Here's another little tid-bit regarding this same article. This is from my favorite soil scientist. Those that know her will recognizer her writing style. She's got a unique way of putting things (yes, there may be a little crush going on here): The way I look at molasses is that it is a great bacterial food resource. Add molasses to anything, at the right concentration, and bacteria bloom! Quite a bit of what Malclom Beck talks about in the post linked below (that Louis sent in, thank you for that!) is the necessity of having the right sets of microbes in the compost or soil in order to get the benefit you want from growing a whole bunch of bacteria. Malcolm makes sure that there is a good inoculum or addition, of Nitrogen-fixing bacteria present. Most of the time, by managing the composting right, those bacteria are present in the compost. Where did those bacteria come from? They were on the organic matter originally put into the pile. But you can hedge your bets and add the particular sets of microbes to make sure you have them. The bacterial species to get are: 1. Any FREE-LIVING Nitrogen-fixing bacteria, such as Azotobacter, Azospirillum, Frankia, Azomonas 2. "Bad-guy" fungi suppressors, such as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus megaterium, B. flourescens, 3. If concerned about pesticide residues in your soil or compost, then buy a mix also containing Pseudomonas laterosporalis, P. licheniformis, or other some fungal species know to do a good job breaking down pesticides. Sorry, can't remember the names of the fungi. When you buy an inoculum, check to make sure it actually has the bacteria in it you want. If you learn to use a microscope, or have a local friend who can use one, you can check easily to make sure there area at least bacteria in the mix. Bacillus species are distinctive, so you can check for them just by appearance - big fat rod shapes.....some short, some longer, some really long, single, or chained. ---------------------------- Folks have spoken a bit about EM on this list serve, and if you have severely compacted soils, areas of your lawn that puddle and do not drain properly, then making a little bit of your compost with an EM addition might be a good idea. EM is a particular mix of a number of bacterial species. Sorry, no fungi in this mix that survive in soil (or, let's hope they don't survive in your soil, the yeasts that are normally in EM aren't beneficial in soil). EM is prepared in a way that means the species you buy will be low-oxygen environment organisms. They work in compacted or low-oxygen environments WITHOUT making alcohol (which is the danger when your compost goes anaerobic). These species don't volatilize ammonia, rotten egg smells, or make phosphine gas. So, you don't lose your important nutrients if the compost or soil goes anaerobic and these guys win out against the more "rotten" bacterial species. So, if you have soil, or compost that is stinky or smelly, or have areas of puddling in your lawn, make a compost where you have added these organisms, can put a light dusting of this compost on that area and water it in. Or make a tea from that compost, and drench the area. But REMEMBER, in two weeks to come back with an inoculum of AEROBIC organisms, such as a compost with no addition of EM, or a compost tea made from a normal aerobic compost. The species that should be in EM are: 1. Lactobacillus Long slender rods, may be single, two in a chain, or multiple in chains. But always slender rods (to differentiate from Bacillus species) 2. Pseudomonas species - but mostly the low-oxygen environment ones. They do have ability to chew up pesticides, so possible a good place to get a good mix of these species. 3. Actinobacteria - a herd of species. These bacteria grow in filaments, so they look like very slender threads. They look alot like fungi, but are too thin to be real fungal strands. So, when you see "pencil-lines" in your microscope, those are actinobacteria. In all my experience, having high amounts of actinobacteria in a productive pasture or row crop / broadacre soil is an indicator of bad things. These bacteria do not help the crop species most of us grow. They do help brassica though, and riparian and wetland plants. So........ are these good bacteria? Depends on what you want to grow. 4. Non-sulfur, purple photosynthetic cyanobacteria. Very distinctive purple to violet color in the cells of this organism. Doesn't typically survive transportation in the mail, doesn't survive in bottles stored in the dark. It is a photosynthetic organism after all, and despite the fact some EM salesmen say it doesn't need sunlight to survive, all the data we have from looking at the product shows no survival of this organism once the product gets to us through the mail. 5. Yeasts...... these are fungi that grow in low oxygen conditions. They look like big round to oblong balloons that some times grow in clumps, and look rather like little cactus clumps. Not good to be seeing alot of these in soil. Definite indicators of compaction and lack of oxygen. Yeasts aren't good at building structure or helping make things better in soil, at least that I have ever seen. An EM without lots of yeasts would be better than one that has lots. Hope this helps clarify why molasses can do good things in soil. Okay, it's me again. I wanted to point out that when she talks about adding compost to your soil, she doesn't mean the usually recomended rate of 1/3" or a cubic yard per 1000 sq.ft. She means a light dusting of the best compost you can make. What's more is that when you have a soil chemistry test performed, and that test makes recomendations based on Ca:Mg ratios and available NPK, you can achieve the same results using 1/600th the recomended rate by applying those elements to GOOD compost and using that to amend your soil. The reason being that the nutrients are held in suspension by the microbes in the compost. Someone start a new thread if you want to discuss this more. Are you guys keeping up with me here? Info overload or what? Heh, heh...keep it comin'. If you guys like these types of discussions and want to dig a little deeper email me and we can talk. We're havin' fun now! Greenjeans

Hi Kousa: You mean beneficial bacteria? Beneficial bacteria are plenty in yogurt like L. Acidophillus (also added to horse feed). Beneficial bacteria are in healthy soil and in horse manure. One example is Bacillus thuringiensis, an organism fatal to caterpillars but perfectly safe for plants and other animals. Some horse manure contain beneficial nematodes (added by the stable) to control flies population. Midge is between a gnat and a small fly. Horse manure, IF it has beneficial nematodes, is effective for midge-control. Most stables have a "free heap" of manure, so the public can help themselves, without permission. The stable in my small village has a horse-manure pile the size of a 2-story house. FUNGAL DISEASES are: Blackspots, mildew, rust, canker, gray mold, and powdery mildew. Any type of mushroom is also a fungi. Fungi does not like extreme alkalinity, like pH above 8. Baking soda pH is 8.3, and is used against black spots. Fungi grows best at neutral to acidic soil above pH 4. I researched on agricultural midge, or swede midge. Experiments at Cornell University stated, " Laboratory results indicated that extremely dry and extremely wet soil hinders swede midge emergence. Optimal moisture content for swede midge emergence was from 25 ��" 75 %, and varied in different soils." Cornell University recommends crop rotation, but that's not possible with roses. That explains why I don't have rose midge in my rock-hard clay. My heavy clay is sticky-wet when it's rained, and rock-hard when dry. 15 minutes from me is Cantigny rose park, with 1,200 roses. They use zero mulch, just bare dirt. But when people mulch with bark, that retains optimal moisture level longer for midge germination. More from Cornell University: "These results suggest that cultural practices, such as flooding fields during non-cropping periods to achieve 100% soil moisture level or even DRYING THE SOIL, may be viable methods to reduce swede midge emergence. Similarly, swede midge populations and damage are expected to be REDUCED when saturated soil or drought conditions occur." eHow recommended that for rose midge, removing the top soil, and putting new soil in late season will stop midge from germinating next year. That's what I do in zone 5a for winter-protection: I dump new soil in late fall, to protect my roses. The bagged soils here are alkaline clay, pH near 8, makes it impossible for any insects to thrive. Two of my 55+ roses had rose midge early spring, since I did not dump alkaline soil this past winter. It's just fluffy potting soil, which holds the ideal moisture for midge germination. I flooded the soil repeatedly, plus our week-long heavy rain killed all the midge larvae by early summer. Conclusion: Midge doesn't like soil too wet, nor too dry .. and sticky alkaline clay does just that. From a University Extension, I learned the midge hatch from the top 1 to 2" of soil, so removing the top surface of soil helps. One lazy way is dust a thin layer of wood-ash, its extreme alkalinity would kill any midge larvae, and disease-causing fungi. From Missouri Botanical Garden "Rose midges are microscopic insects that can blacken and kill rosebuds and leaves. The destructive, whitish maggots usually hatch after the first bloom cycle and rasp tender plant tissue as they feed, causing leaves and blossoms to blacken and shrivel. An unchecked, heavy infestation can eliminate bloom from late spring to early fall. After feeding, the larvae drop to the soil, pupate, and emerge as reddish or yellowish brown flies within a week. To control this pest, remove and destroy affected flower buds and leaves as soon as you spot midge damage." Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell University on midge

I like my Can-O-Worms very much. I keep it indoor. Use coconut coir for the bedding. Feed veggie kitchen scraps. No meat or cooked food. It is a low maintenance bin. The worms do migrate up to the next level for food. They don't all go up. They do have preferences where they're the most comfortable. The trays have different functions. Some come with two trays and some with three. You start with one tray, feed until the tray looks like it has more compost then bedding, then you start the next tray on top. You then only feed the top tray and the older tray finish up. The worms will then move up to the new tray for food and then you can harvest the old tray and start a new feeding tray on top. If you have three trays then you can compost more food with more worms and get more compost. I have the two tray system. It's easy to harvest. I bring the trays outside in bright light. Put the finished tray on top of the working tray. Fluff up the compost. The worms remaining in this tray will move down to join the rest of their family in the working tray. Scoop out layers of worm-free compost until done. The compost is light, fluffy like chocolate cake crumbs. There are cocoons in this compost. I pick out the cocoons I see and throw them back in the working tray. I start a new working tray with coir, sand, and pulverized egg shells. I feed only in this new tray and let the worms finish eating through the old tray and migrate up. I harvest when the old tray looks like chocolate cake crumbs, sometimes every six weeks if I've been feeding regularly. Sometimes I go six months between harvests. I like the drain spigot. I do leave it open all the time with a container underneath to catch drips. There is always extra liquid when i feed watermelon rinds. I don' t add extra water or bedding. I dig a hole in the coir, dump in scraps and cover. No fruit flies. No mites. Occasional potworms. The legs are spindly and can tip the bin over if you klutzy and bump it too hard. The aeration screens at the leg housing can let liquid through. I cover the five leg aeraration screens with plastic because I didn't like the puddles of dark worm leachate on my laundry room floor. The trays can get heavy to carry around for harvesting. Wheels on the COW would be a big improvement. I prefer the COW over the Rubbermaid bins. I started with those based on "Worms Eat My Garbage". They were relatively cheap and easy to make. Those were a pain to manage. Sticky gooey like compost. Smelly bottom leachate bin. A lot more work to harvest. If you want a lazy no maintenance vermicomposting system dig a pit outdoors and throw in your scraps. Vermicompost on, however you want to. There is no wrong way, just find the method that works for you. Vermicomposter for over 10 years, Wormsical.

Schoolhouse, put the new bag unopened in the freezer and it will remain fresher. Our sewer line was rooted out between 11pm-1am and we have a 30 day guarantee it won't mess up during that time. However, the estimate due to some manual digging required to REPLACE the clay pipes is $2400, includes replacing to the city sewer line, don't know if the city charges to reconnect us or not. I cannot deal with backing up sewer lines! So our contractor is getting his plumber to give us an estimate, presumably less than Rotorooter, then we can get a cheaper homeowner's insurance rate. All gas, electrical, sewer, water lines renewed, plus the new roof. We essentially had a "whole house body transplant." It is chilly here today as well. Not cold, but chilly. Later this week, we will have a 40* and a 34* low. My HOSTAS are starting to poke noses up, some with beautiful unfurled leaves already. I received a new order from Naylor Creek Nursery in WA state today, so time to get out the pots and MiracleGro and my gloves. Let the gardening season begin! I'm behind on taking pictures of everything, including house and garden. Been throwing things out of the Teahouse right and left. At least the trash trailer and the GottaGo portable potty are out of the yard, so I can begin leveling that before grass (weeds actually) begin growing to cover it.