Fungal Tea's for B:F ratios in soil

What I do to take my beds back to the fungal realm for veg, or for new soil.
Easiest way for me has been with a rich compost, this one here is from Oly Mtn fish compost on Buildasoil.
I use about 1/3 of a paper sandwhich bag in volume of the compost, and i don't wet it unless it's dry, just want it moist but not wet.

On the side i'll prepare a mix of:
+about a teaspoon or more of insect frass, tho not required (+1/8tsp b.bass powder if on hand),
+2 tablespoons of oatmeal,
+2-3 tablespoons of clackamas coots mix OR a few tablespoons of 2-row malted barley and a little bit of corn meal,
+a few teaspoons of alfalfa meal, and kelp (not required but helpful)
+a small pinch of dyno myco if on hand (not important)
++Just using only 2-row malted barley alone or with oats works just fine.

I'll add all that into the coffee grinder and pulverize it, then add that to the compost along with another 2 tablespoons of unmilled oatmeal and 1 tablespoon of unmilled 2-row barley...this last part isn't important...and you can use just one or the other in the coffee grinder, i just find it heats up faster and comes to life the more diverse of a mix for me personally. and the alfalfa helps later in the tea, the kelp helps in the process and breaks down a little so it's more readily available in the tea, like when you make a paste from it for going into solution.

I just mix everything together real good for a nice aggregate, put it all in a paper bag, fold it up and rest it upside down in a dark bag (or 2) in the grow for a few days, then slowly open up the bag as i notice moisture and a VERY sweet wine like odor developes in the air and lasts for 3-5 days. Kind of getting nasty if you haven't opened the bag up enough and it's too moist, a poopy gross smell tells you open the bag! it's too moist let it get more air.

When the block feels like a solid chunk of life (it's obvious) and the heat being emitted from it is not like the day before when you really notice the heat - that's about the sweet spot for me, and i take a chunk of that cake, add it to a bubble bag and bubble it alone with water in a 5 gal, maybe add saponins like yucca or aloe, once that is finished 6-10 hrs later, i sprinkle the rest of that cake on the soil surface, and water it all in with the tea. Over the coarse of the week the soil will start to lean more fungal and warm up.. which is also useful in colder months. There are places I can and can't do this, air quality can really mess it up the fungal cake, keep ambient room temp in the 70-80F range especially. Doing this in the grow space can also raise co2
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When things are too bacterial it can cause lockout of nutes if it doesn't switchover. Like if i start veg and the soil is too alkaline, especially if I let it go super dry for months after a strong bacterial phase in the previous flowering cycle. or maybe I've just mixed in a ton of new soil with old soil. Ways of naturally ph'ing without ph up or down are helpful. i find bacterial or fungal teas to be useful for combatting such lockout without having to direct feed each plant showing it's own unique needs and let the soil do it for me.

Always curious what others do for fungal dominant teas in natural farming? aside from limiting sugars, or buying fungal products. Lot's of good methods in knf and jadam preps that overlap into other realms I'd like to try experimenting with as well. What are your favorite ways of makin her swing back? for altering bacteria:fungus ratio
 
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* Timothy is 'bad' litter material
Straw is for bedding and litter
Hay should be fed from an overhead station.



Anywho,

Always curious what others do for fungal dominant teas in natural farming

Bunny berries erupt very quickly.
20241023_235515_HDR.jpg
My favourite place to harvest leaf mould is under Willow stands.
I once read that you can make diy cloning juice from Willow.
Sage is a good one. Always anthills under the canopy, makes for easy digging/harvesting.
Detritus is actually hard to find around here. Local soil is like leather.
Poplar is another of my go-to's. They shed a lot of twig of the course of a season. Always seems to be a thicker layer under there.
 


* Timothy is 'bad' litter material
Straw is for bedding and litter
Hay should be fed from an overhead station.



Anywho,



Bunny berries erupt very quickly.
View attachment 220068
My favourite place to harvest leaf mould is under Willow stands.
I once read that you can make diy cloning juice from Willow.
Sage is a good one. Always anthills under the canopy, makes for easy digging/harvesting.
Detritus is actually hard to find around here. Local soil is like leather.
Poplar is another of my go-to's. They shed a lot of twig of the course of a season. Always seems to be a thicker layer under there.

Willow water is killer clone juice. I can attest for that. Fresh branches new growth. Chop into small bits and pop in a jar, bin etc with clean water. No chlorine etc. I have tried it in cloner, plugs, etc. I've noticed faster roots and more vigorous from willow water. I'm going to use it all the way through to first three weeks of flower. That and aloe vera jlf I've made..

Great thread mirth. Whatever gets the microbes working and increasing in numbers is great. If you are going to increase fungal mychorrizal fungi I think cover cross are a great idea. Establishes on their rott nodes and joins uo when you plant into it.
 
Yi did read that watering with diluted brown rice vinger( or any type of fermented vinegar) helps control fungal and bacteria In soil. I haven't tried it myself. All fungal bacteria protozoa etc I want. Jadam, knf, natural, permacukture etc. Yin yang positive negative. Only bacteria I want to limit in soil profile towards flower is botyrtis and pm. It all comes from the soil.
 


* Timothy is 'bad' litter material
Straw is for bedding and litter
Hay should be fed from an overhead station.



Anywho,



Bunny berries erupt very quickly.
View attachment 220068
My favourite place to harvest leaf mould is under Willow stands.
I once read that you can make diy cloning juice from Willow.
Sage is a good one. Always anthills under the canopy, makes for easy digging/harvesting.
Detritus is actually hard to find around here. Local soil is like leather.
Poplar is another of my go-to's. They shed a lot of twig of the course of a season. Always seems to be a thicker layer under there.

I gotta show more love for the willow it sounds like, I've only used the tips on them. Very cool though, never considered Sage or poplar
I'll have to start collecting some leaves from the willow stands in the fall ~ maybe collect an extra springtime IMO batch in the willow stands too.

You ever try making a tea from a bunch of the growth tips? that stuff packs a punch with growth hormone or something, it's very noticeable! I actually had forgot about this until a few years back I came across my old grow binder from 2008, with something about a combination foliar with kelpak too... the growth tips are worth the effort. I think the willow tips have to be fresh and alive? at least that's the only way i've tried. or with sprouted lentil beans for the auxins

Yi did read that watering with diluted brown rice vinger( or any type of fermented vinegar) helps control fungal and bacteria In soil. I haven't tried it myself. All fungal bacteria protozoa etc I want. Jadam, knf, natural, permacukture etc. Yin yang positive negative. Only bacteria I want to limit in soil profile towards flower is botyrtis and pm. It all comes from the soil.
i've got a reallly funky jar i'm afraid to open, it used to be liquid..... at some point over the course of a year it shifted into a solid pale gelatinous chunk with large pockets of liquid and all around it...it should have turned to vinegar like the others but nope...at some point it stopped offputting a foul odor though from all the pressure inside... it's the only jar of fpj that turned out that way too. there should be no solids so no idea wtf happened.

if you use jadam sulfur, have you noticed your sensitivity to the smell of it disapearing through exposure over time, or is it just me lol? I can smell it for sure, but i mean, it's gotta be up close and undiluted. That stuff kicks ass on the outside of rapid rooter plugs if a clone is going into 7 days without roots yet...hit the surfaces with some JS solution, takes care of bad surface organisms and seems to nourish the clone? but if its green growth I'm getting then i use a spray with spirulina it turns the water blue and seems to fight algae, i'll even add it to the 1% bleach solution i normally use for cloning if i'm not getting roots by day 4. dont know why it helps or why i started doing it but i think it was something i picked up when I used to reer reptiles, noticed that the terrarium water the spirulina vitamin mix got into seemed to grow less algae... if you know anything about it help me understand haha
 
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This is something I've been very much interested in, and with what we paid for soil... I'm very much an amateur... I've hade decent guesses so far, and for Christmas this year, the Wife found a book for me that I haven't read yet:
1000002540.jpg

I'm looking forward to this one. From documentaries I've seen, fungus can help "moderate"? The nutrients needed in a plant, and take some for something else, and it's so intriguing to me!

My current style is.... I use paper bags I save up, and soak in stale mountain dew, and add food stuff and fat to that, and bury it on my soil. I add fresh sweet stuff, and sometimes dig out a hole to burn paper bags in there, and then add stale beer to it if I have it, and let it sit. I try not to waste anything, as soil is expensive, and I am just now learning how to allow fungus to grow in it. I add moldy Cheese in the off chance THAT happens lol. It's a learning experience for me though.
 
That's an awesome book! I have it on audiobook for the long drives lol, put's the lassie to sleep :ROFLMAO:
Jeff's a legend in my books. I'm a forever learner, always forgetting and relearning especially hah... beer does wonders, i used to put the stale stuff on this small rock wall i had made, it would feed the surface organisms to grow those wild clolors on the organism patches already there, they grew real slow
 
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I gotta show more love for the willow it sounds like, I've only used the tips on them. Very cool though, never considered Sage or poplar
I'll have to start collecting some leaves from the willow stands in the fall ~ maybe collect an extra springtime IMO batch in the willow stands too.

You ever try making a tea from a bunch of the growth tips? that stuff packs a punch with growth hormone or something, it's very noticeable! I actually had forgot about this until a few years back I came across my old grow binder from 2008, with something about a combination foliar with kelpak too... the growth tips are worth the effort. I think the willow tips have to be fresh and alive? at least that's the only way i've tried. or with sprouted lentil beans for the auxins


i've got a reallly funky jar i'm afraid to open, it used to be liquid..... at some point over the course of a year it shifted into a solid pale gelatinous chunk with large pockets of liquid and all around it...it should have turned to vinegar like the others but nope...at some point it stopped offputting a foul odor though from all the pressure inside... it's the only jar of fpj that turned out that way too. there should be no solids so no idea wtf happened.

if you use jadam sulfur, have you noticed your sensitivity to the smell of it disapearing through exposure over time, or is it just me lol? I can smell it for sure, but i mean, it's gotta be up close and undiluted. That stuff kicks ass on the outside of rapid rooter plugs if a clone is going into 7 days without roots yet...hit the surfaces with some JS solution, takes care of bad surface organisms and seems to nourish the clone? but if its green growth I'm getting then i use a spray with spirulina it turns the water blue and seems to fight algae, i'll even add it to the 1% bleach solution i normally use for cloning if i'm not getting roots by day 4. dont know why it helps or why i started doing it but i think it was something i picked up when I used to reer reptiles, noticed that the terrarium water the spirulina vitamin mix got into seemed to grow less algae... if you know anything about it help me understand haha
G'day mate, no I haven't used jadam sulfur.
I have looked into it. I prefer my lost coast tight arse shenanigan rip off recipe. I will be making sure to innoculate soil and then foliar plants with bacillus amyloliquefaciens 747 for future endeavours. That'll be my outdoor go to I think.
Jadam sulfur I think I'll try to integrate in aswell. Better to have many weapons in a battle. I just worry about using down here when it gets really hit. We really haven't had one of those scorchers from late spring through to start of autumn like we used to have when I was younger. Those days will return I'm certain.
 

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