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…
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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…
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Farm experiment: making large batch compost tea
In this video, Mark explains how to use an at home brewer to create organic compost tea from our very own ONfungi compost. Though Mark is displayed using a large agricultural sized brewer, a similar technique can be used using a much smaller brewer for home applications. The ingredients in this “tea” include: For a 200 Gallon Brewer: -¾ Cup of Seaweed -½ cup of oat flour -½ cup of spelt flour -¾ cup of humates -¾ cup of Fish Hydrolysate -2 cups of ONfungi compost in a mesh bag. Place a bubbler within the brewer to allow for oxygenation, add the ingredients in whichever order you prefer and allow…
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Fungi fruiting on ONfungi inoculated site
Well, much to Emma’s delight, the fungal dominant compost (FDC) test bed has sent up fruit. This site is coming in very well, leading the sample sites in productivity, and now we have a mushroom.
Related Posts
Latest ONfungi report highlights the benefits of FDC
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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.
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Endo vs Ecto fungi, which one reigns supreme?
There are two primary types of mycorrhizal fungi, endo and ecto, both are mycelium but associate with different types of plants while performing similar functions. Endomycorrhizae (or Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizae) are symbiotically associated with about 90% of the plant kingdom. This coevolution began 350–460 million years ago and allowed vascular plants to begin growing on land. Endomycorrhizae physically penetrate plant roots and create an intercellular attachment in the form of branched structures called arbuscules. Arbuscules within root cells provide an extensive surface area for the exchange of nutrients such as glucose or nitrogen through the cell membrane. Mycelia from endomycorrhizae extend from the plant roots into the surrounding soil, gathering…
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Emma’s 4 plot experiment: August 13
August 13, 2021: First measurements Update on the experiment, so far it’s doing good!!!! We’ve had growth of some kind on almost every section so far the cucumbers in the control are larger, but the peas, sunflowers, and grass in the experimental plots are larger (affected) so it seems legumes and native plants take to the compost better during germination
