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Microorganisms for soil - recommend me a good product

GrayZone

Member
BioBizz light mix, isn't broken. Trying to fix it, seems unwise.

Adding some worm castings, like 80 light mix/20 worm castings, won't be a problem. I had plants in 50% perlit, 50% worm castings. Worked like a charm, never seen a plant growing so obviously like then.
 

Verdant Whisperer

Well-known member
Adding some worm castings, like 80 light mix/20 worm castings, won't be a problem. I had plants in 50% perlit, 50% worm castings. Worked like a charm, never seen a plant growing so obviously like then.
i understand you had success with 50% EWC, i had a small buisness a while back making supersoils, and during that investigation i looked throught numerous studies and they found out the sweet spot with EWC was around 15-20% total mix volume there was a reason, but i forgot why. If your getting worm casting made from just newspaper and that isnt crazy rich its probably fine, but high quality EWC made from Kitchen Scraps and Cow/Horse manure is going to be too rich to use at 50%. not all EWC is the same it depends on the worm food source. I just make my own mixes now, as the amount of time and energy it took to make these mixes, was not appreciated by customers, its amazing how selfish some people are sometimes, complaining about prices of my supersoil mix, yet buying bags of roots organic and not complaining to hydro store about the price. yet the guy whos trying to make a little $ for him and his family. I decided it wasn't worth my time to make these mixes anymore for people if im not making alot of profit and then people where going to complain about prices. I still make supersoil for myself though. I even used arboreal termite nest in my mixes. yet i don't recommend this because we had a termite problem after at the house and had to get it fumigated multiple times. In african these nest are reffered to as black gold. I was picking them up off the side of the roads ect when i saw them on the ground. i harvested only nest on the ground that had already fallen from trees, ect. you find them alot of the side of the highways here in central america after the heavy rains. they get to heavy for the tree branch and break off and fall on ground and roll down the hill into the drainage ditches on side of highways.
"The use of termite mounds as fertilizer is not a new concept. In fact, it has been used for centuries by farmers in Africa. The soil in termite mounds is rich in nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are essential for plant growth 1."
 
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KIS

Active member
Yes, the real Uncle Ben, at your service. Lots of folks have ripped off my handle, my posts/info, and once in a while my pics over about 25 years of cannabis forums I've participated in - Overgrow, Cannabis World, Planet Ganja, Roll It Up and others. That's just the cheese factor when it comes to this hobby.

The old handle you may be referring to was Kip way back then. I also posted at the first, the oldest cannabis.com and with tongue in cheek went by the name of Uncle Bendejo, a spoof of the latino "pendejo".

pH an avid hydro grower at ADPC and I used to tangle unrelentlessly. He called me a "rogue" LOL. His way was the only way versus my organic growing drills. Remember Rachet aka Flick? My favorite troll. And yes we did PGP (Erliquin and I), secured remailers, etc. but times have changed. Cannabis growing is pretty much a non event these days with most U.S. states.

Anyway, enough of this nostalgia.... https://www.gardenmyths.com/mycorrhizae-fungi-inoculant-products/

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Uncle Ben View attachment 18906452
Unfortunately there’s a lot of misinformation in this garden myths article. There are numerous studies showing the benefits of commercial inoculation of mycorrhizal fungi.


In addition, there’s a lot of research showing an impact relating to disease suppression so it’s not just about water and nutrients, though there are clear benefits there too.

The research on cannabis and hemp is mixed but I don’t think it’s something to be dismissed so easily. I would suggest folks run a trial between some plants in their grow to see if there’s benefit for them or not.
 

Ca++

Well-known member

Old Uncle Ben

Well-known member
What products are you folks using? Pix, or it doesn't exist.

I've been using mychor stuff for decades. I innoculated 1,000's of trees, my vineyard, my veggie garden, 65 trees planted on the property in what used to be a hay field, my greenhouse trees, etc.

When buying you are buying based on blind faith and especially if your supplier is a hydro/cannabis guy.

Get your info from a college source.

My avatar, me hiding behind a Positronics Jack Herer, had a rock hard cola 6" across. I used an organic rich custom soil mix, rich in blood meal and bone meal. No mycho 30 years ago on this one. I harvested within minutes of this crude photo. Notice the abundant healthy leaves? That's what produced the rock hard, dense cola with many heavy collections of buds lower down. Crammed amongst others indoors. It's in a 3 gal. pot sitting on my kitchen table. Great high!

JH8c.jpg


Don't over think this, but always experiment.

UB
 

Gooseman23

Active member
Uncle Ben,

Endomycorrhizal fungi (which is what infects cannabis) is not visible without microscope staining. Your above microscope photo is not of endomycorrhizal fungi.

"Endomycorrhiza, on the other hand, invade the plant’s roots and develop entirely within the plant."

Also, the timeline on infection is much shorter and has nothing to do with a plant being perennial or annual. Many commercial crops use mycorrhizal fungi in their production and have shorter lifespans than cannabis. If you check out the podcast link I shared in this thread, Dr. Yoram Kapulnik from the Volcani Institute, who is a mycorrhiza scientist, stated that infected occurs in a matter of days and you can see visible results in plant health within 2-3 weeks.
So what are the pictures of the white fuzzy roots? I see people used plant success great white and they have very fuzzy roots? I thought the fuzz was mycorrhiza?
 

couchlockd

Active member
My go to fit micro beasties is Great White.
Still to this day have not ran across a more comprehensive myco innoculant.

As well as always having a portion of my mix being earthworm castings that's very important in this entire thing earthworm castings.

Or some castings are so beneficial and they actually help regulate a little bit of minor mistakes too
 

KIS

Active member
My go to fit micro beasties is Great White.
Still to this day have not ran across a more comprehensive myco innoculant.

As well as always having a portion of my mix being earthworm castings that's very important in this entire thing earthworm castings.

Or some castings are so beneficial and they actually help regulate a little bit of minor mistakes too
The majority of Great White is ectomycorrhizal fungi, which does not have a relationship with cannabis. It's a fine product but you're overpaying for spores your plant cannot use. Personally I think it's better to get a product that is just endomycorrhizal fungi like g. mosseae or g. intraradices (rhizophagus irregularis).
 

Old Uncle Ben

Well-known member
The majority of Great White is ectomycorrhizal fungi, which does not have a relationship with cannabis. It's a fine product but you're overpaying for spores your plant cannot use. Personally I think it's better to get a product that is just endomycorrhizal fungi like g. mosseae or g. intraradices (rhizophagus irregularis).

Again, innoculation on annuals is really wasting your time/money. There just isn't enough time for the spores to come out of dormancy and then do their colonization ditty.

These are products I use on perennials. Store these packs in the fridge. I did innoculate my cannabis garden recently. Whether or not it did any good I have no clue, is a feel-good thing. Innoculated or not, my root systems are always over the top, yields are great.

mycorrhizae.jpg



UB
 
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Gooseman23

Active member
It's not fungi in the case of cannabis, those are healthy root hairs. You cannot see endomycorrhizal fungi without a microscope and staining equipment. This is a common myth.
I get it but my point is if the great white cause more of the fuzz in roots then that means it is helping to make roots healthier still so it’s still good?
 

Gooseman23

Active member
Anyway to address op original question for me if not looking to buy a product best micros come from jadam microbial solution or the EM1 from Korean natural farming. If you just mean a bottled product then for me I say tribus original as it is the most concentrated I’ve seen on the market. They have another one called continuum that isn’t as concentrated I haven’t tried it so can’t speak on that one. @GrayZone
 

KIS

Active member
Again, innoculation on annuals is really wasting your time/money. There just isn't enough time for the spores to come out of dormancy and then do their colonization ditty.

These are products I use on perennials. Store these packs in the fridge. I did innoculate my cannabis garden recently. Whether or not it did any good I have no clue, is a feel-good thing. Innoculated or not, my root systems are always over the top, yields are great.

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UB
There’s lots of research showing benefit with annuals and even more specifically with cannabis. You actually inspired my latest podcast. I can link the study later if folks are interested when I’m back on my computer.
 

KIS

Active member
I get it but my point is if the great white cause more of the fuzz in roots then that means it is helping to make roots healthier still so it’s still good?
It’s not bad. You’re just paying probably more than you need and getting myco spores that have no association with your plants. Beyond that though, yes there’s no issues with using it.
 

KIS

Active member
There’s lots of research showing benefit with annuals and even more specifically with cannabis. You actually inspired my latest podcast. I can link the study later if folks are interested when I’m back on my computer.
Effect of Rhizophagus irregularis on Growth and Quality of Cannabis sativa Seedlings

Results indicated that root length and stem dry weight were significantly increased (by 34.14% and 21.4%, respectively) in the AMF3 treatment. The biomass of the seedlings' roots, the fresh weight and the N content were not affected by the AMF. On the contrary, survival rate, P content and DQI were significantly increased in AMF3 (by 5%, 24.3% and 12.4% respectively). Overall, our findings suggest that the application of high doses of Rhizophagus irregularis (AMF3) on float system-produced cannabis seedlings results in a considerable increment of their quality.

Enhancement of growth and Cannabinoids content of hemp (Cannabis sativa) using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.845794/full
Two different species of AMF, Rhizophagus prolifer PC2-2 and R. aggregatus BM-3 g3 were selected as inocula and compared with two non-mycorrhizal controls, one without synthetic fertilizer and one with synthetic NPK fertilizer. The unfertilized non-mycorrhizal plants had the lowest performance, whereas plants inoculated with R. aggregatus BM-3 g3 performed best, both in terms of plant biomass and concentrations of CBD and THC.

There's plenty more research out there these days, including showing it's benefit with other annual plants for anyone who is interested in learning more. Both of these studies show that there is significant benefits to mycorrhizal infection with cannabis specifically. I will add that whether or not you should use mycorrhizal fungi in your grow and choosing the best product is a bit more challenging and not as black and white, but the argument that it has no benefit does not align with the published university research.
 

Gooseman23

Active member
Effect of Rhizophagus irregularis on Growth and Quality of Cannabis sativa Seedlings

Results indicated that root length and stem dry weight were significantly increased (by 34.14% and 21.4%, respectively) in the AMF3 treatment. The biomass of the seedlings' roots, the fresh weight and the N content were not affected by the AMF. On the contrary, survival rate, P content and DQI were significantly increased in AMF3 (by 5%, 24.3% and 12.4% respectively). Overall, our findings suggest that the application of high doses of Rhizophagus irregularis (AMF3) on float system-produced cannabis seedlings results in a considerable increment of their quality.

Enhancement of growth and Cannabinoids content of hemp (Cannabis sativa) using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.845794/full
Two different species of AMF, Rhizophagus prolifer PC2-2 and R. aggregatus BM-3 g3 were selected as inocula and compared with two non-mycorrhizal controls, one without synthetic fertilizer and one with synthetic NPK fertilizer. The unfertilized non-mycorrhizal plants had the lowest performance, whereas plants inoculated with R. aggregatus BM-3 g3 performed best, both in terms of plant biomass and concentrations of CBD and THC.

There's plenty more research out there these days, including showing it's benefit with other annual plants for anyone who is interested in learning more. Both of these studies show that there is significant benefits to mycorrhizal infection with cannabis specifically. I will add that whether or not you should use mycorrhizal fungi in your grow and choosing the best product is a bit more challenging and not as black and white, but the argument that it has no benefit does not align with the published university research.
Ok so what my coco product do you use that’s endo and has the species that have been found to help cannabis?
 

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