Fungi vs Bacteria

Any name with Trump in it is at best dodgy!

the assumption is that you have your own soil on your own land

and work from their

you take your soil and get the flora measured

often poor soils are bacteria dominated hence fungi is required

the inverse is true also but rare

the secret is to grow the bacteria or fungi Needed for your soil

for proper fungi/bacteria intercourse

that intercourse naturally is the plants roots

cannabis has a very very high range of bacteria /fungi interactions

its why so many noobs on You Tube claim their compost teas are the best

even with the use of shitty air pumps

good luck

 

I think balance is the key. I feel few of us are in a position to try and determine whether our soil is one or the other, without lab work. I think a lot of discussion comes from the thinking that one type of soil (fungal or bacterial) more easily supports a favorable pH for the plants during either flower or veg phase.

I strive for balance like this. (This is just my philosophy, not super scientific)

Leaf mold and bark in your mix will make your mix more habitable for fungus. Anything with lignin. Think hugelculture beds. I feel that leaf mold and/or bark will continue to feed fungus for quite a long time and probably don't need to be replenished as often, when your soil is made with lignin rich ingredients. Mulching with brown leaves and bark would be the way to keep the fungus fed in the long term.

Compost tends to be on the bacterial side, depending of course on how its made and ingredients. When things heat up during cycling/breakdown, it is bacteria at work. ( compost probably transitions to more fungal, after cooking is complete, and it is allowed to cure). Top dressing/ mulching things like green leaves, alfalfa, grasses, etc would be bacterial feeding. I feel that bacteria should be continuously fed.

A mix of both is a win.
Observance of the soil's wildlife is also an indicator. As a worm wrangler, I have never seen such healthy and prosperous populations of worms, since I started using bark and leaf mold in both bedding mixes, and soil mixes.
Think what you feed your soil, and what it is made from.
hth some
cheers
os

 

"A mix of both is a win"
True Dat ^^

I keep going back 46 years to when I was taught, by rote, the mix I still use today. No explanation on the *why* of the various ingredients or the amounts. I doubt if the teacher could have given any other than "just because". Now, explanations and scientific studies validate all that stuff that back then (I bet), was arrived at from trial and error and observation. IDK, I never thought to ask.

The pine bark fines was simply "a couple of shovels full" and also added was 1 shovelfull of sheep manure, to kick everything off I guess, but we used Peters (Jack's Classic), exclusively for nutes. Black Kow came later after sheep manure got banned after some Tetnus outbreaks. The sheep manure didn't make much sense at the time when we were using nothing but salts for nutrients, but it was always added per the teachers directions. It always worked great (still does), and I never thought to add to or delete from the way it was taught to me. With organics, I did have to increase the amount of aeration, but the basic mix stayed the same and the perlite was always an 'eyeball' thing and never really measured anyway. The whole mix was mostly an 'eyeball' thing with very rough measurements of ingredients and relying mainly on sight and feel for the final product. Still is.

For me the whole deal with the fungi or bacteria is, the plant(s) will decide all that, not the grower. All the grower can really do is introduce the various bacteria and fungi to the mix/soil and the plants will decide which to nuture or repel. Plus the basic fact that spores for all this stuff is in the air and will get introduced anyway over time, especially outdoors.

As long as you supply the basic materials nature and the plants will do the rest.

But, that's just my opinion and YMMV.

Wet

 

OP. I had this same exact question when I first read up on the soil web and after doing my own composting and vermicomposting, I've come to realize that it is over complicating mother nature. As someone else stated, nature will balance what the plant wants. Just provide food for both. Besides, without constant testing you will never be able to accurately tell if you are maintaining a particular ratio. That's not to say that you can't tilt the scale one way or the other by mulching, but to know that you are holding a ratio would be difficult.

All that being said, I hope you find an answer as to what cannabis prefers because I'm still curious too.

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Grasscity Forum mobile app

 

AFAIK cannabis prefers bacteria dominated soil, but as mentioned above I don’t think it is worth your time trying to influence it one way or another as the plant does have influence over what goes on in the soil and will balance it according to its needs over time.