Like the milk crate things as I have several.. but dang...take a lot to fill that puppy... I thought the 3 gallon pots hold a lot of soil..I use milk crates lined with weed blocker set on a pallet....yeehaw..I keep my seedling heat mats on 72 or so...don't know if its optimal but always worked for me ...concrete floor def too cold this time of year for good root growth...the ground sucks the heat away quick as I have tested it....
whoa... that was a mouthful...I was just thinkin of askin you about the bacterial and fungi connection as I was lookin at teas..and my soil..reading that since it hasnt been working longer than a month it would have more of a higher bacterial population as opposed to a fungal population which would come with a longer composting time ..thats what I gathered anyway... so a tea that favors a higher fungi growth as opposed to bacterial would be more beneficial....I think Im saying that right..probably have my def. mixed up but was just wondrin...http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16329892
Abstract
Temperature is an important factor regulating microbial activity and shaping the soil microbial community. Little is known, however, on how temperature affects the most important groups of the soil microorganisms, the bacteria and the fungi, in situ. We have therefore measured the instantaneous total activity (respiration rate), bacterial activity (growth rate as thymidine incorporation rate) and fungal activity (growth rate as acetate-in-ergosterol incorporation rate) in soil at different temperatures (0-45 degrees C). Two soils were compared: one was an agricultural soil low in organic matter and with high pH, and the other was a forest humus soil with high organic matter content and low pH. Fungal and bacterial growth rates had optimum temperatures around 25-30 degrees C, while at higher temperatures lower values were found. This decrease was more drastic for fungi than for bacteria, resulting in an increase in the ratio of bacterial to fungal growth rate at higher temperatures. A tendency towards the opposite effect was observed at low temperatures, indicating that fungi were more adapted to low-temperature conditions than bacteria. The temperature dependence of all three activities was well modelled by the square root (Ratkowsky) model below the optimum temperature for fungal and bacterial growth. The respiration rate increased over almost the whole temperature range, showing the highest value at around 45 degrees C. Thus, at temperatures above 30 degrees C there was an uncoupling between the instantaneous respiration rate and bacterial and fungal activity. At these high temperatures, the respiration rate closely followed the Arrhenius temperature relationship.
think Ill use this for sure..thought of gravel but if roots happen to find their way down there the gravel might have some nasty stuff on it... think the chunky perlite would be key, especially if I leave a little water in pan ... but not sure on that yet...I used to use a saucer under with some chunky perlite in it to keep the pot off the ground
Like the milk crate things as I have several.. but dang...take a lot to fill that puppy... I thought the 3 gallon pots hold a lot of soil..
floor aint concrete but still on the cold side..