wrote in message
ups.com...
Franz Heymann wrote:
Why is there an upper limit to the amount of dung your
micro-organisms
will tackle?
It's the old logistic equation. As they work, they too will
excrete/change the local chemical balance until they are
starved/poisioned out of activity.

Not if you maintain the balance by continuing to feed the heap with
new rottable material.

Of course, if you take 'seed' amounts during the early part of the
process you can infect new piles of manure and get better value for
money. Like taking cuttings. Keep feeding and mixing, that's the
trick.

There may be other effects, like a carefully engineered life cycle,
designed to keep the cash flowing to the vendor!

Now you're talking.

And since they will probably multiply like rabbits while doing
their
job, why does one need 10 gms as a starter?

I don't know, but my best guess is that they are supplied packed out
to
10g with some sort of filler (like water?) to keep them alive and to
make it easier to handle and subdivide if required. I'd be amazed
if
it was 10g of pure bugs.

Wow. The mind boggles at the thought. {:-))