Journey of Making Flake Soil

R

Riverreed

L1
Howdy everyone!

(Please note that this is my attempt and should not be used as a recipe until testing proves that it is safe and effective
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I am new around here and and I wanted to share my progress over the next few months of my attempt at producing flake soil for individuals who want to see the "progress" over time. If you see a step I am taking that's wrong or could be better, please share! This is my first attempt and I am hoping everything goes well.

So I needed a food source for my Dynastes Tityus and decided this might be the best route to help breeding projects down the line.

Recipe I used:(Derived from: Beetle Breeding Daniel Ambuehl on Youtube)

20 lbs Oak Sawdust

4lbs whole wheat flour(Natural no additives)

1lb bran (Natural no additives)

hand full of inoculant (Old used flake soil)

5-6 gallons of water.(Distilled)

(I used the no additives and distilled water to remove any thing that might damped the composting process)

Container:

Huge Storage Tub with mesh holes at the top of it. Probably around 2 square inches total if you sum all the little holes. I may tape up half of them depending on moister loss.

Process:

Using pellets. Boil around 2 gallons of water and add it to the mixture and let it steam to expand pellets(I used Taeger, from my understanding its 100% hardwood with 0 additives like sulfer). Mix all ingredients together after that. The amount of water that I understand to be perfect is moist/squishy but does not drip when squished. I achieved that with a little over 5 gallons total on the recipe but I plan on adding water as it dries out from being exposed to air over time.

Placement:

Right now, I have it outside where it gets morning sun and shade the rest of the time. It will sit at around 85f during the day and 70f at night. Of my understanding, as long as it doesn't get >130-140f then all the good bacteria will still thrive and if it gets to cold they will just hibernate and stall the process.

Results so far: (Disclaimer: I am not well versed in composting! Please forgive me if something is off here)

So someone explained this to me as composting and not fermentation and I like to think of it that way(Even though you are going through a natural fermentation process). We are trying aerobic composting (With oxygen) so we need to mix this flake soil daily until near completion. Where does the fermentation process take place then? Think of it as a Sourdough starter. You have moister/heat/sugars, it'll occur naturally + the inoculant so lots of the good bacteria is already introduced! Today was day 3, and the first day it seemed to start to smell as I expected. Its a cheap Wine/Whiskey smell so I figure I am on the right path. Hopefully, when the weather warms up in the next few weeks it'll take off!

I'll post some updates and possible pictures in around 2-3 weeks and see if the color has started to change. Of what I have read, optimally for Dynastes, it needs to compost for around 4-6 months. However, I believe that with additional heat (Summer coming up!) It may reach that point within 2ish months. I am probably going to pull it when it hits that dark rich almost black color and earthy smell (Absent of any acidic or of putting odors).

Wish me luck and thank you for reading!

 
Okay so today was around week 2 ish.

So far it seems like its turning out great! I stir every day (I miss sometimes though). Today when i opened it up, I noticed the top layer was SUPER dark and the bottom layer is a different color (More than usual pre stir. Usually the bottom is a lighter brown than the top) and the top layer was missing that acidic fermenty oak smell. It smelled earthy. I am guessing the heat is working it magic and here in a few more weeks it should be ready. Like I said previously, I hoping it gets there around the 2 month mark.

 
Today while mixing (I missed 2 days in a row), the bottom of the tub was very light in color and smelled strong of fermentation and a light bit of feces. Is this normal with anaerobic composting happens a little to much? The top didn't smell at all and was that RICH dark brown color we are looking for. I think there might be to much moister in there now seeping down so I am going to try to air it out a bit.

 
It might not be able to use at all. I tried mixing mine for months after it turned a pale color and it smelled so bad. It just stayed the same.

 
So I should throw this batch out now or should I keep on and wait and see what happens? Did the mixture just get to wet from the beginning?

 
Enough moisture that if you were to squeeze in your hands, water will not drip out. They have breathable bags you could buy and they work pretty good. I'd do a smaller batch with more space in the container. Also, mix it daily.

 
Let me preface by saying that I'm no expert on this stuff and just started doing the flake soil thing from pellets this year. Shade of Eclipse is the expert and has been really helpful. Anyway, I had a batch that I had outside and it was during the rainy season and I was away. So the bucket got filled with water. It was like that for a week or so. When I came back it smelled totally horrible! Worse than a smelly pit toilet. I squeezed out all the water (not sure how I endured the smell, everything it touched smelled bad, even my hands after I washed them!) Then I mixed it every day and after a week or so, the smell went completely away. I refermented it with wheat bran and yeast and it turned black and smelled like regular fermentation. Then it smelled like the nice earth smell with no odors at all. I used it on some Megasoma larvae and they loved it and it worked fine.

So I would not throw it away but mix it every day and see if the smell goes away completely. Of course, test it on one larvae after its done just to make sure. I would put the old substrate on the bottom half and new substrate on the top half of the container and see if the larvae go to the top half and eat the substrate and appear healthy.

 
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