Are bottled microbe products a ripoff?
I started this discussion in another thread and wanted to discuss it more.
How do we know there is life in those bottles?
How do we know what that life is?
Proper microbe activity should make bottles explode.
Maybe they are not alive at all?
How would we know?
The only way to tell is with a proper microscope.
We had this discussion with Microbe man from http://www.microbeorganics.com and Tad from https://www.kisorganics.com and a few others back in 2013-2014
Here is how it all started.
Posted May 11, 2018 (edited)
Thanks to the guys over at The Logical Gardener for this.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture finds big problems with little organisms**
Although a product may promise special ingredients, would you be willing to pay $150 if you knew all it contained was colored water? To help keep this from happening, the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Fertilizer Program samples and analyzes products as part of its consumer protection role. Most recently, the program has looked at products that contain microorganisms– or at least claim to have them. The results of the analyses are less than encouraging.
“Some products have met the claim and have passed, but the percentage is very low,” says fertilizer enforcement specialist Toby Primbs.
ODA’s Fertilizer Program is the only one in the nation checking on ingredient claims made for microbiological products. The program began testing products claiming to contain beneficial bacteria and one type of beneficial fungi (Trichoderma ) in 2013. Of the 51 products tested for bacteria, only nine met their guarantees. Of the 14 products tested for Trichoderma , none met their guarantees. Last year, the program began testing products with mycorrhizal fungi, which form partnerships with plant roots for mutual benefit. Of the 17 products tested, only three met the guarantees made on the product label.
“Many of these products are being sold at a premium price, yet nobody was looking to see if these microbes were actually in the product,” says ODA fertilizer specialist Matt Haynes. “We had anecdotal information that some products had nothing added despite what was said on the label. Once we started looking, more often than not, the companies making these products were not able to back their claims.”
As an example, a one-liter retail container of a fertilizer product that claimed to have both fungi and bacteria sold for $87.50, yet testing did not indicate the presence any of the microbes.
Not the proper document but all I could find now.
https://www.lakeoswegoreview.com/archives/community/oda-finds-big-problems-with-little-organisms/article_3b631f83-0990-58de-9a46-85a6150aaad6.html
