Fish was abig part of TP soils.
I am told some tribes still plant afish then acorn plant on top!
fish is a bit expensive here and Fish fertilisers (commercial )always a worry about how well they are made. Besides they cost the same as a bottle of wine.
The moss and humus idea is interesting. Australian soils have very little humus (about 6% on average)
Some suggestions:-
Molasses instead of honey?
Comfrey leaves in the compost as well as yarrow etc
Seaweed?
Can you buy cheap Agar Agar anywhere? There must be some "second' grade stuff around?
Carbohydrate?? Some mention this as wee beastie food. I have seen gardeners suggest using cornflower on Gardenias.
This is an interesting site on Fungal Biology
It look likes it is written for biology students and yes it does seem to want to look mainly at the "bad" guys that cause disease. But there is a lot of good info here.
Mycology - Growth and Development - Axenic Culture
Quote:
|
Thus, if you take a soil sample, it will contain up to 10 (to the power of 6) spores per gram dry weight. The sample will commonly include 20 different species of fungi.
|
Quote:
|
Many biotrophic fungi have never been cultured
|
biotrophic=Describes an organism which cannot survive or reproduce unless it is on another organism.
Culture of fungi
Quote:
Saprotrophic fungi can be subcultured on media containing nutrients appropriate to their growth and development. Several different types of media have been used successfully. The most commonly used in undergraduate classes consists of a fruit or vegetable, or their extracts, mixed with sugars and agar, and set in Petri dishes. The organic and mineral fractions are designed to supply nutrients similar to or commonly found in the environment of the fungus. A few commonly used materials include:
* Soil [SOIL AGAR]
* Potato [PDA]
* Tomato plus other vegetables [V8 JUICE Agar]
* Malt extract [MA]
* Dung [DUNG AGAR]
These can be more highly defined by replacing the organic component with known organic materials including:
* Nutrient Dextrose [NDY]
* Sabouraud dextrose [SABOURAUD AGAR]
See recipes
Mycology - Growth and Development - Axenic Culture - Recipes
for further information.
|
Compost
I don't think I have ever made good "heating up" compost-despite countless tries. Usually because I can't put the heap together quickly. Getting enough organic matter, to layer the pile properly, in a short time, is difficult. It also dries out very fast in our warm, dry climate..
