Author Topic: hi to all from sunny east yorkshire (Read 3309 times)

MicrobeMan · « **on:** April 06, 2011, 01:20:16 pm »

hello to all.

i arrived at this forum, having bookmarked it ages ago, changed pc and lost the bookmark, then saw the thread on compost teas after the broadcast of the April 1st Gardener's World and joined, to offer my experience to anyone intrigued enough to look into the subject.

Back in the 1990's, i was involved in renewables growing trials up and down the country and wanted to find an alternative to NPK (synthetic) fertilizers, as i'm a keen environmentalist, my area of interest being the much-banded-about-phrase "sustainability". Anyway, i trialled some microbe brews i'd been tinkering with, largely nitrogen-fixing microbes on some of the trial plots and found they worked really well and went on from there. At that time, synthetic Nitrogen was relatively cheap and whilst i was talking to farmers about the potential problems of waterway eutrophication with nitrate run-off, most of those i spoke to weren't interested - considered it "someone else's problem".

so i changed focus, trialling my brews on waste management problems, bioremediation of contaminated soils etc, as i work in the environmental/waste management sectors, but continued to experiement with the microbe brews, adapting the recipes for different applications, but always getting organic growers, allotment holders, other keen veg growers (like myself), to see how they fared.

Last year, i was conducting some trials at a larger water company, based here in yorkshire (mentioning no names!!!) and got talking to a local farmer, who had supplied us with some hay for our waste management trials. He was very interested in my microbe brews and keen for me to talk to his farmer colleagues in the association. To cut a long story short, he was interested in the brews because of NVZ legislation and urged me to have another look at the agricultural market, as he felt there was a growing need to look at more sustainable methods of plant husbandry.

So there we are... i've never tried to commercialise the brews, but am now involved trials with an agriculture/horticulture dept at a regional university and extending trials which went well last year with a farmer i know who was most sceptical "it's all muck and magic" prior to actually trying the brews to see "whether" it worked.

I keep a few chickens, grow our own organic fruit an veg, am a keen tree grower and make worm nests in the soil (ok, so i may have to explain that one) using a technique to ferment compost, rather than just digest it.

Companion planting, using raised beds and permacultural techniques are some of the mthods i'm keen on and have been working with for years.

i think that about covers it, for my intro.

ttfn
jim

Rosemary · « **Reply #1 on:** April 06, 2011, 08:52:25 pm »

Hi and welcome from sunny, windy Carnoustie

I feel quite intimidated by your intro

ballingall · « **Reply #2 on:** April 06, 2011, 10:18:37 pm »

I feel very intimidated by that intro! But it all sounded interesting, and I would like to know what a worm nest is.

Hello

Beth

cluckingnuts · « **Reply #3 on:** April 06, 2011, 11:01:59 pm »

Hi from NW Wales

jacquip · « **Reply #4 on:** April 07, 2011, 08:26:59 am »

Hello from Wales

Hilarysmum · « **Reply #5 on:** April 07, 2011, 09:01:57 am »

Hello from France your trials sound interesting looking forward to hearing more.

MicrobeMan · « **Reply #6 on:** April 07, 2011, 02:31:51 pm »

oh cripes! didn't mean to intimidate anyone - so sorry if i came across as scary

but thanks to all for the warm welcome

little bit of microbe trivia which will put thing into perspective on this subject:

whenever soil is assessed for health, worms are often counted as an indicator of health and diversity of soil. Ok, fair enough - not surprising. What has been found over and over is that whenever a high worm population is encountered, the microbial population is also noted to be high and show great diversity between species. Conversley, where there are low microbe counts, the worm population is low. Why is this? Well, put simply worms and microbes have a symbiotic relationship. Worms, having no teeth but seven stomachs are a little like "cows of the soil" and like cows (and other ruminants) microbes are required for digestion. A worm needs microbes to digest organic matter and the microbes are "incubated" in the guts of worms - hence the connection and the mutal benefit we see as a symbiotic relationship.

I ferment my compost with microbes, for this reason... then i put the fermented compost in the ground for the worms to feed on - about 8 weeks later (shorter in summer) the compost is all gone and i have healthy, highly humic soil as a reward. Mid way through the process you can dig into the fermented compost piles and find what my 9 year old son calls "worm nests" - millions or red worms, zilions of baby worms (which are white), worm eggs - it's amazing to see.

i took the pics with a 50p piece for scale - the closer you get, the more you can see. The human hair shows the scale - the white worms are baby worms, which tend to congregate around the whiteish substance in the soil, which is a protein substance created by casein-forming bacteria - like baby food for a worm nursery. these baby worms will mature into tradtional red compost worms.

hope you're not all too squeemish!