Microbes are your friend

I gave microbes an honest go for the first time n have 2 weeks (at least) left n the nugs are getting frosty but more importantly smell amazing. Microbes are the only new addition to my grow. Lights, air, water, nutrients, and coco all the same.

Yes indeed.... good healthy live soil will work wonders for you.

Yep this area is overlooked by some growers, partly because there's a lot of products out there that are expensive and dont work that well, and partly because a lot of people think they only work with organic nutrients. I argue that at least if the person is in soil there's always going to be plenty of organic matter between the dirt an the roots, even though I feed mostly chemical nutrients. My favorite is extreme gardening mykos GRANULAR. Far and above the best I've used. I've tried several diff brands.

I can definitely see the difference. I've been using just mammoth p in addition to regular bloom nutes and occasional molasses with the mammoth p. I've done some research and it seems that various beneficials help a ton even if you aren't organic. @

growingforfun said:

Yep this area is overlooked by some growers, partly because there's a lot of products out there that are expensive and dont work that well, and partly because a lot of people think they only work with organic nutrients. I argue that at least if the person is in soil there's always going to be plenty of organic matter between the dirt an the roots, even though I feed mostly chemical nutrients. My favorite is extreme gardening mykos GRANULAR. Far and above the best I've used. I've tried several diff brands.

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Yep, the only time that microbes aren't very practical is in hydro systems, not just because of the constant fluctuations caused by the decay of organics and potential for issues from what's otherwise festering goodness in soil, but because there's no where for them to colonize in hydro systems.

There's an article that covers the facts about how you really can use synthetic nutrients without having adverse affects on soil biology. I'll post a screen shot below. The one thing to keep in mind is that an over abundance of available nutrients from synthetic sources can shut down the production of exudates that is pretty much the whole point of using microbes. Of course they help to make the organic nutrients available but the thing that really sets it apart is that by product from the symbiosis.

As a side note, the main focus of the article is about using soil biology as a carbon sink but there's a few things that any grower should want to know in there too. You just might have to be patient and keep reading.

I would have just copied a link but my phone's being difficult.

growingforfun said:

Yep this area is overlooked by some growers, partly because there's a lot of products out there that are expensive and dont work that well, and partly because a lot of people think they only work with organic nutrients. I argue that at least if the person is in soil there's always going to be plenty of organic matter between the dirt an the roots, even though I feed mostly chemical nutrients. My favorite is extreme gardening mykos GRANULAR. Far and above the best I've used. I've tried several diff brands.

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I take cuttings, dip in clonex and then Mykos. Insert into damp vermiculite. Incredible roots faster than my hydrocloner.

hotrodharley said:

I take cuttings, dip in clonex and then Mykos. Insert into damp vermiculite. Incredible roots faster than my hydrocloner.

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I've thought about trying that.

SchmoeJoe said:

I've thought about trying that.

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I tried it in potting mix and in vermiculite . Vermiculite hands down. Roots rinse easily to go in hydro.

hotrodharley said:

I tried it in potting mix and in vermiculite . Vermiculite hands down. Roots rinse easily to go in hydro.

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I use Earth plug style rooters and straight into soil with Roots Organism. I wonder if I could just mix a teaspoon or two of inoculant into an ounce or so of rooting gel. I may just havey next trial run figured out.

Professional growers here use it extensively directly into the dirt to clone. Large scale they keep it simple. This was my first year trying it. They use Great White extensively.

hotrodharley said:

Professional growers here use it extensively directly into the dirt to clone. Large scale they keep it simple. This was my first year trying it. They use Great White extensively.

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I might have to look into the Ground White . I've always stuck with Oreganism but Roots stopped making the myco only version.

SchmoeJoe said:

I might have to look into the Ground White . I've always stuck with Oreganism but Roots stopped making the myco only version.

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Imo oregnisum is overpriced and only works ok. It's fine if you really coat the roots with it, but it's got nothing on the mykos granular.
If it cost 1/4 what they are asking for it I may be tempted use it again because it's a ok product, I'd coat the roots with it and add a tablespoon to a 5 gallon bucket of nutrient feed once a week. Myko granular just does the same thing but better for me. A pinch at transplant an the granular stays forever slowly releasing more goodies all the time.

growingforfun said:

Imo oregnisum is overpriced and only works ok. It's fine if you really coat the roots with it, but it's got nothing on the mykos granular.
If it cost 1/4 what they are asking for it I may be tempted use it again because it's a ok product, I'd coat the roots with it and add a tablespoon to a 5 gallon bucket of nutrient feed once a week. Myko granular just does the same thing but better for me. A pinch at transplant an the granular stays forever slowly releasing more goodies all the time.

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I get huge patches of mycelium using Oreganism. It's a bit cheaper for me too since I live in the same it's made in.

Many of the nutrients in your medium are hard or costly for the plant to pull out of the environment by itself.

There are many tube vids up showing how to make your own mycelial mixes.
Personally, for weed, I would focus on what builds bacterial colonies as well as slimes.

SchmoeJoe said:

I get huge patches of mycelium using Oreganism. It's a bit cheaper for me too since I live in the same it's made in.

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Yeah it does work ok, not saying its doesn't work. I used to live down the road from em myself so I'm basing my statements on a 15%discount at aqua.

If you haven't tried it maybe give extreme gardening mykos granular a shot. Or stay with the oregnisum, its does work ok, just not in my personal top 3.

growingforfun said:

Yeah it does work ok, not saying its doesn't work. I used to live down the road from em myself so I'm basing my statements on a 15%discount at aqua.

If you haven't tried it maybe give extreme gardening mykos granular a shot. Or stay with the oregnisum, its does work ok, just not in my personal top 3.

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I mostly use the Orgenism because it has bacteria too. The only time I use it directly is when first potting bare root cuttings. The rest of the time I use it to make 55 gallon batches tea which has been effective enough that I haven't felt the need to try anything new.

Aside from the Oregonism I also mix my own soil with BioLive and use Microbe Brew in my teas so I've already got three different sources of beneficials. Once in a while I do eye those Mykos and Great White packs though.

freshenstien said:

I gave microbes an honest go for the first time n have 2 weeks (at least) left n the nugs are getting frosty but more importantly smell amazing. Microbes are the only new addition to my grow. Lights, air, water, nutrients, and coco all the same.

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I earned the hard way, not in hydro. They screwed up my roots and thus overall weight. I was lucky to get anything. The company responded to use enzymes and aminos for hydro. That works well

I just use soil, it contains 20 billion or somthing amount of microbes per gram, after that adding anything is just a waste of money and the real skill comes from keeping the stuff you want happy so it flourishes. Some might just want to waste a lot of money buying soil benies from a retailer, mainly they got them from soil

The fungus in eco-bb is from the soil in a small town not far from where my mom was born.