Is this little thing really what's destroyed my gardens?

[z_willus_d]

Originally Posted by Paradajz

ok, you'll see the procedure of 'root dipping' into the 'slurry mixture' in the next set of photo of those Caspians planting i'll send you soon. photos will have no paper ring part of the procedure, but that one is easy. this is actually a standard procedure i use when planting just about anything, and you should see why on your plants very soon after you do it.
at some other ocasion i'll see to explain the significance of the period starting at 4 sets of leafs and ending with first flowering brunch appearance in a tomato plant life cycle, which is actually the period when the plant's productivity, strength, health and endurance will be ( or not be ) decisively determined.

as for the bacteria strains, oh... there is like a zillion zillions of those.
but let us try this way:
* i'll see to google- check the products you named and inform you on what i think.
* by then, some general info:
- beneficial soil- bacteria ( and fungi and plenty of other microbe life forms ) is, in simple words, a natural inhabitant of a it's natural environment- surface layer of the soil.
- it's beneficial part comes from a fact that, in it's life activity, it symbiotycaly inhabits plant's roots and surounding area, where it does it's job: degrades stuff into forms a plant will use. and it degrades both organic and inorganic stuff there ( plenty of processes of 'cleaning' the soil by using those microbes known to men, i believe the term in English would be 'bio- remediation' ).
- at the same time, these microbes make a 'crowd' down there which additionaly protects a plant from villains, and with V. especially- it's quite an environment intollerant sort of a bugger.
- finally, on the results of it's work you can divide such microbes in 3 basic categories:
1) 'humificators' ; in a very simplified explanation, those turn various organic stuff into humus
2) 'mineralisators'; again a simplification, those turn humus- contained minerals into forms available to the living world ( in our case plants ) to feed on.
3) 'acumulators'; those collect 'the food', from the environment, ranging from soil and water all the way to the air ( nitrogen fixating from the air by bacteria inhabiting leguminosas roots should be the most commonly known example ).

so finally, what i want to say:
it's an extremely wide subject to explaine this way.
further more, the number of those strains is almost not 'name- able'.
most importantly: if i managed to explain it with my English, you'll notice that those bacteria are actually a large piece of any existing forest soil ( top - humus layer ), and also the most beautiful side of any quality Worm- castings.
therefore, if you have troubles with finding it, or prices of those would make your experiment to costly, don't worry. just take some quality Worm- casting and/or forest humus and make a tea of it ( with some brown suggar added, and don't worry about the smell- it's actually a sign that the process is going well in there ). it will absolutely do the job.

and please, for the purpose of the experiment you shouldn't use your Worm- casting production, since it's still a very probable cause of the contamination.
also, i believe that all this experiment should cost you is some time and efforts, and possibly a pack of quality- tested worm- castings

shall continue later, br.

Ivan, beautiful response. I appreciate the nuances and complexities of the microbial world. Even last night I stayed up far too late. I had just started a new AACT batch (my second), 25-gal total this time. I recently purchased a cheapo microscope from our Amazon (an OMAX model), and so I was looking at the bacteria/fungi in the tea at the start of the brew cycle and then after 9-hours. The first 4 pics are what I thought were recently living organisms at the start, but on further consideration I believe they only show slight deformations in the glass (and dust) of my slide. I either couldn't find the organisms for being rusty with a microscope, or there just weren't any to find yet (all still dormant?). Anyway, at 9-hours in I had slides swarming with bacteria (not so much fungi). I need to pull out the microbiology books and figure out how to start distinguishing what I'm looking at. I think gram staining will just not cut it. But despite my "cluelessness" about what exactly it was I was viewing, it certainly was fun to see the life in my nascent brewed tea.

Here is a list (with links) to some of the products I have access to:

• Biotamax - http://www.biotamax.com/BiotaMax.html
• Mycogrow Soluble - http://www.fungi.com/product-detail/...uble-1-oz.html
• Actinovate - http://naturalindustries.com/commerc...2/stplabel.pdf
• Great White - http://www.plant-success.com/index.p...orrhizae.html#
• BioVam (haven't purchased before) - http://www.tandjenterprises.com/CCPR...ioVam-Products
• GH Ancient Forest - http://generalhydroponics.com/site/g...ientforest.pdf
• VermiWorm Worm Castings - http://www.vermicrop.com/vermiworm-coming-soon

There are others I've missed, but the above covers what I've used and have readily available at the local Hydro stores. I sure would love to find a source for the raw strains minus all the marketing and up-pricing. There's probably an ag supply station somewhere not too far away where I could get into that, but to date I haven't managed to locate one that has what I'm looking for. Others on this forum might post a comment with their favorite products, like RootShield, a Trich.-based formulation I haven't used before (http://www.bioworksinc.com/products/rootshield-wp.php).


As to my worm-castings, I've tossed them all out (along with the bins and trays). They've become part of a more standard compost bin. I don't know that the worms have survived the relocation. I think they're gone. Plenty of fruit flies and stuff like that now though. I might start a new bin sometime down the road, but with more care.


Thanks for all the help Ivan!
-naysen