Integrating microbial ecology principles into growing media formulation for reliable biological functions

Horticultural growing media (GM) are increasingly expected to provide reliable biological functions, yet microbial inoculants and native microbiota often perform inconsistently. We argue that this variability arises because GM are currently mainly formulated through physical and chemical criteria, while microbial ecology remains insufficiently integrated. In this perspective, GM are reframed as engineered, partially self-organizing microbial ecosystems shaped by resource quality, stoichiometric balance, physicochemical filtering and microbial community assembly. We propose an ecology-driven framework for interpreting decomposition, nutrient dynamics, disease suppression and inoculant performance in GM. This perspective outlines priorities for predictive GM design, including biologically relevant descriptors, explicit system boundaries, cross-GM validation, temporal sampling and integration with monitoring tools.