Looking At Our Johnson Sue Compost Under A Microscope With Zach Wright. The Good & The Bad!
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- Опубліковано 15 лип 2024
- I met up with Zach Wright at the Hight Plains No-Till Confrence. We got to look at my compost under a microscope and he points out the good and the bad with it.
Zach is the owner of Living Soil Compost Lab, LLC.
www.livingsoil.net
As a student of SFW, I see good numbers of beneficials after several weeks. Starting a vermicompost to progress over the winter period should produce an even greater result by early spring. I would like to see more collaboration between the two methods
Good video. Thanks for posting.
Very informative, thank you
Pointing out the fungal spores and hyphae is very very useful. I can use this to have a better idea of the quality of our compost. The quick comment about in furrow vs seed costing was also interesting. Thanks
Thanks for the Feed Back. Do you farm? If so where?
@@youngredangus6041 Yes I farm in Ontario, Canada. We have a commercial dairy farm and moving in the direction of regenerative ag and ethically sourced animal products. We are raising grass fed Holstein/beef crosses and pastured turkeys. I’d like to transition our entire farm to regenerative practice. I just found your channel and your videos are very helpful in helping us figure out how to make that transition. Thank you! A major challenge for us is that we do the majority of our cropping with custom work so I need to find someone to help out with our experimentation
@@sandervanstee that’s Awesome
I’m excited for your journey
Thanks great infos!
Thanks for the update. What I'm wondering about is that Dr Johnson uses the water bath to ensure that the stock is properly wetted, and emphasizes that keeping it moist is critical, to 'clean off dirt' but he also mentions adding some good compost to the water in the bath as an idea. Even some manure. He also states that woodchips should not be bigger than 3/8" in size. I believe that more recently, he avoids woodchips in favor of just leaves.
how does alfalfa hay compare to leaves or wood chips ?
@@marshagiere9894 Will have a higher nitrogen content.
Zach is obviously proficient with assessing traditional composting methods with lots of active microbes. However, the end goal for Johnson-Su bioreactor product is NOT active fungi visible as mycelium... it's fungal spores (and other encysted microbes) that are left in the mature pile after the food sources have been exhausted (12-18 months in the warm climates where the process was developed). Since the size and shapes of bacteria and fungal spores overlap, a higher resolution must be used to differentiate. Dr. Johnson has relied on genomic methods, which give a complete picture of what species are present regardless of their life-cycle stage, rather than microscopy.
Regarding particle size, Dr. Johnson has recommended wood chips be 3/8 inch or smaller, but to NOT use sawdust since it reduces airflow.
Regarding the water bath step, Dr. Johnson has stated this recommendation is based on observations of the final diversity of the end product being higher when less grit is present (no mechanism identified).
Informative video - thanks for sharing! Great suggestion about using sample 3 as an inoculant for the other batches. I have one new composting batch that I've sprayed with Wild Root organic mycorrhizal blend just as an experiment. I've also added alfalfa to that batch. Time will tell. Many blessings!
Thanks Ross
doesn't mycorrhizal require a living root to live? I thought it was recommended to add a blend just before using.
@@Hollismeister88
Yeah this saprophytic fungus that is growing. It’s fungi that feeds on dead organisms in this case our dead plant material.
Fantastic info. Question about your Johnson-Su bioreactors, what’s the lowest temperature they get to in your shop over the winter and do you have an opinion on leaving the reactors outside for winter to promote local, freeze hardy fungal activity that’ll survive in the ground when winter temps drop below freezing?
They froze the first year
Now I keep them in a heated shed
I believe Zach is mistaken. Smaller chips better as more surface area for microbes. Certainly showing up that way in my experiments. I guess that your low funghi in those early samples was due to lack of carbon feedstock. Bacteria thrice in grass, not funghi. They want carbon.
Thnx for follow up. I don't recall what caused the one batch to go anaerobic. Please remind me.
The bottom fabric will not allow for proper air flow. We stopped using weed barrier Mat on the bottom
skip too 2:00
Any tips on sources for identifying microbes?
Learning how or sending off your compost to a lab?
@@youngredangus6041 I have a scope, actually just this morning took a peak at my natural bedding worm castings. Nematodes, testate amoebas, several microarthropods, flagellates, fungal spores and hyphae, plus all sorts of bacteria.
I am trying to do more identification of what I am looking at. Sometimes I see something I have no clue to what it is.
I get bits and pieces off of UA-cam videos, but who knows if they are all that accurate. Picked up a college text book on soil microbiology, but it focuses more on the chemistry, not so much on the morphology.
Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank You!!!
@@brianseybert2189
I’m afraid you are ahead of me
You can send off to get the DNA analysis done but that doesn’t tell you what you have
@@youngredangus6041 Thanks for replying! I figure eventually I will find something that can help me identify what I am looking at. You got me planning another Johnson Su compost in the spring.
Stay well!
how many times is the microscope multiplying ?
Microscopes don't multiply