Poll: myhcorhizal use in ebb/flow?

Someone gave me a tub of mycohrizal innoculant. Wondering if I should dump some in the Rez or not? Been using h2o2 for biotic control but I do know that fungi can definetly increase uptake but just wondering if they can survive in my Rez and hydroton?

Ryan over at DynaGro recommended it actually. I haven't got around to getting some yet but it's on my list. He also said you can feed less when using microbes, but I don't know how much less.

Can you use it if you are using tap water ?

waste of time using anything micriobial with h2o2, it kills it, and so does chlorines and chloramines in tap water.
you can use less fod using microbes but in soil. they need something to live in and they dont live well in water mediums as there isnt a medium to hold their foods they need to survive. they live on dead tissues in the soil and turn it back to food....as their shit,

Thats what i thought

There isn't enough 'bad stuff' in tap water to hurt the microbes so you're fine in most cases using tap water with microbes.

I have to side with homebrew on this one. If indeed tap water had high enough concentrations of chlorine/chloramine then logic would dictate that you wouldn't have any problems with fungus. Anyone who has dealt with root rot knows that is not the case.

I recently read that putting a 1/2 pond of vermiculite stuffed in a piece of pantyhouse in your Rez can provide habitat for microbes. As for the food source and media needs of fungus, I think I need to do a little more reading.

Does anyone have any real world experience in hydro mycorhizal?

Science suggests the benefits you get from microbes in soil are negligible in hydro. Basically, the roots already have optimized uptake. However there is one thing that is certain - beneficial microbes keep the bad microbes away. So in short; beneficial microbes serve only one purpose in hydro, to protect roots from disease. This is something they do very well. Some will live in your res for weeks, others will die from lack of food and housing. This can be overcome by making an EWC style tea and adding a cup of it to the res every few days.

If you are using a DWC system or any system prone to root problems, I highly recommend bennies. I've found that ebb and flow does not tend to have root problems, but if you already have the products use them, they are superior to h2o2 treatments.

How to breed microbes

yes there is enough in our water. is why we use ro when we make our foods or we wouldnt bothwer with the huge expence of doing it.,and having the perilite in the rez will turn to mush and cause issues.

legallyflying said:

I recently read that putting a 1/2 pond of vermiculite stuffed in a piece of pantyhouse in your Rez can provide habitat for microbes. As for the food source and media needs of fungus, I think I need to do a little more reading.

Does anyone have any real world experience in hydro mycorhizal?

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I wouldn't use vermiculite, especially if it hasn't been sterilized. I've found the root zone and the air stones provide all the housing you really need. If you are using bennies in hydro you should be brewing them EWC tea style and replacing them every few days anyway. Once they go in the res they do not get extra food besides dead roots and such. Lava rocks provide great housing, but the best seems to be Japanese Koi Matts because of there huge surface area. One benefit to providing extra housing is when you are changing the res water the housing media will help inoculate the new solution.

Medi 1 said:

yes there is enough in our water. is why we use ro when we make our foods or we wouldnt bothwer with the huge expence of doing it.,and having the perilite in the rez will turn to mush and cause issues.

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I've had no problems with tap water set out for as little as 6 hours. It really depends on if your local plant uses chloramine, which doesn't evaporate. Simplest way to tell is to just try it.

I've used perlite for dwc medium in the past and although it was a pain in the ass, it didn't turn to mush. Hydroton is a far better choice.

what do you mean just try it. this isnt something we can see with our eyes...i cant see the micriobes here anyways.
simplest way is look up your local city web site for the info. not many still use chloramine. what does non chloramine or chlorine water look like?. there is a vidsible diff but unless they are side by side its kinda hard to see the colour diff,.

and he didnt say use perlite as a medium i dont think, i thought he said set a bag inh the rez...that will for sure turn to muss being submered., misting ior drippers as in the medium wont be near as wet 24/7 as it would in a rez fully submersed

I do have chloramines but they are at very low concentrations. I heard that the perlite in a bag could be used as habitat for the microbes. I innoculated my flood table and rez so we will see if there is any effect at all.

I don't have root problems, but then again, I don't want them either. I can definitely see the rationale for saying that they only help in soil in terms of uptake as they will help fix nutrients in a usable form for the plants. But on the other hand, the hyphae of the fungus will actually serve to dramatically increase the surface area of the roots which should increase uptake.

I run great white and i have more root growth than a friend that has a similar ebb and flow set up (took one of my clones over there to see if i wanted to keep useing great white)
its awesome. just sucks when i have to drain my resi.

no need to add them to your rez every time. They will still live in your table. I mix about a gallon of myco once a week and pour it directly at each plant site in the table.

legallyflying said:

Someone gave me a tub of mycohrizal innoculant. Wondering if I should dump some in the Rez or not? Been using h2o2 for biotic control but I do know that fungi can definetly increase uptake but just wondering if they can survive in my Rez and hydroton?

Click to expand...

If you want to use a biological to help with bio control I would also suggest using beneficial bacteria as well.

legallyflying said:

I do have chloramines but they are at very low concentrations. I heard that the perlite in a bag could be used as habitat for the microbes. I innoculated my flood table and rez so we will see if there is any effect at all.

I don't have root problems, but then again, I don't want them either. I can definitely see the rationale for saying that they only help in soil in terms of uptake as they will help fix nutrients in a usable form for the plants. But on the other hand, the hyphae of the fungus will actually serve to dramatically increase the surface area of the roots which should increase uptake.

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I use a 2" thick new sponge in the rez to give the bacteria another place to colonize and reproduce along with the growing media.

AdamBlack760 said:

I run great white and i have more root growth than a friend that has a similar ebb and flow set up (took one of my clones over there to see if i wanted to keep useing great white)
its awesome. just sucks when i have to drain my resi.

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Fungi are A-sexual, they lay dormant until the come in contact with the root, then they inoculate the root and then they start to reproduce spores. Thats why you only need a one time use per plant.

I use Roots Excelorator by House and Garden in DWC, Ebb and Flow, and in my aerocloner. It dissolves totally in water and doesn't leave residue like the powder forms of beneficials i.e. Great White, Tarantula, piranah, Gh Subcultures.

I also feed less than recommended doses. I have seen my ppm drop from 820 to 700 over night after an innoculation. The plants just eat and eat. Do not use h2o2 with bene's

I also use Hygrozyme Aquashield and sugars in flower. Aquashield is an organic compost catalyst that the bene's feed of off, they also feed of the sugars (bud candy, sweet) shit like that.

you guys are seeing things that think bennies live in hydro. its not the bennies, its just reg eating, going from 820 to 700 isnt hardly anything for eating. if there is no medium they cant live and nothing to feed them with in the rez so they die

ok i just went and asked a tech and i put my foot in mouth...yes they will live buit isnt recomended in a recirculating system as it will explode and clog shit up and foam the rez.

Ill say this once more Roots Excelorator completely dissolves and won't clog anything, not even aero sparyers. ..and especially if you show due dilligence cleaning in between uses with h2o2. You use enzymes in conjunction at a low rate throughout nutrient changes and everything stays clean.

I have spiderweb like formations pure white (looks like mold but isn't) in rockwool, coco, rapidrooters and even on roots in RDWC. Even if your not using organic nutes, but it helps. Even adding a organic compost catalyst like aquashield ( which also prevents fungus) works well together. Ezymes in low doses also prevent buildup by allowing the plant to diegest dead matter ( enzymes are produced by beneficial bacteria as well). ...

...And also dropping ppm from 820 to 700 and also loosing 5 gallons of water with it is a significant sign of a plant feeding.. I've witnessed my ppm dropping 200 points in one night as well. Which is accomponied by a huge burst of growth.