JMS is so easy to make and you won’t have any trouble finding materials to scale it up – seems like a good place to start. Also it’s such a watery inoculant, maybe it would fit well in your dry spell.
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</div><div>I just got the JADAM (2018) book in the mail. I assumed that it would detail the IMO rice capture and all the subsequent stages, after seeing that reproduced and on the internet. He talks about the development of IMO, but suggests using JMS as it’s easier to make and works just fine! Not sure if that’s relevant, but I appreciate the inclusivity of knf. I suppose it makes me trust the processes more. </div><div>
</div><div>I’m doing what Harriet mentioned – squinting at root hairs and looking for rhizosheaths. I’m definitely becoming more observant, but I also want to upgrade to a cheap microscope. Is solar tracking also a sign of feeding through rhizophagy? </div><div>
</div><div>What kind of soil biology do you see around the site already?</div><div>
</div><div>We’ve been trying to help our lettuce starts to grow root hairs – some success on the last round by switching away from soil blocks, packing the cell trays super loose/airy, and watering less. I also inoculated a couple of times and included willow juice in some waterings, but I think it’s mostly the structural changes air/water.</div><div>
</div><div>Harriet – salicylic acid is like a microbial mediator, right? Is that a third part of the inoculant/structure conversation? I guess root exudates would fall into the same category.</div><div>
</div><div>We had real issues with waterlogging and compaction this season, so I reinstituted digging beds by hand. The improvement in plant happiness in a dug area is very clear – I was impressed to see one factor making such a difference. I guess it really shows how compacted/wet our conditions are otherwise. I suppose that I can’t contribute the improvement to increased biology, maybe it’s mineralized OM from the ’tillage’ of digging, but I’m suspicious that I’m devoting too much thought to inoculants and not enough effort to structure. Or at least I should be digging beds or seeding covers while I think about inoculants ????. </div><div>
</div><div>That being said our ginger plants make tons of root hairs and thick rhizosheaths – so I’m curious about carrying some of that biology over to next year. Even though they clearly don’t need my help! Lol!</div>

Jesse Frost just did a video and mentioned microscopy – I bet he’s looked at compost tea and JMS you could send him a message.

@WojtekBehnke @TerraFloraOrganics @jjkratt