0:00
Hello plant people, how are you guys doing today if you're new around here
0:02
My name is Ashley and I'm a soil scientist on this channel I like to take that science and apply to all things plants and in today's video
0:10
We're going to be looking at a lactobacillus So this was actually a comment left by a subscriber here on the channel
0:19
asking about how to make your own lactobacillus and whether or not it's worth it and
0:24
Kind of what role it performs in the soil and for the plants itself
0:28
And so if you guys did not know I do base all my videos on the comment section and what you guys want to see
0:35
So be sure to drop questions down below or let me know through DMS on Instagram Facebook
0:40
Whatever you feel comfortable with as to what you want to see in a video
0:45
Because I do take them very very seriously and you will get a video made for you at some point
0:49
The list is very very long at this point, but I promise it is this all in time
0:54
We're gonna be looking at lactobacillus and this is a bacteria now. I've talked about
1:01
Microbially active soil both in house plants and in the garden Like crazy and so this is one of those bacterias that is very very important for a soil system
1:14
And so if you are an indoor plant person or if you are a food producer
1:19
producer whatever the case is this is definitely something that's going to benefit you and this
1:24
video is going to look at what lactobacillus is what role it plays in the actual soil itself and
1:30
then we're going to kind of digest each one of those points pun intended and go into a bit more
1:36
detail on why those things matter and then actually how to make your own lactobacillus
1:42
inoculant for your soil whether it be outdoor or outdoors or inside it's actually very very easy to
1:49
do now I'm not gonna go into too too much detail of like each step involved
1:54
if you want each step involved of making a lactobacillus inoculant you need to
2:00
check out the gardening in Canada website where I will have the entire
2:04
recipe step-by-step exactly what to do and then if you guys are super interested
2:09
that I can do a video on it it just takes time to do so I'm in like the first
2:15
stages of it and so it's gonna take you know filming and stuff it's gonna take a
2:19
little bit of time to get there so let me know in the comments down below if you want an actual video on how to do this and I will be more than happy to
2:27
give that to you so let's jump straight into it and see what lactobacillus does
2:33
first one lactobacillus is not just a probiotic for the soil it doesn't just
2:41
help with nutrient cycling. It actually helps with prevention against disease, whether that
2:49
be bacterial fungal viral and also helps with pests So thrips fungus gnats anything in the soil lactobacillus will help control because it is a bacteria that is able to it very hungry so it kind of just eats up
3:07
everything and it's beneficial so there's no harm and having this on your
3:13
counter you're not gonna get sick from having this laying around or breathing
3:18
it out of your soil it's actually quite the opposite and aerobic beneficial
3:23
bacteria and I'm sure you guys all know that there's beneficial bacterias and
3:26
then obviously there's bad bacteria such as the ones we find in root rot which
3:30
is also another one that lactobacillus helps to curb and eat up is the the
3:36
bacteria found in root rot so something to think about this is where some
3:43
bacteria in the soil is so integral to the actual soil system itself both in an
3:51
indoor setting and an outdoor setting this is why i advocate so so hard if you are doing container
3:57
gardening or house plants do not aim for sterile soil do not sterilize your soil please lactobacillus
4:04
would be considered the organic portion of the soil that is how much lactobacillus you should
4:10
have in your soil system so when we look at soil we have an inorganic section of it which is rocks
4:17
from parent material that have been banged out for many many moons into very
4:23
small particulates that are completely inorganic then the other side of this
4:28
is the organic side which is hummus which essentially means dead plant
4:33
material but the other portion of this is algae bacteria and fungi and so
4:40
lactobacils falls into actually being part of the soil and that's why it's so
4:47
important to have this in your soil structure so what is lactobacillus and what does it perform in
4:52
the cell it is a decomposer so it takes organic material and decomposes it into a bioavailable
4:59
format for our plants to uptake said nutrients the other effect of the process of decomposition
5:07
is that they emit hormones or chemicals that actually regulate the growth or the inhabitation
5:17
of other not so beneficial fungal bacteria and pests so as they decompose and work out
5:26
organic material and make it into a available format for plants just the natural process of that
5:33
emits chemicals that then act i've talked about this alliopathy um alliopathic tendencies before
5:42
in many videos this is kind of the same thing it's very similar to even just like an exudate you know
5:48
how an exudate that the plant roots let out uh attract nutrients that the plant needs it's the
5:54
way the plant tells everything around it this is what i need you need to send it to me so i can make a tomato whatever the case is the bacteria is actually able to send out a signal that then inhibits the growth of these not so nice components of the soil
6:11
which benefits you and it also benefits the plant itself so the other really cool part of lactobacillus
6:18
is that as it decomposes it actually ferments and this is what makes it different than other
6:24
decomposers or other biologically active processes so with some animals when they
6:34
decompose they eat it it takes energy to eat it they digest it that has energy
6:41
involved and then they excrete it all energy involved in the excretion comes
6:46
out in the form of heat and fecal matter or urine and so that heat over time can
6:53
cause an anaerobic environment and the train of thought and I know this is
6:58
gonna be very contrary to what many of us have learned but the heat or the
7:04
processing of heat and for some people in the soil science community or just in
7:10
the plant science community believe that that can be harmful not only to the
7:14
plant roots but to the other microbes within the soil so what makes lactobacillus
7:20
different is that it ferments so the release of energy isn't in the form of
7:25
heat it's in the form of air bubbles and gas release and so that fermentation is
7:34
the mechanism in which the energy is released from meaning that it doesn't
7:40
cause the high heats which in turn is theoretically thought to affect plant
7:46
roots and then also the microbes in the soil itself now I'm not saying that hot compost isn't
7:54
a good idea I personally think it's a very good idea because it can reduce weed seeds and things
7:58
of that nature but I do think that there is a balance so when you add a scoop of hot compost
8:04
maybe you want to inoculate with a lactobacillus product or homemade product that you've made to
8:11
help balance out the mechanisms in which your nutrients and your biodegradation is happening
8:19
within the system. When we look at this, it obviously helps from a control perspective when
8:24
it comes to harmful items within the soil, but it also helps with the beneficial side of increasing
8:32
fertilizer availability. And then it also can help with the soil tilth and structure through
8:39
fermentation which ends up releasing gases and helps expand the soil even on
8:44
a micro level and ultimately it helps just with natural cycling within the
8:52
soil system so when you do apply a lactobacillus to your soil system if you over water between now and then you will want to re your soil so maybe it a good idea every time you water that you you know use some lactobacillus in it
9:12
conversely they do need a level of moisture so you don't want your soil to hit a permanent
9:19
wilting point or get too too dry because what ends up happening is we end up with a die-off
9:24
again which is never a good thing so i think that lactobacillus personally in used in conjunction
9:33
with organic material so organic fertilizer is beneficial but it also can benefit in a
9:41
conventional system as well so the studies have shown that conventional fertilizers
9:46
pesticides really don't affect lactobacillus at all to be honest it may
9:54
put a slight dent in the population but I think it was a 25 percent decrease in
10:01
lactobacillus population within the soil which seems drastic but when we look at
10:06
how quickly lactobacillus actually replicates it's very it's not very much because it's actually able to rebound within 72 hours so 48 to 72 hours the
10:17
lactobacillus colonies are right back where they were before even in a conventional system so it doesn't really matter what system you're using you need
10:25
to use what systems right for you but it can act as a probiotic which is you know
10:31
good either way so something to keep in mind now the process of making
10:36
lactobacillus is very very simple all we need is a starch and so the
10:41
famous starch to use is rice because you you need it to be complex you don't want
10:47
it to be a sugar you don't want to be molasses that's what makes this a little bit different so we would use rice and then essentially water so I'll
10:55
put the entire process over on the website you can go check that out if you like it's easy to do at home if there is a product version of it I will be sure
11:05
to insert it in the article or in the comments down below for those of us that
11:09
are much too busy to make our own lactobacillus med scientists products at
11:13
home and yeah that's literally all I have for you guys today I think it's good I
11:19
wish you could purchase it if you can I will I'll figure it out if you can it'd
11:24
be really really nice if you could just buy a probiotic the soil super handy but
11:29
indoor and out this works great I don't think you guys so much for watching if
11:33
you enjoyed this video be sure to give it a thumbs up let me know in the Comments down below if you even knew lactobacillus was a thing and I will talk to you guys next time
