Good grief. Must you continue to pollute this forum with so much bad information?
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Originally Posted by Carebear2
I have tried probiotic bacteria and although they are better than no beneficial bacteria they still can't prevent rot completely so are not the best safety net imo and they are expensive. You still need to avoid rot by keeping your growing environment as clean as possible and change media before it goes bad and if you do and thus keep rot away then beneficial bacteria has had no noticeable effect imo.
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If you are using a probiotic that is reasonably broad-spectrum, it will prevent most-, if not all rots and can help cure them, too. If you continue having rot issues, you probably need to take a closer look at the quality of your overall culture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carebear2
They certainly don't produce nutrients as you assume Mr FakeName.
Decaying substrate even consumes Nutrients, it does not make them more available.
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The nutrients that are tied up in the structure of potting media components - often cellulose - and even dead roots are not in a form that is usable by a plant. Microbes decompose (defined as "break apart") those materials into components that are usable by the plants. Yes they do consume nutrients as they do - nitrogen - but the net effect is more available nutrition, not less. Don't forget, when a bacterium dies, it releases its own stored nutrient components, too.
Obviously I cannot speak for all products, but Quantum-Total contains nitrogen-fixing bacteria that populate the plant and medium, converting nitrogen in the air to a form the plant can use to supplement it's nutrition.
It also contains photosynthetic species that populate the plant, converting light into sugars, supplementing the plant's own photosynthetic process.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carebear2
The simple fact is that tap water does contain enough Nutrients to grow Orchids, they need minimal amounts and tap water provides plenty, too much probably even, the biggest problem with tap water is it can cause an imbalance of nutrients, too little N and too much calcium and magnesiuum so adding a fertilizer adjusts the imbalance but the plant does get enough as you have noticed without.
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That is an internally, nonsensical statement:
- water does contain enough Nutrients to grow Orchids
- too much probably even
- too little N
- too much calcium and magnesiuum
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carebear2
One concern I would have about your experiment is that Bio-Bizz is an organic fertilizer for soil. Soil fertilizer is different to orchid and hydroponic fertilizer in that the Nutrients need to be broken down by soil bacteria to be turned into an absorbable form by the plants. If there is no soil then the nutrients cannot be absorbed and will build up as salt deposits on the roots.
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The only "soil fertilizer" component I'm aware of that needs to be "broken down by soil bacteria" is urea, but by doing so, they accelerates it's uptake. Plants can take up urea directly via the roots, just not as well as they can nitrate and ammonium forms.
Plus, if you're adding microbes via probiotics, might that not be what's needed to do the work you insist doesn't happen?
Salt deposits form due to excessive concentration, not the form they were in while in solution.
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