How We Got Into Compost Johnson/Su Bioreactor

Thank you for your interest in our Johnson/Su style soil inoculant. 

In December 2019 we built our first two Johnson/Su bioreactors in our garden in North West Arkansas. I was impressed with the research results of Dr. David Johnson at New Mexico State University and was excited to see what it would do for my garden, lawn and my little three acre plot of land. We followed the instructions from Dr. Johnson very carefully.     The term, compost is used throughout this paper, but this product is really not like normal compost. For comparison, I checked some mushroom compost for sale locally and discovered it was sterilized before selling it. That means no micro life so the value is only in the nutrients locked in the organic matter. And composts purchased at garden centers are just a little better. The value is more in the mulching or loosening the soil.   

Pictured above is our first pile  made from concrete reinforcement wire mesh. We made a cylinder 4 feet in diameter and 6 feet tall, placed in on a wood pallet in our garden and lined it with landscape fabric. Before we filled it with organic matter, we installed 6 perforated, 4 inch plastic pipes and then put in 110 5 gallon buckets of chopped, wet leaves. Wetting the leaves took the most time and lifting the heavy buckets up a step ladder all day was work. Then we built a second pile a few days later.   We kept the pile moist and out of the sun and watched it shrink in volume from 6 feet tall to just over 4 feet the first year. 

In the Spring of 2020 we added composting worms to the compost bins to help break down the organic matter and add nutrients.  Composting worms are a big part of the success of J/S compost. We use Aftrican Nightcrawlers in our outside bins and red wigglers for our inside finishing bin. After the leaves and other organic matter have composted for 18 months outside, we feed some of it to our inside worms and then mix the finished products from outside and inside together.  

We began taking samples in September 2020 just to see how it would perform in our garden. I made an extract and sprayed this all over my yard and garden. One of the surprising results was our pepper plants endured 4 frosts and were still setting fruit well into October. It took a 24F frost to kill them. I learned later that vermicast with all the bacteria can give plants about a 4 degree protection from frost. 

In August 2021, I dismantled the piles and sent a sample to Earthfort Lab in Corvallis, Oregon. The results were surprising and impressive. That compost had 14 billion fungi and 7 billion bacteria per gram with a high diversity.  One gram is about 1/4 teaspoon. The fungal to bacteria ration was 5.26:1.  I posted the results of the lab test on the Johnson/Su Facebook group and farmers and gardeners started asking for product.  This was a surprise as we originally only inteded to use the compost on our property. 

In December 2020 we made larger bioreactors which should be ready for use by Spring of 2022.   We built the piles with 100% yard leaves. I chop them up and use them to build more bioreactors. The leaves break down with the bacteria and fungi already on the material. But as the months pass, the air brings a multitude of additional bacteria and fungi from around the world. The worms chew through it and make it even better. It is common in the 18 months of composting to have over 400 species of fungi and over 2000 species of bacteria.  

The value of this type of compost is not the nutrient content but the diversity of the micro-life. Research shows that the higher number of species, the better they work together to feed the plants and build soil carbon from atmospheric carbon dioxide.. Recent research calls this concept of different species working together, quorum sensing. The more diversity, the better they work.  The detrimental effects of commercial fertilizers for decades has reduced our once rich soils to dirt with very little life to support the plants. And many farmers are finding out now they can eliminate about 80%  to 90% of  purchased fertilizer when they apply the Johnson/Su inoculant at the rate of just 1 or 2 pounds per acre. The application is best done with water as described in the How To Use section.    This material is special but it should be used in a program of limited or no till and cover crops. It is vital that the soil be covered most of the year. The only way to build organic matter is living plants.  

Compost or mulch applied at several tons per acre does not increase the organic matter by a measurable amount.  We  had a two acre blueberry patch for 25 years and every year we added about 40 tons of wood chips under the bushes in a swath 4 feet  wide. After 25 years the soil organic matter (SOM) was almost the same where we put the chips and the area between the rows where the grass grew.  A healthy soil with good plant diversity can build organic matter at up to ½ percent organic matter per year!    This inoculant gives a superior environment for the plants to convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into soil organic matter.  

Research by Dr. David Johnson at New Mexico State University show a healthy, high biology in the soil from applications of this compost will sequester over 20,000 pounds of atmospheric carbon dioxide per acre every year! If 25% of American farmers started farming this way, global warming would be ended in ONE YEAR!

 Farmers are discovering that if they can apply the inoculant with seed planting, they get a benefit of almost the same yields as they did buying many pounds of fertilizer. The biggest advantage is the soil micro life really starts to work better and can start to build soil organic matter.   Some farmers that are using the J/S inoculant are saving $200- $300 an acre every year on production costs and are now making a profit farming and are now enjoying farming! We are excited to help you with your home garden or agricultural enterprises. We have compost for sale but spend most of our time helping farmers and gardeners build their own compost bins to make their own amazing compost. Please contact us with any questions about our compost inoculant.