Effective micro-organisms against botrytis?
 

I have had problem with botrytis in my greenhouse for many seasons now. I have tried all sorts of household remedies, but nothing seems to be really effective. There is not much home gardening products available here and now all agricultural fungicides and pesticides require training and license to purchase. Anyway I would not like to use any chemical fungicide, so I am in need of a biological ways to prevent botrytis.

This year I discovered effective micro-organisms, which are also used for bokashi composting. I have good insulated compost bin for kitchen waste, so I am not yet getting into the bokashi stuff, but I ordered EM concentrate made by an Austrian company called Multikraft. I activated it by fermenting the EM and molasses and have now been spraying my tomatoes with it. I got the fermenting done a bit too late, so I had already botrytis on three tomato stems, before I could start spraying.
I have been spraying the plants at least twice a week for a month now and it looks like this could help. One of the plants had the mold all around the stem and it killed that branch. In the two other ones the mold stopped spreading and looks like it has dried up.
I can't find info on the manufacturer's website that what exactly is in the EM concentrate. It just says that there is lactic acid bacteria, yeast, photosynthesis bacteria and other micro-organisms. I know that there are some products based on certain micro-organisms which work against botrytis, but those products are only available for big commercial greenhouses.

Has anyone here tried spraying the micros used in bokashi to their plants?

Sari

I haven't yet tried EM-1 and I haven't had a problem with Botrytis cinerea (Gray Mold) but the consortium or microorganisms in EM-1 are typically:

Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus delbrueckii, Bacillus subtilis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Rhodopseudomonas palustris

Do a google search on bacillus amyloliquefaciens boytris

It seems to have some potential and products containing the bacillus are not too expensive.

Was reading about "Actinovate" the other day, it is Streptomyces lydicus, and reported to be effective against botrytis.

B. subtilis is recommended for many things - the whole EM gang sounds really benign so I hope it does continue to work for you. :yes:
I get botrytis at some point in the greenhouse every year. It's the thing that brings them down at the end of season come what may. But it's terrible to have in a wet spring or cool summer when the plants are still setting fruit. :no: Always interested to hear of ways of controlling it, for the tough season that's just around the corner.

Effective micro against boytryris
 

B.. subtilis is the bomb. I think Companion is more effective than Seranade. It comes on a small jug also.