Back in December 2011
I attended a Tucson Organic Gardener (TOG) meeting with a presenter from Terra
Ganix. During this meeting, the gentleman presenting highlighted the incredible
properties of their EM·1 Microbial Inoculant. He noted that its multiple anaerobic
microbes were able to naturally “heal” gardens and bring the beneficial
microbes in a garden into balance. I thought very little of this presentation
until this last spring when I decided to give the EM·1 stuff a try. I contacted
the company and found the location (on West Grant, in Tucson) where I could
pick up a bottle from a vendor without having to pay shipping.
With some amount of hope, I took my EM·1 home and diluted it in water – making sure to apply it in the evening. As luck would have it, I applied it on the only cloudy day in April. Instead of using tap water, which is full of chlorine and other possible antibacterial substances, I just used filtered water that had been sitting out for a day – just to make sure. I also applied more water afterwards – to ensure that the EM·1 penatrated deep into the soil.
My experience was not a total waste of money. To be able to compost more of my kitchen scraps – including bones, meat, and dairy I plan on using my EM·1 to make some Bokashi. Bokashi is a substance that uses a substrate (such as wheat bran) to pickle your compost in a way so that it does not stink. You can think of Bokashi as a compost pre-digester. EM·1 can be activated to make more EM·1 and make lots of Bokashi – so you can compost more food without having the negative pests and smell associated with composting. You can find out more about this process on Terra Ganix’s website.
EM·1 Microbial
Inoculant
|
With some amount of hope, I took my EM·1 home and diluted it in water – making sure to apply it in the evening. As luck would have it, I applied it on the only cloudy day in April. Instead of using tap water, which is full of chlorine and other possible antibacterial substances, I just used filtered water that had been sitting out for a day – just to make sure. I also applied more water afterwards – to ensure that the EM·1 penatrated deep into the soil.
So – does EM·1 Microbial
Inoculant really work? What
happened
when I applied this miracle cure to my garden? Nothing really. All of my plants
miraculously grew at the exact same rate that they had been growing. The plants
that were doing poorly continued to do poorly and those that were doing well
just kept on doing well. I would like to say that EM·1 is some kind of miracle
item but I really cannot. One would hope that this means that I have plenty of good microbes in my garden already. Perhaps, in the future, I will get better results by
applying diluted kefir to my garden
EM·1 Update: Even though the EM·1 did nothing for the rest of my garden it helped my sweet potatoes grow and produce much more than they would have otherwise produced. If you grow a lot of sweet potatoes I would highly recommend this product. I have more information on my more recent experiences with EM·1 posted here.
EM·1 Update: Even though the EM·1 did nothing for the rest of my garden it helped my sweet potatoes grow and produce much more than they would have otherwise produced. If you grow a lot of sweet potatoes I would highly recommend this product. I have more information on my more recent experiences with EM·1 posted here.
No noticable change in my Garden after applying EM·1 |
My experience was not a total waste of money. To be able to compost more of my kitchen scraps – including bones, meat, and dairy I plan on using my EM·1 to make some Bokashi. Bokashi is a substance that uses a substrate (such as wheat bran) to pickle your compost in a way so that it does not stink. You can think of Bokashi as a compost pre-digester. EM·1 can be activated to make more EM·1 and make lots of Bokashi – so you can compost more food without having the negative pests and smell associated with composting. You can find out more about this process on Terra Ganix’s website.