Convinced you have the best springtail culture method?

[MJ]

I culture my springs in 600ml take out containers..

half filled with peat spray it down then compress and drain off excess water.
I add a teaspoon full of an existing culture then feed with m own mixture of dehydrated and powdered food.

I feed every week and with in 2-3 weeks the cultures are jam packed with spring tails 8) I make about 30 cultures a week and never have a failure with this method.

[joshsfrogs]

A lot of the issues with the culture are limited by food

I'd also add humidity. In dry cultures the springtails stay towards the bottom of the culture instead of at the top where the food is. In addition, ventilation is also a key component.

I use straight charcoal and feed Collembola food (tiny bit does magic) and white rice (that expired 2 years ago).

[sports_doc]

Originally Posted by MJ

I make about 30 cultures a week and never have a failure with this method.

OK, did I misread that?

30 springtail cx's a week!! ??

WOW

S

[MJ]

:lol: yeah I feed 60% springtails to the bulk of my thumbs and pumilio..

[UmbraSprite]

Charcoal here.....

Feed mostly mushrooms and just spray the cultures and pour out the goodies!

[sports_doc]

Originally Posted by UmbraSprite

Charcoal here.....

Feed mostly mushrooms and just spray the cultures and pour out the goodies!

Chris, interesting....
I must do that method wrong, b/c of all the methods I've tried, in my hands the water/charcoal has by far been the least productive.

Have you compared the same springtails done side by side with cocohusk/peat/leaves?

S

[flyangler18]

I must do that method wrong, b/c of all the methods I've tried, in my hands the water/charcoal has by far been the least productive.

Same here, Shawn. My cx's just seem to do better with more organic substrate.

Side by side, the coco/leaves/bark mix outproduces at least 10:1.

[UmbraSprite]

I have cultured in both substrates however I haven't done so in a method that would allow an objective comparison.

I have also noticed the temperates are the only ones that really do well in this type of culture. I have switched to all temperates, use a small cup of charcoal with about a half inch of water. I buy mushrooms from the grocery store and they gobble em up. I occasionally supplement the collembola food from Europe.

Mainly I opted to go this route do to the ease of feeding them out. The cultures usually bounce back from a feeding in 4 weeks or so.

CD

[sports_doc]

'Temperates' may be the key there Chris.

I use only tropicals. 3-4 kinds.

recently [b/c I had a full can unused] I started feeding mine freeze dried copepods from brineshrimpdirect. Just out of curiosity. Dont know if they will bloom with it or not, too early to tell..

S

[gary1218]

Originally Posted by bbrock

I haven't tried it yet but get a copy of Live Foods by Bruse et al. in the Professional Breeders Series. They describe a springtail culture method that is a bit complicated to set up, but the photo of the culture is amazing. It is basically a chamber with many shallow trays and the springtails migrate to the bottom where they are collected in jars.

Anybody have access to this article and could post it?