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[compost_tea] RE: Forest soil - Cultivating fungi



I have to agree with Paul and Tom that if everybody went out and grabbed
some forest duff every time they did a batch of CT, we'd have a serious
problem down the road when more people are making tea, so that shouldn't be
encouraged.  Irene and Doc E, and I think I, suggested a solution -- using
it as an inoculant in small quantities for your own composts, or in Irene's
case (lucky lady) growing it using woman-made duff under her own big trees.
Yes, Irene, that sounds like super, local, fungal stuff.  It's not compost,
simply decomposing organic matter -- or cultivated O horizon topsoil, hmm?

These may be wacky thoughts, but what might result if you simply spread some
good compost on a damp forest floor and left it for a while, "harvesting"
sometime later?  Seems like you'd get something good sooner than waiting for
wood to rot.  I can even imagine some city parks or national forests
devoting a little space to cultivating ACT critters, similar to community
gardens, or a license to do that as for wild mushroom harvesters... In the
meantime, Jeff is absolutely right.  It is not legal to remove material from
a state or national forest, or any public space.  Let's not be starting any
trouble out there, folks.

Bread makers prize their "sourdough starter" -- a lump of which is added to
each batch to get the right organisms to grow and make sourdough breads.
Doc E told me last year a way to bump up nematodes in my vermicompost was to
cultivate them, thusly:

"...find a really healthy natural system near you and collect several
handfuls of the dark brown "O" horizon material.   Grassland or forest,
doesn't matter, a healthy system should have an O horizon.  In desert
systems, you have to look UNDER the big shrubs in the system, but it's
there.  Use that as an inoculum for a 5 gallon pail of your mature compost.
[Mix it in and keep it moist.]  Make sure you have a few airholes in the
bottom of the bucket so water will drain.

"Let the nematodes grow for about 3 months, and then use that compost as the
inoculum for your piles.  But don't use all the compost in that bucket - use
maybe 3/4 of the compost, and  then fill up the bucket with more fresh
compost.  Each time through, you should get better and better sets of
beneficial nematodes developing.  Keep adding to your compost piles, and
take some of the old compost pile to inoculate the new piles you put
together, along with the compost from the bucket.  Check your nematodes
every batch of compost you make, just to make certain you have the good
guys."

For nematodes, Doc also suggested growing 10 pea and lima bean sprouts in
succession in the bucket, stirred into the "starter" during each cycle for
an extra boost (I think, bit confusing...)  I snipped that here, along with
some blatant lab biz pumpings:-).  (You can send samples to SFI for nematode
id, separation of bad guys, and they will send you back an inoculum of only
good guys, as of 3/02 in Corvallis, anyway.)

The point of this message is to suggest the same sort of
handfuls-in-five-gallons-starter thing could be done to cultivate fungi and
I think it would be a similar routine.  More powerful than Pablum!  Not
"harvesting" forest floors but cultivating composts with critters found
there...  I'd suggest you always backfill any handfuls you take, too.  I
doubt anyone on this listserve would not do that, but others might not.
Best thing as suggested by Irene may be to put some of your own duff or
compost down and come back later to collect it.  Leafy materials seem most
promising for sooner harvesting and blending with compost or tea media.

Correction:  Fungi are not rare in composts, but they are usually low in new
soils and plowed soils.  Most likely they're always there, but it takes
years to get them growing well in soil and it ain't easy yet for everyone to
make a good fungal-dominant compost, which seems necessary for a good fungal
tea.  An inoculation routine like this could help both, with manageable and
minimal impact on source soils.

Please don't suggest to anyone that ACT involves harvesting forest topsoils.
It is not needed or appropriate, and only idiots would do or suggest that.

Big ships often have a "trim rudder" which is a small rudder built into the
main, usually huge, steering rudder.  Both steer the boat well depending on
speed and sea/wind conditions.  Cultivated organisms, even compost teas, are
more like trim rudders, hmm?

Kirk L




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