Every season spent applying advice to soil that isn’t functionally ready means wasted inputs, underperforming crops and declining biology. The longer a Collapsed soil is treated as Recoverable, the harder and more expensive the real recovery gets.
The Ladder doesn’t only tell you where you are. It tells you what’s realistic from there.
Why We Built This
“Over 25 years of working with farmers, I’ve watched the same mistake repeat: the right practice, applied to a soil that isn’t structurally ready for it. The Soil Function Ladder™ changes the starting point — every decision begins with what’s actually limiting the system, not what each test happens to measure. That distinction is where most regenerative budgets either take hold or quietly disappear.”
— Josef Winter, Founder, 59degrees Soil Architects
Not ready for a SFL Assessment yet?
Download Workbook
Learn more about how soil functions, how to improve your soil literacy and build healthier, more fertile soil.
59degrees Soil Architects
Building biological function.
hej@59degrees.com
Org No. 559020 1488
© 2026. All rights reserved.