when you guys talk about this or that being anti-fungal, what you don't realize is there
is no end all anti fungal. there are things that are effective at killing or slowing the growth
of a particular fungi, but there is no carbon containing organic material i know of that
is unable to be broken down by fungi. here's an example of substrate specificity which
illustrates my point.
the common oyster mushroom, pleurotus ostreatus, typically grows on trees in the wild,
but is commonly cultivated on straw and/or sawdust for food production. this mushroom
can also digest and draw nutrition from hydrocarbons, like crude oil, but can't digest hair,
because it lacks keratin digesting enzymes.
then you have chaetomium globosum, which doesn't produce mushrooms but like an
oyster mushroom, it inhabits cellulose rich plant materials. it is commonly found in leaf
litter, is considered a beneficial fungi for corn, can also cause infections of the nail and
breaks, and produces keratinase enzymes.
now, think about pestalotiopsis microspora. this fungi received some notoriety in the past
few years because of its unique ability to digest certain plastics under anaerobic conditions.
it also parasitizes ganoderma genus mushrooms and causes some leaf spot mold on hidcote
bushes.
so, to say that neem seed cake (or practically any other material) is anti-fungal is thinking
small... there's a whole world of microbes out there just waiting for their niche to show up.
