From scratch only! No premixed bottles of "stuff"

Lol now I'm going to ferment everything I can from that list. And then some-
I hope this thread never dies, it in my opinion deserves a sticky!

Woo. I'll join you

I'm in no position to do this where I'm currently located. There's alot of talk about biochar as a water retaining material. It replaces peat, coco, leaf mould, wood compost, etc. Performs excellent from experience. Here's the process on a small scale! Make sure your inputs are DRY and sawdust may have saps that don't dry up easily. This just means a longer carbonization process.

So, its obviously fall if you are reading this fresh out the oven. I have lots of pine straw and leaves and mulch and and etc.

I also have about 60 gallons of bokashi at my disposal. As well as a gallon of cultured EMe that needs to get used up by the end of the year.

So, I'm going to make a fermented starchy compost starter. Normally we would use rice wash. (That's right, the rinsings of your rice can be saved and used) Well, I'm a health nut to some extent and don't eat rice. So I'm using potato starch left over from the beginning of the year's baking.

1tsp-1T potato starch
1T EMe
1T molassases
1 gallon of natural water
Mix the ingredients and ferment for one week.

Pour over leaf moulding or compost or the toilet or septic tank, or the sump of an aquaponics system or just straight into a small pond. It'll clean up sludge and decompose a pile of dying organic matter in a short amount of time.

The ia my first run at leaf mould but I'm well equipped for composting this in less than six months as opposed to the typical 2 year process.
What I have done so far is a pile of mulch at the bottom over an old shower curtain, then some large pieces of decomposing tree and bokashi. Next I raked alot of leaves and pinestraw up and piled it up by the wheelbarrow on the mulch. After every wheelbarrow I smoothed the top out and sprinkled a half gallon of bokashi across it. After 5-6 layers.of this I ran out of leaves. So, I threw a some weight on top to squish my pile down. This is to bring up my carbon to nitrogen ratio per overall volume and less air space. In spring I'll add some african nightcrawler worms. For now I have to keep my population up over the winter. The species is African native and doesn't handle winters well.
I'll get to the liquids later tonight or this week and will also be adding fully fruited wood loving mushrooms to drop spores. These will do most of the work over the winter. Many species of mushroom prefer the cold weather!


Project starting 10-22-15 due by 5-1-16

Nice dude! I have a 40 gal trash barrel I perforated with hundreds of 1/8" holes. Threw 1 bale of straw in I shaved with my chainsaw. It's been going now since spring and is 1/2 the original volume. I didn't go the traditional route by adding tons of N to increase bacterial decomposition. I've added only a few 5gal batches of AACT, AND pissed in the barrel twice. I had thousands of mushroom pop up within the summer months. I just plucked them off daily.

But mine still isn't done yet. I can still see some straw strands. I think I'll mix it with a 5gal of bokashi and overwinter it in the garage. I should be ready for sure by summer or fall at the latest. At the rate things have been going I'd put my money on fall. But I've honestly been neglecting it and haven't added any kitchen scrap.

I really like the starter you made. I'm gonna try that indoors for my AACT this winter. I think it would be great for "just water" days.
I always brew water just like AACT.

1 gal of your compost starter juice
4 gal of pure water
Brew for 24 hrs.
I'll play with this and see how it does.
I also brew my own beer and have alot of dark and light malt on hand. One could even boil the barley grains and all that liquid that you would normally use for the beer, you add to the AACT. SUPERCARBS

Grandpa GreenJeans said:

I really like the starter you made. I'm gonna try that indoors for my AACT this winter. I think it would be great for "just water" days.
I always brew water just like AACT.

1 gal of your compost starter juice
4 gal of pure water
Brew for 24 hrs.
I'll play with this and see how it does.
I also brew my own beer and have alot of dark and light malt on hand. One could even boil the barley grains and all that liquid that you would normally use for the beer, you add to the AACT. SUPERCARBS

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Dilute the starchy starter 1:500 if you want to spray it and similar if you are just feeding plants by a drenching. It spoils in 1-2 weeks. Much less stable than other ferments due to the starch.

Biodynamics tests. Not true bd but here's what i got. Each were burried over the winter.

The cake is banana peels, bones, and bokashi stuffed into a clay pot. This i have broken down and am using it as a large slow release fertilizer.

The dry tube looking one is agave leaves dried and stuffed into a bamboo tube. This is just to mix/aerate in waterings with probiotics as a mild humate source and local bacteria source.

Then of course i used equine manure stuffed in a bamboo tube and burried over the winter. This is just a humate source.

I started using biochar a few years back. It's a wonderful addition that most overlook. We all want more microbes, but we don't give the microbes a place to live. Biochar solves that. Great thread!

iHearAll said:

View attachment 3526875

There's alot of talk about biochar

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Sure is, and for good reason. Great you're making it. We make it here, and local farmers are starting also.

Vortex brewers aren't expensive but i for one have no extra money...... but.... i have a pail, some pvc, and a wonderful 951gph air pump.

So what i did was wedged a 3inch pvc piece between four smaller pvc pieces. This just fixes the large pvc in the middle of the pail but isnt permanent so i can reuse my pail for other things.

So, what's going on is the airstones are tied to the end.of this long skinny 3/4" pvc pipe and dropped to the bottom of the large 3" pipe. The 3" is fixed a cm from the bottom of the pail and centered. So, when air is pumped up the pipe, the bottom gap between the pail and pipe allows water to flow into and up. It overflows the top and falls back into the pail. It'll do this non-stop and make loads of foam until i turn the pump off. I've got a t-shirt filled with bokashi, vermicastings, humates, dried radishes (for trace elements) , and ash. Then, from liquid, i added EMe, molasses, extracted bone phosphate, and fermented butternut squash extract. I just remembered i have some fish steeping in molasses water in the garden. Ill add a tablesoon of that and some ghost pepper extract as well.

Ragged setup but keeps a steady movement of water and air.

I've decided to start another couple of bokashi buckets.

First, I'll collect the BIM's with a nice rice water

For the record I don't believe anyone should buy microbes. That's like living on a houseboat and buying water

Rrog said:

For the record I don't believe anyone should by microbes. That's like living on a houseboat and buying water

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Not even for a little myco on early transplant?

Rrog said:

For the record I don't believe anyone should by microbes. That's like living on a houseboat and buying water

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To each their own. Agriculture based cultures survive well when culturing their own anyway. I suppose you just need to know what to look for in success and failure with such a technology. Until i get a compound microscope and some education in microbiology I'll buy lab grown. I do culture but not from the all popular lactoserum. I think we've had this conversation haha

Rrog drinks from the river

That sounds like a book

When i read back the way i type, i sound like an a-hole. Phones...

iHearAll said:

I suppose you just need to know what to look for in success and failure with such a technology. Until i get a compound microscope and some education in microbiology I'll buy lab grown. I do culture but not from the all popular lactoserum. I think we've had this conversation haha

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It's just lacto-bascillus, placed in an anaerobic environment (a lid on the pail). No success or failure, no compound microscopes.

@Rrog you should share your recipe as i have no idea how to make it.