Why are the microbes dying ? They can't tell the difference between synthetic and organic. If I'm adding anything other than 321 I decrease the dose to equal 1000ppm total.
Synthetic uptake is faster, it cuts out the middle man (microbes). If you started with a synthetic routine, no substantial microbe colonies will be present. If you then lower the synthetic ppm to 600, and then add in microbes, the roots are not going to wait for the microbes to establish when they have access to 600ppm worth of up-take ready synthetics.
Further more, can you tell me the absolute bare minimum ppm rate of npkcm and micro nutrients that are required at any given phase, if not, you need to know. Your light intensity will lower or raise it, your humidity will lower or raise it (for better or worse), your ph will scure it. Your plants may be ''green'' on 600ppm of synthetic feed and nothing else. They may even be green on 500ppm, for a given time, depending on the previous build ups that may be present.
The companies that promote this stuff tell you to keep adding it, that is the red flag. Not only do you wash microbes out if using run off (and you have to use run off if using higher levels of synthetics) if you go above the threshold of root signalling for microbes, they will not be called on. If they are called on in some trickery kind off way, then your synthetic feed will be building in the medium, unused. As the concentrations increase that will kill off the microbes at the surface or edges of the pot, unless you always keep the medium complete moist (it may kill them off anyway, due to the build up massively swinging ph or just being too toxic for them). Either way it is a waste of money. The latest studies still don't know the full complexity of root signalling, and we certainly know very little about the ppm threshold of synthetic npkcm and how that interacts with root signalling for specific microbes, and at various stages, relating to MJ. These companies say ''add this much with this much, and then keep adding this much''. What I've wrote above is the context behind that bs advice. Plants can get by and appear to be happy on a surprisingly low amount of ppm, end yield is the only way you can determine if your microbes are working. And for that, you would need to use a low enough range of synthetic PPM to ensure that it is not the synthetic ppm carrying the plant. I would suggest you'd need to be in the 0.4 to 0.5 EC range (perhaps even lower) for synthetics, supplying the rest through organic mechanisms in order to prove your concept.
Synthetic feeders are pulling 2gpw. That is the bench mark for part synthetic/part organic growers. If you are reaching 2gpw then is the quality better?. If not, what's the point. Synthetics are doing it already, with far less complication. Im sure those who are adding microbes to their synthetic routine think it's simple, if they just follow what is on the label. Look into it and see for yourself.
