Hello happy people,
I am just wondering why a lot of people stress so much on anaerobic conditions for liquid innoculation of biochar and if i am missing something. This is what I have noticed down the rabbit hole.
Be patient, I'll get there lol ...
As a home brewer and looking for cheaper alternatives to multiply and feed yeasts I found that by killing the yeast and feeding that to my live cultures to be a complete food source for the yeast bacteria. It includes readily available Vitamins and minerals.
For example:
Dead bakers yeast =
Vitamins = B1,B2,B3,B6,B12
Minerals = potassium, zinc, magnesium, manganese, selenium,copper and iron
It is also a complete protein source of all 9 essential amino acids.
Charcoal is added in the Brewing process for the same reason as we add it to the garden (a good shelter for the microbes and to clean impurities.
These yeasts for Brewing are not anaerobic or aerobic bacteria, they are fulcatative bacteria which can live between both environments (presence or absence of oxygen).
If my biochar for my garden gets innoculated in a anaerobic environment then I don't think there is reason for concern as they will die either 'instantly to a few weeks' once exposed to oxygen, that benefit would mean all the pores in my biochar will be loaded with the above vitamins and minerals (more or less depending on the species of dead anaerobe)
So the stress about adding anaerobic bacteria seems irrelevant as long as you expose your biochar to oxygen for a few weeks if you want to go that far.
It is the fulcatative bacteria that should be of concern and not the anaerobes. As for liquid innoculation you can avoid bad fulcatatives like ecoli and salmonella by not innoculating with animal products like dairy, eggs, animal manures and meats.
Terra preta has all 3 types (aerobic/fulcatative in the top layer, anaerobic/fulcatative below) in its beautiful black earth. If the Amazonians threw all their waste and charcoal in a pit at different times of the year you would assume there would have been accumulations of aerobic/fulcatative bacteria in the dry season and then a switch to anaerobic/fulcatative bacteria in their longer wet season.
Does it make sense that if a animal died and was disposed of on top of that terra preta (in the wet season)that there would be a massive accumulation of bad anaerobic bacteria as opposed to minimal bad bacteria in a dry season and the lesson being: eventually nature balance it all out.
For this reason I like to soak my biochar for anywhere from a few days to a week in seaweed/worm tea/fish waste and then as a added innoculation process I drain my char and mix it with compost/manures/worm castings in a aerobic environment for a few weeks to months.
Like a lot of us down this rabbit hole when I started reading I kept questioning if I was doing it right, is this a good or bad thing that im doing and comparing it to multiple sources.
Is anyone thinking along the same lines?
Does this make sense?
What has your journey been like on the road to Eldorado?
It's my first post, I hope I haven't upset any die hard biocharians, have a awesome day
its has fulcatative, anaerobic and aerobic microbes of various varieties.