One of the best and easiest ways to take your garden to the next level is just by giving your plants some beneficial microbes. Beneficial microbes, besides, helping protect your plants from harmful micro organisms, actually help your plants use your nutrient solution, particularly nitrogen, more effectively. They colonize around your roots, making them bigger and stronger, and in turn making your plants healthier overall.
But using beneficial microbes in hydroponics is not as simple as just mixing them in with your nutrient solution. You also have to work to ensure their survival and do what you can to ensure that they thrive. Without tending to your beneficial bacteria, they might die off, or at least not populate your roots as quickly as you might hope.
Here are some of the smartest ways you can ensure the survival of your beneficial microbes.
Avoid Using Hydrogen Peroxide – If you use hydrogen peroxide in your nutrient solution either to keep your solution properly oxygenated or to kill off any bacterial or fungal diseases that might harm you garden. You have to make sure that you stop using this product before you use any beneficial microbes. This compound doesn’t make a distinction between helpful and harmful bacteria and will totally kill off any beneficial microbes you are putting in your nutrient solution.
Check Your Nutrient Temperature – Whenever you want to keep your leftovers from spoiling, you probably stick them in the refrigerator. This is because the colder temperatures slow the development of bacteria. But when you want to actually encourage the development of bacteria, you need to make sure that you nutrient solution is warm. Keep your nutrient solution somewhere between sixty six and seventy one degrees. If it gets too cold, not only will your bacteria not be able to thrive, but you will probably also suffer some nutrient deficiencies.
Use Organic Nutrients – The two main varieties of nutrients that you can purchase from your hydroponics store are organics and synthetics. They both can work extremely well if you know how to use them, but if you are using beneficial microbes, you should consider using some organic nutrients. These organic nutrients have some compounds that assist in the growth of beneficial microbes, giving them more resources to grow and thrive.
Consider Coco Coir As a Medium – If you really want to give your beneficial microbes every advantage to grow and thrive in your hydroponics system, you should consider switching to coco coir as your medium of choice. Coco coir, which is made from the husks of coconuts, contains a lot of hormones that actually helps the survival and reproduction of beneficial microbes.
If you use coco coir, however, you may need to adjust how you think about your nutrients as well. Because of the special properties of coco coir, the nutrient solution that you have been using with your traditional medium might not work as well. Using a nutrient solution built specifically for coco coir can help your coco coir garden grow much more healthily.
