Microorganisms-The Benefits of…


Microbes are everywhere.  Some good, some not so good, and some bad.  However, most are beneficial to all of life on earth.
If you want to work with Nature, then you need to understand how important microorganisms are to life.  Microbes are life!

Microorganisms are very tiny but very mighty.  You cannot see most of them without the aid of a microscope.  They are invaluable in the plant kingdom:

  • protect plants
  • make the food plants eat (absorb through their roots)
  • create soil
  • support all life forms on earth

A farmer can grow his plants without them, but why would he want to?  Microbes make the food we eat more nutritious, they promote health.
We need our soil to be rich with microorganisms—microbes work hard to take sterile dirt and turn it into rich, friable humus that supports healthy plants.
There can be billions of microorganisms in just one (1) teaspoon of healthy compost.  There can be more than a mile of roots in one (1) teaspoon of healthy compost.  How many is not as important as quality and diversity of those microorganisms.

Beneficial bacteria are our best friends
If your garden soil is not teaming with microorganisms, then you will never get the most from your garden.

Who Was Rudolf Steiner?

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), founder of biodynamics, was a highly trained scientist and respected philosopher.  Long before many of his contemporaries, Steiner concluded that western civilization would increasingly bring destruction to itself and the earth if it did not begin to incorporate an objective understanding of the spiritual world and its interrelationship with the physical world.  Steiner's spiritual scientific methods and insights have given birth to practical holistic innovations in many fields including education, banking, medicine, psychology, the arts and, not least, agriculture.

Steiner’s preparations have been around for one hundred years.  He knew the power in microorganisms:
One example of his preparations was his horn clay.  He took the horn of a cow and filled it with manure.  He then buried it in his field during the winter.  When dug up in the spring, the earth’s energy had turned that small amount of manure into a preparation so concentrated, that he was able to fertilize or treat four acres of land.

The soil food web means all of the life forms found in the soil.  They are very diverse.  There are many types of microbes and each type provides its own type of help to the soil.  That means that you need to add different types to your own soil.  If you start with a well-balanced biological product, then you can easily add microbes in two easy ways:

  • add directly to your growing medium
  • add as compost tea

Diversity is the key to life in general.  It is important to have diversity in your beneficial microorganisms also.  In an artificial environment, like a grow room, it is particularly important that your soil medium and even your cloning machine be rich in beneficial microbes.  This will make it more like our earth’s naturally balanced environment.  Healthy!

Synthetic fertilizer products do create a growth response in plants.  Nevertheless, is it a healthy response?
Most synthetic products use NPK synthetics, hormones, stimulants, raw organic inputs, and some manufactured biological products, and fillers {like clay aggregates (kitty litter)}

Bat guano (excrement) is not plant food by itself.  Bat guano can create a growth response in plants however.  Only a very small percentage of it is soluble (available to plants).  It only becomes available to plants after the microorganisms make it available.  In nature, plants do not eat leaves that fall to the ground; they eat what the microbes make of the fallen leaves!  Microbes make plant food!

Salt-based fertilizers can kill many beneficial microbes.  Artificial salts do not help microbes and they do not help build good soil.  Salts are not a food source for microbes and if used continuously, will build up to toxic levels in your soil.
When salts are used hydroponically, it is not as big a problem because you are constantly flushing your solutions that prevent the salts from building to toxic levels.  You can also use one of the biological solutions available for flushing your plants.  Microbes themselves help stop salts toxicity.

Beneficial microorganisms can work almost anywhere.  They work well with most soil mediums.  Bacteria process waste into plant food.  If you use biological inoculants on your Rockwool starts, you will see dramatic growth increases.  Try fortifying your growing medium with beneficial microbes.  Even good organic potting soil benefits from inoculation.  The greatest benefits are realized if your soil is a living soil.

Microbes should also be used in hydroponic systems because for the most part hydroponic systems are sterile i.e. nothing (biologically) going on.  Even growing mediums are sterile (Rockwool, hydroton, coir fiber).  This is the perfect place to introduce inoculants.  If you do not add them—there will not be any.  In addition, if you do not have “good microbes” in your hydroponic system, then you probably have “bad microbes” which are the source of disease like Fusarium or Pythium.  Adding beneficial microbes to your cloning machine will get your system in balance and make it more of a living environment.

Introducing beneficial microorganisms into your garden allows your garden to be the best it can be!

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