Fox Farm Killing Micro Life In My Soil

hello, i just wanted to let people in on this experiment i did last night.


i brewed some earthworm casting compost tea.
i only brewed 2 gallons.

put around a cup n a half castings
bout a fourth cup mollasses.
and two cap fulls of tiger bloom

less than 24hours later have foamy head on top.

so tiger bloom deffinately does not kill the microbes.

i dont have a microscope yet.
but ive tried making tea with tap water even tried evaporating the chlorine and it doesnt foam up . so im taking it that if it foams up, its got the microbes.
if not its dead.

i use RO water and thats the only thing that works for me to make tea.
artisian well water didnt work either. ph went too high and no foam.

justthought id share that because i read this thread around two weeks ago and thought " ill do an experiment with it. see if microbes will even breed if the ff tiger bloom is added to the brew.

i was happy to find foam this morning.

PHENOmina said:

hello, i just wanted to let people in on this experiment i did last night.


i brewed some earthworm casting compost tea.
i only brewed 2 gallons.

put around a cup n a half castings
bout a fourth cup mollasses.
and two cap fulls of tiger bloom

less than 24hours later have foamy head on top.

so tiger bloom deffinately does not kill the microbes.

i dont have a microscope yet.
but ive tried making tea with tap water even tried evaporating the chlorine and it doesnt foam up . so im taking it that if it foams up, its got the microbes.
if not its dead.

i use RO water and thats the only thing that works for me to make tea.
artisian well water didnt work either. ph went too high and no foam.

justthought id share that because i read this thread around two weeks ago and thought " ill do an experiment with it. see if microbes will even breed if the ff tiger bloom is added to the brew.

i was happy to find foam this morning.

Click to expand...

that's cool that you made a tea that you like man, but the foam isn't a relation of high microbial life.
i'm sure you had plenty of life there but they aren't related.
I've made plenty of teas that don't foam, that's mostly predicated on whats been going in the wormbin, and the type of aeration involved.
but even a tiny half drop of coco-wet will make it froth like a dishsink full of soap, but doesn't mean much

greasemonkeymann said:

that's cool that you made a tea that you like man, but the foam isn't a relation of high microbial life.
i'm sure you had plenty of life there but they aren't related.
I've made plenty of teas that don't foam, that's mostly predicated on whats been going in the wormbin, and the type of aeration involved.
but even a tiny half drop of coco-wet will make it froth like a dishsink full of soap, but doesn't mean much

Click to expand...

so true!

the only way to really tell is with a microscope!

ShLUbY said:

so true!

the only way to really tell is with a microscope!

Click to expand...

thats my next step is to get a microscope so i can actually see them and know for sure.

i sense them there tho. just want to be sure.

im just learning about it so i was under the impression that if it didnt foam up, the bacteria arent breeding.

i will deffinately be getting a microscope soon though. and then redo this experiment .

i will also measure out everything percisely. and list what ppm of ff tiger bloom is actually there. cause that might make a big difference too.
not sure how many ppm is in twocapfuls in two gallons of ro water.

i wanted to try it cause i have no vegging nutes and the castings have no p or k, just n. so im trying to compensate. until i can get veg nutes.
or find an organic way to add more p and k.

seabird guanno is kinda expensive and a long drive to get it.

any suggestions would be apreciated.

PHENOmina said:

thats my next step is to get a microscope so i can actually see them and know for sure.

i sense them there tho. just want to be sure.

im just learning about it so i was under the impression that if it didnt foam up, the bacteria arent breeding.

i will deffinately be getting a microscope soon though. and then redo this experiment .

i will also measure out everything percisely. and list what ppm of ff tiger bloom is actually there. cause that might make a big difference too.
not sure how many ppm is in twocapfuls in two gallons of ro water.

i wanted to try it cause i have no vegging nutes and the castings have no p or k, just n. so im trying to compensate. until i can get veg nutes.
or find an organic way to add more p and k.

seabird guanno is kinda expensive and a long drive to get it.

any suggestions would be apreciated.

Click to expand...

a good scope is about 160$ and then there is the learning curve that goes with using it... not saying you're incapable, but just worth mentioning

PHENOmina said:

thats my next step is to get a microscope so i can actually see them and know for sure.

i sense them there tho. just want to be sure.

im just learning about it so i was under the impression that if it didnt foam up, the bacteria arent breeding.

i will deffinately be getting a microscope soon though. and then redo this experiment .

i will also measure out everything percisely. and list what ppm of ff tiger bloom is actually there. cause that might make a big difference too.
not sure how many ppm is in twocapfuls in two gallons of ro water.

i wanted to try it cause i have no vegging nutes and the castings have no p or k, just n. so im trying to compensate. until i can get veg nutes.
or find an organic way to add more p and k.

seabird guanno is kinda expensive and a long drive to get it.

any suggestions would be apreciated.

Click to expand...

you grew hydro for a while huh?
forget the ppms, forget the stage specific nutrients..

important to note that you can put all sorts of additions to a microbe tea and the microbes will proliferate just fine, chelated non-organic nutrients aren't like an antiseptic
You follow me?
my point is you could probably put a bunch of tabasco sauce in a good microbe tea too

ShLUbY said:

a good scope is about 160$ and then there is the learning curve that goes with using it... not saying you're incapable, but just worth mentioning

Click to expand...

yeah, im a little bit off from bein able to afford that right now.

what magnification would i need to see the microbes?

and i have thought about the idea that i need to know what microbes im actually seeing. i dentification.
and which ones are fungal microbes.

i feel like they are in there. and my plants react pretty darn good to it.
(that could just be the nutrients it gives them)
so like everyone says. the only way to know for sure is microscopic observation.

thanks to everyone who has posted for your help and advice.

PHENOmina said:

yeah, im a little bit off from bein able to afford that right now.

what magnification would i need to see the microbes?

and i have thought about the idea that i need to know what microbes im actually seeing. i dentification.
and which ones are fungal microbes.

i feel like they are in there. and my plants react pretty darn good to it.
(that could just be the nutrients it gives them)
so like everyone says. the only way to know for sure is microscopic observation.

thanks to everyone who has posted for your help and advice.

Click to expand...

2500x check out soilfoodweb.org for more info

greasemonkeymann said:

you grew hydro for a while huh?
forget the ppms, forget the stage specific nutrients..

important to note that you can put all sorts of additions to a microbe tea and the microbes will proliferate just fine, chelated non-organic nutrients aren't like an antiseptic
You follow me?
my point is you could probably put a bunch of tabasco sauce in a good microbe tea too

Click to expand...

im using soil at the moment, as alot of my stuff is in another place cause we had to store it. bouts to go retrieve it soon. and will prolly try hydro again.
i did it once before and seemed to have better control over ph and all.

problem i ran into was keeping the res cool enough to keep the root slime away.

but when i kept on it real good by putting frozen 20 oz water bottles in there every so often.
its just alot of work when its warm out. temps indoors go up.


but anyways. thanks for the advice!

PHENOmina said:

im using soil at the moment, as alot of my stuff is in another place cause we had to store it. bouts to go retrieve it soon. and will prolly try hydro again.
i did it once before and seemed to have better control over ph and all.

problem i ran into was keeping the res cool enough to keep the root slime away.

but when i kept on it real good by putting frozen 20 oz water bottles in there every so often.
its just alot of work when its warm out. temps indoors go up.


but anyways. thanks for the advice!

Click to expand...

that sounds like way too much to me... its nice when you dont have to ever ph anything and only give plain water

ShLUbY said:

2500x for more info

Click to expand...

thanks. i will look into it.

tha

ShLUbY said:

that sounds like way too much to me... its nice when you dont have to ever ph anything and only give plain water

Click to expand...

would be nice, but our tap water sucks, ro water has no calcium and ya gotta use cal mag to compensate.

our water quality report shows chlorine. but it dont say anything about chloromine wich is really hard to get out.
ive read about using vitamin c to get rid of it.

i tried tolet it set and evaporate. but dont feel like microbes are able to live in it. soim guessing they put chloramine in there.

tried water from an artisian well, but the ph high and takes a shit ton of ph down to move it even one point.
maybe cause of iron in it.

i really want to go totally organic. but im still learning about it and just so much info i get too lost in it. lol

yeah not something i'd recommend if you dont understand the principles. but it's definitely worth it! plants grow themselves!