[Josh Cooper]

Morning Everyone,

Came across this soil amendment in the Self Sufficiency Garden book and thought I'd give it a go. For those who don't know, basically, you extract some starch from rice, add milk and you ferment this amazing bacteria culture with all sorts of lovely soil benefits (see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0929139323001531#:~:text=Lactic%20acid%20bacteria%20control%20plant,structure%20and%20water%2Dholding%20capacity.)

What I can't find, though, is any sort of guidance on how often to apply this stuff. Every week? Every two weeks?

So I just wondered if anyone had used it and had any tips 

Cheers!

[Aunt Sally]

Welcome to the forums, Josh.

I’ve not heard of this before, so can’t help you.

[Blewit]

I've made it a few times and used it to great effect on mildew (fruit trees) and botrytis (greenhouse), both of which were stopped dead in their tracks. Didn't venture so far as applying it to the soil though in case it had adverse effects on mycorrhizal fungi.

[missmoneypenny]

I have the stuff as I make sourdough. But how do you apply it Blewit?

[Blewit]

I have the stuff as I make sourdough. But how do you apply it Blewit?

I stabilized it by mixing with equal parts of black treacle (then it has a shelf life of years), and to awaken it, diluted with rain water and that dilution was diluted again before applying with a plant sprayer. Sorry can't remember the dilution rates but the end product was a very weak solution.
I was probably being overcautious in my reasons for not applying to the soil but I had no cause to use it there and after seeing how powerful it was thought it better to err on the side of caution.

[wolveryeti]

Morning Everyone,

Came across this soil amendment in the Self Sufficiency Garden book and thought I'd give it a go. For those who don't know, basically, you extract some starch from rice, add milk and you ferment this amazing bacteria culture with all sorts of lovely soil benefits (see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0929139323001531#:~:text=Lactic%20acid%20bacteria%20control%20plant,structure%20and%20water%2Dholding%20capacity.)

What I can't find, though, is any sort of guidance on how often to apply this stuff. Every week? Every two weeks?

So I just wondered if anyone had used it and had any tips 

Cheers!

I have never heard of it, but LAB are very widespread and are likely in your soil anyhow (hence why sourdough and sauerkraut need no inoculant). I personally don't believe adding a load of excess LAB will help you grow better veg...

[New shoot]

We had a member on here who was a scientist called Dr Pepper (or something like that).  In a previous debate about soil bacteria and whether it was worth adding them he made the point that if your soil was in good heart and in a position to maintain the bacteria, it would already have them.  If it wasn’t i.e. no organic matter in it and fairly ‘dead’, they would just struggle and die.

Made sense to me