Billy wrote:
songbird wrote:
....
control fungi. at the rate of application of
one dry quart to seventeen dry quarts of husks,
the answer is no.

Since fungi create a low pH environment, and bacteria a high pH one
(relatively speaking), it appears the bacteria won (NH4 = pH 7).

the bin was full of fungi and smelled of ammonia.
hmm... now i'm really confused. hahaha...

ok.

can't revisit atm, experiment terminated, until
next supply of husks comes around.

as side notes, usually in the dirt the bacteria
include species of nitrogen fixers and consumers
of ammonia so it is very rare for me to smell
ammonia coming from dirt unless i've happened to
hit a localized heavy spot of organic material
being decomposed by fungi.

if what you say is true that would be the reverse
case wouldn't it? do you smell ammonia when you
work in your garden soil as compared to what you
smell when messing with the soil/mulch layer boundary?

so i do really think that if the bacteria had
indeed won i would not have been smelling ammonia.
the pH was not measured for either bin so i can't
say what it was.

i do know that the innoculating worm castings
and soil had nitrogen fixing bacteria present because
much of it was taken from the same bin from top
to bottom. so there were anaerobes as well as
aerobes in there. if i dig to the bottom of any
of the bins i'll find the methane/boggy smell,
but the soil above (and the bacteria) filter/consume
the smell/methane before it gets out.

the worms have no trouble with the bottoms of
the bins. their tunnels either let them get
enough oxygen or they are daytripping downstairs
for nummies and then coming up for oxygen later.


songbird