yogurt as a source of soil microbes?
tex_jas
16 years ago
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16 years agoRelated Discussions
How to put Microbes back into soil
Comments (32)Why all the preliminary disagreeing if in the end you agree with my point" There was not any disagreement.. Nc was saying something smart about the back to Eden method, and I said something smart to him, that's what starting the agrument.. Neither leaves and dead branches and so on that fall in a forest over years and decades are comparable to chipping live trees and shrubs with giant machines and then laying down the chips in large amounts all at once. That is the kind of un-natural 'concentration' that I am talking about" Who said it was? I dont understand why you guys are looking at me - I simply was advising someone to watch the ideo to give insight.. To close the case I don't even use wood chips! I don't even use wod chips, get a laugh out that one! I use what the rest of nature does, leaves. So we aren't claiming that the "Back to Eden" method featured in the video you referenced (and which has been storming around the internet for quite a while) is inferior (or superior) to other intensive non-chem methods, we are simply pointing out that the persistent claim that the method is a breakthrough of some sort, some discovery of nature's laws, is hyperbole" I am in no way affiliate with Paul or back to Eden.. It does not offend me.. I don't even do the back to Eden method.. I like his point of views, and I will defend some of his thoughts, buts that about as far as that goes.. Who said it was backthrough?? I never heard anyone saying that.. Nature been mulching for eons. "Combine doing that for a number of years combined with more concentrations of energy like adding fish emulsion or seaweed emulsion and you have a situation no different form other types of intensive gardening" This is exactly where I'm coming from! Us "gardeners" are all doing the same thing growing plants.. We want compost, rich soil, and maximum production, simply put, we want a healthy garden. Wether you till your soil and amend that year after year to get a healthy garden.. Whether you never till your garden and wait years for nature to take place. Whether you bring in thousands of pounds on compost and speed up the natural process by decades.. We are all doing the same thing in the long run, trying to get a healthy garden.. There are hundreds of ways to have a truly healthy garden.. We could debate for decades and there would still be people gardening hundreds of different ways... We could debate about what's best and most productive, less polluting,etc,etc,etc, in the end there are still hundreds of ways! Everyone on of them ways will lead to a healthy garden.. If you step back, you will realize, even though we stand apart, we are really all on the same boat... We are all striving for a healthy garden, we all could use a different method to get there.. We all our on the same exact boat in the long run, we really all strive for the same thing.....See MoreOf heat, pile reduction and microbs
Comments (15)Thanks so much for the info! Bluegoat your equations are bringing back faint memories of a college biology class. I've gotten much fodder for googling! Although it seems the answers to some questions just make me think of more questions. It sounds like "compost" is actually a continuum. Lots of activity early then a slow reduction of activity until eventually it becomes humus. What are the (technical) indicators that identify when compost is "ready" for the garden or "done" and has become humus? If the microbial activity is responsible for the heat how hot can a pile get before the heat is detrimental to either the composting and/or the welfare of the microbes? Do you want those microbes in the compost when you add it to soil? (that's what I think the compost producer guy was saying.) Bedding horses on pellets is a relatively new thing. One of the big advantages is that when removing the manure from the stalls you generally remove about half the amount of pelleted bedding as you would if you were using shavings or straw. Since straight horse manure is generally around 20:1 to 25:1 adding less bedding helps keep the C:N ration closer to 30:1--thus much faster composting than with shavings or straw which shoots that ratio up. It sounds like the finish product might be better too. I should be getting testing back on both 6 month and 24 month old compost samples (garden soil samples too) in another week. I figure the raw material mix of the compost won't change much if at all over time, so if I know my compost and I know my soil I can do a much, much better job of only adding to my garden soil what it may need that isn't provided by the compost....See Moresoil microbes
Comments (4)Both work to if not kill off the soil microbes at a minimum cause them to go dormant. Since they feed on organic matter the lack of that would cause them togo dormant. Much of what is in synthetic fertilizers can kill off the soil microbes. Synthetic fertilizers will also change the soil pH which these same soil microbes need to be in a fairly narrow range for their benefit. Here is a link that might be useful: The Soil Food Web Primer...See MoreBush Doctor Microbe Brew
Comments (18)Thanks Joe, I understand what you mean now. And yes I do have a habit of creating long posts (with a lot of paragraphs). I never start out with that intention, but it just usually seems to work out that way somehow. I was just thinking in terms of it all being in one long paragraph when I made the statement. I guess that's why I didn't understand what you meant. jmoore3274 Again I have not really gotten into using beneficial's yet myself, but having live beneficial microbes and fungi in the reservoir shouldn't be a problem. However keeping a abundance of them thought the life of the plants is the issue (the way I see it anyway). I would be concerned with adding sugars to any systems. Besides the fact that it would make everything sticky and clog things up. As far as I know, adding sugars will also feed the bad microbes and fungi along with the good. So I think that would do much more damage than good (a wash at best), even if there are no other side effects. Also, I have never come across anything (I remember anyway) that would suggest that any chemical salts used to make nutrients have any negative effects on the beneficial's. However too much or too little of anything can be a problem, even just to the plants themselves (with or without benificals). Thanks for the links, and here are a few that I have collected. Although they are all from the same publication, they are from various authors (and dates). I have looked most of the authors up, and I'm pretty satisfied that the articles are creditable and not just propaganda put out by product manufactures. Ask Erik (Although this is mostly about using organics, it discuses using microbes in a DWC system.) Beneficial Soil Microbes Beneficial Biology Demistified Buying and Applying Mycorrhizal Fungi Biological Products in Indoor Gardens Application Parameters for Using Compost Tea Understanding and Using Trichoderma Fungi (and if you go to the online extras section look under the May 2010 edition for the same title as this article, you can click Download a detailed "shopping list" of tips for Trichoderma fungi. That explains the differences between high and low quality Trichoderma fungi products. Same goes for other benifical's. Anyhow, hope they can help answers some of your questions. I haven't read them all, all the way through myself yet. But I have copied them all to text documents (including the author and URL of the online article) to make it easy to print out and read when I have time (like I do with most good articles)....See Morercnaylor
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