Rhonda Janke - April 2024 in Kansas

In April, 2024, after recently moving back to Kansas, I did a short experiment to answer two questions; 1) how does the buried cloth respond to different locations in my garden/compost pile, and 2) do the microbes prefer cloth that is washed (starch removed) unwashed (may have sizing, starch, or other chemicals applied during manufacture of the cloth), or soaked in sugar-water. The sugar should speed up any microbes that are there, but lack a soluble carbon source.

As you can see from the photo below, there were some interesting differences.

First, the sugar did not always speed up the process of decomposition, but the colors changed slightly in some locations.
I predicted that the unwashed cotton might decompose better than washed, due to the starch. This did not happen, and in fact, in the garden compost location, the washed decomposed faster.
The garden compost site (recently buried kitchen waste) decomposed the fastest, and the "bagged" compost, showed the least decomposition. This might be because it was heat treated before sale of the compost, or simply lacked microbial diversity found in most garden soil. However, the bagged compost DID have mushrooms growing on the cloth, so at least one fungi was alive in that bag. See photos below the cloth photos.

The order of the "treatments" from left to right are 1) garden compost, 2) a site in the woodlot next to my garden, 3) a garden bed, and 4) the bag of purchased compost. From top to bottom, the rows are 1) washed cloth soaked in sugar water, 2) washed cloth, and 3) unwashed cloth. All cloth was buried in April 1, and dug on May 1, 2024. The soil was fairly dry when we buried the cloth, for about 2 weeks, followed by frequent rain then following 2 weeks.

Garden area next to woodlot in early April

Cloth folded and attached to nylon twine to find them

After digging up the cloth.

"Garden compost" area with recent buried food waste.

Woodlot site just above the garden, soil never tilled or amended.

Garden area with compost from last year, no crops yet this year.

Cloth coming out of bag of compost with small mushrooms growing on it.

After digging, cloth is washed in plain water (no soap) to remove soil particles.

The color that remains is in the cloth, and a result of microbial decomposition.

A lighter weight cotton cloth (muslin) was also buried at the same time. It showed less color under natural light than the heavy weight cotton.

This is the same cotton cloth as in the previous photo, but under black-light. There are microbes that also leave flourescent colors, only visible under UV/blacklight. More research is needed to determine if these are bacteria, fungi, or perhaps neither: slime mold!