Has anyone had experience using beneficial microbes, bacteria, fungi and the like? Did they work for helping plants to grow faster?
The only experience I have had with such a product is to apply nitrogen-fixing bacteria innoculant to legume seeds at planting, but I have never tried planting a comparison bed without it.
I have used mycorrhizal fungi with good success as long as the soil I am innoculating it with has enough food to support it.
How much "food" do they need? Is an orchid bark based mix not supportive of these fungi (I fertilize with liquid seaweed, which I know feeds these things). I've also seen quite often mushroom growing of old bark in potting mixes.
I don't know what is in your CA water, I have a well which has no additives, but if your water has chlorine I would say it's no good, it will kill what you are trying to support. In all gardens I make for clients I use at the very minimum of 14" of compost mixed with the existing soil. Mind you, our soil in NH was washed down to Long Island after the last Ice Age, so more compost the better. This feeds the fungi for me. The compost I buy are home grown mixes that have a healthy portion of bark mulch, I don't think orchid bark mixes are ready to break down and give food for the fungi. The fish & seaweed does help. What plant are you trying to provide this for?
Carnviorous plant, Nepenthes only. I heard that the amount of chlorine by the time it reaches the tap is very low. It certainly doesn't have any detectable smell or taste. Neps don't need a whole bunch of rich soil anyway, I'm just trying to support the microorganisms that might usually be there in the wild. Nepenthes have such a thin root structure, that is not good for anchoring, but I think must benefit from microbes in the soil.
The Absolute best thing you can do for any plant is research the region this plant naturally dwells.....Study the area in which it lives by noting the soil and neighboring plants - I have found pH to be one of the major factors of a healthy plant. If you can get a handle on pH then you can support the plant with proper soil preparations.
yes, they can help plants grow faster, stronger and healthier, with less need for fertiliser and fungicides......just been reading about a nursery in mexico, their reforesting work and the use of pine bark as a growing media...the composting process and the isolation, and cultivation of beneficial fungi to inoculate the trees they raise if your interested you can read about it here Inoculating Composted Pine Bark with beneficial organisms to make a disease suppressive compost for container production in Mexican forest nurseries also another interesting site about mycorrhizal symbiosis here MykoWeb: Mycorrhizal Symbiosis
May we back up a bit to the Nepenthes please. Collected rain water should be perfectly fine for your plant. Tap water, may or may not be harmful to Nepenthes spp. in that chlorine isn't a sole cause for concern. You need to test your water. I have known many a person who bought distilled water and lugged gallons home for years only to learn later that their city water straight from their tap would have been perfectly fine. Unfortunately, I have known many people who believed their well water to be perfectly fine for Nepenthes only to learn their ppm was considerably higher than that which would be deemed acceptable. My well water tests at 230-290 ppm. That's way too high for my liking. It could be used in a pinch however not a good idea for the long haul. I do have an RO/DI system here at home. If I by pass the DI phase, my water will test out within the acceptable range at around 27-35 ppm for Nepenthes. If I don't bypass the DI phase of my reverse osmossis system, my water tests out around 9-11 ppm. Good news is that I am on a well and since water pressure can be an issue, I'm lucky that 27-35 ppm is well within the acceptable range for Neps so I can eliminate the DI phase. Which Nep do you have because I would agree with Flygal in that the absolute best thing you can do is research the area in which your Nep occurs naturally. As a rule of thumb, you needn't fertilize Neps at all. They're carnivorous and evolved differently than more "traditional" plants.
I have used micro biology in my garden for a while now, and ya it works. Makes the stock of the plant real thick, with crazy looking roots.
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