"You can DIY a sediement and use some earthworm castings, or some soil and boil, bake, or soak for 3-4 weeks in a shallow pan, mix this with 66% sand and then add about 6-8cm of that on the bottom, followed but another 3-4cm cap." -quoting Tom in the linked article.
This is confusing me. I can't see how these three actions will produce the same result. Boiling/baking will result in sterility. Soaking will allow biological action over time resulting in decomposition(Composting?)of organics to allow nutrients to become more available to plants, which is what I thought we are aiming at, while changing the soil structure.
What am I missing here?
Heat, burning, boiling etc..oxidizes reduced compounds like soil..........
This is why many plants grow very well after fires.
Volcanic rich soils etc........
Boiling oxidizes the Organic N and NH4/NO2 to NO3.......but takes a few minutes vs the abcterial cycle which takes 3-6 weeks or so.
Both end in the same way.
And if you boil first, then add plants etc, the roots already have live bacteria specific to plant /soil relationships, plain old soil sitting without any roots is not the same thing.
There's no need to wait in other words for the soil to mineralize.
If you do the DSM, then.........there's even less reason because by the time you fill the tank up with water, the soil is better mineralized than any other possible process anyone could do it.
It is stable, undisturbed, ready to go with roots intact and plenty of O2 from the plants being pumped into the sediemtn and a much nicer bacterial colony/plant root relationship.
No one is going to out do this mineralization method.
The mineralization is not to make the nutrients more available, it is to remove the O2 demanding compounds and the NH4.
If you want to make the nutrients more available, the bacteria will do this either way. By boiling etc.........you oxidized reduced compounds which drain and remove O2 if you just put them in there without mineralazation of boiling etc.
The soil that was boiled will NOT remain sterile for long. As soon as plants and water are put in there......or a DSM is done.......the colony is started.
Also, if you mineralize soil prior outside the tank etc............then disturb the soil, those colonies take a massive hit and take several weeks to stratify and recover.
Folks promoting the MS do not seem to want to discuss these issues much, curiously.........But they do want to sale folks about bacteria and microbes in the soil like it's some organic natural thing.
If that is the case, then adding plants to the process to start with, no water changes for the 1st 3-7 weeks, zero algae, no labor to speak of etc...the DSM kicks it's behind.
If a hobbyists starts with a philosophy, stick with it all the way through, we do not get to piece meal things here to suit. Need to consider the entire process and each step.
For some folks, boiling etc, is going to be fast and they want to add plants ans fish sooner.
Other's DSM might be more suited. Some might still soak soil for a few weeks, add all sorts of who knows what mixes.....to their soil. Most of these methods result in the same things. some require more labor, some more time, some a pot full of mess for a few minutes in the kitchen.
EC is an old method that was quite popular around 10 years ago, particularly with many nice scapist in Brazil, a few years later, some figured out they could mineralize soil first, then use with less issue, but Diana Walstad and Dorothy Reimer before her(she has passed on) have long spoke and suggested using soil. Europe has it's own old timer proponents dating many years/decades ago as well.
This is not anything even remotely new.
Maybe to new folks, but certainly not to me.
