Using Microbial Innoculants in the soil & garden

Thanks for all of your help!

I will wait until the weather warms up a little more. Our average for this time of year is 52 for the high and 30 for the low, so we are still getting some freezing temperatures at night.

I will keep adding all of the coffee grounds I can get, and do some work on my lasagna garden to get it ready by warm weather.

I will just have to "hold my horses" as Mama used to say. I don't want to kill those microbes!

Thanks again to all who answered!

Pat

Pat - go out and take some photos of your current soil conditions! This will give you something to compare to after a year of "soil rehab". It will be interesting to see if your soil is noticeably warmer next winter, after a year of organic amendments and EM applications. Keep us posted!

I've found that chopping or not chopping makes no difference in mine either and the longer it sits the more it breaks down.
I've mixed up 3 batches so far of the EM and have started using it to water the roses and such outside to give them an extra boost along wtih hoping to get the veggie garden planted soon and spray things with it.

I updated my journal the other day with pictures of the place since we have cleared things out from all the overgrown weeds and brush so I can take pictures as the year goes along to see the difference in using the EM1 and composting.

garden mermain, Mibus2

That's a terrific idea! That way I will be able to see the difference from the "before" and "after" pictures, instead of relying on my (very questionable) memory!

Thanks!
Pat

Reports from around the world have been made about areas treated with lots of organic matter and EM1 having snow melt earlier than on other places not treated. (did that make sense?). The microbial activity keeps the soil temperature up as much as 2 degrees C. This usually happens when 20 or more gallons per acre are applied yearly and lots of organic matter is incorporated into the soil. The organic matter can be crop/plant residue and/or manure. The organic matter supplies food for the microbes to survive. This is another reason why compost piles, even as far up as Nova Scotia, will not freeze. We have people around the great lakes that can keep their compost piles warm and steaming in the winter. However, something as small as a bokashi bucket will freeze solid. There just isn't enough mass.

Eric, that is amazing. I am sooooooo excited my bottle of EM came today!! I have the Bokashi working, life is good. Now need to get a sprayer and we'll be all set to get er done! :)

Re Sprayers: I like Hudson's products. I have broker a couple of Gilmour's. The ones that come with Miracle Grow work really well. I think they are made by Hudson.

Pump Sprayers, Again, Hudson makes a sturdy product.

Thanks Eric, I'll check them out. I'm looking for a back pack type that I can manage.

Nope. The reason many soils freeze hard is because they lack microbial activity and organic matter. Because of this, the depleted soils freeze solid. You are not going to melt to polar ice cap with the activity of the beneficial microbes or create global warming by re-establishing populations of microbes that have been killed by pollution and synthetic chemicals.

The presence and activity of beneficial bacteria are desirable. The lack of them is what we call disease, putrefied, and/or sick.

I'm waiting for payday so I can finally go get a good sprayer and start spraying everything instead of using a watering can..things are starting to bud out and already have a few cool weather veggies out.
I can be patient but I want to see the results of my labor even if it is just my first year here and in doing all of this.

A good hose end sprayer will run about $15 at Lowe's or The Home Depot.
A pump sprayer will be about $15-$25. A backpack can run as much as $200....overkill if you ask me. I like my pump sprayer that I paid $10 for about 4 years ago.

well we have a pump one but DH used it last year Sept when we moved in and I got poison ivy to spray it all to get rid of the PI
so I don't think I want to use it fro spraying the plants.
so when he gets his SS check I'll talk him into getting me a new one to use LOL

I interested in one of the backpack that''s battery operated. These old joints could use a break from a pumper I think. I've seen a few for about $30. I want to go down and have a better look. I think the big box stores probably have em.

mmm now that's an idea will have to look around and see if I can find one of those DH would probably use it then to spray for me...hehehehe

I have a Stihl backpack sprayer I really like. The pump mechanism is a lever that sticks straight out from my waist at the bottom of the sprayer. I find it easy to pump with these 67 year old muscles (if they can still be called muscles!). I'm not sure what model mine is, and its too cold to trek out to the barn to see... but it looks like this one:
http://www.stihlusa.com/blowers/SG20.html

Stihl makes some nice stuff. I know they have large gas powered ones we have used on commercial operations...chicken barns, hog barns, etc...for odor control.

$30 is real cheap! Sounds like a great deal. You might also want to check out Craig's list.

Good idea, DH says that's closer to $70 on price, but my joints don't care, LOL

Ode Magazine article online. Discussion with Dr. Higa, inventor of Effective Microorganisms Technology(TM): http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/3/little_organisms_big_revolution

I just got back from a trip to San Diego. I got some bare root raspberries and blackberries when I was there (from Nourse). I got sick and had to wait over two weeks to come home after I got them. I put them in a bucket with water and a little EM!. They all seem to be fine. I've now planted most of them. Used a few drops of EM1 on some potted plants and some of the really shot up. I'm making my first big batch of extended EM (found some cheap molasses at Big Lots). I'm also making some weed liquid.

Going to Santa Rosalia tomorrow to pick up from the veteranrian a dog who ate most of a light bulb. While there I'll go to the lumberyard I deal with and see if I can get sawdust to make another batch of bokashi.

katiebear

Ok, I have what seems to me a rediculous question, but here goes. If I use only EM on my roses, daylilies, hibiscus, brugmansia, bouganvilla, lilies of all sorts, will they bloom with no other fertilizer?

Maybe, maybe not. It really depends on what your soil is made out of. If you have a lot of organic matter in the soil and regularly add compost or manure and occasional minerals, the plants may do just fine without anything else. The microbes in the EM solution makes the nutrients in the soil more available to the plants. If there are no nutrients there to begin with, you may still need to add something eventually.

I have been adding compost twice a year for about 7 years. But I didn't add any last fall or this spring. I have been sick and now I'm trying to catch up at work. What if I made compost tea instead of adding compost. It seems so much easier and faster. I think I'm getting too old to spend so much time down on my hands and knees.:)

silver, have you used any other fertilizers other than the compost?
You may have enough in your soil at the moment. Try using the EM every 1-2 weeks and watch how your plants are doing.

You might also consider doing sheet composting (lasagne method) and just layer the plant materials under your roses etc as they become available. Let them break down in place.

I hadn't thought of that GM. Lasagna sounds pretty good.:)

There is a new em site. It is www.emrojapan.com.

katiebear

Great! Thanks for the link.
:)

There was also an article on Bokashi in a Seattle newspaper recently: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/nwgardens/355605_lovejoy20.html

The emrojapan.com site is the new English website for EMRO. It has a searchable database of reports on EM Technology™.

I am also posting a new blog about the difference between bokashi and compost. I'll put a link up when I'm done.
Eric

Here's a new blog: http://effective-microorganisms.blogspot.com/
I also linked from one blog on Bokashi to Dave's.

Thanks Eric. I read somewhere that the trend was to call Bokashi "fermented food waste" rather than compost as the material is not yet broken down into compost, but rather a preceding step. My worms love it just the same.

Looks like we were posting at the same time.

Great blog! Nice to have more info on using EM.

Thanks again.

Great blog, Erik. Thanks

Hey, Thanks for the comments on the blog....

Yes, bokashi is not compost. I'm hoping we can get the subject clearer for everyone.
Have you seen this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5788201599782970976&q=effective+microorganisms&total=35&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

Yes, that is another way you can use the fermented food waste. It will act as a compost additive and accelerate the breakdown of materials in the compost pile because it adds lots of nutrients and live microbes.

Thank you so much, Eric, for clarifying this for me. I am amazed at how much fermented food waste I've been generating now that I use ALL my scraps. And as garden mermaid says, the earthworms love turning it into compost!

If we want to see the power of recycling, EM Technology™ really makes it possible! It is amazing how much stuff you can divert from the garbage can. When I lived on the Cape, I used to collect all the leaves from the yard and my neighbors' and grind them up to make bokashi. This would make a great mulch and was really cheap!

Some of us have to snatch leaves at the midnight hour since a number of municipalities have now made it illegal to take bagged yard waste from the curb. You'd think they would appreciate the fact that some folks are willing to do the composting for them.

You're kidding! That is crazy!

Crazy, yes. Kidding, no.
Fortunately some folks will agree to let you come rake up the leaves from their yards and cart them off.
:)