Re: [compost_tea] Still about pre-activation

From: Robert Norsen <bnbrew_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 18:00:16 -0700 (PDT)

Hi Mike, YOUR FUNGI SOUNDS / LOOKS GOOD TO ME. Hard to realize that it is cold there. July is our hot month here. Bob

Mike Benton <compost_at_mweb.co.za> wrote:Hi everybody. Things have been a bit quite around here. I guess all our
Northern hemisphere mates have a bit busy .I suppose it is up to all us
Southerners : ) to keep things going. I believe that I have finally seen
Santa's beard[and my Dad told me that Santa was not real ].Jaco {another SA
list member } brought back some duff from Knysna.The forests there are South
Africa's only true forests. Most of the other areas are pine or wattle or
gum ,imported from Oz and very boring and monocultural inside. I have mixed
this with about an equal amount of good compost and added about 10 % by
volume of crushed and blended until fine, oatsmeal.The mixes where placed in
2 liter milk plastic milk bottles laid on their side and the side facing up
cut right open. I used to use 1 liter yoghurt containers but this has
increased the surface area and seems to work better. These containers are
placed in a 90 liter plastic bath with about 3 inches of water covering the
fish tank heater that keeps the water at 25 C.We have had frost for the last
two or three weeks so it is a bit chilly around here, especially on the quad
bike that I am using on the farm in the mornings...
There are a couple of different growths, one I have seen before on wood
decomposing under a mulch layer ,and resembles bright white little toadstool
like shapes only a couple of millimetres across. these have grown larger and
more numerous in my water bath grow chamber. The next growth resembles
cotton wool, and is very white .The strands look to be quite thick, and the
growth is very dense .This I take to be Old Nicks beard. The smell is great.
I have noticed that if condensation drips onto the beard it seems to
dissolve it over time.
I have just had another look, right now. The toadstools are actually more
like very small wood moulds but bright white. I might be wrong ,but it seems
that once the cotton wool dissolves from water drops, the remains look like
grey mold,with a very fine powdery texture. There are a couple of small
areas like this.
After all that my question is simply ,should I keep growing this in the grow
chamber or should I introduce it into one of my compost heaps outside? If it
is time to evict the little buggers ,into which stage of development heap
should it go. I have four different heaps of between one and two cubic
meters each ,varying from just cooling down to a very stable and mature
heap. And if it needs to go in before things heat up then I can always build
another .My back and my intuition both doubt this will be the best approach
though : )
As always all comments will be most appreciated.
Regards
Mike Benton
Compost Technologies
mike_at_composttea.co.za mobile 0823345371





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Received on Thu Jul 08 2004 - 21:33:09 EDT

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