So after dropping my bottle of FishSh!t on the bathroom floor and losing the last quarter or so of the 250ml bottle, instead of buying more FishSh!t I was going to look into possibly going the Tribus route. However I have been doing research and one question keeps coming up in my head… If we are putting organisms that replicate themselves into a medium, why do we need to add more at all? I know nothing of the concept of living soil, but it almost seems to me like a soil just needs to be inoculated with bennies once, then it would be a “living soil”??? I feel like unless you do a full on flush of your growing medium, you’d still have all the good stuff in the soil, albeit in a smaller concentration maybe until they repopulate?
Also wondering if there is really a point to inoculating a medium with Tribus at their recommended or even lite values… Seems like inoculating with literally BILLIONS of CFUs would be overkill since the bacteria replicate by themselves?
Curious to see what everyone’s thoughts are on this. Just stuff that has been bugging me for a few days lol.
I believe if you don’t ever let your soil dry out and feed the microbes regularly they will maintain the colony.
It’s really hard to keep the soil damp but not overwater for me so I just add more microbes every week or two just in case. I also water with aquarium water about once a week.
My grow pots go flood to drought in extreme swings. Like its not unheard of 7-8 days mid veg around my house with no water. Thus im pretty sure i kill my microbe herd multiple times thru the grow
But if you can walk the line between almost too dry damp and wet, then im sure you can get by with less.
Id absolutely love for someone who KNOWS about this to chime in. The science is wayyy over my head here. Great question!
Yeah it makes sense to me as long as the environment is suitable, they should replicate… Would indeed be nice to hear from someone who knows for a fact!
I second that approach. My bottle of Tribus has lasted an eternity. It is more concentrated than Fish Shit, and while I do love the results of Fish Shit, Tribus is more bang for your buck and does quite well for me.
I think the reality is sort of like a fish tank. There’s a cycle of life with microbes and other bennies that begins and ends at a certain point. While a good living soil will often be wholly capable of maintaining its own ecosystem, sometimes it crashes. Too much light, too much water, not enough water, an out-of-whack pH watering, or even just a lack of food for the microbial life can all cause the ecosystem to crash. I add microbial life into my root zone once every two weeks or so as a precaution because I would rather spend a little extra money to avoid the unforeseen circumstance.
I use the “light” dosage. Again, see above. It’s precautionary to ensure that the microbe life cycle continues. One thing I will say about Recharge (yet another microbe product) is that it includes some molasses as food for the microbial life in the event there’s a shortage of food in the root zone.
So perhaps my ultimate guidance here is: more microbes isn’t ever a bad thing, although there is a maximum benefit to be attained, so it’s up to you to decide where that line is. If you ensure the medium stays moist and the ‘crobes stay fed, theoretically you never need to add more. In reality, I like to add some now and then just in case.
My fish tank is green and algae-filled because I got complacent and stopped adding my once-a-week Benny bacterias to it.
Sounds like my route. Teaspoon of Recharge with a spoon of tribus on epsom salt only days. . Both are kind of expensive but like she said, they go a looooong way. Especially the Tribus.
The Recharge is added solely for the carb load (molasses) and diversity
My take , which is not educated at all but just an old guy with too much time to kill, is that its similar to having an aquarium. The oceans and lakes have an entire ecosystem that provides a balance that is impossible in a 5 gallon tank of water on my shelf. Things live, die and recycle providing the ingredients for sustained life.
My soil outside has an endless supply of things dying and decomposing which provides and sustains the biome of living soil. Grass , leaves, bugs, worms all live and die or are eaten and excreted into the dirt. Birds c#@p endlessly on the soil providing nutrients and nitrogen as they forage for insects or worms. Roots from last years vegetation are decomposing and it all works together to keep bacteria and nutrients for new plants in balance. Even this is oversimplified. But the point is when we hold a small container of dirt with a plant in it we cannot do what nature does. We can only cover the basic needs. So we add food to the water which probably kills most of the bacteria in the soil. We add back microbes/bacteria along with molasses so the simple sugars will keep the microbes alive long enough to do their thing, but it simply does not have the variety of things for microbes to live in it that the outside ecosystem has to keep the soil healthy.
Well now I have a 100ml bottle of Tribus on the way! Still using Recharge, and going to retire use of FishSh!t. I think I will just do a beneficial tea once a week with Tribus and Recharge. Feel like this is the best balance of ensuring microbes are doing their thing, but without breaking the bank…
The microbes can and will be there from the day you start till the end and still be there as long as they have something to eat, when growing organic you are feeding the soil keeping it healthy so it in turn feeds your plants. There are literally billions of microbes in a teaspoon of any decent soil, if you took one by the end of the day you would have hundreds of thousands.
It definitely makes you wonder if we ever need to add them to the soil, I use a product that has some dry microbes in it but other than that I quit buying any.
There’s many things that damage and kill them including some of the chemicals in synthetic nutes and even the water we use. So is if was using synthetics I would add them especially hydro/coco because it is flushed and fed so often
I’m not a scientist this is from stuff I’ve read and my own head, so I’m not saying anyone is doing anything wrong if what I said is not the same as you think or do I’m not saying you should think or do what I do
In the name of getting more bang for your microbe buck try feeding them before you give em to your plant. What I mean by that is make a tea compost or bannana or whatever you think you need (plus some molasses) add in 1/2 dose of microbes whatever you are using (im using geat white for example). Give it 24 hours to “marinate”. You will have 5 (maybe even more.) times the microbial life inside the tea then you did when you started it 24 hrs earlier. Makes re-innoculating your soil multiple times a grow alot easier on the pocket book.
I’ll add this to the conversation - All those makers selling you microbes, supplements, etc have a vested interest in you coming back and buying more of what they sell.
Based on that alone I think they all over-prescribe the use of their products.
Sometimes less is more.
*Oh and @Aussie_autos is your tea guy! He’s got all kinds of voodoo gumbos he knows about!
. Both are kind of expensive but like she said, they go a looooong way. Especially the Tribus.
