NPK-University Soil Microbiology With Harley Smith

okay but let's go ahead and get started this is a really exciting topic today soil microbiology and health this is the new frontier in agriculture really we need to learn how to to restore the earth to restore the soils back when I first started out in the hydroponics industry back then they were fumigating soils with methyl bromide killing all the microbes in the soil including the good guys and the bad guys and destroying the ozone at the same time we couldn't keep doing that but now scientists from around the world are harvesting microorganisms from the most fertile soils they're reproducing them in the labs then inoculating the roots of plants too with plant growth promoting raizo bacteria Michael Raizel fungi and it's making a big difference already this is how we're going to feed the world in the future with limited resources there was one microbial blend came out of Michigan State University it actually won a grand prize from popular science magazine for green technology they were able to just inoculate the roots use it a few times in the soil they were able to cut nitrate fertilizers in half they were able to reduce or eliminate pesticides and fungicides and increase yields at the same time and just as a bonus price you're protecting the environment because I think farming and generally been over fertilizing use nitrate nitrogen it washes out into the groundwater into the surface waters here in Michigan we've been using so much phosphorus in agriculture the soils are are saturated just add manure to the soil now heavy rain it goes into the streams so this is not sustainable but by using microorganisms we unlock the fertilizers in the soil the microorganisms make plant protection agents they aid with the uptake of water and minerals the plants are able to do more chemical reactions they're able to produce more sugars for energy to fight off diseases and it is yield at the same time so this is a very good topic for gardeners we might just grow the best of the best you wanted to get the most from our soils we want to reduce our inputs but this is even it has even wider widespread implications for the future to be able to feed the world with our limited resources okay let's go ahead and get started plants and microorganisms of co-evolved on the earth they are mutually beneficial the plants do photosynthesis they harvest the energy of the Sun and then they take up water through the roots they taking carbon dioxide through the leaves and in the presence of the full-spectrum light they make photosynthate carbohydrates some of those carbohydrates they use for energy to grow and reproduce some they store in the flowers and the fruits but some they actually linked from the roots to feed the plant growth promoting raizou bacteria so my way to think of plants is feeding the microorganisms in the same way with organic fertilizers if you plants can take up large organic molecules so if you're using organic fertilizers you're you're feeding the micro organisms and the micro organisms make digestive enzymes that break down large molecules into small molecules and into ions mineral ions that the plants can take up so plants feed the microorganisms the microorganisms feed the plant you put the two together in the right combination you're going to increase quality increase yield so this is a new frontier we'll look at the Michel rise up that's at the fungi Mike Oh literally needs fungus raisa means roots so Michel Raizel fungi are fungus that inoculate that infect the roots they're beneficial fungi infect the roots they penetrate in between the root cells and then they send out - those thread like filaments that you see here in the pictures and those spread out in the soil and increase the surface area of the roots by hundreds or even thousands of times so it increases the uptake of water in nutrients and the more efficiently plants take up water and nutrients the more chemical reactions they can do the higher the bricks that's the stored sugars that are in the step SAP so if the plant is able to use utilize the water and minerals more efficiently it'll make more sugars so it's going to improve the quality the nutritional quality of food and the medicinal value of the medicines and some of the extra are going to be leaked to feed the microbes so the whole process is sustainable and continues the main benefit though of the Michel Raizel fungi is unlocking phosphorus now phosphorus gets locked up in the soil very easily it locks up with calcium to make calcium phosphate that's what your bones are made out of it's 95 percent unavailable to the plant is insoluble of phosphorus also locks up with iron and it precipitates out and the iron becomes unavailable and the phosphorus but there are micro Raizel fungi they'll make organic acids they make enzymes that unlock phosphorus from organic matter that unlock phosphorus from the soil feed it to the plant and phosphorus is the energy element it energizes rooting and even energizes flowering so it has a very beneficial effect on the plant now the downside is that it takes about 20 to 30% of the energy of photosynthesis just to feed the mycorrhizal fungi now if there's a phosphorus deficiency in the soil you have infertile soil plants will actually exude signal molecules to attract the mycorrhizal fungi that's how badly they need it but if there's plenty of water soluble phosphorus like in the fertilizers that you're using or in hydroponic fertilizers plants will treat the mycorrhizal fungi as a pathogen they actually exude enzymes to repel the mycorrhizal fungi because it's not a good trade anymore if they need the phosphorus it's worth the 20 to 30 percent of their energy if there's plenty of available phosphorus why feed the phosphorus and don't get anything in return it's not a good trade anymore so Nature has found a way to to attract or to repel the Michael Riedel fungi so that's one of the first things you're going to have to decide when you start your indoor garden or even if you're working outdoors if you're going to be doing all organics for fertilizer if you're going to be using rock phosphate if you're going to use bone meal then definitely inoculate the roots with the Michael Raizel fungi choose the potting soils that have Michael rising in it or inoculate the roots with Michael Raizel fungi because it's going to be a good trade I'll help with phosphorous uptake by the plant but if you're going to use all water soluble phosphorus it's 100% water soluble the mycorrhizal fungi aren't going to give you as many benefits as they would in soil so that's your first choice okay now let's look at the plant growth promoting rhizome bacteria so we look through the fungi now let's look at the bacteria the PGP are the plant growth point erisa bacteria they're the biostimulant factories they actually make biologically active molecules the ape with the uptake of water and minerals and have other benefits as well plants are the micro organisms like bacillus subtlest gbo 3 literally make growth hormones they make rooting hormones right on the surface of the roots they tell the plant to make more roots why would they do that because if the plant makes more roots there's more surface area for the microorganisms to colonize because the genetic code and every living organism says the same thing be fruitful and multiply that makes more roots they can multiply colonize the roots also if the plant makes more roots it will take up water and minerals more efficiently and make more sugars and some of those sugars will be exhibit to feed the microorganisms so it's a illusionary benefit from microorganisms to actually make growth hormones and ruining hormones on the surface of actively growing and actively dividing roots microorganisms also make B vitamins now B vitamins our coenzymes B vitamin derivatives actually turn on the enzymes for cellular metabolism and then so what some microorganisms are very good at making those biological molecules the B vitamins to stimulate metabolism of for themselves and for the surrounding microbes and also for the plant cells themselves and the root cells but the B vitamins also have a direct effect on the plant one dose of b1 at high levels on the roots stimulate what's called the plant's systemic induced response in other words it Prime's the plant it puts the plant on high alert so if the plant is under attack say by a root pathogen or even by a fungal pathogen at the leaf the plants natural immune system responds very quickly to fight off the infection so that's why a lot of times in the gardener's will use B vitamins prior to transplanting because if you no matter how careful you are in transplanting you're going to break some of those microscopic root hairs the beauty if you a dose the plant with B vitamins in an advance that will prevent the infection opening up the plant to infection by microbial pathogens and protect the plan but microbes do it without our help they make B vitamins on the surface of the roots to protect their food source microorganisms also make amino acids they make digestive enzymes called proteases that break down proteins into amino acids some of those amino acids are used for carbon and nitrogen then my gross feed on them as they digest them not just for the plant but some amino acids are intermediate key leaders now Kela means claw a chelate is an organic molecule like amino acids that attach or surround a mineral aiya like a claw it holds it tightly enough so it doesn't get locked up or react with other minerals but mostly enough so it's available to the plant on demand and there are two amino acids that microorganisms make right on the roots that not only soluble eyes the minerals they'll literally activate calcium ion channels in the ruined cell so the plant takes up calcium a thousand times faster than simple as Moses we'll talk about that a little later but if the plant takes up more calcium calcium is the glue that glues the cell walls together you get thicker stems thicker cell walls more resistance natural resistance to powdery mildew and to molds also the vascular system of the plant is strengthened so it takes up water and minerals more efficiently as a result makes more sugars it's able to feed the microbes so it's if your work with nature there are positive side effects many of which we have any we don't even into haven't even anticipated and plant scientists this is a new frontier first we barely understand what's going on in the root zone now we barely understand the signal molecules we barely understand how microbes communicate with plants but we're starting to learn and as we learn we can harness the power of nature for our own plants and to be able to protect the environment at the same time ok next organic acids microorganisms actually make our Krebs cycle intermediates organic acids that make minerals like iron copper manganese zinc the transition metals they become more soluble to the plant and some microorganism make a special molecule call this a zero form that literally means iron carrier is one of the best key leaders of iron in nature and iron is one of the limiting factors in soil so micro organ make the sodaro force to make unearned available from them for their own metabolism but also to make iron available for the plant and also helps protect the plant because if the the microorganisms the good guys are colonizing the roots and they're sequestering the iron the bad guys I'm going to be able to colonize the roots the Pythium the Rhizoctonia the root rots so it acts as a natural plant protection agent against root disease so it has a combination of things well nature does that it doesn't just do one thing it's it's very efficient at utilizing and recycling natural resources so if we work with nature we can achieve those same benefits our own Gardens finally microorganisms the pine growth-promoting raizou bacteria make volatile organic compounds and make a bouquet of aromas Texas Tech - did a recent study microorganisms they looked at bacillus subtlest gbo 3 and they found that those volatile organic compounds could activate up to 600 different genes in the plant even if the microorganism didn't touch the plant those volatile compounds communicated with a plant the toll the plant take up more iron it turns off the sugar signal so the plant stays photosynthetically active and continues to manufacture carbohydrates and sugars all the way to the day of harvest so there's a lot going on in the root zone and now we're able to harvest the best of the best from nature put it together in specific blends that we can inoculate the roots of our own crops with for agriculture and for our gardens indoors or outdoors ok how do you add the microbes there's two main ways compost tea is a very good way or some of you out there are masters at brewing compost teas and so science and an art one day I want to do a whole class just on compost teas and I want to do it with some of you that have a lot of experience have that have some secret ingredients from the family or than been doing this for so many years they've found ways to to balance the nutrients a little bit better so just hoping for the best but generally speaking the secret to a high quality compost tea is high quality compost and you want to use compost from a variety of sources from the farm yard waste and from the worm castings because the farm yard waste compost they get really hot so some of the meso files that are very good for plants could be killed especially if you're using the commercial compost some of those are made in large Windrose and the center of that compost pile could be get over a hundred and fifty degrees you'll kill the meso file it'll kill some of the ak10 of my CDs it'll kill some of the trick of dermis and those are some of the superstars of the rhizosphere but the worm castings don't do that they the worms would have a gizzard that grinds up plant material very finely and actually concentrates the microorganisms that are already in the soil and those microorganisms start to compost and break down the plant material to feed the worm and then the worm castings are full of microorganisms that that didn't get hot because there weren't digestive enzymes and there wasn't a heat produced massive amounts of heat so there's I could balance their microbes make sure you use both in your compost teas so compost teas you're going to add a great deal of diversity microbes and nutrients because they're going to unlock some of the nutrients stored in organic matter so it is a fertilizer but it goes beyond the fertilizer value because as the microorganisms in the compost tea are breaking down the compost they're making the organic biostimulants that we just talked about that aid with the uptake of the water and nutrients so even if it's a lower amount of nutrients they're going to be more available to the plant especially over time now the only downside to compost tea is it's a limited shelf life you need to use actively aerated compost tea that has lots of dissolved oxygen the plant growth promoting rational bacteria are aerobic they need oxygen for the metabolism the bad guys the Roo rot the Pythium the Rhizoctonia those are anaerobic fungi they grow in stagnant water without oxygen so if you're using compost teas regularly they need to be actively aerated if you took some compost tea and put it in a jug put on the shelf for three or four days you open that up it'll smell septic because the anaerobic of bacteria and fungi are starting to dominate and that's not a good thing for the plants as well so actively already compost tea is the secret now the other side of the spectrum here the other column are the microbial inoculants and those are specific strains instead of adding great diversity from nature you're picking just the superstars from the rhizosphere I'm working with one microbiologist out east he has 1,200 pure strains of high growth pointing reso bacteria in his lab and from those 1200 different strains he can pick and choose the microbes with superior characteristics the best of the best the superstars of the microbial world some of those microbes are better at fixing nitrogen taking nitrogen out of the air making nitrogen fertilizer for the plant others are better at unlocking phosphorus some are excellent at making the growth hormones around the surface of the roots others are better at making plant protection agents so by choosing the right combination of microorganisms you can pick the ones that complement one another that feed and stimulate each other instead of compete with each other and that is the the key to some of the latest developments in microbial inoculants also you can have a guaranteed analysis if you're adding specific strains and you can see it if you look at the back of the label microbial inoculant it's listed as CF use and that stands for colony forming units it means you have to be alive obviously they make it they have to be able to form colonies that's what see a foot so see if user now not only does it tell you what's there it tells you what's not there if you have some poorly produced compost you can have pathogens in there there can be root pathogens and there could even be human pathogens like e.coli and other food pathogens that are bad for people make you sick so if you have a guaranteed analysis you know that it was made with under controlled conditions that there aren't any pathogens and then it's loaded with the best of the best of the microbial world the final thing with the microbial inoculants is now you can have create teams if you can do all organics it can be funded lead I've dominant with the mycorrhizal fungi you can have more that are have the PGP are the high growth pointing reso bacteria you could have some that are really better at making plant protection agents so you can make combinations for your specific plants in your specific environment in fact now very excited we have microbes that have just been released for growth a drug grow blend of microbes and a bloom blend of microbes from NPK industries the grow microbes of course will have more of the phosphorus i'll utilizers because the phosphorus energizes the rooting that's better for the root striking unlocks phosphorus in the soil feeds it to the plant it's going to have the superstars that are the best of the best have making the rooting hormones on the surface of the roots and they're going to have other microbes that are very good and making enzymes and amino acids and other molecules that aid with the uptake of nutrients to get thicker stems stronger cell wells a stronger vascular system a strong healthy vigorous plant now the bloom might Propst we're going to add some more microbes we're going to add some of the fungi that add plant that make plant protection agents that rescue the plan from stress especially during flowering that stimulate photosynthesis and help with the finishing power of the plants so now there's a combination that's available it's never been available before in that particular blend so it's very exciting to be part of this new revolution in agriculture and I'm sure we'll be seeing more and more of microbial blends in the future we're going to be able to discover new strains we're be able to add those we're going discover more signal molecules and we're going to improve the effectiveness and that will change the world if we do it properly we do it in an intelligent way okay let's so well going too slow here I'm getting too excited so I'm going to have to speed this up a little bit someone's asking what's the shelf-life of compost tea if you don't aerate it I'd say three or four days normally and then it's going to start to smell bad if you open it up it smells like a septic tank you probably need to either re aerate it or you might want to get some fresh okay let's look at the individuals I only have a few minutes left sorry about that everybody I'm I'm being a little bit long-winded today but the phosphorous solubilizing bacteria remember phosphorous gets easily locked up in the soil the phosphorous solubilizing bacteria make phytase and phosphatase those are enzymes if you see a molecule with an ASE ending that means it's an enzyme and these are enzymes that unlock phosphorus more Ganic matter unlock it from the soil also the phosphorus solubilizing bacteria are synergistic with the Michel Raizel fungi so they should be combined in the starter blend the mycorrhizal fungi remember they make those threads they go through the soil well some of the phosphorus soluble eyes in bacteria hitch a ride on the fungi has ER as the threads are growing through the soil and then they swim in the soil solution the places that even though Michael Rachel fungi can't reach they unlock the phosphorus feed it to the fungi and then the fungi feeds it to the plant so if you're going to inoculate with Michael Raizel fungi include the phosphorus solubilizing bacteria with it it's going to be more efficient you're going to have a team instead of just individual microbes okay let's move on the nitrogen fixing bacteria they actually take nitrogen from the air and can change it into fertilizers right on the surface of the roots 95% efficient and also it will sequester some of that nitrogen in their bodies and they're going to feed nitrogen to the other microbes too and then the protozoa are going to consume the bacteria bacteria rarely die of old age the protozoa eat them they use some of the nitrogen for their needs and spit out the extra and that's nitrogen available for the plant so you're locking up nitrogen in the root zone and releasing it slowly when the plant needs it it'll be healthier growth instead of getting big cells with thin cell walls that attract insect you'll get smaller cells thicker cell walls more resistance to pests and disease okay growth hormones some microbes are really good at making auxins those are the rooting hormones others are better at making cytokine ants that stimulate cell division so you get the right team the right combination you're going to stimulate more lateral root growth and more root mass digestive enzymes plants make quote digest proteins break you have smaller molecules they break down carbohydrates as well the proteins are broken down by digestive enzymes called protease it's an enzyme that breaks down proteins into amino acids the amino acids provide nitrogen for the microbes so they're feeding each other they're actually making nitrogen food for the other microorganisms that break down the carbohydrates so they're feeding each other while feeding the plant also the amino acids aid with the up to calcium and as you know it's going to strengthen the plant if you're going to prevent or reduce the incidence of powdery mildew and you're going to improve the nutritional value of food in general the carbohydrates the some microorganisms make an enzyme called cellulase AFC again to break down cellulose and assemble sugar so they're taking some of the dead plant material and dead roots breaking it down and refeeding it feeding it to the microbes and feeding it to the plant as simple sugars you provide carbohydrates for the microbes for fuel and they in the process the microorganisms make Krebs cycle intermediates those are organic acids that soluble eyes iron copper manganese zinc and make it easier for the plant to take them up and those trace elements are critically important because they activate enzymes enzymes in the microbes enzymes in the enzymes I mean they activate the enzymes that the microbes produced the digestive enzymes and they activate enzymes inside the plant enzymes that activate plant protection agents enzymes that are involved in photosynthesis in the electron transport chain so you're going to improve the nutritional value of food also it's critical that the right amount optimal amounts of iron are available for the plant because that iron not only acted makes enzymes that make the activate enzymes for plant protection agents against stress they also activate enzymes that make medicinal compounds for medicinal herbs now we have a couple more minutes left so I'm kind of rushing here I'd be stumbling a little bit but take a breath of the main thing that we're trying to do and this is a common theme in all the classes increased Brix that's the sugar content in the set low medium and high Brix plants say equate to low medium and high quality plants the highest quality the best of the best will have high Brix if you can grow such healthy plants that the Brix is at 12% or higher sucking insects won't even recognize the plant as food and microorganisms are part of that process they can some of them increase the photosynthesis process itself they make the volatile organic compounds that upregulate iron plant takes up more iron by the way I hear it is a catalyst for chlorophyll production the green pigment so the plant will harvest more of the light energy and make more sugars also some of those volatile compounds turn off the sugar signal in the plant toward the end of flowering plants if they have plenty of carbohydrate stored up they start to shut down they stop doing photosynthesis but if the sugar signal is turned off by the microorganism the plant doesn't know it has enough sugars it will continue to do photosynthesis it will continue to accumulate hard carbohydrates all the way to the day of harvest and that will improve the entire flowering process okay last but not least stress protection plants with are under stress heat stress drought stress salt stress UV stress they start to produce ethylene gas and ethylene down regulates shoot and root production and in nature it's a good thing because why should the plant try to use its energy to grow if it's under stress so it wants to stall and go into shock until the stress passes but some microorganisms literally and then evolved to make an enzyme ACC deaminase that breaks down that precursor molecule for ethylene so you're literally releasing the plant from stress and rescuing normal root growth now just to summarize here in the next couple minutes generally speaking now the polymicrobial blends work better and more efficiently than single strains we want to have a combination of microbes that complement one another that feed each other while they're feeding the plant instead of competing with each other and killing each other so it's very to get a combination of plant growth promoting strains with the disease suppressive strains give you an example Pseudomonas fluorescens that is harvested from some of the disease suppressive soils but if you use it all by itself yeah you'll stimulate the systemic acquired resistance of the plant and activate the immune system but the plant will divert some of its primary metabolites to make plant protection agents and you can lose more in yield that you would have lost from the disease itself so we want to do a combination do we don't want just to stimulate disease suppression we want to stimulate growth while we're stimulating disease suppression so we get the best of both worlds and we can do that now scientists have took them 30 years in the microbiology labs but they're able to get the right combinations - to do both stimulate yield while stimulating disease suppression you also want to use my microbe friendly supplements it's a good idea to stimulate the metabolism of the microorganisms so we can feed them amino acids it's a nitrogen source it's a carbon source for them we can feed them things like humic and fulvic acids that are loaded with trace elements seaweed extracts that are loaded with 62 beneficial trace elements from the sea that stimulate the metabolism of the microorganisms while they're also improving the uptake and turning on enzymes in the plant also simple sugars to be used toward the end when the toward the end of flowering plants want to hoard their sugars they want to store them in the flowers and then the fruit for the next generation and they stop leaking carbohydrates to feed the microbes so that's one thing we can do to improve on nature when the plant stops feeding the microbes we can make a blend maybe amino acids with some carbohydrates maybe some cane molasses feed the microbes so there's continued to grow and continue to make the volatile organic compounds so the plant will continue to make carbohydrates and bulk up all the way of the day at harvest okay and finally if we do this properly using some of the new technologies do it intelligently we can reduce fertilizer inputs we can cut nitrogen fertilizers in half we can unlock phosphorus it's already saturated in the soil and feed it to the plants we can protect the environment we can reduce or eliminate pesticides and fungicides the plants taking up more calcium because of with help of the microbes you're going to get more calcium PEC tape it's going to protect the plan against fungus the plants natural resistance to pests and disease will increase quality and increase yield improve the nutritional value of food the medicinal value of medicines one of some of those microbial blends they're coming out at universities now the more they cut down the fertilizers the higher the yields they got some of the tests they did at Michigan State University they were getting four times the yield of tomato plants that were inoculated with beneficial microorganisms so it's not just reducing fertilizers it's increasing quality and yield at the same time and by the way we're protecting the environment from runoff or protecting our ground waters we're restoring the soil so that we're going to be able to feed more people in the future with limited resources we can't keep doing what we're doing and in agriculture if we overdo it with nitrate nitrogen in agriculture you get big cells thin cell walls it actually attracts insects you get a good rain nitrate nitrogen those synthetic fertilizers are so water soluble they're washed away from the root zone so they become not available to the plant they're lost into the groundwater I know there's some areas in in Germany that there's so much nitrate runoff from the fertilizers that it's contaminated the groundwater polluted it they're getting blue baby syndrome and that's where a lot of the biostimulants came from but from Germany they met some of the best minds in Germany to try to solve the pollution problem it started out as an environmental issue and they found though that the soil had plenty of Mike of nutrients but it was locked up and unavailable to the plant so they start developing biostimulants to unlock the nutrients to feed the plant no so they could use less fertilizer to protect the environment but in there as a result though they found additional benefits for quality and yield led led to some of the root stimulants some of the growth stimulants and even bloom stimulants I saw trials in Belgium they were increasing yields by ten to twenty percent using a very small amount of organic biostimulants that were extracts from micro organisms that were harvested from the soil and grown in bio reactors you

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Rating: 4.9108372 out of 5

Keywords: npkindustries, Harley Smith, growing, gardening, microbes, mycorrhizae, beneficial bacteria, bacteria, farming, grow your own, organic, natural, beneficial, soil, mmj, grow big, increase yield, increase quality, high brix, learn to grow, hydro, hydroponics

Id: PssluRwbOc4

Length: 37min 13sec (2233 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 04 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/laowaiH]

"NPK Industries" seems to be directed for marijuana cultivation but I'm more interested in the science behind his talks. I wasn't able to see any research papers published by him but I hope some of you can help to verify the validity :)

Edit: he covered, Mycorrhiza, rhizobacteria, phosphate solubizing bacteria, azospirillum/diazotroph, growth hormones (PGR's, auxin and cytokinins) and digestive enzymes (trichoderma, actinomycetes).