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RE: Bringing the soil back to life with microbes: You've got to see this!! Desert to diversity in one season.
This is great for people to see. We run a small worm farm business and brew different types of worm teas. Your bacterial teas are better for growth in a garden with good soil but for starting out improving soil in sandy conditions fungal teas will do what you want. Nice article.
Nice! How can you brew a tea to have more fungi? I am pretty new to all this. I had heard the ratio of aerated castings tea was usually 1:1 unless you add something like sugar or alfalfa meal to up the bacteria. And I have also read that there is a lack of mycorrhizal fungi in the tea, so they need to be added separately. I would love to have a microscope and figure things out more from there. By the way, your blog posts are really informative. I am following you and wish you the best! Thanks for the response
You can do things like grab a few handfuls of soil from a wooded area around you that will up fungal counts for the most part. Any type of high carbon based compost or worm castings will have a higher count of fungi in it so compost or worm bins made with lots of dried leaves etc would produce a good fungal counts if the other conditions are right. Bacterial microbes will feed on a food source like molasses or a sugar based feedstock where as when I want a higher fungal count I use things like yucca or seaweed extract. Fungi do better with more carbohydrates (cellulose) or simple proteins. I do different brews for different things. Potted or raised beds with quality soil I do bacterial since the plants will usually get more out of it but in sandy soil or more long term for pasture improvement I use fungal teas. I add several meals and soil amendments along with castings, frass and a feedstock for the brews and sometimes I do basic castings and feedstock.
Great that answers my question, thanks.