Beneficials And Mineral Nutes in Coco

[TanzanianMagic]

Just a question. I have grown autoflowerers in coco before, and like it very much. My question is this:

Canna Coco A+B is mineral based. However, Canna Coco coir has trichoderma beneficial bacteria in it.

I thought bacteria couldn't work with mineral based nutrients? How do they survive the acid that you add to the nutrient solution to keep pH in check?

So my question is - can you use beneficial fungi and bacteria with mineral based nutrients? And why don't they mess with the pH, as bacteria like a pH much higher than the ideal for hydro/coco?

 

[3gunpete]

Good question, i was wondering the same thing.

 

[Chomp]

Bonecarver set us straight

Chomp

 

[maxmurder]

So my question is - can you use beneficial fungi and bacteria with mineral based nutrients? And why don't they mess with the pH, as bacteria like a pH much higher than the ideal for hydro/coco?

you should ask the bonecarver

 

[bonecarver_OG]

ok first thing;

trichoderma is not bacteria.

trichoderma or Trichoderma harzianum is an anaerobic funghus. it means it a funghus that does not need oxygen to live.

ok i hope i can explain the PH part like this

most pure PH-down is max 30-40% pureness, BUT since the acid is watered down from maybe a 30-40% pureness in the bottle, to just traces of acid in the final mix. obviously u guys gone to school and u know an acid solution is far from corrosive at that strength.

its Ph is only slightly acidic when it is at feeding strength. msot bacteria seem to thrive from 6.7 to 7.5 - so i dont think a ph of 6.0 or around that will kill it. might only reduce reproduction speed.

a part from that bacteria needs minerals and many other things to procreate. if there isnt food for them, they wont live for long.. or grow either.

"In addition to water and the correct salt balance, bacteria also require a wide variety of elements, especially carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus, potassium, iron, magnesium and calcium. Growth factors, such as vitamins and pyrimidines and purines (the building blocks of DNA), are also necessary"

anyway, beneficial bacteria is much harder to kill than what most ppl think, unless you throw pure BLEACH on them. exactly as many other bacteria.

PK 13-14 doesnt either affect beneficials too much in the coco. actually for comparison you can figure out it is the MOST common additive to all agriculture in the world is PK in different forms, since it is the most easiest solluble minerals in the upper earth crust.

any acidic rain ( oh now u think the rain will kill bacteria too) leeches these minerals with much ease.


also for acidity;
any subteranean water on the earth is mostly acidic, from sulphur and other mineral compounds. even forrest rivers and subterranean water in areas with strong vegetacion is acidic from the organic content putrifying creating humic acid.


i hope some day these hippie rumours will fade away.. all mineral nutrients are made out of minerals, but once in the bottle , for the beneficials it will make little difference. all nutrients found in Canna Coco nutes when bottled are ready to use for plants, with beneficials included.

and more about trichoderma... . trichoderma has a colonization span that is a bit too long really to allways be efficient for all grows - its so slow that there is no real benefit in adding trichoderma late into the coco. the coco needs to be inoculated and colonized several months or even up to half a year before planting.

luckilly canna does that for us...

but also this is clear that for plant beneficiency, adding trichoderma too late is useless.. just to remind u peeps that when u buy trichoderma, it is normally in spore form, meaning it will take up to 6 months or more before the pots will have full benefit of it (properly colonized by the funghi), and that is only if the coco is fully colonized, wich is almost completelly unlikelly.. so this far Cannas method seems to be a winner, and almost all producers of products for aplying trichoderma in foliar sprays etc, are the scammers... unless you use it as insecticide and not a beneficial...

peace

 

[TanzanianMagic]

Bonecarver,

Thanks for your excellent comment. I would like to ask - is it any use to feed mycorrhizal fungi with sugars or other foods?

 

[bonecarver_OG]

ill keep getting deeper into the subject, but ehre we go... its intersting stuff

mycorrhizal funghi is funghus that live in collaboration with an other plant, usually by nutrient exchange by direct means in the roots.

this means the funghus NEEDS the plant to eat. the funghus takes its sugar from THE PLANTS ROOTS.

it is QUITE a complex process, imagine that carbohydrates are moving inside the plant from usually the leaves, to the roots, where they get eaten by the shroom.

so

it means plain and simple one thing, when u feed nutes into the pot, it goes mostly thru the plant into the funghus. in that very order.

now u might ask WTF is this good for?! it sounds like its a parasite?!?!

well the good thing is that the plant and the mycorrhizae has some business going on, what happens is that mycorhizza absorbs water and minerals easier than the plant roots, and gives that to the plant.

all good everybody wins

there is further benefits form the exchange, like major draugth resistance, increased mineral uptake, incresed pathogen resistance etc etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza