Tips for jumpstarting "wee beasties" in terra preta?

[maikeru]

I've been playing with my old home-made terra preta again for potted plants (fig and banana trees), and I've been wondering what some of the tricks Hypographers and terra-preta lovers used to get their "wee beasties" off to a good start. We know that half the magic of terra preta lies in its smallest inhabitants, who truly bring the soil to life and help with the recycling and storage of nutrients and litter in the soil.

 

Things that I've used in the past are chopped/blended seaweed (to add macro- and micronutrients to the charcoal), chemical fertilizer (which I regret using, but is instant nitrogen and doesn't require time to decompose), leftover milk from the milk bottle, and spent coffee grounds. I notice the coffee grounds usually become fuzzy with fungus after a few days, so long as they're wet, and that's usually a good sign that some microbial action and decomposition is underway. I've also thought about, but not had the chance to try things like a weak sugar solution (to feed bacteria and fungi), cheap beer, or compost tea from a compost pile.

[Michaelangelica]

All sounds good

There is some suggestion that high nitrogen solutions may kill nitrogen fixing bacteria, so maybe keep any N solutions weak.

I would add ( a weak solution) of molasses or brown sugar to your list.

[Philip Small]

I am going to try jumpstarting char with Activated Compost Tea. You make simple compost tea and then juice it up and aerate it for a bit to get a much higher population.

 

Activated compost tea uses compost as a microbial medium, extracts the microorganisms into water, and promotes the rapid reproduction of bacteria and fungi by feeding a nutrient mix. Then the water is aerated for 12-24 hours (depending on the size of the brew) to make sure that the microbes in the compost have available oxygen and remains aerobic as the organisms reproduce. A nutrient mix acts as a food for the growing microbes and a crucial ingredient to tea. Our selection of nutrient mix will influence the type of organism we want to select for. For instance, if we want to feed bacteria we emphasize sugars, a protein source, and provide extra minerals. If we want to create an environment suitable for fungi we add more complex foods including fish hydrolosate, soluble kelp, and protein meals such as feather meal or whey.

 

Compost tea has a very short shelf life and it is important that once you are done brewing the tea that you spray it onto the soil [char] within four hours. If you wait too long, the increased population of microbes may consume all the remaining oxygen in the mix and making the tea anaerobic, and therefore, potentially harmful to the soil.

[greenkira]

What about treating the charcoal with a mycorrhizal inoculant like mycogrow? It seems that charcoal's main agricultural use is as a home for mycorrhizal fungi, so might as well just spray it down with some liquid mix at the beginning.

 

Note: I haven't tried this, just been looking at a lot of gardening websites and sort of putting together different ideas. I just moved and have a total of one plant right now so am not in much of a position to actually be testing things, unfortunately.

 

Good luck!

 

Kira

kirahagen.com

[Michaelangelica]

The only thing that worries me about all this is that we don't know realy very much about what is in the soil in the first place

 

For example, where I live there is a lot of urban (suburban) development-on the outskirts of Sydney). Many developers are required to collect seeds of native plants before development and re-plant with these after everything is broken up into "little boxes"

 

I see little evidence of this actually happening.

 

But what about native 'soil beasties'. They may have taken 100,000 years to develop in that soil.

How do we know what's there?

 

Then inoculating with 'store-bought' super bugs is not going to help their survival.

[maikeru]

The only thing that worries me about all this is that we don't know realy very much about what is in the soil in the first place

 

For example, where I live there is a lot of urban (suburban) development-on the outskirts of Sydney). Many developers are required to collect seeds of native plants before development and re-plant with these after everything is broken up into "little boxes"

 

I see little evidence of this actually happening.

 

Soil and aquatic microorganisms are probably some of the least characterized and cared about, even though I cannot overstate how important they are--so many forms of life and critical processes depend on them. Recycling of biomass and detritus to nitrogen fixation from the atmosphere for plants. You name it, they do it. It's the pathogenic organisms that get the most research and funding for study, although they make up the extreme minority of microbes out there. Some oceanic microbes are being studied by Craig Venter (famous for the Human Genome Project), but he's ahead of the game as usual.

 

Craig Venter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

But what about native 'soil beasties'. They may have taken 100,000 years to develop in that soil.

How do we know what's there?

 

Then inoculating with 'store-bought' super bugs is not going to help their survival.

 

From what I remember, mycorrhyzae are also spread via spores in the air, so it should be possible to inoculate homemade terra preta by leaving pots or mix outside for a few days, and you should get some of the mycorrhyzae native to the area. This'd be good if you wanted to avoid some or maybe many soil pathogens, which might be spread by contaminated soil or water. Of course if you want the entire microbial and soil ecosystem cocktail, you just add a bit of native or garden soil to your mix. I bet there's always a party going on underneath our feet, and we just don't know it.

[Michaelangelica]

Amen brother.

 

But Australia is such a unique environment.

It has been isolated for millions of years from the rest of the planet and the soils are VERY old and weathered.

[greenkira]

Maybe you could cultivate and spread the "wee beasties" in a way similar to how gardeners get moss to grow on statues? They take a bit of moss, mix it up with a cup of buttermilk and tablespoon of honey (in a blender), if I recall correctly, and then paint it onto whatever they want covered in moss.

 

Perhaps if you got a cup or so of healthy native humus and gave it the same treatment, then dripped it onto the charcoal? I've heard adding a bit of forest topsoil to a compost pile helps it develop more quickly and healthily; this would be about the same thing.

[soil]

hey this is my first post in the terra preta forum. and really my second here. ive been organic gardening for some time now, ive been into terra preta like soils for at least a year or so. ive done some testing and i love my "wee beasties" i like to incorporate charcoal to my composting process, then into the soil where it will stay and do its job. ive noticed many benefits from composting first then with plants, as opposed to charcoal straight into the soil. i add old broken clay pots as well sometimes.

 

greenkira- i dont think the blender is a good idea. that will surely kill a lot if not all of the sensitive beneficial microbes you wish to collect. honey is also antibacterial.

 

also when i was testing in pots i added liquid extracts made of yarrow, nettles, dandelion, oak bark and valerian. to add benefical organisms as well as a full supply of nutrients.

 

hope to learn a good way for me to make charcoal myself, i live in high fire danger country though so most options are no good.

[greenkira]

greenkira- i dont think the blender is a good idea. that will surely kill a lot if not all of the sensitive beneficial microbes you wish to collect. honey is also antibacterial.

 

Well, I haven't tried this myself, as I mentioned, but if moss can survive it I suspect fungal spores would as well. Blending is a purely mechanical action, after all, and you're more or less putting it right into fertilizer (the buttermilk). Honey is only antibacterial when concentrated - I say this as a mead brewer. Add water and it will support yeasts/ bacteria just fine. :)

 

The compost tea you mention would likely be a better carrier than buttermilk, though.

[soil]

im sure it would work, im just skeptical on the blender part. as there meant to chop and dice and most of them have blades. not saying its not worth a try!

[greenkira]

im sure it would work, im just skeptical on the blender part. as there meant to chop and dice and most of them have blades. not saying its not worth a try!

 

You know, I probably wasn't really thinking with that bit. I mean, the people using that technique to get moss on planters and statues need to actually break up a chunk of moss, which can be surprisingly solid. But with topsoil and mycillia, it's already pretty loose. So maybe just giving it a good stir with a fork or egg whisk would work fine - you don't need to be precise or anything, it's just a mix to dribble on charcoal, right?

 

So in that case, it's just a matter of figuring out what sort of liquid will best transfer and give a head start to beneficial soil fungus.

 

Probably just mixing the charcoal into your compost would be easiest and best, though, in terms of inoculating it.

[soil]

no no dont stop, composting it is a good thing to do but not everyone has or can get quality compost. why not add some local native hummus to the mix? like 5% or so. this should add countless millions of native micro organisms, and everyone can get to some sort of wilderness for samples.

 

moss really isnt as fragile as bacteria and fungi though.

[palmtreepathos]

Things I add to the dark soil pile that I have going are crushed charcoal , used coffee grounds, fresh and rotting green stuff, fruits as well as pulverized porcelain and rockdust. I feed it left over cake, chips, bread and dried fruit. I also add a fish emulsion/fertilizer made from the renegade big head carp. If you can't get Shafer's Fish fertilizer and have a sportsman in the family maybe you can just get out the "Super bass-o-matic" and add fish remains to that! :)

 

Bassomatic - AOL Video

 

Here is a picture that shows how fast the fish emulsion acts. I splashed a few ounces of watered down emulsion

(1:20 parts water) onto the soil of a house plant that was languishing for a year. In 2 days a fungal bloom spread over the plant and over the next few days it put out a couple new leaves. This after not doing anything for a year. I hope it is working as fast in the terra preta pile.

 

Picture by patsapeachygal - AOL Pictures

 

Picture by patsapeachygal - AOL Pictures

[Michaelangelica]

Fish was abig part of TP soils.

I am told some tribes still plant afish then acorn plant on top!

 

fish is a bit expensive here and Fish fertilisers (commercial )always a worry about how well they are made. Besides they cost the same as a bottle of wine.

 

 

The moss and humus idea is interesting. Australian soils have very little humus (about 6% on average)

 

 

Some suggestions:-

Molasses instead of honey?

Comfrey leaves in the compost as well as yarrow etc

Seaweed?

Can you buy cheap Agar Agar anywhere? There must be some "second' grade stuff around?

Carbohydrate?? Some mention this as wee beastie food. I have seen gardeners suggest using cornflower on Gardenias.

 

This is an interesting site on Fungal Biology

It look likes it is written for biology students and yes it does seem to want to look mainly at the "bad" guys that cause disease. But there is a lot of good info here.

Mycology - Growth and Development - Axenic Culture

Thus, if you take a soil sample, it will contain up to 10 (to the power of 6) spores per gram dry weight. The sample will commonly include 20 different species of fungi.

Many biotrophic fungi have never been cultured

biotrophic=Describes an organism which cannot survive or reproduce unless it is on another organism.

Culture of fungi

Saprotrophic fungi can be subcultured on media containing nutrients appropriate to their growth and development. Several different types of media have been used successfully. The most commonly used in undergraduate classes consists of a fruit or vegetable, or their extracts, mixed with sugars and agar, and set in Petri dishes. The organic and mineral fractions are designed to supply nutrients similar to or commonly found in the environment of the fungus. A few commonly used materials include:

 

* Soil [sOIL AGAR]

* Potato [PDA]

* Tomato plus other vegetables [V8 JUICE Agar]

* Malt extract [MA]

* Dung [DUNG AGAR]

 

These can be more highly defined by replacing the organic component with known organic materials including:

 

* Nutrient Dextrose [NDY]

* Sabouraud dextrose [sABOURAUD AGAR]

 

See recipes

Mycology - Growth and Development - Axenic Culture - Recipes

for further information.

 

 

Compost

I don't think I have ever made good "heating up" compost-despite countless tries. Usually because I can't put the heap together quickly. Getting enough organic matter, to layer the pile properly, in a short time, is difficult. It also dries out very fast in our warm, dry climate..

[maikeru]

I might be able to start dosing my terra preta with "worm tea" if my vermiculture project works out in the long run. The tea should be loaded with helpful "wee beasties." Has anyone here tried this with their terra preta and noted the results?

[soil]

Compost

I don't think I have ever made good "heating up" compost-despite countless tries. Usually because I can't put the heap together quickly. Getting enough organic matter, to layer the pile properly, in a short time, is difficult. It also dries out very fast in our warm, dry climate..

 

if you live in a very hot region as i do. you might want to look into sinking your pile in the ground some, maybe 2 ft or so. this keeps moisture in and helps keep temps stable. and also you might want to check out the quick return compost activator. you make it yourself with natural plants for very cheap, you dont need to build the pile fast really, build it slowly over time and get the carbon to nitrogen ratio good, once its done apply the activator then the plants in the activator along with a drop of honey work together with specific nutrients and beneficial micro organisms to generate tons of heat after applied to the pile. composting in dry/hot places is easy, as long as you follow a few simple rules.

 

maikeru- i always give my TP plants castings and castings tea. imo i cant see not using ever it. its EXCELLENT stuff specially if you make your own.