Lloyd asked why the SoilSoup machine doesn't get decent fungi.
I'm not really in the business of trying to figure out why someone's machine doesn't achieve compost tea status, but this one we have looked at to some extent. Maybe don't know everything about it, but do know some things.
We have measured oxygen in the two SoilSoup machines people have contributed to us over the years. First, the machine goes anaerobic quite quickly, since the little impeller on the Bio-Blender does not supply enough aeration for the 30 or more gallon versions of the machine.
Second, the food resources sold by SoilSoup contain mostly bacterial foods.
Three, the fabric bag is a serious problem. It catches the fungi and holds them in the fabric, they don't get into the tea. We have tried nylon stockings in the SoilSoup machine, and still no fungi out. Not enough agitation or aeration to pull the fungi out of the compost and into the water.
Could be more things that need to be considered, but that's enough things that need attention to start, don't you think?
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
SFI Corvallis, OR
SFI Port Jefferson, NY
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
www.soilfoodweb.com
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Received on Tue Feb 18 2003 - 13:06:58 EST