April 22, 2023 — Madeline Steward and Andrew Torrance led 40 Rideau Lakes children, ages 4-8, on a trial of fungal dominant compost (FDC) for earth day. Our new citizen scientists are conducting an A/B test to see what effects the use of FDC has on plant growth. Reports over the next six weeks will follow. Stay tuned. “Rideau Lakes children at the event were between the ages of 0-8 years old, I would say that the kids participating were between 4-8 years old. We will hopefully be receiving some results by May 20th! Fingers crossed!! I will keep you posted on the submissions we get and we can decide from there…
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Opening a bioreactor, a process analysis, the launch of BMAP
Brenden Brown of the Illinois University asked “how to do you open the bioreactors and what processes do you use to protect the fungal hyphae?” I didn’t have an answer, so I asked Scott Hortop, our compost wizard. Turns out Scott opens the side of the bioreactor, shovels the fungal rich compost into a wheelbarrow and then runs it through a hammer mill to create a soft and fluffy material. It is then stored in 11 liter ice cream buckets. The lid receives slits so some air is available. Is this the right idea? Is there a way to enhance the effectiveness of the compost by treating it in a…
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Early science education worksheet
Young scientist worksheet now available Its four weeks of “magic soil” fun suitable for classroom use. Thanks to Madeline Seward who created the project. Click to view the full project. Its in .png format. Educator? We’re still working out how to get the FDC to educators, so for now, if you’d like to run a workshop for kids, contact us through our contact page. Probably best if you can pick up in Newboro/Perth or Almonte. Grandkids? If you’d like to try the program with your grandkids, please order one of the FDC kits in our store and download and print the instructions. We will mail you the FDC. Pick up…
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2022 fungal dominant compost record — 24 full bioreactors and 400 bags of leaves readied for 2024
Scott and his team did an amazing job this fall. 24 bioreactors. 24! That’s over 400 bags of leaves now on a journey to 2024 use. 400 bags were also used for two new field improvement experiments. Can anyone count the number of bioreactors full and composting? Can anybody see Scott in the middle there? Congratulation to Scott and his amazing team. Well done all!
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Community Garden starts first row of ONfdc beans
July 8, 2022 — Update from South Lanark Community Garden The SLCG has partnered with ONfungi representative Kelvin Hodges to grow some plants inoculated with the fungi inoculant that they make in their reactors. The SLCG has installed 4 of their bioreactors to create fungi inoculated compost for the garden. Our Youth Community Garden Program has inoculated and planted 3 varieties of bush beans to see how they perform in comparison to non-inoculated control beans of the same varieties. To our amazement the inoculated beans have emerged first. Their progress will be monitored throughout the growing season. Pictured are some of the youth and Coral Sproule of the Table Community…
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Building a small backyard bioreactor
While ONfungi’s Scott Hortop is the wizard of compost with his large bioreactors, there’s room for smaller bioreactors. In today’s post, ONfungi’s Kelvin Hodges builds a simple home bioreactor. For the inoculate see our shop here. Buy your bioreactor starter kit here. Remember, the bioreactor inoculate kit greatly improves your fdc by introducing a large fungal spore range right from day one. Kelvin’s bioreactor build Hi everyone, for my home bioreactor build I started with some basic 1×2″ wire mesh fencing from a local hardware store. I used tin snips to cut the mesh into two pieces. One piece would be for the main bioreactor and the second piece was…
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New experiments are here
For spring 2022 we are testing the FDC in three ways: 1) using seeds for germination and growth tests 2) applying to a lawn, or top dressing a lawn 3) use with seedlings (already started plants) Each method has a few variations, but the processes are pretty straightforward. General rules when applying and testing FDC You need to do “twins” — for each plant variety or tree type or lawn area, try to select a roughly identical pair of plant and locations. Apply the Fungal-Dominant Compost (FDC) to only one of the two plants (trees, lawn areas); the second plant will be your reference. Both plants must be exposed to…
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Will soil regeneration improve plant nutrient density?
The study authors are asking for citizen scientists to help confirm these findings. Well, that’s what ONfungi is doing in 2022 already. So please. Join in. Make a real difference with science! One of the key experimental cycles for ONfungi in 2022 is looking at how ONfdc (fungal dominant compost) can work with other soil-building techniques — such as minimal plowing (no till), cover crops, and diverse crop planting — to improve plant nutrient density. In fact, we have been able to purchase a refractometer to measure plant nutrition thanks to our 2021 ONfungi citizen science supporters! In the article “Farms following soil-friendly practices grow heatlhier food” we see that…
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Latest ONfungi report highlights the benefits of FDC
Dec 22, 2021 — The Regenerative Effects of Fungal Dominant Compost: Pilot Study has been released. The report, prepared by Emma Roy, Scott Hortop and Hailee Turry, is part of our ONfungi citizen science project and research series. The work, done over the summer of 2021, continues to advance and expand the understanding of the utility of Fungal Dominant Compost (FDC). Download the 2021 report here. The report is a PDF of 1.34m in size. Our ONfungi compost is made primarily from fallen leaves high in cellulose and covered in fungal spores. After a lengthy two year composting period the leaves have been slowly digested; offering a higher fungi to…
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Fungi fruiting on ONfungi inoculated site
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Experiment Update: Field work complete
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…
