Why mycorrhiza?

Hello friends!

When I first started out with hydroponics, I was doing so because I wanted something clean, pest free, and productive. I had images in my head of my hydro closet looking like some kind of clean room, free of dirt and the trouble dirt brings... boy was I in for a surprise.


Let me start off by asking that you disregard the poor photo quality. These pictures are pretty dated, and my photography skills were just beginning to bloom.

My first real foray into the world of hydroponics was a deep water culture system I had put together to grow sweet peppers and jalapenos. I was jumping feet first into the deep end, and I didn't even know how to swim yet.

I managed to stay afloat for a while, but after a few weeks of growing I noticed my plants were pretty stunted, lacked vivid color, and weren't really going anywhere. My dreams of super, amazingly fast hydroponic growth were being crushed, and I had no idea why.

Plants on 12/29/2013

After looking around online, I realized very quickly what my issue was. While most people have beautiful, white roots growing into their water, I had nasty little things with slime coming off the end of them. Further research told me that this was a nasty case of brown slime algae.

Roots on 1/6/2014

I tackled it head first by scrubbing the DWC bin with bleach, insanely hot water, and by adding 35% hydrogen peroxide into the water. Even after throwing every full strength cleaning products at the bins and roots at this algae, it would come right back the next day. I was seriously beginning to believe this stuff would make it through a nuclear apocalypse.

That's when I discovered something called bennie tea. It's basically a jug full of beneficial bacteria and fungi that you brew for a couple of days and then add to your system. The beneficial bacteria and fungi (bennies) then begin an all out war against the bad bacteria, and eventually obliterate them completely.

After about a week of using the tea, I noticed a huge change in the roots. Within two months of using it the plants were putting on great looking foliage, flowers, and even peppers!

Roots on 1/14/2014

Plants on 2/1/2014

Peppers growth on 2/19/2014

• Minimum Requirements:
• Air stone (not pictured)
• Air tubing (not pictured)
• Air pump (not pictured)
• Ancient Forest (or worm castings)
• AquaShield
• Mycorrhiza powder (I recommend Great White)
• Unsulphured molasses

•  How to:

1. Attach the air stone to the tubing and the tubing to the air pump 

2. Add one gallon of water to a container (leave 4 or more inches of space, because the water will most likely foam while brewing and you do not want it to overflow) 

3. Add 5 ml of AquaShield to the water 

4. Put a small dash of Great White. A little bit of this will go a long way! 

5. Add 5 ml of unsulphured molasses    

6. Take about a fistful of the Ancient Forest and put it in a stocking, or tights, or a sock, or something else that will allow water to flow into it but hold it the big particles in 

7. Add the air stone to the water and let it brew for 48 hours  

 

 8. After 2 days you will want to give the tea a whiff. Seriously! If it smells like dirt it's good to go. If it smells like sewage or is very unpleasant throw it out and brew another batch 

9. If it's good to go, add about 3 cups per gallon to your DWC system. You can lower this to 1 cup after a couple of brews. Each brew you make will last about 5 days in the fridge (do not leave it sitting out)