Good bacteria, Mycorrhizae and Trichoderma Fungi etc

[keepleft]

hi all

 

ive moved away from a sterile system (a former fan of h202 no more), and im now trying beneficial bacteria to keep a healthy root zone and deter pythium etc for the coming summer...

 

im currently using nutrifield tri boost, which retails for about $35 for 8 x 30 gr packets (240gr). ive seen it as low as $22 though. and you add 1 packet per 100lts every 7 days.

 

other options ive read about are

 

piranha by advanced nutrients - about $25 for 130 grams. recommended dose is 30 grams per 100 litres every 7 days. so you will go through a fair bit of it in a big rez!

 

bio bugs - about $35 for 50grams which apprently treats 5000lts. sounds very economical? is it a good option?

 

ive also heard about a product called companion. 30ml per 100 litres.

 

what are people out there currently using and what do they recomend? thanks

[Lucian]

ive used NuLife AU60 and poweractive in summer of 04 and 05

 

http://www.nulifetech.com.au/products.html#additives

 

cannadian express equivelent is regen-a-root (AU60)and Bio Balancer is (poweractive)

 

http://www.canadianxpress.com/guide.html

 

they are the same thing just differant labels......

 

regen-a-root (AU60) is a must for DWC in summer ...

 

AU60 double strength is also good for soaking rockwool

Edited October 23, 2006 by Lucian

[LOGGER_KING]

Hey Keepleft........Why have you gone off H202,,,,What is the bad side of it???????????

[Luke Skywalker]

Well, it's not a terribly effective sterilant, and it has to be added daily to keep levels up.

 

It can also burn roots if overdosed, but with good care you can use it very effectively. It's not compatible with microbiological additives though, for obvious reasons.

 

I use BioBugs on a regular basis, 1/2 tspn per week into a 50L reservoir.

 

I also mix it up a bit with a dose of nutrilfe 4:20, which is one of the older types of microbiologicals, but a good one IMHO.

 

I've always been a bit wary of the liquid ones, like AU60 root repair, and poweractive, there are some other more minor ones too I think. It's pretty hard to make a stable solution of living microbes which won't become unbalanced pretty quickly. When dormant, they don't need food and aren't competing for space and resources, but when active, as they would be in a liquid form, they're likely to become unbalanced if there's any complexity in species for them, and they're more likely to go off. That's not to say that

they're useless, I've heard some people like em a lot. But I prefer my biologicals dormant in either freeze dried powder or sugar. Keep in mind that if you're running a system which goes unchanged for longer than a week or more, you may be helped by adding a teaspoon of sugar or fructose/glucose to the tank. This provides some food for the bugs which could be looking for a feed by this time. Usually a system is running on a weekly flush and reformulate schedule, but RTW and some more passive systems can and are left for longer periods between water changes.

 

Oxygenation of the solution is important as well, keep the dissolved O2 levels up as high as possible with a good airstone and airpump, and keep res temps under control.

 

Advanced nutes pihrana and tarantula are supposed to be pretty good, but I've not used them. I've seen their labels though and they look like they've got a good mix there.

 

I find fungal and microbial additives to be a good investment, the BioBugs is pretty cheap, and you can certainly use all these at a lower dose and still get a good effect. If I had to point to one it would be the biobugs.

 

Keep in mind that if you're running a system which goes unchanged for longer than a week or more, you may be helped by adding a teaspoon of sugar or fructose/glucose to the tank. This provides some food for the bugs which could be looking for a feed by this time. Usually a system is running on a weekly flush and reformulate schedule, but RTW and some more passive systems can and are left for longer periods between water changes. You can use things like carboload if you like, these contain enough sugars to keep them ticking over, but it's easy enough to just add a teaspoon of sugar to 50-100L per week if you're going to keep the same solution for longer than a week. If you do a normal dump, flush and reformulate weekly you should have no worries as you'll add more microbes, (and therefore more microbe food, as it usually comes with them) with each change.

 

Oxygenation of the solution is important as well, keep the dissolved O2 levels up as high as possible with a good airstone and airpump, and keep res temps under control.

 

Hope that helps.

 

p.s. Trichoderma spp. are now in the Biobugs too, as well as the bacterial cultures they used to have. Look for the "BioBugs Zyme +" which is the newest packaging for them. You can get BioBugs in 500gm size too, which makes life a lot easier and cheaper for those who have large gardens and reservoirs.

[silent-toker]

Hey KL

I make a mixture of Tri-boost, Bioxy and X-10 boost and pour directly into the pots of coco every fortnight.

I also brew Take Off and add this to the res along with Bio-Kleen every fortnight too, and a bit of molasses to keep the bugs fed.

All these products are from Nutrifield and cost me about $130 and have lasted 4 mnths so far

 

Previously i used Pirahna and Tarantula from Advanced Nutes, but bought the Nutrifield products cause thats what my hydro shop had stocked at the time,

Imo the nutrifield stuff is much more effective, each time i dose the plants you can see how much they love it- tempted to do it weekly but im told by nutrifield that in a coco set up fortnightly is already wasting it a bit!

Did ya ring Nutrifield about the tri-boost? even if youre not genuinely considering their products they will give you some info about which bugs do what and how to promote them best in your set up.

[keepleft]

thanks for the replies all

 

silent toker - i didnt call them actually. but i did purchase 2 of the tri boost packs. ive been adding a satchel every week to 200lts. your supposed to use 30grams per 100lts but ive only been adding 30 grams per 200lts. so far seem to be working ok. do u think i need to use other nutrifield products with them, i was hoping not? i just want to add one thing to the rez, not a whole heap of stuff which adds up when u have big rez

 

i wont use the piranha as i would be going through 1 pack a week at the recommended dose,

 

im thinking of the giving the bio bugs a go when the tri boost runs out, as the bio bugs seem the best bang for your buck.

 

also any tips when using these products? ive got alot of air getting pumped in with air stonges. also i change the mix weekly so i dont think adding some sugar to the rez is needed based on what luke said. but ive also heard that once you mix to the tank you should turn the pump on straight away to get the bugs to the root zone asap as they only have 3 hrs to colonize????

Edited October 24, 2006 by keepleft

[Luke Skywalker]

It's a good idea to feed them quickly to the plants but it's not absolutely necessary. Keep the tank aerated and provided they've got a food source it can be beneficial to allow their numbers to multiply.

 

Nutrilife 4/20 is a good example. You have to brew them as a concentrate with proportions of bacterial/fungal innoculant and the food source added to water and aerated for a maximum of 3 days. It's at best production at 1 day after setup but after more than three (depending on the conditions environmentally of course) they tend to unbalance themselves in such a concentration. You then use this mixture as a dilution onto the soil or into the hydro tank....

[thc24]

ive used

 

canna zym

rhizo

bio bugs

nulife power active

 

bio bugs and power active make the res alittle dirty and as luke said above would be better mixed up and hand watered. Bio bugs is all good though look for the newer bottle has more init.

 

canna zym has no probs in the res but is hard to see it working.

 

in my rtw set up its hard to go past the zym and rhizo combo, bio bugs is ok in the res but needs alot of air and cooler temps to stop foaming and an oily residue on tank.

 

plants love it so all is good just alittle more time cleaning pumps and tank, the nulife product i wasnt happy with was a sample but did nothing for root health and mad my res as toxic as ive seen in the last 1/4 too many floaties and a massive build up around heater.

[Lucian]

i tried a rhizo and cannazym combo , worked really well i thought , I must do that combo again , but im an ozzy , so i buy ozzy products , they are easy for me to get and cheaper than the name brand stuff...

 

try the liquid stuff over summer as an experiment , prolly only $35-45 , for the combo , it works for me and is easy 8 )

 

you know what i mean , puff puff pass.........puff........

[thc24]

lucian canna is aussi enough for me have alook onbottle youll be suprised yes its not made here but all the help and info needed is here. try the yellow pages for the service sect to get help and or local supplier

 

whats the aussi stuff your using?

 

can think of a couple but guessing hygen, its local and as good as the canna nute only without full range of additives simular to rhizo and zym.

 

 

 

Of late ive noticed canna nute being sold in local papers and second hand type mags, at about 30% cheeper does sound dodgy but they keep running the ad so could be legit min of 5lt though maz of 20lt bottles.

Edited October 26, 2006 by thc24