Top Feeding Beneficial Bacteria in Flood and Drain

I have been adding Beneficial's to my main res in a bucket Flood and Drain system.

Question is would I be better off administering it every week by hand top fed

A. I am still not convinced Beneficial's survive all that long in the main tank
B. A 200 liter tank costs a lot more to fill with Beneficial's than a 20 liter bucket top fed directly to the roots.
C. I just feel putting full strength Bennies directly in contact with the roots will work better as there is no with strong EC nutrient solution to suppress or kill it.
D. If applied directly to the roots after the last lights on feed it will have 12 hours or more to multiply uninhibited by nutrients PH adjuster etc.

Any thoughts

I think c is best bet , I personaly like to keep Bennie separate, I usaly make a 3 gal bucket , bubble it for 10-15 mins and root drench instead of the days feed and fill a cupple spray bottles to foliar with when lights go out , in coco I feed every day so it’s not a big deal to skip one day and replace it with a Bennie root drench follwed by a foliar that night cycle I do that once every two weeks and foliar once inbetween sound like ur on an irrigation system I have no experience there ! So not Shure I need to set one ASAP as I would like to feed multiple shots as I can currently only feed once a day since I hand feed and stuck at work most of the time

fartoblue said:

I have been adding Beneficial's to my main res in a bucket Flood and Drain system.

Question is would I be better off administering it every week by hand top fed

A. I am still not convinced Beneficial's survive all that long in the main tank
B. A 200 liter tank costs a lot more to fill with Beneficial's than a 20 liter bucket top fed directly to the roots.
C. I just feel putting full strength Bennies directly in contact with the roots will work better as there is no with strong EC nutrient solution to suppress or kill it.
D. If applied directly to the roots after the last lights on feed it will have 12 hours or more to multiply uninhibited by nutrients PH adjuster etc.

Any thoughts

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I used them for a few runs in coco and hundreds if not thousands of the nematodes ended up in the gutter, visibly. They were either being washed out or trying to escape a root zone that was not great for them. Or maybe their was so many that they over flowed. What ever the answer, it was not right to continue wasting like that. I also read into it quite a lot and the only people backing it being used with synthetics were the companies selling it. I could not really find any conclusive studies back then at-least, since it seemed to have very little traction in the commercial area of growing, be it food or mj.

I found studies that did suggest P microbes (mitochondria or so) can attach and survive, but suggested they took on more of a ''parasite'' (although not detrimental) role, given that the rest of the microbe food web was not in place. The other types like N fixing and so seem completely pointless, as it's easily covered with nitrate. A lot of the studies and companies agreed that in any case they don't live long and have to be replenished continually. That was the final blow as it's highly wastefull in an already very wasteful indoor hobie. What I have finally gotten round to recently is using kelp/amino/yuka etc foliar spray up until flower set. Basically an attempt to give a more organic boost in a less wasteful way, it ofc also does not impact mix and complicate the synthetic feeding.

What I want to read more into is microbes that live on or in leaves, it's a whole new world I have no idea about so hopefully theirs some beneficial that can be added in that way. The link below is what I am hoping to dive into more fully in time. If anybody can beat me to the punch and figure out something useful, be my guest.


I'm sorry if this comes off like I'm shitting on your parade but I never seen any differance using benies mixed with synthetics. I've tried all sorts, top dressing and so forth. Unfortunately time is a real problem for me at the min or else I would have fully read and researched further into leaf mircrobes. If it's something you are interested in take a look, you might figure something out. From scanning over the study, I'm hoping that some how it can effect plant health and immune system, maybe making the plant less prone to bud rot, more vigerous veg growth, maybe recovering from loli poping quicker, I dunno. Or maybe it is also useless.