[USCC] Improving the composting Process, increasing Fungal population density

[Michael Nevin]

Hi - have people had a chance to look at Teaming with Microbes by Lowenfels and Lewis with an Intro by Elaine Ingham, whose SoilFoodWeb approach is spelled out in this wonderful book which has lots of pictures of soil fungi, etc?
Cheers, Mike in Toronto whose public library has 16 copies

--- On Fri, 3/20/09, John A. Crockett <jac at magicsoil.com> wrote:


From: John A. Crockett <jac at magicsoil.com>
Subject: [USCC] Improving the composting Process, increasing Fungal population density
To: "U.S. Composting Council listserve" <compost at mailman.cloudnet.com>
Received: Friday, March 20, 2009, 10:16 AM


How can we most effectively, efficiently increase the population density of the funguses that do the composting for us in the later stage of the composting process?  

How can we go beyond the most basic steps of:
1.    front end (pre-processing) to reduce particle size to < ¼",
2.    maintain moisture content ≥ 40% (does anyone have good data to show what the best moisture content is to promote fungal activity?)
3.    Maintain oxygen ≥ 15%, and again, does anyone have solid data on what the minimum oxygen concentration is for good fungal activity?
4.    Utilization of Progressive Inoculation Technology.

In composting we have a major advantage over most other industries in that our primary production workers come free, are willing to work 24/7, are non-unionized, work Sundays and holidays.  Of course, I am talking about the microbial master composters.  And, we know that they have the ability to raise a big stink, if not treated respectfully.

With that going for us, doesn't it make sense to figure out how to optimize their population and productivity?

I can be a slow learner.  It was just yesterday that I first looked at a sample of compost, a few particles, no serial dilution in phosphate buffer, but rather putting a tiny bit of compost on a microscope slide, and studied it a little at 40X, no cover slip, I did not compact it at all, which meant that I had to move the stage up and down because of the limited depth of field, to focus in on the hyphae.  It's fascinating, and very humbling.  I have so much to learn about composting.  

Because of the limitations of depth of field, photographing may be very difficult. I'll see if I can prolong the exposure time to increase the depth of field / focus, for better images.  I am looking for a database, that we can measure our management against, to see how we can significantly improve the population of active fungi, to speed up turn around time.

It seems to me that earning public respect calls for our being really professional, and that calls for learning a lot more about the composting process, including learning about our microbial master composters.

Working Together to Create a Sustainable Environment,
John A. Crockett, a.k.a. Dr. Mike Robe
Mother Nature's Farms
(845) 225-7763
http://www.magicsoil.com/
jac at magicsoil.com
  

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