What's new
  • Happy Birthday ICMag! Been 20 years since Gypsy Nirvana created the forum! We are celebrating with a 4/20 Giveaway and by launching a new Patreon tier called "420club". You can read more here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Fermented plant extracts

sophisto

Member
jaykush said:
hey g33k speak, that info is posted here multiple times, but its all good. a nice read for sure.

this is my favorite part
“It’s ten dollars,” Carandang says, “but you don’t need to buy it. Just make your own. I guarantee it will be better.”

also a few parts i think need mentioning.
"Last year, I saw Dierks’ brews as they came to life in his potting shed. They weren’t pretty, mostly soupy brown liquids in jugs and buckets, but the life inside them was astonishing. He went to give me a smell of one, labeled “Root Brew,” only to find the bottle cap had been sealed on by liquid seeping out from inside. He wrenched the plastic bottle between his hands, pulled, and bang! The cap popped off and liquid exploded all over the shed.

We stood there for a moment, our bare arms and faces and shirts brown and wet, Dennis holding what had become a sated volcano, calm but still dribbling out lava. “If this were chemicals we would be totally poisoned right now,” he said, “not to mention out of a lot of money. But that’s the beauty of it. Instead, your skin feels soft. It feels alive. And it’s free. I haven’t been this excited about farming for 25 years.”"

!!



Too funny I can only imagine the looks on there faces at the moment of detenation...........LOL

I said this earlier but I was thinking in the future of getting some sturdy cylinders with screw on lids that I could install a bleeder valve in the top to allow gas to escape.....seems like it would work...
 
I have some lacto brewing now- I used dry white rice and just rinsed it and used the water. Is that correct?? Some sites seem to be using cooked rice.
I'm brewing it in a plastic jug with air holes and screen/filter material on top.

I wonder if I could or shoud put it into glass or a clear plastic container when I need to seperate the lacto layer..??

The lacto should be a nice addition to my aquaponics.
 
well, after a tour of all my local asian stores, I struck out on the EM. I tried whole foods, but they didn't stock it either.

I did pick up some ginger root.
Has anyone made the garlic-ginger extract??
 

jaykush

dirty black hands
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I said this earlier but I was thinking in the future of getting some sturdy cylinders with screw on lids that I could install a bleeder valve in the top to allow gas to escape.....seems like it would work...

plastic bottles are fine imo, there cheap and reusable. when they go bad just toss em.

I have some lacto brewing now- I used dry white rice and just rinsed it and used the water. Is that correct?? Some sites seem to be using cooked rice.
I'm brewing it in a plastic jug with air holes and screen/filter material on top.

I wonder if I could or shoud put it into glass or a clear plastic container when I need to seperate the lacto layer..??

yes its the rice wash, thats how i do it and have told ppl to do it. i usually wash the rice twice to get a thicker colored liquid.

and i also used glass, a quart mason jar. then the final culture into a 1 gallon jug(also glass).
 

ThaiPhoon

Active member
Hey G33k Speak here is a link to a webstore in the US. I found it using a google search, there must be others...That is DAMN expensive, the same product here cost less than one dollar...I think that because this is "food grade". I have eaten the EM here and it hasn't made me sick! I breathe the EM sprays everyday while spraying as well...

I wouldn't mind buying some cheap EM here and shipping it out to whoever wants it. I guestimate that the small plastic 250 ml bottle of EM would cost roughly 10 US to send...just send me a PM if interested
 
Thanks for the answers y'all.
I guess i'm going to buy it from Dr. Higa and do it up properly.

The Lacto B sound better the more I read about it.....

I've got a sudden hankering for a nice microscope now.
 

MrFista

Active member
Veteran
Fishies like the lacto B geekspeak, I've reduced my feed a good 10 percent since the lacto about a month ago. I did the greenhouse and the fish got the drift. A few drops in pond to be sure... They're eating greens more too.
 
I'm reading up on Dr' Higa EM1, and they recommend it for aquaculture and for hydro... but it seem slike a small percentage of the solution... like 1 tsp per gallon.

What dilution ratio are you using???

I'm finally getting a little bit of a smell from my lacto jug today.

I wonder if I add yougurt instead of milk, if I'll get lactob casei???

anyone know what would favor Lactobacillus plantarum production??
 
Last edited:

ThaiPhoon

Active member
I usually spray straight EM on everything at 2ml/litre (1:500) Same ratio with FPE and EM-5 ferments. There is about 50% lactic acid bacteria in the EM, the other 50% is made up of groups of other types of microbes...
 
Ok so here is the next project

beneficial indigenous microorganisms.. considering the baptism with Hydroguard and Mycorrhizal fungi, I should have a boat-load of expensive microbes growing on my healthy roots, and surrounding substrate(lava rock).
I'm going to pull up a fresh rootball and some media, and put it into a rice box collection thingy. Let it grow for 5-7 days and then add some sugar and perhaps a little dose of yeast and ferment it out.

Here's the sticky wicket: should I use some of the mold/fungi/yellow WTFE that grows on the leaf debris on the grow bucket's surface??
At face value. that would seem to be taking the dreaded 'leaf mold/fungus' and growing more of it, and then pouring it over the roots....
 

MrFista

Active member
Veteran
Yellow - is it gluey? If so you don't want it that's some trichoderma battling it out with your myco's.

If it's not oozing slime it should be the myco's.

Put the rice in a container with lots of wee holes in the lid. Put this upside down on your growbed and let it innoculate. Then when it's colonising remove to a dark place let it go nuts, then extract that. This'll save you tearing out plants and possibly be more effective.

There's photos of mycos available on the web. If you know the name of the species in the innoculants you can do an image search and see if your growth is the same stuff.
 
Isn't Trich green??

This is more yellow.. and only on leaf debris on top of the bucket.

I wanted to use the rootball becuase I figured that'd be where most of the 'soil' microbes are.
 

MrFista

Active member
Veteran
Correct, and correct.

Some trich is yellow, and there's white, russet, lavender... now I'm messin around....

Yes, if you got root balls to spare, why not.
 

MrFista

Active member
Veteran
Pretty sure that is not AM fungi. Never seen an AM photo showing sporulating fruit like that - Love to hear other opinions.

My guess is that that is a composting fungi.
 
my milk broke!!!

into the different components that is.

There's a layer of something resembling cottage chese floating at the top - approx 20%
the rest looks like water

and there is an interesting circular pattern on the bottom.




 
Last edited:
I'm hoping to demistify it for everybody, myself included.

There's a little more smell coming from the pitchers now- but you have to be almost on top of them to smell it.

I'm not seeing a pronounced yellow layer like I was anticipating....but it hasn't been a full week yet.

has anyone else gone the DIY bacteria route??
 

jaykush

dirty black hands
ICMag Donor
Veteran
your lacto looks to be coming along ok. its not going to be mad yellow. slightly yellow haze is more like it. when its separating you know the lacto bacteria are there. looks like you need to make a LOT of lacto. your going to dilute that, then dilute again, then apply so that will make more than a few gallons of finished lacto b. liquid.

then you can use that in your FPE'S 1 part lacto liquid, 1 part water, 1 part plant matter( preferably crushed, and the use of beneficial plants) wait a few days and apply.
 

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top