Epiweb and Beneficial Microbes?

[AlexS]

Hi,

As mentioned in another post I grow a number of Dendrobium in clay pots with Epiweb substrate. Recently, during repotting I noticed that two of my plants are showing signs of root rot, nothing too worrying at the moment, but I want to get on top of it as quickly as possible. I'm considering using a biological control, Trichoderma and a bacterial inoculate of some description, but am uncertain as to how effective these would be in Epiweb. I tend to grow my Dendrobiums on the dry side, and although I'm watering every 4-5 days in the summer heat, it's usually only once a week, or every 10-14 days during the winter rest. Would this be too dry to allow microbial products to work effectively? Can microbes survive long term in Epiweb? Does anyone have any experience using products like these in conjunction with Epiweb?

Thanks in advance for any advice.
Kindest regards,
Alex

[Ray]

Hi Alex.

I have a few plants in EcoWeb cubes, and use Inocucor Garden Solution regularly.

There are three "locations" that can be colonized by the microorganisms:

• The medium itself,
• the "bioplaque" that forms on media surfaces, and
• within the plants.

In the case of recycled PETE material like this, the medium does not support the cultures the way that natural organic materials do - the critters consume carbon to survive, extracted by their metabolites, and those are ineffective on most polymers.

They can populate the bioplaque, but the polymers tend not to develop much of one. The fact that you grow "dry" also does not favor that.

The microorganisms can establish colonies within the plants themselves though, so still offer benefits.

[AlexS]

Thank you for the reply.

In addition to the Trichoderma, I was considering Microbe Life's Photosynthesis Plus and also their Nourish-L product, which contains both carbon and lignins as a microbial food source. There website seems to be primarily "buzz-word" based marketing hype as opposed to detailed, specific information but the products seem to be well liked on a number of cannabis growers forums and as a lot of those guys are cash croppers I tend to assume they take the quality of their products seriously.

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the stoners tend to get the best products?

Kindest regards,
Alex

[Subrosa]

Originally Posted by AlexS

Thank you for the reply.

In addition to the Trichoderma, I was considering Microbe Life's Photosynthesis Plus and also their Nourish-L product, which contains both carbon and lignins as a microbial food source. There website seems to be primarily "buzz-word" based marketing hype as opposed to detailed, specific information but the products seem to be well liked on a number of cannabis growers forums and as a lot of those guys are cash croppers I tend to assume they take the quality of their products seriously.

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the stoners tend to get the best products?

Kindest regards,
Alex

The profit motive leaves little room for anything other than concrete results.

[lepetitmartien]

The fact the "stoners" have "great" products doesn't hide they get high marketing doses too… And Trichoderma is one of the few we *know* can be beneficial for 'chids, others may just be squatters… There's studies on orchid bacterial/fungi fauna.

This said, I'm always for experiments, as long we have a group of plants left without the tested product to see differences.

[Ray]

There has been quite a lot of controlled study done on all sorts of microorganisms, but very little on orchids, and very little published about cannabis.

Inocucor Garden Solution, which contains fungi other than trichoderma and a multitude of bacteria species, has been proven out with fruit and vegetable crops (strawberries, broccoli, Swiss chard, eggplant), where it showed 30%-40% increased yields, and ornamentals (hyacinths) which grew and bloomed faster compared to controls.

The stuff is marketed as a "plant probiotic", but is actually a great preventive & curative, too.

We typically plant New Guinea impatiens in our front flower beds, and they usually soon succumb to a fungal attack in our rainy weather, setting them back and requiring the replacement of a few. This year, I sprayed them with a 1% solution at the time of planting, and we have not seen any attack at all.

On the curative front, I had a pricey phalaenopsis mericlone contract an erwinia infection, so I sprayed it daily for a week with a 2% solution. The infection stopped immediately, and the plant recovered nicely.

[AlexS]

Thank you for the replies.


Inocucor would have been my first choice as I know it's actually being used with orchids, but unfortunately it isn't readily available in the UK, whereas the Microbe Life products are. As mentioned previously, I did find their website, where they say a lot about the products without actually saying anything at all, kind of off putting; but in the absence of any concrete test data I'm relying on the anecdotal reports of our smoked out friends. I did contact Microbe Life to ask if they could offer any advice or information concerning their products suitability for use with orchids, but they must not know themselves, as I never heard back from them.

Kindest regards,
Alex

[naoki]

Alex, I think Trichoderma are endophytic. So it means that the roots get infected by them (and the fungi lives inside of the roots). There are studies which shows that Trichoderma are extracted from root tissues (e.g T. viride from Cymbidium hybrid). But there are several species of Trichoderma, and some of them may not provide the protection. Also different strains have different protection effects. So I'm not completely sure if T. harzianum works well with orchids. But I have been occasionally using RootShield. It's a bit expensive, so I need to try home-brew this.

With effective microbes, I think EM-1 is probably in the UK. I'm doing side-by-side comparison (EM-1 vs no EM-1), but I"m not seeing much effect so far.

[Helene]

Naoki: gotta say, I just love those half-nerdy (as in a compliment) answers you give- I like the way you think, and the way you are able to simplify advanced processes in a way that makes it easy for most people to understand😊
Lol, but on topic- I have used root shield aswell- but have to order online. I dont care about the price, as you can see on my plants, the roots obviously loves it😎 (wish it didnt was that expensive though…)

So I'm interested in options- if any have tried other things that helps keep roots healthy? Home-brew sounds like fun😎

[AlexS]

Once again thank you for the replies.
The Trichoderma product that I opted for contains 4 species: Trichoderma harzianum, T. koningii, T. polysporum and T. viride There are a couple of websites that discuss T. harzianum in relation to orchids, but again it's anecdotal and not backed up by test results. No idea if any of the other species will be of any benefit.

Alas, despite continually complaining about a lack of methodically sound testing instead of anecdotal evidence, I won't be able to offer anything more myself as I don't have multiple types of the same plant; all of my Dendros are individuals (not that I anthropomorphise my orchids or anything ), so I won't be able to set up control groups.


Kindest regards,
Alex