Hey mass fam, We have all heard about "super foods" which are just exotic foods that have high nutritional or antioxidant contents, but what about fermenting these nutrient, enzyme and potentially hormone packed foods for our gardens? I am currently in the midst of testing out several different fermented extracts, some of the more common ones are nettle, comfrey, and horsetail, etc. However when looking at the nutritional content of a lot of potential inputs I found several "fermentable" items rather interesting. Oyster mushrooms didn't just have lots of potassium(622mg/148g) and phosphorous(178mg/148g), but it also had relatively high levels iron(2mg/148g) and zinc(1.1g/148g) Compare that to a banana 3.5mg Potasium per gram and the oyster mushroom with 4.1mg/g along with much higher levels of iron and zinc in the oyster mushrooms. Cactus fruit have high levels of calcium(83.4mg/149g) and magnesium(127mg/149g) and a fair amount of potassium (328mg/149g) Being that this is the fruit of a dessert plant there might be some enzymes and or hormones that may be helpful for flowering plants just as Aloe Vera helps stimulate root growth. More information coming soon... After all my research so far these two odd candidates for a fermented extract presented themselves as the easiest to source (for my self) and most nutritious in terms of Calcium Magnesium Phosphorus Potasium iron and zinc which in my opinion need to be applied in the proper balance (too much phosphorus causing iron deficiency and vice versa). With these two inputs I believe there is a healthy balance of nutrients specifically for flowering. (These are to be fermented along with the normal comfrey and sting nettle). *The reason that I sought out these sources of nutrients was to avoid using guanos so that I am a little more sustainable as well as to avoid using any animal products. The purpose of starting this thread is to ask those who find this information helpful to expand upon it and contribute your findings and your research on "exotic" fermented extracts as one might say. What other mushrooms or super foods should people start fermenting for a superior harvest? (Please list concentrations of minerals, active enzymes, hormones, or any unique attribute of the source material like pest resistance etc) ✌️
Moringa tree foliage has a broad range of minerals but most importantly noted is the 440mg/100g of calcium, compare that to fish packed with the bones coming in at 967mg/454g (4.4mg/g mornings tree vs 2.1 mg/ g fish packed with bones. I'm sure fermented fish with the bones has extremely high levels of calcium, but I myself am trying to stay away from animal products and would prefer to stick with "vegan" options. I'm not vegan but I sure would like my plants to be vegan so that they might taste better hahah. ✌️
That's exactly the point, easily accessible items or easily cultivated items to be more specific. I say "exotic" because I've never heard of people fermenting mushrooms or cactus fruits and such and it got me thinking about what other odd but accessable foods might have value. Moringa trees for example are extremely drought tolerant and are ever bearing (well it's the leaves that is the harvest). Cactus grows wild I'm my area, and I cultivate mushrooms. Developing sustainable and affective gardening practices is my goal. ✌️
I'd start out with a half dozen comfrey plants in well prepped planting holes if you haven't already. Between comfrey, nettles and yarrow you'd be well on your way to self sufficiency. J
Haha I just started 8 comfrey and I'm waiting to fix the irrigation for the sting nettle before sowing. I still have to get horsetail and will look into yarrow aswell. ✌️
Brazilian nuts, where do I even begin. It has more potassium and phosphorous iron and zinc than oyster mushrooms way more calcium and magnesium than cactus fruit but most interestingly Selenium is very high in Brazilian nuts. After a simple google search I came upon this article. The roles of selenium in protecting plants against abiotic stresses In this article it describes how the application of selenium decreased the damage of abiotic stress on plants. It goes on to describe its role in the the reconstruction of cell membranes, chloroplasts, and the photsynthetic sysytem. Wow! Ill have to look into this quite a bit more and I'll report more soon. (Serving size in the picture below is 133g) The only issue I see with fermenting Brazilian nuts is that there are much high levels of magnesium than calcium, I'm not 100% if that's a good thing but given than cal mag has more calcium than magnesium of assume you want more calcium than magnesium. I'm sure that it could be balanced out with a some with high calcium like moringa.
I'm lucky enough that half of my 4.7 acres is "wild" and full of nettles, horsetails and other goodies. Adding that to the alfalfa hay I bed my chickens on and the chicken droppings (well composted) my gardens are pumping. The downside of the chickens being that a few chickens always make it into my gardens and help themselves lol. I had to replant corn a month late as they ate them down to the ground! Recently, I've found a few zuccini and tomatoes with holes pecked into them lol. Ah well; the girls more than repay me in eggs, compost and joy. Cheers all!
Did a missing trace element trigger mass extinctions? So apparently selenium is an extremely important and widely overlooked micro-nutrient. I'm now really excited to start experimenting with selenium. I'm hypothesising that strains like headband and ACDC that are really sensitive to stress are really just lacking the selenium they require to function. Just like some strains are light hungry, well maybe these "finky" strains are selenium hungry plants?! Now that deserves its own side by side grow with several finky strains and i will put them a through different environmental stresses and monitor plant responses and determine if selenium prevents these finky strains from taking a shit when stressed out once.
My studies thus far with comfrey, moringa leaf, horse tail, and stinging nettle have been quite successful. Moringa leaf being so jam packed with nutrients paired with comfrey and the allantoin (plus some cannabis shoot tips for cannabis specific auxins) makes cannabis plants growth very fast with lush green growth. Horse tail and stinging nettle has made my branches much thicker and stronger. Adding a little coconut water during the first week of flower has kept stretching to a minimum. Not to mention that my horsetail ferment smelled and tasted like fruity wine before the alchohol turned into acetic acid.
Update: I am seeing products on buildasoil such as peach (sugars?), apple twig (salicyclic acid?), and even hemp flower ferments. It seems the peach extract is quite popular for a sugar additive... I currently am using NewMillenium's Carb-O-Naria which is blend of plant extracts rich that is rich in complex sugars and carbs among other things. I use this in replacement of mulching to feed the mixrobes in my soil as the carb content is very high (smells like malted barely) . Using Carb-O-Naria I have nice healthy green plants in my No-Till pots. Are all these new ferments out here overpriced and redundant or is there a benefit to diversifing your sugar and carb inputs? What interesting things are you guys using these days, or are you just using molasesses and keeping things simple?