Question about establishing bacterial and fungal life in soil.

P

POLISHSTONER

Member
Is it easy to do? Let's say I had some steralized soil from the store, and I added a bunch of ammendments to it and left it for a while(seaweed, bone meal, etc) would microbial life be established even though I didn't use any compost or EWC (Earth worm castings)?
 
Brandon137

Brandon137

Well-Known Member
Yes as a fresh compost pile or worm bin dont have any established however inoculating with bacteria or fungi help to speed up the process. You should "cook" the amended soil for a few weeks before using. Otherwise you can have ph problems or nutrent burns!
 
P

POLISHSTONER

Member
Brandon137 said:
Yes as a fresh compost pile or worm bin dont have any established however inoculating with bacteria or fungi help to speed up the process. You should "cook" the amended soil for a few weeks before using. Otherwise you can have ph problems or nutrent burns!
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Thanks for the response, what do you think of wood ash as an ammendment
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
Wood ash is fine to amend with in small amounts but can also drop ph. That's all that "cooking" the soil does: Give time for the microbes and fungi to consume the organic material you just added and to normalize ph. The more active the soil is the faster the process. Typically takes 30 days.
A sterile soil with a bunch of stuff added to it will not be very active. Some stuff like say manure or guano has bacteria in it but nothing like the multitudes that fresh ewc has. You need active compost to make soil active and introduce microbes to colonize in it. Fungi is also present in compost but adding granular mycorrhizae at transplant guarantees you have the symbiotic varieties you want attached to the roots.
 
P

POLISHSTONER

Member
Richard Drysift said:
Wood ash is fine to amend with in small amounts but can also drop ph. That's all that "cooking" the soil does: Give time for the microbes and fungi to consume the organic material you just added and to normalize ph. The more active the soil is the faster the process. Typically takes 30 days.
A sterile soil with a bunch of stuff added to it will not be very active. Some stuff like say manure or guano has bacteria in it but nothing like the multitudes that fresh ewc has. You need active compost to make soil active and introduce microbes to colonize in it. Fungi is also present in compost but adding granular mycorrhizae at transplant guarantees you have the symbiotic varieties you want attached to the roots.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I've collected grass that is infected with alot of mycorrhizae and I will kill it and then add the roots to the grow.
 
PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
Richard Drysift said:
Wood ash is fine to amend with in small amounts but can also drop ph. That's all that "cooking" the soil does: Give time for the microbes and fungi to consume the organic material you just added and to normalize ph. The more active the soil is the faster the process. Typically takes 30 days.
A sterile soil with a bunch of stuff added to it will not be very active. Some stuff like say manure or guano has bacteria in it but nothing like the multitudes that fresh ewc has. You need active compost to make soil active and introduce microbes to colonize in it. Fungi is also present in compost but adding granular mycorrhizae at transplant guarantees you have the symbiotic varieties you want attached to the roots.
Click to expand...
Great advice. EWC are amazing and will never go without them again. I can see nematodes floating sometimes when I make teas. They are full of goodness. I use Mykos too.
 
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