Question about establishing bacterial and fungal life in soil.

[POLISHSTONER]

Is it easy to do? Let's say I had some steralized soil from the store, and I added a bunch of ammendments to it and left it for a while(seaweed, bone meal, etc) would microbial life be established even though I didn't use any compost or EWC (Earth worm castings)?

 

[Brandon137]

Yes as a fresh compost pile or worm bin dont have any established however inoculating with bacteria or fungi help to speed up the process. You should "cook" the amended soil for a few weeks before using. Otherwise you can have ph problems or nutrent burns!

 

[POLISHSTONER]

Yes as a fresh compost pile or worm bin dont have any established however inoculating with bacteria or fungi help to speed up the process. You should "cook" the amended soil for a few weeks before using. Otherwise you can have ph problems or nutrent burns!

Thanks for the response, what do you think of wood ash as an ammendment

 

[Brandon137]

Thanks for the response, what do you think of wood ash as an ammendment

I have never used wood ash I will leave that question to some one more experienced with organics!

 

[Richard Drysift]

Wood ash is fine to amend with in small amounts but can also drop ph. That's all that "cooking" the soil does: Give time for the microbes and fungi to consume the organic material you just added and to normalize ph. The more active the soil is the faster the process. Typically takes 30 days.
A sterile soil with a bunch of stuff added to it will not be very active. Some stuff like say manure or guano has bacteria in it but nothing like the multitudes that fresh ewc has. You need active compost to make soil active and introduce microbes to colonize in it. Fungi is also present in compost but adding granular mycorrhizae at transplant guarantees you have the symbiotic varieties you want attached to the roots.

 

[POLISHSTONER]

Wood ash is fine to amend with in small amounts but can also drop ph. That's all that "cooking" the soil does: Give time for the microbes and fungi to consume the organic material you just added and to normalize ph. The more active the soil is the faster the process. Typically takes 30 days.
A sterile soil with a bunch of stuff added to it will not be very active. Some stuff like say manure or guano has bacteria in it but nothing like the multitudes that fresh ewc has. You need active compost to make soil active and introduce microbes to colonize in it. Fungi is also present in compost but adding granular mycorrhizae at transplant guarantees you have the symbiotic varieties you want attached to the roots.

Thanks, I've collected grass that is infected with alot of mycorrhizae and I will kill it and then add the roots to the grow.

 

[PadawanWarrior]

Wood ash is fine to amend with in small amounts but can also drop ph. That's all that "cooking" the soil does: Give time for the microbes and fungi to consume the organic material you just added and to normalize ph. The more active the soil is the faster the process. Typically takes 30 days.
A sterile soil with a bunch of stuff added to it will not be very active. Some stuff like say manure or guano has bacteria in it but nothing like the multitudes that fresh ewc has. You need active compost to make soil active and introduce microbes to colonize in it. Fungi is also present in compost but adding granular mycorrhizae at transplant guarantees you have the symbiotic varieties you want attached to the roots.

Great advice. EWC are amazing and will never go without them again. I can see nematodes floating sometimes when I make teas. They are full of goodness. I use Mykos too.