This update is an exciting one because we have completed the field work trial on fungal-dominant compost (FDC) made in Ontario. The results we have received are very promising. In the coming weeks we will be able to update everyone with a complete report outlining what we did and why we did it. Friday, October 15, we went out to the farm where we conduct our field work. With an unusually warm fall, there was still no frost and the plants were doing quite well. From a visual assessment, all of the plants on the treated plot were larger than those on the control plot. In particular, the flowers on…
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How to use our own biological diversity to replenish poor quality soils
ONfungi is an organic compost which contains many varieties and strains of Arbuscular Mychorrizae (AM). In poor quality soil, there is often a lack of micro biomass. This means that critical fungi or bacteria strains intended to ensure a diverse balance within the soil is disturbed, and remediation is needed. By adding spores of robust and healthy fungi from our own ecosystems, the risk of pathogenic fungi attacking plants becomes lower and lower. If symbiotic AM fungi are available to colonize the roots of plants, there is a far less chance of an infection from a pathogenic variety, as there are less resources available to support it. A similar concept…
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Experiment Update – Week 5
Emma Roy — So far at the farm everything has been going extremely well. I’ve received a variety of different results which I’m excited to begin analyzing. Here is an example of two sunflower plants, both were planted at the same time, in the same location, with the same environmental conditions and water levels. The only difference was during planting, I added ONfungi’s Fungal Dominant Compost to one plot of plants where as the other was left with no additions for control. These are the sunflowers after 5 weeks, the one on the right was innoculated with compost, the left is control. The right is taller by about 15cm and…
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Experiment Update – Week 4
Hi everyone, Emma here back with an update. On Friday, I went out to water the plants and take measurements and came to some interesting conclusions. In the control plot, all of the plants seem to be doing fairly well except there were signs of fungal disease & drought on the cucumbers and the African daisies. The plot with ONfungi compost added did not show any of these signs of disease on either of the species. In line with past updates, the rate of growth on the FDC (fungal dominant compost) plot is faster on almost all of the species, in particular the peas and the sunflowers.
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Experiment Update
Hi everyone, Emma here, just coming in with an update! On Friday at the farm I went to check the experimental plots and to water and to my surprise noticed a visual difference in the two plots. The FDC treated plot was a few shades darker than the control plot, indicating that the soil seems to be holding more water and life. This seems like a good sign, I am excited to see about our results next week.
