New to the field - literature advice needed - (Apr/13/2013 )

Greetings!

I would like to introduce myself in this first post of mine with some background information.

I am a 28 year old male from Sweden, living in the capital city of Stockholm. I have a masters degree in mechanical engineering (robotics).

I have recently taken on a very intense interest in microbiology, this microbiological interest comes from my interest in organic gardening.

I am currently in the state that I pretty much understand what goes on in the soil and around the roots of the plants. I have cultures Lactic acid bacteria and bacterial/fungal soil samples from different forests.

This interest have intensified immensely over the last few months, to the point where I want to start learning more about microbiology on a more scientific level and also get me a small lab with a microscope as the top priority.

I am now turning to you, my fellow scientists. Please share with me your recommended literature for my particular situation. I think that at this point I want to take on a little more of a practical approach; learning the science as I go.

For now I want to:
- Evaluate the quality of my cultures
- Evaluate the methods of culturing I use
- Understand how to store my cultures and how it impacts them
- Understand to a greater extent how they affect my soil, the plants and organic matter

I realize that when I say culture you think of a glass platter with a few hundred microbes, what I actually mean is a pretty large jar of goo which I use as a soil inoculant.

I really hope to get some good replies, Thank You!

these are very open-ended questions, and tough to answer. it would help if we understood more specifically what it is you are trying to accomplish.

what do you mean by "quality"?

as far as methods of culturing, what are you trying to enrich for?

what do you mean by "store"? are you talking about keeping for weeks, months, years?

aimikins on Sat Apr 13 21:30:54 2013 said:

By quality I mean concentration and diversity of beneficial bacteria and fungi. As for the moment I use my nose to make sure it smells "earthy" and not putrefying.

The current culturing methods I use is milk fermentation for LAB. For forest microbes I bury a box of carbohydrates (rice or macaroni) in the forest, wait for infection, ferment with sugar.

Storing it for years would not be necessary, months is a good thing though. As for now, I store it cool and dark in glass jars.

I think beneficial is kind of a stretch to describe, there are books about this subject. One in particular called Teaming with microbes by Dr. Elaine Ingham. She describes what is called the "Soil food web".

This Wikipedia article describes it pretty well. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_food_web

Just wondering: why are you doing this?

pito on Sun Apr 14 18:25:43 2013 said:

I can't see why I would need a reason to take part of the seemingly classified literature that goes with this subject.

aerkenemesis on Sun Apr 14 21:24:06 2013 said:

The literature I can understand, but I wonder what you really want to do?
Are you really going to try to inoculate your garden with it?

And do you have any basic microbiology books? Because I can give you some titles that are avaible online.
But I wonder how much you allready know.

pito on Mon Apr 15 06:23:56 2013 said:

Well I know close to nothing about microbiology, what I do know is how the bacteria, Protozoa, nematodes, fungi, algae etc. interact in the so called "soil food web".

My mission now is to learn about microbiology. First steps is to learn the general basics, next step is to focus more on the particular species of interest.

As I said, I already multiply bacteria in different ways according to guides and manuals created by researchers in the area. I want to know exactly what I am doing, what I am multiplying, how I can do it better, evaluate the produce etc. This means learning microbiology so that I can research it on a more scientific level.

Answering your question, yes I do inoculate my garden with it. The plants THRIVE! The idea behind it is that I feed the soil (microbes) with organic matter which they consume rather than salt based chemicals which are used in a conventional feeding regime. The predator-pray relationship between the microbes leads to the destruction of for example nitrifying bacteria - which release mineralized nitrogen in the form of ammonium or nitrate, which the roots of the plant can utilize.

I'd be thrilled to take part of the information you mentioned. The books I've read does not cover specifics about the organisms; it is more like overviews of the interactions between them. It does not even mention any specific species.

aerkenemesis on Mon Apr 15 06:47:29 2013 said:

Check your PM.

The plant controls the ratios of different microorganisms around its roots by excreting different sugars in different amounts; "selecting" what nutrients it consumes by controlling the amount of N-fixing, P-fixing org K-fixing bacteria/fungi. The nematodes and Protozoa "eats" the bacteria releasing the nutrients.