Testing Beneficial Bacteria in Ebb and Flow (AK47 with Great White)

I’ve finally got some free time and have decided to do another grow journal. In this journal, I will be testing a product called Great White which is a product that supplies beneficial bacteria to the root zone. In theory, this product should aid in the uptake of nutrients and hopefully the end results are measurable. I paid around $35-40 for this 4oz container and judging by the scoop size and the application rate, this stuff should last though about 9 harvests.

My strain for this grow is AK47 from Serious Seeds and it will be grown with DynaGro nutrients and a few additives. To ‘feed the microbes’, I’ll be including floralicious plus and sweet from botanicare.

Here comes the fun part which doesn’t have much to do with the GW testing; at the end of this journal, I will be selecting a subscriber to test the AK47 and would love it if they would write a review of sorts at the end. Be honest in your review. You’re judging the strain, my growing practices and the products that I used in this grow. The sample will probably be about 2 grams and will be discretely sent to a location of your choosing.

Let’s get started:





Day 1

I am super interested in this. I always see this stuff and never have used it. I will be watching this.

Subscribed.


Your technique is very similar to mine (although I seem to be much better at hanging mylar than you!!)

Hey brewer, cool thread..scribed. what do you think of this: Fungi.com sells tabs that contain a more complete army of microbes than even great white offers, and for only $6 an ounce. This product would replace the aquashield and ZHO by a mile. It sounds like your building your army in your rez (floralicious plus and sweet) ? And not in a separate container (tea)..... Seems easier than what im doing now... 10 gal tote, h20, microbes,molasses, worm casting in a sock.. and waiting 48 hrs, then I dump 1 cup to a gallon, then I cup everyday. Leftovers stay in my fridge up to 10 days.

frogster said:

Hey brewer, cool thread..scribed. what do you think of this: Fungi.com sells tabs that contain a more complete army of microbes than even great white offers, and for only $6 an ounce. This product would replace the aquashield and ZHO by a mile. It sounds like your building your army in your rez (floralicious plus and sweet) ? And not in a separate container (tea)..... Seems easier than what im doing now... 10 gal tote, h20, microbes,molasses, worm casting in a sock.. and waiting 48 hrs, then I dump 1 cup to a gallon, then I cup everyday. Leftovers stay in my fridge up to 10 days.

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I premix sounds interesting, maybe I'll try that when I apply Great White again. I've actually already run a Great White test and noticed a few things as a result and I'm more-or-less looking to see if the things I noticed are repeatable in this journal.

I have been talking with the owner of extreme nutrients about their myco mixes. He seems to know his stuff and when he doesn't he will call me back and tell me when he asks those that know. I want to run beneficials in my hydroton but I need to get a choramine filter first.

great thread deffinately subscribed +rep i like to follow everything this guy tests!

Nothing exciting as it's day 8 and they look just fine. Res change today, DynaGro nutes with sweet and Floralicious plus, RO water, 1.3 EC, 5.9 pH, that about it. I think next week I'll give them another dose of the beneficials as the instructions suggest every 2-3 weeks. So far, it's business as usual.

frogster said:

Hey brewer, cool thread..scribed. what do you think of this: Fungi.com sells tabs that contain a more complete army of microbes than even great white offers, and for only $6 an ounce. This product would replace the aquashield and ZHO by a mile. It sounds like your building your army in your rez (floralicious plus and sweet) ? And not in a separate container (tea)..... Seems easier than what im doing now... 10 gal tote, h20, microbes,molasses, worm casting in a sock.. and waiting 48 hrs, then I dump 1 cup to a gallon, then I cup everyday. Leftovers stay in my fridge up to 10 days.

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For what it's worth...

Preparing a microbe tea outside of the res is not necessary in an ebb and flow setup. We do it in DWC when the system has been shown to be prone to root slime because the slime can feed off the food before the bennies and outgrow them. In my experience, prevention of this type of slime is inherent to an ebb and flow system as the roots sit in air most of the time. So, for ebb and flow, breeding them in the res makes sense. Just dump in some GW powder and some food every once in a while and be done with it.

Of course the tea would offer a few advantages. Using EWC you would get a more diverse microbe community. You wouldn't have to add food or housing to the res. You have a cheap supply of freshly active microbes in case you need to refill a res on the spot. Plus the great white would end up lasting longer, since we only use half dose in the tea, and then use the tea to inoculate gallons and gallons of water. If none of these are important to the grower, then no need to complicate things.

The product at fungi.com is exactly the same as great white, but without the bio-stimulant package or the plant vitamins.

Subbed and +REP. Got some Great White on shelf for my next cycle for use with my H&G nutes. Can't wait to try it. Currently using Plant Success Granular myco and its great. Great White is their premier product...can't wait to see/try it!

subbed...............

Love learning the truth and you always share it freely

namaste'

Today is day 15 and things are as normal as they can be. Plants are doing fine with no issues whatsoever. One thing I want to point out as I've seen this question posted a few times this past week is that beneficials have zero affect on your pH, zero! I've run beneficials in veg before and did a whole grow with them with a different strain using GH nutes and the pH stability was no different with or without the bugs.

Again, res change today, DynaGro nutes with sweet and Floralicious plus, RO water, 1.3 EC (~930 ppm on the 442 scale), 5.9 pH.

Very interesting about the bennies and pH. I was justwondering earlier today if the bennies change my pH and to what extent.

Plants look nice. Deep solid green color. Nice budlettes!

Microbes!? Ewww, no!

subscribed.

subb'd. let's see it

Interesting new test HB. I notice you're running Ro water now. What do you think of it, any noticable differences?

Have you run a comparision between Dyna vs. Dyna plus sweet and floralicious?

I must also mention that because of your dyna vs. gh comparision, that I've been running Dynagro for a bit. Only half way through flower right now, so I can't give my thought on it for that. But, damn I like what I saw in veg. Nice clear res., less PH adjustment and a quart of grow will last me months. Can't beat that.

surphin said:

Interesting new test HB. I notice you're running Ro water now. What do you think of it, any noticable differences?

Have you run a comparision between Dyna vs. Dyna plus sweet and floralicious?

I must also mention that because of your dyna vs. gh comparision, that I've been running Dynagro for a bit. Only half way through flower right now, so I can't give my thought on it for that. But, damn I like what I saw in veg. Nice clear res., less PH adjustment and a quart of grow will last me months. Can't beat that.

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My tap water this season jumped in ppm to mid 300's which is not only an issue for hydroponics, but my brewing as well. I've only been using RO for a month or so and as far as a 'difference', I can't see any between using RO water and using my old tap water which was low 200's, and that's a good thing. Using my 300+ppm tap water was giving me some issues in soil so the RO unit for soil and for brewing was a necessity. The nice thing about RO water is that I know exactly what minerals my beer and my plants are getting. With tap water fluctuating 100+ppm, I don't know if one month I'm getting more calcium or magnesium or sodium or chloride or sulfate.

As far as running sweet with DynaGro, I have not done that yet. I've run floralicious Plus and florablend with DynaGro, but not sweet. I need sweet to feed the microbes and while sweet is more than just sugars, based on previous tests, it will not be the item that makes a noticeable difference. Keep in mind that I've already tested Great White with sweet and floralicious plus and noticed a few things when using GH as my base. I'm hoping to see those results (or lack thereof) again.

'scribed to another of your awesome experiments! can't wait!

homebrewer said:

My tap water this season jumped in ppm to mid 300's which is not only an issue for hydroponics, but my brewing as well. I've only been using RO for a month or so and as far as a 'difference', I can't see any between using RO water and using my old tap water which was low 200's, and that's a good thing. Using my 300+ppm tap water was giving me some issues in soil so the RO unit for soil and for brewing was a necessity. The nice thing about RO water is that I know exactly what minerals my beer and my plants are getting. With tap water fluctuating 100+ppm, I don't know if one month I'm getting more calcium or magnesium or sodium or chloride or sulfate.

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I agree with you that knowing exactly what is in your water is nice, and RO gives you that consistently. Not sure about your area, but the municipalities around here have been known to "flush their systems" with massive amounts of chlorine and chloramine.

Since going RO have had to make any adjustments to the amount of nutes used to get the same EC/ppm?