I've had my soil cooking for over a month now with all the goodies except neem cake. Last week I finally added some neem cake, and now I'm finding large white rubbery clumps all over. Is this fungi? Do I need to break these clumps down or leave em alone?
White fluffy bits? The mold? I've had that too. But this stuff is like solid lumps size of grapes and feel kind of rubbery, but break down easy when I squeeze them.
After checking a lot of pics of this slime mold it seems to form on the surface of soil, and fuses into massive blobs. The stuff I found in my soil looks like regular clumps of soil but has this squishy white crap inside. I'll try to take pictures later.
FluffyKush, no reason to be alarmed. I believe what you are having the pleasure of experiencing is the formulation of humus as a direct result of biological stimulation following the addition of neem cake. Continue to keep your soil moist and warm which will speed up this process but otherwise if it was your intent to mineralize ("cook") your soil you have indeed accomplished this. Congratulations. If time allows you to do so you might take this event to a perhaps higher level by continuing to witness and document what is occurring in this soil. So many people strive for the "perfect soil mix" and we know there is no such thing per se. You are in fact witnessing that through a highly active microbial population of bacteria and fungi. The ball of spongy material was built around the physical neem cake you applied. This attracted and stimulated soil microbes and decomposition of the neem cake began in earnest. The clumping is the result of the exudates of the soil life binding the tiny soil particles together around the food source (neem cake). The physical size of the clumps is an entire environmental habitat for millions upon millions of soil life coexisting happily for the moment. It is their "fifteen minutes of fame" so-to-speak. It might be interesting for you to continue to observe this and record how long it takes before the "squishy white crap" disappears, which it most certainly will, and the soil biology holding the soil particles together forming a humus substance mineralizing off and completeing their life-cycle.
Got some azomite on the way for my mineral issue. Thanks guys! Should I still use the rock phosphate and the green sand as well? I have 4 cubic ft of soil I'm mixing(approx. 31gallons).
YES!!! I found more today and broke one apart to smell...it's definitely neem cake Thank you for the insightful information.