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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April 23rd ONfungi talks and shows!
Thank you for all the visits and friendly joy! Saturday, April 23, ONfungi’s Scott Hortop and Kelvin Hodges were at the Kemptville Sustainability Fair. We had hundreds of avid gardeners and nature lovers of all ages come by. Stories were told. ONfungi FDC was given out — by donation: and we raised over 110 dollars, not including coins and US dollars! We also sent more than 50 packages of FDC along with promises to try some citizen science out into the world. Huzzah. Many young people discovered a new way to act on the climate. Many moms and dads got new garden ideas. Many grandma and grandpa’s found a new…
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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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Technology improvement casts doubt on long term carbon sequestration
If you’ve read through ONfungi’s ruminations regarding carbon sequestration you’ll have noticed that we think its happening as we restore soils but we don’t think it works the way some folks were hoping. Pretty early on in our research we realized that for carbon sequestration in soil to work you needed to renew the soil on an ongoing basis. So things like cover cropping, no till, our ONfdc may be more than useful but actually essential to carbon sequestration in soil. Recently Biocycle.net’s Sally Brown looked at some of the new technology being applied to the issue and came to the same conclusion we did. If you want to store…
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Spring 2022 garden upgrades start now
New for spring 2022 are more, more and even more for gardeners and soil regeneration citizen scientists ONfungi will be opening 5 of Scott the wizard Hortop’s bioreactors (filled in the fall of 2020), a record for ONfungi, and an FDC (fungal dominant compost) bonanza allowing: Alberto Suarez of Nature’s Apprentice Farm will be doing multiple controlled trials of the FDC on selected vegetable plantings; as well as on small plots of wheat and oats. ONfungi will be working with Cliff Neudorf and the South Lanark Community Garden to supply FDC for garden and student experiments, as well as start their first bioreactor. Mark MacKenzie will be doing 5 lawn…
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Everything you need to know about soil health and biomass in one easy to read article
Food Web & Soil Health, a primer in soil regeneration by Elaine Ingham, noted researcher and soil regeneration expert.
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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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ONfungi video demonstrates “Mix, Strain, Apply” the 2021/22 lawn experiment
In this video volunteer participant Janice Reid applies the biotic tea to an area of grass under a maple tree. Conditions noted included the poor health of the tree and the Microbiometer tests came in at 300 ug/g in the first area and 365 in the second. Both those results indicate "poor" soil and low carbon. Low carbon means few carbon lifeforms such as protozoa, nematodes, bacteria, or fungi. No wonder the tree is struggling. We look forward to our test results coming spring 2022. Special thanks to Janice Reid for her generosity of time and spirit. Kelvin Hodges for yet another video. Bensound for putting his jazz online. In…
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Volunteers build 8 new bioreactors for the ONfungi 2023 season
Nov 1, 2021 — Volunteers Pam Steele and Mike Pitcher pose by the bioreactors being started for the 2023 growing season. Along with Dave Bustard (not shown) the team has now filled 4 of 8 bioreactors (update: nov 2). Well done team! “I’m really impressed with their dedication. They started on a new bioreactor this morning and by finish time it was full,” said Scott the wizard Hortop. The new volunteers join the bioreactor crew of Scott Hortop, Mark MacKenzie, Kelvin Hodges and Emma Roy. “We have 8 new bioreactors prepping fungal dominant compost (FDC) in support of the 2023 growing season,” said Emma. “I’m looking forward to years of…
