Ep. 34 - Bioactive Live Q&A - Soil Microscopy Part 2: Diving Deeper into microorganisms
- Author
- Mark Ashworth
- Published
- Sat 12 Oct 2024
- Episode Link
- https://rss.com/podcasts/bioactivelive/1700263
Part 2 Soil Microscopy with Organic Alexa (@organic.alexa on IG and http://www.organicalexa.com)
This week we slow it down and start by looking at unhealthy, traditional agricultural soil that lacks bio-diversity in microorganisms. Alexa then shows an active and bio-diverse sample of cedar leaf mold.
We dissect the organisms that are present in the healthy soils and get a better understanding on how a diverse soil can be mimicked in compost teas, extracts and other inputs.
Alexa does an amazing job and really breaking down the nutrient cycle by explaining the different organisms: bacteria and fungi are the food for the protozoa and nematodes and by these organisms being present and processed, they are essentially cycling the nutrients in your soil.
Understanding how to 'steer' your teas to be more bio-diverse (bioactive) and what it is to look for in those inputs is a great way to elevate your game.
Then we get into what different inputs look like under the micrscope (compost teas, compost, worm castings)
The community questions this week:
- 53:00 - When scoping a tea, should one collect a sample of foam or the liquid? Is there a protocol for tea that differs from scoping soil?
- 54:40 - What's a good starter microscope?
- 56:30 - What books you would recommend to reference different microbes?
- 57:40 - Why do mycorrhizae makes bio photons?
- 1:01:20 - Thoughts on adding green sand and grasses versus using a diverse cover crop?
- 1:05:00 - What am I getting by just using castings in a short/soak extract (compost extract) rather than a bubbled tea (aerated compost tea)?
- 1:11:55 - Whats the bigger difference between compost tea and worm tea?
- 1:15:45 - Is using a compost tea better than top-dressing compost?
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