I can't stand watching people buy this (and I got tired of doing it myself). One of my favorite products. Nonetheless a mason jar, 5 gallon bucket, and two ingredients will do the job. Is it just the cell culture doing the work or is it a secondary metabolite to the culture which requires careful consideration through fermentation? Answer: it's just the cell culture. In Serinade the Bacillis Subtillis doesn't actually do much of the bioside activity - this is a case where secondary metabolite lipopeptides are the major active component (and only active component). The Bacillis strain in Roots Excel has been around since 1930 and there is no shortage of information or alternative (and cheaper) sources. Kodiak HB is the spore form which is tilled into fields by the acre. This is a good choice for in-the-ground growers.
A fresh culture: Innoculate Bacillis Subtillis GB03 strain (1mL roots excelurator) into a mason jar with 50mL Potato Dextrose Broth (24g/l) (sterile, preferably) and culture at 30-37c preferably for 32 hours +/-8 hours. A shake table is preferred (I use an old turntable with broken needle at 78rpm). Next add more PDB (24g/l) to 500mL. Repeat culture conditions. Shake is not entirely necessary. Finally just fill innoculate a 5 gallon bucket with your 500mL and run the same batch process. 3 or 4 days total and you have enough Bacillis Subtillis GB03 to get a good start on about qty 300 of 300 gallon pots.
Is there a secret to the overpriced version? Yes they take a lot of effort to make it dormant but not in spore form, and also to keep it in liquid and stable for a 2 year shelf life. What's the shelf life of the brew? A few months. Just do it fresh it doesn't sound that hard does it? It's a strong culture so the first innoculation is important but everyting else aught to come out with a very small chance of contamination. Only other bacillis maybe but B. Subtillis spits out some interesting biosidic proteins which slow the growth of any competitors. Oh and if you are concerned that there is a secondary metabolite missing it would be cellulase --- don't bother, the Bacillis will excrete it while feeding on the plant root sugars.
Am I missing something or did I just blow the lid off this bitch!?
A fresh culture: Innoculate Bacillis Subtillis GB03 strain (1mL roots excelurator) into a mason jar with 50mL Potato Dextrose Broth (24g/l) (sterile, preferably) and culture at 30-37c preferably for 32 hours +/-8 hours. A shake table is preferred (I use an old turntable with broken needle at 78rpm). Next add more PDB (24g/l) to 500mL. Repeat culture conditions. Shake is not entirely necessary. Finally just fill innoculate a 5 gallon bucket with your 500mL and run the same batch process. 3 or 4 days total and you have enough Bacillis Subtillis GB03 to get a good start on about qty 300 of 300 gallon pots.
Is there a secret to the overpriced version? Yes they take a lot of effort to make it dormant but not in spore form, and also to keep it in liquid and stable for a 2 year shelf life. What's the shelf life of the brew? A few months. Just do it fresh it doesn't sound that hard does it? It's a strong culture so the first innoculation is important but everyting else aught to come out with a very small chance of contamination. Only other bacillis maybe but B. Subtillis spits out some interesting biosidic proteins which slow the growth of any competitors. Oh and if you are concerned that there is a secondary metabolite missing it would be cellulase --- don't bother, the Bacillis will excrete it while feeding on the plant root sugars.
Am I missing something or did I just blow the lid off this bitch!?
