By microbes I mean any additive that brings life to the soil and/or forms a symbiotic relation with the plant roots.
Products like fish brew’s “bold flo” or “rise and thrive soil conditioner”, “great white”, “real growers recharge”, “fish sh*t”, “EM-1”, “tribus” or any number of other mycorrhizae/fungi and/or bacterial inoculants/additives.
Ideally, you just make your own. Then you know you are getting live microbes instead of paying for a bottle that may or may not still have live (or dormant) microbes. Like with a simple compost or worm castings tea.
Also, making your own LAB (lactic acid bacteria) is super cheap and easy. That’s a great bacterial additive for soil.
All you need is some water you boiled rice or noodles or potatoes in, some milk and a jar. (I can provide the details if you want)
When I grow in soil I try to use organic methods and rely on the soil (and its micro life) to feed the plant. I provide organic food for the soil microbes and the microbes feed the plant. The plant basically trades the microbes for what it wants and they provide it. A good living soil helps keep the plants healthy because the soil is feeding the plant for you (instead of you having to worry about adding the right balance of salt based nutrients). You just provide a buffet.
If you are interested in this subject, there is an amazing book on sale right now called “teaming with microbes” by Jeff Lowenfels. The kindle version is on sale for $3.99 right now. Highly, highly recommend that book. The beginning (part 1) might be kind of boring for some people but the later chapters put all that info into practice. it’s filled with so much info. It definitely made me a better gardener.
Or check out Dr. Elaine Ingham. She has a website and lots of YouTube videos on the “soil food web”.
Build-a-soil also has an excellent YouTube video series. They put out new videos weekly. It’s mostly all about growing weed (unlike the other 2 I mentioned).
If you aren’t planning to really grow organic this first run, then this info may not be of as much interest to you.
Microbe additives are still helpful with salt based grows, but not as much IMO.