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I'm just wondering if adding some sort of bacteria like the ones you get in your probiotics supplements, can be good for your fermented plant juice?

Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
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Neil Meyer
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3 Answers3

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In Australia, a company “Neutrog” manufactures a bacterial solution concentrate called “GoGo Juice”. It is marketed as a “probiotic for soil and plants”.

I use it all the time with another product called “Seasol”, which is a liquid seaweed concentrate.

I use the two together because, apart from the health benefits to our plants, I understand that the seaweed concentrate provides immediate food for the bacteria in the GoGo Juice.

Since using these products together, the positive change to our garden health is extraordinary.

I use these products for a few reasons:

  • we live in an apartment and grow much of our food plants and all our ornamental plants in pots;
  • in our very limited space, we choose more plants over a worm farm;
  • we are members of a local community garden and so can dispose of all our green waste & kitchen scraps in the compost bins there;
  • we could make our own bacterial solution instead of purchasing the product, however do not have the space or time.

I understand that worm castings (vermicaste), steeped in water, can provide the same outcome as a bacterial / probiotic solution. I have witnessed this first hand for many years as a gardener and most recently in the beds we treat at our community garden. Good well processed compost achieves the same outcome, albeit over a longer period of time - as the worms in the soil process the compost and the microbiology at the compost-soil interface develops.

So my advice is yes, if you don’t have time or space for a worm farm or compost production, add the probiotic to your fermented plant juice.

andrewbuilder
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The probiotics suitable for human consumption are unlikely to be of much use to plants - it rather depends which bacteria are present in the formula you use. Ones useful in soil would include pseudomonas, azobacter, and bacillus, along with quite a lot fungal organisms which won't be present in your human formulation; none of the bacteria mentioned would ever be a component of human probiotics. So if you want to add probiotics, don't use the human variety, they usually contain things like lactobacillus, bifidus, maybe longum and breve, in other words, a completely different range of bacteria.

Bamboo
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  • The common bacteria in probiotics are found in soil, and on fruits and vegetables. Whether they're useful in helping plants, I can't say, but they do help in making sauerkraut and lacto-fermented pickles (you don't have to add any extra probiotics to make those things, but you certainly can). – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Mar 16 '18 at 01:05
  • I mean, Lactobacillus, and *probably* Bifidobacterium. – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Mar 16 '18 at 01:18
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Korean natural farming makes this claim that adding bacteria to the soil improves plant growth. Unlike the practice of using compost teas natural farming specifies the use of indigenous bacteria sourced from local forests. The method is popular in Asia and Hawaii.

Korean Natural Farming (KNF) takes advantage of indigenous microorganisms (IMO) (bacteria, fungi, nematodes and protozoa) to produce fertile soils that yield high output without the use of herbicides or pesticides.[1] A result is improvement in soil health, improving loaminess, tilth and structure, and attracting large numbers of earthworms. KNF also enables odor-free hogand poultry farming without the need to dispose of effluent. This practice has spread to over 30 countries, and is used by individuals and commercial farms.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_natural_farming

Graham Chiu
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