Nice! Love those baskets!! I hate using the plastic strawberry containers so I’ve been on the lookout! Good score @BorderTownBud
another good idea would be to make a liquid IMO out of it - in the tune of a JMS from jadam. get your moldy rice in a sock, pantyhose, bucket paint filter, etc. and hang it or dunk it like a tea bag in a bucket of molasses water to innoculate it, and wait 1-3 days until the microbes are the most active for best effect, with the brew bubbling at its strongest, and then use it in the garden. No airstone needed.
fun fact: Jadam recommends boiled potatoes over molasses, they think the latter is a bit acidic (and expensive), but compost tea and EM folk don’t seem to have issues with it and it’s a lot more convenient. Especially when you can get a 5 gal bucket at the feed n seed and have enough for years worth of ferments
I use JMS quite often. Treat my whole property with it. I always use potatoes, never occurred to me to use this! Damn, great idea… next time
My thoughts on the molasses is that it’s too easy for the microbes. I want them strong and hardy so a simple starch doe a better job on developing the super heroes in my opinion. But for a quick aerated tea it works wonders
Another great idea
A friend of ours was just doing this with the potatoes. So the potatoes are just another way of getting away from store bought sugars and more temperate ph?
My understanding was that aeration was not needed/used. Are you adding leaf liter and mollasis in a aerated brewer with good results?
I may have been confusing… I don’t aerate the JMS. You want that anaerobic.
I Only aerate quick compost or EWC teas with the molasses.
no aeration on my part, unless stirring or forgetting to put the lid on counts I always wondered why the compost tea folk were so anal about it. They act like anaerobes are the death
and yep, afaik those are the main benefits of using potatoes, easy to source locally and cheaply, and they (allegedly) are more neutral in ph
Raw or cold potatoes after cooking, have long chain sugars, which make it tougher for bacteria to break up and eat, so they will multiply to break it down faster.
The same applies to your gut bacteria, cold cooked potatoe and rice are great pre biotic foods, and actually lower insulin resistance and lower blood sugar levels compared to when freshly cooked and hot.
Mollasses, and cooked hot rice or potato has less benificial action on bacteria as it now contains short chain sugars, broken down by the heat of cooking, which the bacteria need no help breaking down and will speed up blood glucose release and increase insulin resistance, if you are already pre diabetic.
So if you want a strong rapidly multiplying bacteria, potatoes are probably better to use than molasses in the garden.
Welp. I have a horror story to share about the company I bought the beneficials from — but this thread prob isn’t the place.
Anyways. In the spirit of knf/jadam, and relying on microbes & enzymes… how do you guys feel about Doctor Zymes products? What about enzymes in general… I remember hearing Coot on podcasts exclaiming the benefits of purple corn, barley, etc etc. i’ve made enzyme teas with success, but truthfully I’m not 100% positive of what they actually do
And while we’re at it, who here uses sulfur?
Thank you for this thread. Got my interest peaked.
I dont personally use Dr. Zymes but I know @CrunchBerries does so he may have more info there.
Im all for enzymes though, FPJ/FFJ are loaded with enzymes and hormones from what I can gather.
From my limited understanding the enzymes mimic the exudates of the plant.
I’ve used dr zymes and make my own citric acid/yeast based ferment insecticide and pesticide(pretty much homemade dr zymes) and swear by it for my ipm it has been a great preventative on the indoor and outdoor plants and has been effective for a few infections I’ve had with my plants (thrips,gnats) I use a foliar and root drench
I’m glad to hear. I’m gonna give Doctor Zymes a try as a baseline, and I’ll support their company/spread the word about their product if it makes an improvement in my grow.
But it always made more sense to me to figure out my own ferment, like you
I appreciate your input a lot.
@lambchopedd I don’t use Dr. Zymes in my IPM routine, but have a great diy IPM recipe that was shared with me if your interested.
I use alfalfa and mung bean SSTs in veg and corn SSTs in flower. Ground malted barley is topdressed 3ish time in the probiotic sip style I’ve adopted.
Here a good link explaining the role of enzymes in plant nutrition and uptake:
I use the bamboo baskets found at Asian food stores. Absolutely perfect - have a lid and are flat like plates - I think they are used to steam food.
Sorry I misspoke… thought I saw that somewheres
Yep They use them for dumplings among other thing, that’s what I’m using the bamboo steam baskets like these
https://www.amazon.com/Bamboo-Steamer-Basket/s?k=Bamboo+Steamer+Basket
Cheap like @Soiltech said from the asian grocer
I use dr. Zymes! Love it, can’t say enough good, successfully battled fungus gnats (sorta) aphids and PM with it
There it is!! Knew one of the crew was familiar
Nice thread!! Definitely its smth worth checking, also apart from KNF i recommend JADAM method, in general anything that used to live makes good food for the garden!, The nutes industry want you to waste money, thats why they tell you 2ml/l per week, when imo, its best to give food to the plants when they ask for it, meanwhile plain water, also you can make ferments with leftovers, or even human manure lol!, Anyway, I also advice if you can getting some chickens, their manure is really good!