Flake Soil Recipe
Basic Flake Soil tools, recipe and instructions for those who want to try doing it themselves:
Source for all this: I have 16 batches running at once and sell high quality flake. I've figured out a few things. I also have extensive experience with fermenting and composting and know the difference between those two processes.
A bin -
You will want gaskets and locking latches if you're doing this indoors to keep it securely shut. If you're doing it outside, I recommend a dark color (to absorb sunlight) and a latching lid so you can get a faster ferment with the higher temperature.
You need at least 50 quarts of space to stir it properly.
Heavy dishwashing gloves -
The ones that go at least halfway up your arms. Unless you want the oak tannins to dye your fingernails and every stir to jam bits of flake up under your nails at the same time. This just makes things more pleasant, and they aren't expensive.
Pellets -
The compressed ones for smokers and BBQ grills.
20lb bags are a manageable size. If you buy the 40lb you'll need to try to split it evenly between two bins.
trust me, you don't want to try stirring 40lbs in one bin.
I use oak, but there's no flake soil police.
If you want to use hardwood blends or maple or something that's up to you. Don't use anything with additives - just wood.
These products are sterilized during processing.
Don't use random sawdust.
Water -
If you're like me and have a well with non-chlorinated water, you can use the hose. If you live somewhere with chlorinated tap water, you'll need to buy bottled water for this. No, I cannot tell you how much, in part because I use a garden hose, and in part because different brands of pellets absorb a little more or less.
You want your pellets saturated and expanded, and once they're crumbled up completely the ideal amount of water will not drip if you squeeze a handful, but the handful will become a loose ball after releasing your grip instead of crumbling.
Yeast -
here's where this is different from standard instructions.
If you want to struggle and baby your flake and have a higher risk of failure, do what a lot of recipes suggest and ignore this step, add some semi useless "myco boost" composting product, or even more useless Brewer's Yeast (which is not live yeast) and a couple cups of shredded rotwood.
The rotwood will add mycelium that can't handle the whole process but will improve nutrition over time, and the actual work will be done by wild yeast that will take at least a week to start growing because they're colonizing your bin like a fresh sourdough starter.
Or you can add one packet of active dry yeast like you'd use for making bread after mixing it up with a cup of warm water and a tablespoon of sugar.
Let that sit for 5 minutes and mix it into your flake completely.
Now you will have a quick ferment that works the same every time with less failure risk.
You can still add the rotwood.
Food -
2 cups of wheat bran.
That yeast needs a snack to get started, and if you're feeding this to beetles it will increase the nutritional value, apparently.
I don't keep beetles, so do your own research.
I tried wheat flour and messed with using more bran or a mix of the two. I'm not a cop, you do you, but 2 cups of bran works best for me.
Instructions:
Bin, pellets, water, bran - get this mess wet like I described in the section on water.
Read it again if you missed that part.
Add the yeast and rotwood (if using - in future batches you won't add rotwood because you're going to keep a few handfuls of this batch in the bottom, and it will carry the mycelium.)
Shut the lid.
For the first two weeks, stir this daily.
Get all the way to the bottom. The yeast needs air, and any spot that isn't mixed will die and make it smell like poop.
This will ruin a batch and waste your time and materials.
If you used a gasket bin you can tilt it and gently smack it with your hand to dislodge anything stuck in the corners.
After two weeks, you'll stir every other day - usually for about two more weeks unless it's really hot where you're doing this. When it's done, it will stop smelling yeasty and will smell like forest dirt.
Congratulations! You made flake soil. If you found it exhausting, or didn't stir enough and failed, you can buy it from me for $15/gallon + shipping. Bulk boxes of four gallons ship free.
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