Becoming poly

Can't say how long that I have been poly, but it is my preferred planting method. The poly culture orchard documentary solidified the importance of interplanting, and I take my own personal view on planting.  

My personal choice is to oversow, and see what works in nature. Last year was an experiment, because I didn't water it at all, and many things grew well.  Sadly, this allowed my two main planting rows to be overgrown with clover, which I have finally decided to rip out yesterday (just have only done part of the work).

This year I was behind my planting, having not prepared my seedlings before the end of frost.  To help, I have chosen to attempt to supercharge my garden with several inoculants.  The first is em1, that I am activating, and like the following things it gets put into my hose end sprayer.

A second substance that I am adding is azosprillium, which I think is going to last me quite a while.  Another water soluble powder is micro-mykos, which has bacteria, tricoderma, mycorrhizae. The plan is that all three of these can be distributed together (in my opinion, correct me if there's a danger).

The real supercharge for my poly culture, is what I have chosen to feed my plants, and that is master lend (a full hydroponic feeding solution).  When I have been feeding masterblend through my hose end sprayer, my plants grew better, with some even adding a different tier (when it had just grown flat before).

My goal is to test a system that feeds and inoculates my plants regardless of their type.  I don't have any crazy growth to speak about, but I look forward to testing these products.  Hope for the product, is that it helps with water uptake in these hot temperatures.

Current poly location is in New England about two hours north of NYC.  The birth Carolina location on my profile is my land that I own, and still dear to my heart. Would you believe that I am in a rental location that allows me a huge garden to tend?  It was quite a rare thing to find.

Now if only we could have little poly places between the sidewalk and road on every residential street in America.  Just that little easement would provide.  Not the best pictures are attached, but I just got a truckload of woodchips, and looking forward to finishing ripping out the clover rows.

William,

Excellent job at aiming to improve your soil through biology rather than chemistry.  I didn’t fully appreciate this lesson until I incorporated a thick layer of wood chips into my garden and broke them down with wine cap mushrooms.  After seeing the fertility of my own homemade mushroom compost, I realize just how important that the soil biology is.  Truthfully, I don’t even know if you need to add into of the soil microbes as long as you get something in that can feed on that wood you have.

So obviously I think highly about using the wood chips in the garden.  About all I could add would be to try the wine caps—if you feel up to it.  It is surprisingly easy and you can still use the bed to grow veggies the first year.

Nice job and good luck!

Eric

Was doing some reading today, and realized that I should be using a poly culture source for food in my aerated tea fertilizers.  Currently, I don't have a source for cheap mushroom spawn (but I have hopes of finding a local one to trade with).  There's a veteran's food pantry that I work with, so this is a steady source for tuna for fish emulsion. The article really helped me realize that fruit juice is readily available as well.  

William,

If you are looking for a source of mushroom spawn, I use field&forest.net.  They operate out of Wisconsin, will ship all over the United States, are very knowledgeable & helpful and are very reasonably priced.  If you go with the wine caps, I wouldn’t worry about adding in any other fungi as the wine caps will rabidly out-compete just about any competitor.  They leave amazingly rich compost in their wake.  The Wine Caps will appreciate the various bacteria though, so feel free to add them along for the ride.  Once wine caps are finished, other fungi can get a leg up.

Compost teas can be an amazing resource—I am sure that you will get great results with its use.

Eric

Your response is appreciated, because it allowed me to problem solve a solution.  Purchasing things is not really in my budget, so I look for cheap or free solutions. Being on EBT, I realized that I can get mycelium from the stems of store bought fresh mushrooms.

Another goal is to find ways to replicate things, similar to how we can stretch em1 with molasses.  Maybe I should soak a partially full rubbernaid tub of wood chips with boiling water, as a way to sterilize and moisten the chips.  Then I can multiple the mycelium indoors before transferring to garden. Perhaps I will get better results with spawning in rice, as it gives me an effective way to distribute to the garden (as the rice can be dried and blended).  

If I put inoculated wood chips around my plants, it should help, but I would expect that something water soluble would be best.  In that vein of thinking, perhaps blending the rice without drying it would be the best, as I expect that I can puree and file it enough where I can pour through a filter bag and distribute by hose end sprayer.  Solids left in filter bag might be used to spawn next generation.  

There was a suggestion on another permits thread about digging a hole near healthy trees, and filling a stocking with rice in order to capture natural local mycelium. Could this also be done around the perimeter of sometimes own garden, so they can capture and multiply their own garden bioflora? I understand that variety is a benefit, but wouldn't it also help to multiply the organisms that are able to thrive in this exact location?  Is it far fetched to think that garden microbes might be better suited than forest microbes?  Could those foubd elsewhere be better suited for different conditions, or an I missing something?

Wouldn't multiplying the microbes that they've in my soil by twelve amounts be more beneficial than adding one amount of twelve different types of microbes? This is assuming a happy and flourishing garden, whereas the variety might be better to establish a garden.

In addition to what I have described, I have just started treating with diatomaceous earth, and I am going to be spraying Neem oil with whatever concoction that I distribute with the hose end sprayer. Industrial applications inoculate peat in order to inoculate seed for planting, which is another method that I might try.  It is my thought that this peat mixture could be easier to work with when transplanting.

One purchase that I am considering is beneficial insects, nematodes, ladybugs etc. Here's a screenshot of the two items that I am looking at. Not really sure if I need the 23 dollar item, but the shipping is 15 dollars, ouch. Finding a 10 percent off code helps: SITM10

William,

Just for reference, the mushroom spawn that I was describing was $25 for a 5.5 pound block of infused sawdust.  That single block will be enough to inoculate a large volume of chips which will go on to consume many more.  I get exuberant about the benefit of mushroom compost, but my preferred approach is far from the only way tackle gardening in wood chips, and the overall method you are describing certainly has merit.

If you want to capture and reproduce existing bacteria and fungi on your property, on cheap method is to boil up some white rice and add in some molasses.  A bit of oatmeal wouldn’t hurt either.  Spoon the mixture into a fabric bag (not waterproof), pillow case, or something similar (I heard of one person who used a pair of pantyhose that were about to be thrown out).  Burry the bag/pillowcase/whatever in a hole you dig near a tree or bush or just some area that looks very fertile to you and let it sit for a week or two.  The bacteria and fungi will rapidly move into the rice base to consume the sugars.

After sitting for 1-2 weeks, very gently remove from the hole you dug.  I would recommend keeping a bucket or two on standby as the bacteria and especially the fungi might decide to digest the bag/pillowcase.  Once removed, store in a cool, dark place or better yet, add directly to wood chips and bury.

Everything I just mentioned is a cheap/easy way to propagate microbes, which you seem eager to do.  Feel free to use, alter, or discard whatever suggestions you wish.  Ultimately, gardening is pretty forgiving and since it is your property and your project, it is your call as to what to do.  I wish you the best and please keep us updated as to your progress.

Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:

Just for reference, the mushroom spawn that I was describing was $25 for a 5.5 pound block of infused sawdust.  That single block will be enough to inoculate a large volume of chips which will go on to consume many more.  I get exuberant about the benefit of mushroom compost, but my preferred approach is far from the only way tackle gardening in wood chips, and the overall method you are describing certainly has merit.

As I am looking to diversify, it would be much more beneficial to order a 5 pound block of spawn instead of the Trichogramma.

This morning I had second thoughts about spending 70 plus shipping for beneficial insects, because I am not a for profit garden.  As I donate my vegetables to food banks, I am still considering it because it should increase the quality of my vegetables. Last year I was cultivating red wigglers and superworms indoors. It was successful until I mixed the earthworms with the superworms which are larval form of darkling beetle. Separate, they were both easy to maintain, but became a hassle together.

Having a normal vermi tub, I designed some flow through habitat that uses water dripping down to continuously aerate the worms.  It worked great except that I need to find a filter method that allows water but not sediment through.  Using leukotape always got clogged. This was a non electrical system where I poured water in the top water reservoir container, and it drops through holes below into multiple tiers of worms.  They were the most active and happy in this ecosystem compared to a vermi bed.  

As for mushroom spawn, that would put my new chip pile to greater use. Insects would only help this growing season, where my garden infrastructure can benefit from the fungal inclusion for possibly many years.

Eric, I am taking your advice with the wine cap spawn.

Additionally, I have purchased some BT spray as well as topping up my Neem oil supply. Found some shade cloth online for a great price, and also am adding cheap bug netting to my garden.

These changes should help with pests, but I also have a large garden pack with ladybugs nematodes etc ordered and on it's way.  

Next year I  determined to get a better start with seedlings. For some reason I have significant trouble with them, and I plan to figure this out.

The cheapest mushroom spores are had by walking around  my property (or public land, parks and such) and picking wild mushroom.  Swirl them in a blender with some water and dump them on your wood chips.  I never care which kind since I'm not eating them.  I just mix them all together and let whatever grows, grow.  Even easier is just keep a pile of woodchips damp and wait.  Mushrooms will come.

Trace, that's a nice method that I have not used yet.  Do you think this would inoculate riots if watered into the soil? This is my first year working with mycorrhizae, and I am fascinated that supposedly I can simply water it in and it will get to roots. It sounds like this blender method might work in the same way.

Similar to how you blend the mushrooms, I do the same with a can of tuna. With this blended fish, I add some cod liver oil.  Together I think they would compare to a bottled fish emulsion, or might even be better.  I am not sure how one would compare to the other.

William,

Nice job on the Wine Caps!  If you want any pointers, I have a long running thread HERE:

https://permies.com/t/82798/composting/composting-wood-chips-chicken-litter

This documents my start with mushrooms and continues up to the present.  If this is helpful, then so much the better.  Don’t take this as the only way that you can grow mushrooms, this is just what worked for me.  

Eric

I've just taken Paul Stamets suggestion of fermenting woodchips under water for a week or two.  Then I will drain and dump them out to oxygenate and sterilize under the sun. It is said this will make sterile chips that are very available for myco growth

William,

Those steps should work just fine.  Are you using Wine Caps or some other mushroom species?  Wine Caps are so aggressive that they outcompete all competition.  That’s one of the reasons that they are so easy for first timers.  Other species are not so aggressive as Wine Caps and will struggle against competition, requiring sterilization.  But if you want to make certain that the mushrooms thrive, go ahead and sterilize them as you described.  This will also infuse them with lots of moisture, making the chips extra fertile for fungi to grow.

Eric

Wine caps are what I will be growing.

A video that I saw mentioned that I need to be careful to not use a product that has trichoderma in it, as that will inhibit growth. Both micro-mykos and tps billions has this in it, so I figured that I need to use care to not mix those two with it.

They wouldn't ship the spawn over the weekend (which is a nice quality assurance), and so I will receive it about Thursday. Stamets fermenting for two weeks might be a little much, but I am going to experiment.  I have about 6 big tubs of chips fermenting, and will start using them one by one as I configure the grow bed.  This way the first tub will be one week fermenting, but eventually I will use some other things when they reach two weeks. Wonder if I will see a difference.  

This isn't really for moisture, since the chips get laid out in the air and sun to sterilize.  My thought is the majority of moisture needs to evaporate, so that all of the anaerobic bacteria are eliminated.  Q

An idea to increase the diversity in my garden is accelerated by a large mushroom bed.  However, now I am considering using the ferment sterilized spawn as top mulch underneath my vegetables. It's cool, humid, and I don't think there will be competition issues.  

This should have positive influence on my ecosystem in several ways. The mycelium might turn beneficial relationships surrounding it.  A biomass above the soil helps to insulate heat. Then we have the degraded wood chip nutrients improving the situation continuously.

With the amount of degradation already seen in the chips from fermenting, I expect a portion to decay quickly.  Having a nice mixture of chunks in my mix should give me some power pellets to fuel shrooms.  

Spreading mushroom spawn has been fun.  I make a mixture with 1 part spawn, 1 part peat moss, 1 part perlite, 1 part vermicompost, and 4 parts hydrated Coco coir.  My choice has been to make about 30 cups of this mixture to a big Rubbermaid tub of fermented wood chips.

Finding two chairs aside the road, I have those sitting above the mushroom bed that I created, to create shade.   Having seen the bucket drip irrigation systems for off-grid, this might morph directly into that, as I have a large tub between the two out stretched chairs.  Two sets of chairs with two tubs seems to give the entire bed adequate shade.  It is one main thing my garden is lacking.

It has been fun making up the full chip mixture, and tossing it in the understory that is heavily shaded.  I am excited to see if it fruits in the sunny areas that I have placed it.

Hi William,
Sounds like you are enjoying your project.  

I’m curious, what’s the intended function of the perlite and peat in your mixture?

Thanks

The peat is a substrate, which I have heard half and half peat and Coco coir is a valid substrate.  The difference here is my shrooms grow well on woodchips, so this is kind of a test.

Both perlite and peat were intended to also keep the soil moist in the summer heat that I am expecting this year. An added benefit of the perlite, is that it gave me a nice indication of my inoculate mixed into the chips.  Since I mixed the inoculate with perlite, and peat fully before mixing in the coconut coir, it helped me see which parts of the Rubbermaid tub are mixed..

Only on the last tub that I just finished that I started using two tubs and mixing from one to the other.  That was much easier than trying to turn over all the corners in a single tub.  

Since I cook breakfast up at synagogue, I have been adding in a full filter of spent grounds, and the shells from ten or a dozen eggs. The perlite peat mixture also gets a small handful of diatomaceous earth, as a pest control method, but it is also said to supplement the soil.

Since this mixture is being top dressed on my garden, I expect the peat and perlite to help my plants, but it is quite a small amount versus the volume of woodchips that I add in.  Theoretically, I think it helps me spread the inoculate out better, but it also might feed the fungi with a fast food source versus the chips that I expect to be a slower fuel source.  I really don't know, because I haven't fermented woodchips before..... And writing this reminds me that I need to inoculate some chips that were not fermented, so that I can watch for a difference.  Wine caps are new for me as well, recommended by Eric earlier in the thread.