The growth of all organisms depends on the availability of mineral nutrients, and none is more important than nitrogen, which is required in large amounts as an essential component of proteins, nucleic acids and other cellular constituents. A laboratory controlled experiment was designed to investigate the effect of temperature and moisture on soil N mineralization, Microbial activity and CN ratios for soils with differing % of soil organic carbon from Te Puke Hort16A kiwifruit orchard, New Zealand, Palmerston North, New Zealand soil pile, and Motueka apple orchard, New Zealand. The soils were incubated at three temperatures 5ºC, 15ºC, and 25ºC and at three soil moistures 50, 75, and 100 % field capacity and sampling was carried out on 0, 7, 14, 28, 56, 112, and 224 days. In addition, the approach HortResearch, New Zealand is using to understand soil function will be discussed.