Propagating mycorrhizal fungi!

Yay!  I found out how to propagate my own fungi (since it's so darned expensive).  The instructions are at https://moldresistantstrains.com/diy-how-to-make-mycorrhizal-fungi-inoculant/. 

On May 6th, I sprouted some hard wheat in a jar, and once there were root tails (May 8th), I planted them in 50% vermiculite and 50% compost.

Now look at them!  May 18th.

It's now cat grass for my kitties, which doubles their usefulness.  Actually, I saved about 1/3 of the sprouted wheat to make Rejuvelac, so that's triple-usage!!

Sadly, I put the pot in the skylight for the first day and a half, and they got baked to about 90 degrees F, so I might've killed the fungi.  I'm afraid to look.  Maybe I should look.

In 4 months, the fungi should be just sporulating, but that's a known timeframe for Bahia grass seed.  Not sure what the time frame is for hard wheat.  Yeah, I'd better look.

I just gotta test for the unwanted kind of fungi (tricoderma) before I harvest it all and use it.

Update 6/4/2020:  There are no fungal hyphae.  I don't think this worked.  Either I killed it all when I put the pot in the 95 degree skylight shelf for a day, or wheat grass isn't ideal, or something.  Maybe the store-bought starter inoculant is bogus, which would piss me off, because it's expensive.  

I might retry by following the exact directions so that I can see what success looks like before trying to modify instructions.

Update 6/29/2020:  Well, the grass is dying, and there's still no hyphae.  Wheat grass is too short-lived to reach the 4 month growth period.  Also, why would you use only one kind of seed?  What if it only forms relationships with one kind of mycorrhizal fungi?  I think the best would be using multiple kinds of seeds.

Problem: Enough inoculant

I'm enrolled in the Soil Food Web lab and consultant program.  I'm learning a LOT.  For example, one of the highest priority items you need to regenerate soil is ... well, wait, there are 5 priority items, but one makes more difference than the others--adding biology.  Get the microbe populations up.  You need to feed them with organic matter, and once there's enough organic matter, and there are living roots in the soil year-round, their populations remain high, but in the first year or two, you need to apply microbes at least every 10 days.  That means adding an extract made from biologically complete compost (but it takes 6 months to make the compost), or adding purchased microbes like EM-1 and MycoGrow.  You can brew your own from scratch, and you should do that, so that you can have a wide variety of microbes, but I don't trust my brewing skills yet.

Microbes should be applied once per week.  I have a fricking acre.

That would mean, in the case of EM-1, "1 gallon of Activated EM-1 per acre per week".  $75 per week?!?
In the case of MycoGrow, 1 pound treats 1/10th of an acre, so I'd need 10 pounds.  That's $674 for one application.  I wouldn't want to apply the MycoGrow more than once or twice anyway, but seriously?!?
No way.

EM-1

At least you can multiply EM-1 yourself, though.  You can make 20 times the original quantity in 7-10 days.  That quantity needs to be used within 45-60 days, and if the pH rises above 3.8, it's gone bad.
So, what would that mean?  If I need a gallon per week.  1/20th of a gallon is 6.4oz, so I need, let's say, 8 oz per week ahead of time to brew 1 1/4 gallon.  Use 1 gallon, and that leaves 32 oz.
Take 16 oz to split between 2 batches (in case I blow it in one of them).  That leaves 16 oz leftover for adding to the compost pile.  That would work.  So, if I started the season with a purchase of a 16oz bottle, I'd be set, so long as I didn't mess anything up.  I'd also need a tonne of blackstrap molasses, and some airlocks and jugs.  Hmm.

1. Split 16 oz to make 2 gallon batches.  
2. When they're ready:
• Use one gallon in the garden (dilute 1 oz per gallon of water).
• Take 16 oz out of the other gallon to brew 2 new gallon batches.
• Use the leftover 112 oz:
• in the compost pit (dilute 2 tsp per gallon of water)
• as a seed soak (probably an ounce per gallon)
• as a folliar spray indoors and outdoors (2 Tbsp per gallon of water).
• as a yard waste drench to speed up the breakdown of wood.
• to water house plants.
3. Repeat from step 2.  :)

There's only lactic acid bacteria in EM-1, though.  I don't want bacteria-dominated soil.  I want fungal-dominated soil.

MycoGrow

My soil seriously needs mycorrhizal fungi, and this is how I'd get it, guaranteed.  But, wow, it's expensive.  I don't even know how to multiple a batch.
Is it as simple as adding it to wood chips and waiting a year?  You can do that with other fungi (like the winecap mushrooms), but I think mycorrhizal fungi need living plant roots.
Bah!  I guess I'll have to keep doing what I'm doing, buying tiny amounts each time I go to the store, and using them appropriately.  I want them to spread the fungal hyphae fast throughout the yard.  Maybe I should concentrate my efforts to water the grass (and future living mulch plants) with MycoGrow, since the grass is, and will always be, there.  So the living roots will always be there.
Whoa!  I'm not the first person to ask how to make your own.
Holy crap!  The whole process is written up here: https://moldresistantstrains.com/diy-how-to-make-mycorrhizal-fungi-inoculant/#diy.  I could do the same as for EM-1: buy a small amount and propagate.

Brewing from scratch

I have a laundry list of other inoculants, like Jadam Microbial Solution.  None of these have mycorrhizal fungi, though.  I can use them when a batch of EM-1 goes bad, but I really need the fungi.  I guess I need to get my biologically-complete compost going.  Though, what kind of fungi grows in that?  There are fungal hyphae, but... are they the right kind?

Need to ask on the Soil Food Web forums.

My working goal

OK, my goal is to brew a perpetual cycle of EM-1 batches, and also buy different sources of mycorrhizal fungi and propagate those perpetually.  I'll need brewing equipment, space, and ingredients like molasses.  Diversity and volume!  Yes!

Inoculating my yard with a wide array of diverse microbes

This post is just an excuse to post a bunch of really cool photos.  I've been collecting woody material from neighbors who respond to my request on Nextdoor.  I'm bringing in a huge, diverse population of microbes this way, from property owners who swear they have not used biocides.

Yes, there were some termite-like or carpenter ant larvae in some of the piles I went to collect, and I turned those down (they seemed to be only at the properties where you could tell that biocides were indeed used), but just in case I have missed a few, I have purchased predatory nematodes from Arbico Organics and I'll be inoculating with them as soon as the snow melts.  I'll be careful to inoculate the nematodes together with fungi and bacteria so that I don't unbalance the soil food web.  (Unbalance it, and you risk populations of beneficial microbes dying off and bad microbes moving in.)

Failed compost pile

I constructed this pile last spring.  It was a perfect mix of carbon to nitrogen.  It had 12 ingredients, including seaweed that I painstakingly collected, expensive biochar, and weed tea.  It went through a really hot summer, and though I thought I shielded it well (I didn't), it was dry most of the time.  Here are the results.  No noticeable decomposition.

I'm so bummed.  I need to watch Dr. Elaine Ingham's compost videos.  Here's one.

My list of preferred inoculants and inputs

This is just the list for now.  I'll come back later to fill in missing info, like recipes.

• Compost
• Compost tea
• Vermicompost
• JMS - Jadam Microbial Solution (weed tea)
• JLF - Jadam Liquid Fertilizer
• LAB - Lactic Acid Bacteria
• Bu's Blend biodynamic products
• MycoGrow by Paul Stamets
• EM-1 by Teraganix
• FFJ - Fermented Fruit Juice
• FPJ - Fermented Plant Juice 
• Fish emulsion
• Liquid kelp
• SES - Seed and Bare Root Soak Solution
• OHN - Oriental Herbal Nutrient
• IMO - Indigenous Microorganism (video)
• Kombucha, Rejuvelac, etc
• Azomite
• Biochar
• Woody biomass
• Starter soil mix for seeds and cuttings

Dead spot is not so dead anymore

For all four+ years that we've lived here, there's a roughly-circular shape in the lawn where nothing grows--not even weeds.  The previous owners won't say what caused it.  They just told us to sprinkle grass seed on it every few months.

It's been there since before we bought the house.

Here's the Google enhanced-satellite version, from around the same time period:

After two weekends of spraying with JADAM microbial solution (JMS), look what's happening.

I know--correlation is not causation.  Anyhoo, I'll update this post over time with newer pictures.

--------------------

December 17th, 2018

And that day is today!  Check out how lush the spot is.  It's more weed-free and lush with grass than any other part of the yard, and we're 2 months on from when I last posted.  

I've emailed the previous house owner to beg him to let me know what happened on that spot.  The idea that JMS might be a bioremediation method for whatever caused this dead spot is super exciting to me!

Brewing microbes, and spraying my property once a week

Hoo-boy.  Here we go.  The simplest way to start healing my soil is by adding microbes.  And the simplest method of obtaining microbes is by brewing my own JADAM microbial solution (JMS).  There are other things you can do:

• Buying some EM, https://growingorganic.com/probiotics/how-to-use-effective-microorganisms/, but this costs more money.
• Making IMO or other KNF inputs, https://naturalfarminghawaii.net/learn-natural-farming/application-guide/, but the ingredients cost more than JMS, and the processes are longer and more complex.  I'm not ready for that.

If you haven't read my first post, you'll have missed the part where I discovered that our property has zero nitrogen, and I found out that my neighbor had been spraying the ditches that border our property with RoundUp twice a year, for years.  The chemical in RoundUp kills the microbes that fix nitrogen in the soil.  So, now I need to help them get back to a good population level.

Why microbes?  There have been many studies lately that confirm that soil with healthy microbe populations:

• Holds onto moisture better.
• Converts organic matter and rock particles into nutrients that the plants ask for.  (How do they ask?  They reward the microbes with sugars exuded from their roots when the microbes unlock the nutrients that the plant wants.  It's not a decision thing or a conscious thing or a mystical hippy thing, it's just cause and effect.)  

The results are: no need for fertilizer, and less need for watering, which is important in the global warming scenario.  You do need to keep adding organic matter to your soil, or rock dust.  I'm using mulch and bringing in other people's grass clippings and horse poop, and I might spare the expense on some rock dust once a year.

Here are some links about the importance of microbes:

• https://colsa.unh.edu/nhaes/article/2016/12/soilorganicmatter?ABk
• http://www.handsonpermaculture1.org/

So, I've started a weekly routine of making JMS, using Chris Trump's method, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Uuy8DxGjA.  

For the "good soil", I grabbed some from the wild apple tree whose apples were the first apples that I gathered for seeds.  

It was hard finding what Chris called the "microbes".  They looked a bit like mycelium.  In my first batch of JMS, I used mycelium that I found growing in some of the horse poop my neighbor delivered.  MAN!  Was it powerful.  It smelled unpleasant but healthy.  After 2.5 days, it was a serious bubbling crude!  After 6 days it was dead and useless (no bubbles) and had some serious stank.  Chose not to do that again.

My second batch of JMS, I used mycelium from some wood and some leaf mold that I found in a conservation area.  Instead of cheesecloth, I used nylon sprouting bags that I had previously used to cover some jars of Rejuvelac that I made.  The resulting JMS smelled like... REJUVELAC!  Is it possible?  Could there have been some lactic acid bacteria on the nylon sprouting bags that started reproducing in the JMS?  Anyhoo, the JMS smelled healthy and good.  (I need a microscope to start identifying exactly what's growing in my JMS batches.)

I bought a 5 gallon backpack sprayer to spray the diluted JMS over my entire property.  It's exhausting, but if I listen to some good music, it's enjoyable.  Almost meditative.  And seriously good exercise.  I clogged the sprayer after my first use, though.  The little pouring basket that comes with the sprayer didn't filter out enough silt.  I took the fracking thing entirely apart before I discovered there was a super-easy-to-access filter sleeve in the stinking handle!  ARGH!

Now, when you make 4 gallons of JMS, and you need to dilute it with water in a 1:20 ratio, you're talking 80 gallons of water.  I don't want to pay for that every week.  Plus, our tap water is chlorinated, and I don't have enough bottles and containers to fill and let sit for 24 hours to off-gas the chlorine (chlorine kills microbes).  So, I finally set up our rain barrels (after two years!).  The first one filled and overflowed during the first rain, so I set up a second to catch the overflow from the first, but it didn't work because apparently I such at engineering.  I've got things working well enough now, until I can properly set them (and future barrels) up.  Now, I have a ready supply of more than 80 gallons of rain water.