Take on the three principal causes

The moon doesn't have either of those things.

To have arable living soil,
you have to have two things:
organic matter and microorganisms.

The regolith lacks the microbiome found in Earth soils.
Its powder-like consistency
doesn't allow water to easily filter through.

Scientists took inspiration from Earth's plants—
over 80% of which have symbiosis with the fungi,
one of the oldest symbioses on Earth.

It essentially is what enabled plants to be able to inhabit land
allowed anything to take root.

Chickpeas send out signals
to actively recruit the microorganisms
that help them survive.

The seeds are currently being tested
for their nutrition, protein,
and metal accumulation.

We are growing it out, generation by generation, to see how much structure we can make.