[niko]

As most folk I'm lazy and refuse to use the Search feature of this forum.

So someone please enlighten me - why do you need to make sure you dry the substrate. If the idea is to supply O2 to the microorganisms so they do their thing in an afterburner mode why not just wet the soil and spread it in a thin layer exposed to air + misting it with water every so often so it stays half-wet.

I suspect that the heating/drying cycle does something to the organics (reduces them maybe) or it helps the break down of something.

So what's the reason for wetting/drying again?

--Nikolay