<could please describe exactly how you do your
inoculation.>
I have now been able to grow the exact same,
long, long, snowy white mycelium using baby oatmeal, malt (specifically
"Munton's Wheat Unhopped, Spray Malt Extract, 3 lbs for 11 dollars and do be
careful not to get any of it but what you are using wet--available wherever you
can buy beer making supplies), and, of course, "the Meals" i.e. feather meal,
bone meal, blood meal, cottonseed meal and alfalfa meal.
For the test listed in the files section to
which you refer, I took 12 ounces or so of AH and mixed it with two heaping
tablespoons of a mixture of pretty much equal parts of the meals. I added
three or four tablespoons of water, covered the container and put it under
a plastic pot on a seed germination mat that kept the Humus at 80
degrees. I left it there for about 28 hours. When I put it into the tea
water, I could just see the first strands bridging gaps between soil
crumbs.
And in case you really wanted to know:
The water was at 82 degrees or so when I
started. I added the 12 ounces of AH and aerated for a few minutes to make
sure I was getting color in the water, always a good idea before adding
ingredients. Then I added three tablespoons of soluble kelp and one
heaping teaspoon of Humisolve. Nothing else went in....NO SUGARS.
I ran the brew in my boiler room for 13 hours. It
is winter here so, the boiler is on most of the time and it is about 80 degrees
in there. At hour 13 the brew temp was 80 degrees. Then off to SFI, Corvallis
and a test 28 hours later.
I am guessing that the fungi get a good headstart
in the Humus before it goes into the tea and get to keep that head start when
they get into the tea because there is no sugar for the bacteria and hence no
bacterial competition. Once those bacteria get going, the fungi take
a back seat, that is if they don't become bacteria food!
That exact enough. What did I leave out?
The answer is in the Compost/Humus. If you can't
grow fungi in it, how are you going to get it into your tea? You really need to
grow fungi in your composts. Nice, long, white threads. Thick, long fluffy
white strands. No fungi? Then why are you banging your head cause it isn't
in the tea? And by the same token, as Doc E has warned, if you have ugly, nasty,
stuff growing, you might want to think about your compost!
Cheers,
Jeff
Plant a Row for The Hungry. Ask me how you can join
other gardeners in this important effort.
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