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Bacterial Attacks

Sunday, December 21, 2014

A study (rather than an experiment).

I have set up six small clear-plastic bottles with materials and have introduced some bacteria-laden castings from my harvested supplies.

The six clear-plastic jars are from a set of cake decorations – sugars and candies. I have washed and rinsed them well.

The samples are:-

(1) Human hair - I trimmed my hair two days ago (I don’t harvest much nowadays!) and kept the tufts for this experiment. I don’t use hair conditioner, shampoo or any sort of gel; just plain soap and rinse well.

(2) Shredded newsprint – I grabbed a small amount of shredded newsprint (Toronto Star) from my office shredder.

(3) Carrot and Parsnip tops – last night I did chicken-and-vegetables and for a change kept the tops of the root vegetables for this study.

(4) Potato chunks – likewise I kept three small pieces that contained some blackened spots. The blackened spots could be a fungus?

(5) Oatmeal – plain unflavored oatmeal flakes that I buy in 2 Kg bags.

(6) Pear core – I ate a pear yesterday afternoon and instead of eating the core (why not?) kept it for this study.

Here are the six containers; I will not be placing the lids on them.

From left to right we see human hair, newsprint, carrot/parsnip tops, potato chunks, oatmeal and pear core.

Not much hair, eh? And mostly grey. I’ll dampen it a bit before tossing in the castings.

I soaked the newsprint overnight and drained it out this morning. I wanted to be sure that moisture had a chance to creep right through the paper.

The two caps from my root vegetables.

The potato chunks have been exposed to the air for twelve hours and have begun to blacken across their surface.

The teaspoon of oatmeal before I soaked it in water (see “newsprint” above).

The pear core; I’d sliced off the quarters with a sharp knife, hence the flat surfaces.

Here are mi six jars lined up and each one charged with a teaspoon of worm castings from my storage bin.

My theory is that the castings contain a good mixture of bacteria and minerals. All that’s missing here is the worms!

My jars are not lidded because I’m looking for aerobic bacteria here. The carton, without a lid, is going to live in my “gardening cupboard” where it will be quite dark and free of draughts, but with some air circulation.

I’ll examine it each week to make sure that the jars have enough moisture and to inspect progress.

My theory is that bacteria will breed and hide (by covering) if not devour the contents of the jar.

My prediction for the sequence of success of hiding is:-

Sequence	Reason
(1) Pear	The core is mainly water and sugar; I suspect that bacteria will love this energy source
(2) Carrot and Parsnip	The caps is mainly water and sugar, although less water than the pear core; I suspect that bacteria will love this energy source
(3) Potato chunks	The chunks are mainly water and starches; I suspect that bacteria will love this energy source, but that the starch needs more steps to break down into sugar, so will take more time
(4) Oatmeal	The flakes are mainly water and starches; I suspect that bacteria will love this energy source, but that the starch needs more steps to break down into sugar, so will take more time
(5) Shredded newsprint	I think that there is little nutrition here for bacteria and/or newsprint is mainly cellulose and I’ve read (and learned) that woody material (such as pear and apple stalks) does not break down as quickly as vegetable matter.
(6) Human hair	I think that there is little nutrition here for bacteria and/or hair is mainly keratin and I feel that material such as hair and fingernails will not break down as quickly as vegetable matter.

Monday, December 29, 2014

After a week (and a day late!) I examine my small containers.

They have sat in an airy cupboard with the doors closed for a week.

Pear: This shows some blue-green mouldy growth on one side of the pear.

Oatmeal: shows some greyish mouldy growth on exposed oatmeal.

Carrot/parsnip: The parsnip is shrivelled but shows mouldy growth, the carror less so. Can sugars in the carror be inhibiting growth? I though they would be a source of cheap energy.

Human hair: No evidence of mouldy growth.

Potato: a whitish growth on the cut face of the potato.

Shredded Newsprint: no evidence of growth.

Overall

The six containers were all dry. I added two teaspoons of cold tap water to each container before re-storing them.

Although the cupboard doors are closed, they are neither light- nor air-proof; I assume that some bacteria ill migrate across containers so that in effect I have a single clony here, with communication between the islands.

My containers are used mainly to isolate each specimen for study; for exampl, there will be no confusion whether I have “Pear” or “Potato” left over.

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