Fungus Reactor (more on that later, if successful) had a mystery guest show up and I am hoping someone can tell me what it is and whether it would be beneficial or detrimental to my bark composter. I have only seen small signs visible on the bark nuggets (1/2” for scale) of fungal threads developing…but then this batch of eggs (snails?) or slime molds or ? showed up. Any ideas?
Sure look like snail or slug eggs to me. Squishem!
1 Like
Thanks…I should have googled it first. Looks exactly like slug eggs. Slugs are everywhere here…but mostly stay out of the pots.
I am inclined to remove them. Not sure they would harm the composting of the bark, but going to err on that side.
The “Fungus Reactor” is 3 weeks in process, and seeing some good fungus just starting to take off.
Fungus reactor? Should I be interested in this?
Not all who follow my wanderings end up lost, but most do. That’s just sad facts.
I can’t remember if I posted it here (don’t think I did) but I had a crazy idea to try and develop some of the soil components before placing them into the pot. I am still wrapping my mind around the concept, but it goes something like this:
Create a tiered chamber system with layers of bark (2 shredded over 1 nuggets) on top of a layer of ~45% pumice, ~45% scoria and ~10% charcoal. Gently irrigate daily with dechlorinated water such that the bark chambers create a fungus and microorganism rich leachate that can begin to enrich and leverage the mineral content in the scoria.
This system would somewhat mimic a natural soil column in a wooded forest in volcanic terrain…and the idea would be that rather than potting with raw soil components, you would be starting with a somewhat more matured granular mix that is ready to leverage its own nutritional components.
Ultimately, I would intend to harvest only the nuggets and the bottom chamber soil components.
3 Likes
Interesting. If you’ve got that kind of dedication you could look into creating your own worm castings with a worm farm. Sounds like they’re super beneficial.
1 Like