Up next in 10
Is Liquid Dirt A Plant Fertilizer? Soil Scientist Reviews Liqui-Dirt Ingredients. What Is Plant Food
Apr 27, 2022
This gardening in Canada video looks at liquid dirt. We will be looking at the ingredients that make up liqui-dirt. We will also be looking at the difference between plant fertilizer & plant food. This liqui dirt review is based completely on the ingredients and process not personal experience.
Join our monthly newsletter!
newsletter.gardeningincanada.net
Website/Blog & FREE printables: https://gardeningincanada.net
Leave Me A Voice Message To Be Included In The Podcast: https://memo.fm/gardeningincanada/
——————
👩🔬 Grab A Planner!
Paperback Houseplant Planner:
https://geni.us/NFTrl2
Paperback Garden Planner:
https://geni.us/s9zc
Digital Download Planners
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/GardeningInCanada
—————
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello plant people, how are you guys doing today? If you're near Ontario, my name is Ashley and I'm a soil scientist. On this channel I like to take that science and apply it to all things plants. And in today's video we're doing a highly requested video on liquid dirt. So you guys clearly want to drive me to an early grave or potentially cause my red hair to turn gray. And the reason for that is because I feel like you know what pushes my buttons
0:23
so we're gonna talk about liquid dirt this is a video at this point I can't
0:30
even ignore it's a video I absolutely must do because of the enormous amount
0:38
of people who have reached out to ask me to do this video it's insane I was on a
0:45
Lee Valley live stream tonight and someone asked in the questions like in
0:49
in the question section of that, what I thought about liquid dirt there
0:53
So that's just insane to me, this product. So I'm gonna tell you what
0:57
I'm gonna give you my theoretical thoughts on liquid dirt, because personally, I don't feel like ponying up $54
1:09
for the product and then simultaneously running tests on it, if there's of no interest to you guys
1:15
Now, if you guys really want information on liquid dirt, how it works, what it does, all that fun stuff
1:23
let me know in the comments down below. If this video can get to 500 likes
1:29
so that means share it, comment it, make the algorithm, pick it up
1:34
however it, whatever it takes to get there, I need 500 likes and I will buy liquid dirt
1:41
and I will start an actual scientific method process. So I will apply a hypothesis
1:49
I will apply controls, parameters to the entire study, and I will do it the same way we would do in the lab
1:59
exact same way we would do in the lab. We will base it up on upper and lower biomass cumulatively
2:08
We'll weigh this, dry it out, weigh it, will take the mass of the biomass, both above ground and below ground. Like I'm talking probably
2:17
the most thorough YouTube ever science experiment. Like I said, completely using the scientific
2:24
method, I will put everything in grow tense. I will do a controlled climate experiment
2:30
I will remove as many factors as possible because the reality is that I, I'm a scientist. I'm a
2:37
trained scientists, whatever that means to you. I can't take witness testimony as
2:45
a scientific literature or something I can depend on. I can take that as primary evidence to warrant
2:53
a potential study and I can apply that primary evidence to a potential theoretical hypothesis
3:01
on what's going on but I can't say that these plant tubers like the the youtubers that use
3:09
liquid dirt the instagramers all that stuff if what they're saying is valid their primary evidence
3:16
that shows that the amazing results of liquid dirt in my opinion are kind of throttled by the
3:23
fact that this is something you can have an affiliate link for and obviously make money from
3:30
so that again throttles my opinion on it so what I'm gonna do I'm not going to
3:36
put an affiliate link for liquid dirt I'm going to stay completely separated
3:40
from any affiliation with liquid dirt and I will perform an actual actual
3:45
experiment with this the reason for that actually comes down to the fact that
3:51
this is blown up insanely I've never gotten this many DMS about one product
3:57
and my entire career so far here on YouTube or just in my personal circle even people asking me
4:04
about this thing so the exception is the new tabletop or countertop composters which I did
4:11
email the companies about I'm waiting for more details on it they don't email me back unfortunately
4:16
I'm just gonna have to again throw out a theoretical hypothesis as to what's going on I'm not big
4:21
enough to warrant these companies to answer me but before warrant companies
4:25
I'll remember that so anyways let's jump into liquid dirt the theoretical science
4:33
behind what exactly is happening in the phenomenon people are seeing in their
4:37
plans so liquid dirt is considered a full ecosystem in a bottle not my words
4:43
the company's words to be exact it's a concentrated formula for water your
4:47
plants as easy as one, two, three. I wish it was that easy. I'm excited to see what liquid dirt has
4:53
to say about that. So it's great for soil and growing mediums, hydroponics, semi-hydro
5:00
leca, it's kind of the same thing, bavariums with reptiles, terrariums, water gardens, and fish tanks
5:07
and flowers, and so much more. Good for roots, stems, leaves, blooms, foliage, and overall
5:14
plant health. So it's catch all a bag. So it says what's in it all naturally fully digested
5:22
nutrient supplement system for all plants, all vitamins and minerals for microbial activity
5:28
index are essential to plant lights, complete micro fungi, mycorrhizae and rhizobacteria
5:36
strains in a pH balance formula That a lot How is it made So it made through something called Zymology It a Zymology process so i think what they trying to say here is they using the study of zymology because zymology
5:55
isn't a process it's a study it's a study of microbes fermented like fermented microbes in
6:02
the absence of oxygen so my understanding is they're taking 18 ingredients and they are putting
6:08
them into a fermenting process which they say can take up to or over five years total it's a lot
6:18
i guess leave me a comment down below i can show you how to do a ferment like a fermenting process
6:26
in a five gallon bucket pale bucket in your home for way less than 54 and it'll give you lifetime
6:34
supply of microbes for your garden for house plants whatever the case is I can I can show you
6:39
how to make this stuff it's not that complicated and it will not take you five years thank you about
6:44
a month so microbes multiply incredibly quickly incredibly quickly do not underestimate the
6:50
power of a microbe so there are 18 balanced super nutrients 18 there is poultry litter
6:58
rabbit manure, bat guano, cricket frass, humic shale, worm castings, oyster shells
7:05
michael rise, dolomite limes, kelp meal, gypsum, alfalfa meal, concentrated fluvic acid, bone meal
7:14
and proprietary mineral blend from organic sources. We'll get into the organic sources
7:19
thing a little bit later. My research took me down a rabbit hole. So how long does it last
7:23
it doesn't expire it's good forever never expires and the fact that it never
7:28
expires despite the fact that you're not adding moisture and you're not feeding
7:32
said microbes in the material is pretty revolutionary and I'm pretty sure NASA
7:38
would like to get their hands on that because it'd be incredibly valuable to
7:41
get on Mars um anyways so you basically water your plants with this and
7:46
immediately reacts with your plants to give you happy growth don't be fooled
7:51
by other liquid promises blah blah blah so um that's kind of like the overview of what liquid
7:57
dirt their words not mine so we need to like break this down in multiple levels i want us to first
8:05
look at the concept of plant food first plant fertilizers companies such as superfly
8:11
well super thrive which is one I've actually done a video on these products
8:20
like this claim to be plant food bios is another one actually that one I don't
8:29
mind as much I can do separate review on bios but they're a Canadian company they
8:34
claim to be plant food and if you watched my video on the 17 essential
8:38
nutrients of plants you very quickly are going to realize that plants don't take up carbohydrates
8:44
fats proteins or anything in any sort of molecular structure that includes more than about three
8:53
oxygens at most right it's either ions nitrates um phosphates that sort of thing that's what the
9:01
plant uptakes and then bare ionic forms of copper boron iron sulfur all that fun stuff right
9:08
molybdenum all that all that junk so the idea of a plant food is really inaccurate i don't like that
9:17
terminology i really wish these companies would stop using it because you're trying to fool people
9:24
into thinking that they're fertilizing their plants but at most it's a biostimulant at most
9:31
it's a biostimulant so um what would be better marketing for super thrive maybe i'm giving them
9:38
bad ideas right now but anyways super thrive liquid dirt bios marifil what they'd be better
9:45
and i think marifil actually says soil enhancer on it that's better verbiage to me than soil
9:51
than plant food if you use any of these liquid dirt you need to still fertilize there is no
9:57
fertilizer in that product if there was fertilizer in it in any capacity they
10:03
would do what even super thrive does they would at least put the formula the
10:10
the NPK has to be listed on the package you cannot sell stuff without listing
10:17
NPK there's a numerous number of reasons why from eutrophication like environmental reasons you have to list it because you can't over apply a lot of
10:26
this stuff but then there's just legal reasons there's fertilizers worth its
10:31
weight so if you are not telling people what's in the product technically and
10:37
you're selling it as a fertilizer you're breaking the law which is why they say
10:42
plant food because they know they can't say plant fertilizer so just a hint to
10:46
all these companies if you use soil and enhancer soil conditioner biostimulant
10:53
I'd be much more lenient with what you're selling much more lenient with
11:00
what you're selling because then you're not misleading people so that brings me
11:05
into my next point which is Omnory so I looked at everything I could for
11:18
resources I went direct to the Omnery website I paid for a temporary login to
11:26
try to find some of these companies for some future videos I doing and liquid dirt is not Omnery certified so even though they say organically sourced over and over again throughout their entire website their entire amazon listing
11:41
they're not OMRI certified now are they aiming to be OMRI certified and they're applying for it
11:46
maybe I don't know I can't I can't tell you that answer that question there's no data or no info
11:55
leading me down that route. But as of right now, 2022, they're not Omnory certified. So all this
12:03
organic stuff that they're saying is in the product, it cannot be is the ultimate truth
12:10
If you are selling your seeds or your vericompost or your aquaponics, your hydroponics
12:19
your indoor gardening your cannabis your outdoor gardening anything you sell that you've used
12:26
liquid dirt in you cannot mark it as organic because it does not have an OMRI certificate
12:32
which is bottom line now do I think that these are sourced from organic sources in the sense that
12:38
they're sourced from things that are naturally occurring in earth fine yes of course they do
12:43
But that's not saying that the rabbit, for example, that they get the rabbit manure from, that they state in their 18 essential nutrients, wasn't fed something that potentially was sprayed with glyphosate
13:01
For example, alfalfa very commonly sprayed with glyphosate and of the feed that would be in a rabbit pellet would be sprayed with glyphosate
13:09
There's nothing saying that that's not a possibility. Now I'm saying that it's just a fact
13:15
It's just a fact in the matter. Which goes back to, which goes to my third point is that I sound like such a horrible
13:23
person right now. But I'm really passionate about this you guys. I don't mean to knock these companies because I'm mean
13:29
I'm just legitimately passionate about giving you the content you need to thrive
13:37
That's all I want. That's all I want from you guys. I just want you not to get ripped off
13:41
I do want to eliminate the hacks and the misinformation in the industry in general, right
13:49
So it's not because I'm mean, I just want to throw that in there because I feel kind of like a fiery redhead right now, even though I'm sure most of you understand
13:58
So, um, which brings me to my third point is this world of plant food isn't regulated
14:06
There is no regulatory body certifying that plant food is a thing
14:13
Let's ignore the fact that they are potentially trying to serve this up as a fertilizer or
14:18
that's their intent is that this is just an all-purpose fertilizer. All you need to add is this and nothing else
14:25
Let's think of it as they did decide to start picking it up as a soil conditioner, a soil
14:32
enhancer, or a biostimulant. say they took that route which is the route that i would be more comfortable with them
14:40
marketing as so say they took that route there still is zero zero independent certification
14:50
similar to that of omri that can say whether or not the product meets a minimum standard so
15:00
What do I mean by that? Say these guys are marketing themselves as a biostimulant
15:05
meaning they contain high levels of carbon, which I'm sure this product does
15:09
I'm sure it does. High levels of carbon, higher levels of carbohydrates
15:15
which I'm also confident these products have. All these things that introduce higher rates of carbon
15:22
to our structure of soil, which ultimately in turn stimulates microbiome activity so if we market it as that there's nothing there's no regulatory
15:37
body saying they have to have a minimum of this many CFU's called colony
15:45
forming units there's nothing out there that says this bottle needs to contain
15:51
XYZ minimum this is the range they have to be in in order for you to sell it so
15:58
technically they could be diluting it and if this channel ever blew up and if
16:04
I ever got enough money to do the things that I want to do with soil for the
16:10
world I would hundred percent commit to making a committee that works with these
16:17
biostimulants to determine their value in the marketplace and give them a place
16:23
in the marketplace because that's my second point or my last my first
16:29
positive point to this entire thing I don't think that these are completely
16:34
useless or null and void of value I think that there there's a potential for
16:40
value in this especially in the indoor gardening community whether that be in
16:45
the form of indoor peppers cannabis or even the houseplants and the reason why
16:52
I say this is because it goes back to that bio enhancement the ability to
16:59
foster growth of microbiota in our soil structures in our indoor soil is for
17:07
all intensive purposes medium and so when we end up with these bio stimulants
17:12
we can start backing away from things like manures compost indoors things that that typically will cause mold growth or bacterial growth inside which is not a bad thing but it aesthetically
17:30
not pleasing and there are other solutions to it such as stimulants like
17:34
this if again I don't know what the coliform units are in this I don't know
17:39
of every bottle is equal. I have no idea. So with that being said, I think with liquid dirt
17:45
I'm going to have to knee jerk reaction back with my original viewpoint with the Super Thrive
17:53
for example. And it's just simply a placebo effect to me at this point in time. Do I think
18:01
it's adding carbon? Yes. Do I think that added carbon is helping with the microbiota that may
18:08
not exist for things like nutrient cycling, fungal suppression, bacterial suppression, bad bacteria, bad fungal suppression, and then ultimately pest suppression because your microbiota
18:21
in your soil is what ultimately helps to control a huge portion of the pests we see indoors
18:28
So do I think that liquid dirt serves that purpose? It has the potential to do so. But
18:35
it also is able to provide moisture so when we get a new product such as super
18:43
thrive we are more likely to water our plants more often and while this scares
18:50
some people if you've watched any of my videos on indoor house plants and how to
18:55
water them you know I don't let my soil dry out to the point of permanent
18:59
wilting point which is below 20% soil moisture and so I think the placebo
19:04
effect of a new product is what causes a houseplant owner that typically would let things go
19:09
dry or maybe ignore them to be more on top of watering their plants because they're really
19:14
excited to use that new product which ultimately combined with the biostimulant aspect of these
19:21
products or the potential biostimulant side of these products and the the moisture we end up
19:30
a really great environment for things such as nutrient cycling to take place even the fungal
19:37
growth the hyphae the mycorrhizae to actually take form in that soil system so i mean they make some
19:47
really big claims some people are seeing really great results but you do need to still fertilize
19:53
whether that's in the form of an organic fertilizer or if it's in the form of a synthetic whatever
20:00
the case is you still need to fertilize in some way shape or form you need to be
20:05
adding in very compost of manure like first medicine for example not
20:11
affiliated but you can get this this is a Canadian company as well that I prefer
20:17
this product over the like regular manure compost only because only because
20:24
it's pelletilized so you don't end up with the hydrofibricity that you would
20:29
with like regular manure compost but yeah so um if you guys enjoyed this video be sure to give it
20:36
a thumbs up if you guys want to see the experiment or if you want that experiment to go through also
20:41
give it a thumbs up and if you want to learn how to make your own biostimulant is what i'm going
20:47
to call it let me know in the comments down below i will be more than happy to help you make your
20:52
own biostimulant what I'm going to teach you to do is probably something closer to a lean I mean
20:59
ingham but like a hybrid version so I'll do like the gardeners version and then I'll do the house
21:07
plant version so the gardeners version I'm going to help you understand how to introduce native
21:13
microbiota and enter soils outdoors and then for the soil the house plant people
21:21
I'm going to show you how to maybe introduce some more exotic forms of microbiota that
21:27
may be more in conjunction with the natural rises sphere of your houseplant
21:33
So I hope that wasn't too nerdy or too much for you guys
21:37
I hope I didn't upset too many of you. I know I'm going to upset some of you. It's just the reality of when I review products as passionately as I do review products
21:45
But ultimately, if you bought liquid dirt, there's no reason to stop using it
21:50
It's not going to hurt your plants. If you're on the fence about purchasing liquid dirt, maybe get a smaller container of it
21:57
See if you're seeing any differences in the product. If you have liquid dirt and you are from a science background, DM me
22:09
I'd be interested in you trying out just an at-home petri dish type experiment until I can get my hands on it
22:18
I am investing in a microscope along with some egg our dishes and a whole lab
22:29
set up because I do want to check out some of the stuff especially with the
22:36
huge push towards microbes and stuff I really really want to help you guys
22:41
understand this stuff better so if you enjoyed the video like I said thumbs up
22:45
subscribe, comments, follow me on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Patreon, and oh, the podcast
22:52
that I literally never mentioned, but you should still probably go check that out too
22:57
I'll talk to you guys next time. Bye
#Biological Sciences
#Ecology & Environment