Are there any DIY, ways to make benificials? They dont sell in my aquashield country.

Hi I'm looking to make something like aquashield, are there any natural ways of sourcing concentrated beneficials for my dwc?

edit* the title is wrong my bad

I bought some mycoroot(for soil I couldn't get mycogrow) and put 10grams in a teabag and submerged it in my dwc to add some mycorrhizal fungi to the res and hopefull make the roots more robust. (this is all experimental and out of desperation because im watching root rot really slowly take my plants)

There are different kinds of products, aquashield is just one of them. I think you should be able to get at least some of them over ebay. Look for mycogrow, ZHO, orca, great white, subculture, pondzyme...

If nothing, try brewing microbal tea with earthworm castings.

Try Pond Zyme. Pet stores may have it.

Just for clarity, as far as Botanicare products goes: Aquashield has beneficial bacteria. ZHO has beneficial fungi. In any case, you usually have to buy two different products to get both beneficial bacteria and fungi regardless of brand.

But it looks like Aquashield is being discontinued and is now replaced by a different beneficial bacteria product called Hydroguard, which has bacteria that can specifically thrive in hydroponic environments.

Cool news on aqua shield, but all it is is liquefied chicken shit.

superstoner1 said:

Cool news on aqua shield, but all it is is liquefied chicken shit.

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Yo superstoner, Is that the answer then to get the bacteria I need get chicken shit liquefy, strain and put it in an aerobic environment at a warm temp and allow it to multiply or are you saying its just NPK ect.

superstoner1 said:

Cool news on aqua shield, but all it is is liquefied chicken shit.

Click to expand...

No that's incorrect for a couple of reasons. For one, it has no manure in it at all. It is a "derived from" listing - i.e. it was used in production but not the included product. Second, manure (regardless of type) is composted as a part of use - and in fact, it is the composting that produces the bacteria in the final product and something necessary for both plants and beneficial microbes to live. Hence the "derived from" listing on the bottle. But what you said is not correct, even if you said "all it is is compost" since the bacteria are separated from the compost and put in a solution where they remain inactive (no longer composting).

Topping said:

Yo superstoner, Is that the answer then to get the bacteria I need get chicken shit liquefy, strain and put it in an aerobic environment at a warm temp and allow it to multiply or are you saying its just NPK ect.

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You can use any compost material that bacteria thrive on or even just simple sugars (like cane sugar), or something in-between like non-sulphered molasses as a food source for microbes. BUT unless you start with a large number of the type of bacteria you want to end up with, you could run into problems. Earth Worm Castings (EWC) is something you could probably find locally that would have a large number of the type you want for plants and is popular for this purpose. As far as feeding what you want to multiply from the EWC:


Out of any of those, kelp (meal or any kelp-based additive normally used as a part of a nutrient line) and non-sulphered molasses are your best bet.

Imo, it's beneficial to go completely inorganic in DWC.

churchhaze said:

Imo, it's beneficial to go completely inorganic in DWC.

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so many different approaches churchhaze,
I added mycoroot last night and the section that was submerged has grown thousands of little white lateral roots, the top unsubmerged roots didnt have that rapid growth seen over the last 24h.
That was also in a i have control/isolated plants, none of the other buckets showed this growth. Ill photograph when the GF is asleep she hates it when i post photos of my grow as the get paranoid. Honestly its amazing what a few fungi can do.

Sablezen Tx for the help I see where your going, did a ton of reading on Yeast and it looks like the same principals apply here.

Topping said:

so many different approaches churchhaze,
I added mycoroot last night and the section that was submerged has grown thousands of little white lateral roots, the top unsubmerged roots didnt have that rapid growth seen over the last 24h.
That was also in a i have control/isolated plants, none of the other buckets showed this growth. Ill photograph when the GF is asleep she hates it when i post photos of my grow as the get paranoid. Honestly its amazing what a few fungi can do.

Sablezen Tx for the help I see where your going, did a ton of reading on Yeast and it looks like the same principals apply here.

Click to expand...

Yeah exactly, it's easy to feed and breed microbes. Just have to get off on the right foot with culturing the right microbes.

It was actually a sample of ZHO that I whimsically tried on some cuttings that were just starting to develop roots that opened my eyes to the difference beneficials can make. It is amazing when you see how fuzzy and branchy the roots get compared to not using any beneficial fungi. And while I supplement beneficial microbes into my annuals in hydroponics instead of using chlorine now, the difference they can make really shows with non-annuals that spend more than a year in a hydroponic system. I even have some San Pedro cactus in DWC outdoors (that I love to talk about lol) that have been going strong for 4 years now and growing like mad - which is something that used to eventually end in tears for the cactus given enough time.