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Re: [compost_tea] Re: plants that attract/support microbes?



Soil under any tree SHOULD be rich in microbial life. 

But often, it is NOT.  Why?  The chemicals we have been pouring on the soil.  Different "-icides" and salts, otherwise called fertilizers.  There is benefit in a fertilizer, true, but potentially a great deal of harm.  Concentration is the key factor there. 

If bananas are healthy, they tend to be in the slightly bacterial to slightly fungal balance of fungi to bacteria.  Actually the best banana I know (Ono Farms on Maui) has soil on the fungal side.  Not hugely fungal, but on the fungal side. 

Lactic acid bacteria are not really conducive to growth of fungi, at least what I've seen.  Making compost with fermentative bacteria TO START might prevent the putrefactive loss of N, S and P through volatilization, buut once the hot phase of the composting is over, then pushing the right fungi is important. 

But, yes, indigenous fungal species.  Indigenous fermentative species as well.  Buying EM or another bacterial inoculum might get things started in the right direction, but then you want to start saving and developing your own inoculum with time.  That's the best way to get the species adapted to your local conditions. 

Get the "good-guy " fungi from soil under trees that are HEALTHY.  Deep roots, going deep into the soil, not roots hampered by compaction, anaerobic conditions, and running along the surface of the soil.

Elaine
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand

"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well, but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things turn out."   --  Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic


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