groovy larva in aerated compost tea

calliandra

calliandra

Well-Known Member
Glad you liked it guys, just had to share!

greasemonkeymann said:
that's super cool!
and since there isn't a tail, it's not a flaggelate, maybe that's an euglena?
I;ve only seen those with color though
cool shit
Click to expand...
Ah thanks for introducing me to the euglena - learned something there! :-P
I totally get how that critter reminds you of them -- checked them out, and one of their modes of moving about is quite similar to what the larva was doing there! I found a vid for camparison, at 2:13 mins I could really see it:

I still have to learn how to measure the microscopic organisms, so not sure how large that larva actually was o_O
But it was definitely way larger than the flagellates -- they're the roundish bumbling thingies in the video.
Also it having that 3-toed foot and the different sections in its body led me to assume it was multicellular...
Actually the puppa at the end looks like a fly to me?!
My first panic thought was fungus gnat haha but their larvae can almost be seen with the naked eye, so definitely not.
Too bad I couldn't preserve the sample long enough to see it hatch :mrgreen:

DonBrennon said:
Wow.......that's some awesome footage and how much life is in that ACT??????? Your soil and plants must be loving that shit.
Whatever it is, it was a hungry bugger before it transformed, lol
Click to expand...
Yeah this is the best tea I've made so far in terms of protozoan population & diversity! Bar maybe the many "fishies", which may be ciliates.... still need to find that out too ;)
Maybe because to now, I would test the ACT at 24 and 48 hrs (the 48hr one always contained more diverse creatures, whilst at 24hrs it was all about bacteria). This time, I purposely started the tea at a time so it would be at about 36hrs in the morning, which is when I do my indoor gardening and studying ;)
So it may be that the 36hr brewing time is best for the wormcasts I have. OR that the wormcasts are "ripening" as they "age".
------- Dam, I should have kept a bit of the tea going to see what it's like at 48hrs so I can check on that! LOL
Ah the endless potential for new discoveries, I so love it!
Cheers!
 
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greasemonkeymann

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
calliandra said:
Glad you liked it guys, just had to share!


Ah thanks for introducing me to the euglena - learned something there! :-P
I totally get how that critter reminds you of them -- checked them out, and one of their modes of moving about is quite similar to what the larva was doing there! I found a vid for camparison, at 2:13 mins I could really see it:

I still have to learn how to measure the microscopic organisms, so not sure how large that larva actually was o_O
But it was definitely way larger than the flagellates -- they're the roundish bumbling thingies in the video.
Also it having that 3-toed foot and the different sections in its body led me to assume it was multicellular...
Actually the puppa at the end looks like a fly to me?!
My first panic thought was fungus gnat haha but their larvae can almost be seen with the naked eye, so definitely not.
Too bad I couldn't preserve the sample long enough to see it hatch :mrgreen:


Yeah this is the best tea I've made so far in terms of protozoan population & diversity! Bar maybe the many "fishies", which may be ciliates.... still need to find that out too ;)
Maybe because to now, I would test the ACT at 24 and 48 hrs (the 48hr one always contained more diverse creatures, whilst at 24hrs it was all about bacteria). This time, I purposely started the tea at a time so it would be at about 36hrs in the morning, which is when I do my indoor gardening and studying ;)
So it may be that the 36hr brewing time is best for the wormcasts I have. OR that the wormcasts are "ripening" as they "age".
------- Dam, I should have kept a bit of the tea going to see what it's like at 48hrs so I can check on that! LOL
Ah the endless potential for new discoveries, I so love it!
Cheers!
Click to expand...
from the very little that I know f all those little micro beasties, is that there are LOTS, like alllll sorts of varies species fungal, bacterial, protozoa, all sorts of weird stuff. It's fascinating, but gets a lil overwhelming at times, I admit I sometimes overlook all those little intricacies, I wish I had the time to dedicate learning all the ins-and-outs.
now whats REALLY fascinating to me, is looking at your wormbin under a scope, now there is some cool shit there, not just under tons of magnification, but literally to the naked eye you can see the castings LOADED with life
 
calliandra

calliandra

Well-Known Member
greasemonkeymann said:
from the very little that I know f all those little micro beasties, is that there are LOTS, like alllll sorts of varies species fungal, bacterial, protozoa, all sorts of weird stuff. It's fascinating, but gets a lil overwhelming at times, I admit I sometimes overlook all those little intricacies, I wish I had the time to dedicate learning all the ins-and-outs.
now whats REALLY fascinating to me, is looking at your wormbin under a scope, now there is some cool shit there, not just under tons of magnification, but literally to the naked eye you can see the castings LOADED with life
Click to expand...
Yeah they say there are 75000 different kinds of bacteria alone, and most of them haven't even been studied yet either! :D

It's what makes Elaine Inghams qualitative approach so useful in my eyes.
All we need to worry about is to identify the different general kinds of organisms we are offering to our plants, and make sure we have a good balance of them for the plant we're growing.
Do I only see bacteria? Are there enough fungi for the successional needs of the plant I'm growing? And what about the other food web players - the protozoans, microarthropods, nematodes?
It doesn't matter what precise nematode species that fat lip guy was, it was morphologically clearly a bacterial feeder & thus good guy. To see that in my soil: good thing. If I see another bacterial feeder that, say, has a frilly mouth (and thus is another species), better still! = more diversity ...and so on.
It's just about checking on the general direction and how we're progressing.

The trick is to learn what all these types of critters look like, and to know what they mean for the microbial balance I'm trying to achieve :mrgreen: And I guess that'll just come with time and practice.
In the beginning, I struggled to tell flagellates from bacteria - now, it's a no-brainer :-P

End of the day, it all boils down to some basic principles -- many of the practices we have found to be beneficial (such as leaf mold!) experientially can be corroborated by actual qualitative assays (others turn out to be humbug or only part of the way solutions - like EM).
Get a good C:N ratio of base materials for your compost and you're going in the right direction.
Cure it thermally but taking care not to go anaerobic and you'll get a higher density of beneficials in there.
If your system is poor in microbial life it may take a few cycles to pump up the biomass & diversity, maybe innoculate with a handful of soil from a microbially richer place, preferably nearby.

And yes! Enjoy the lively goingson! Can't wait to build my own wormbin, had one in care over the winter and wow was it full of wonderful discoveries!
Cheers!
 
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