Can actinovate stunt seedling growth?

RayR · May 28, 2013

All good questions, probably would make a microbiologist say hmmmm?
All I know is microbial competition for real estate and food sources is normal in nature, but what happens in a laboratory brew or a petri dish, a pot culture, compost tea, on leaf surfaces or a garden bed can be very different. In healthy soil there is a vast number of different species of bacteria, archea, algae, fungi, yeasts and higher predators like protozoa, nematodes, mites and other critters. Things tend to sort themselves out there, everybody has their niche and survives but no one group of species dominates. Various species of Lactobacillus and Streptomyces exist together in natural soils without any problem I'm aware of, but it looks like when you put them in a confined environment together things can get ugly.

How they interact above ground on leaf surfaces is a good question. Leaves and stems are a tough neighborhood for microbes, first thing is whether they are UV tolerant or not, only UV tolerant species can withstand the UV radiation from sunlight, everybody else is dead meat.
Just quickly looking for info on Lactobacillus species, it appears some are UV tolerant and some are not. Some have been isolated from leaf surfaces. Where those species that you are culturing in bokashi from EM-1 fit in, I don't know. I think we would have to look into that.

May 28, 2013	#16
RayR Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Cheektowaga, NY Posts: 2,466	All good questions, probably would make a microbiologist say hmmmm? All I know is microbial competition for real estate and food sources is normal in nature, but what happens in a laboratory brew or a petri dish, a pot culture, compost tea, on leaf surfaces or a garden bed can be very different. In healthy soil there is a vast number of different species of bacteria, archea, algae, fungi, yeasts and higher predators like protozoa, nematodes, mites and other critters. Things tend to sort themselves out there, everybody has their niche and survives but no one group of species dominates. Various species of Lactobacillus and Streptomyces exist together in natural soils without any problem I'm aware of, but it looks like when you put them in a confined environment together things can get ugly. How they interact above ground on leaf surfaces is a good question. Leaves and stems are a tough neighborhood for microbes, first thing is whether they are UV tolerant or not, only UV tolerant species can withstand the UV radiation from sunlight, everybody else is dead meat. Just quickly looking for info on Lactobacillus species, it appears some are UV tolerant and some are not. Some have been isolated from leaf surfaces. Where those species that you are culturing in bokashi from EM-1 fit in, I don't know. I think we would have to look into that.