Ok I have been a drain to waste guy for years so
hygrozyme has did me just fine, but in another post I read on undercurrent Dave who is a rep (or maybe the owner) for
current culture hydroponics wasn't really for
hygrozyme in hydroponic systems. But one thing we as farmers need to do is be more specific to help the newbies. I am 100% for
hygrozyme in drain to waste as far as recirculating system I would lean towards no with the previous feedback and Dave's so so recommendation of
hygrozyme for undercurrent(although for other recirculating systems it may be fine).
I also have been researching pond cleaners and wastewater treatment products and found some cool faqs that can help us farmers further understand how bacteria and enzymes relate to one another. The really cool thing about these questions also is that they also compare bacterial products vs. straight enzyme products. But the questions are as follows:
8. How quickly do high enzyme producing bacterias produce enzymes.. and in what quantities?
Production of enzymes begins as soon as the bacteria begin to grow. The cells must obtain nutrients from their surroundings, so they secrete enzymes to degrade the available food. The quantities of enzymes produced vary depending on the bacterial species and the culture conditions (e.g., nutrients, temperature, and pH) and growth rate. Hydrolytic enzymes such as proteases, amylases, and cellulases, etc. are produced in the range of milligrams per liter to grams per liter.
10. Are these quantities enough to start to compare to straight enzyme products?
Since we don't have any information on the enzyme content of current "straight enzyme" products, it is difficult to answer this question. It is also a function of dosing of the product (i.e., how much, how often). In general, one can assume that the customer could have more control over initial enzyme concentration by adding a prepared enzyme product. However, bacterial cultures can produce competitive amounts of enzyme after a short colonization period. Bacteria can grow very quickly, doubling their populations in as little as 20-40 minutes. In some applications, it is common to "boost" bacterial colonization by adding a small amount of prepared enzyme to begin degrading the available food. This is often done in composting processes to jump-start the bacterial/fungal growth.
1. What are Bacteria?
Bacteria are single-celled organisms that do not have well-defined organelles such as a nucleus. The cells are typically enclosed in a rigid cell wall and a plasma membrane. Bacteria contain all of the genetic material necessary to reproduce, and they reproduce by simple cellular division. Bacteria show a wide range of nutrient requirements and energy-related metabolism. Some bacteria require only minerals and a carbon source such as sugar for growth, while others require more complex growth media. Bacteria play an extremely important role in recycling nutrients in the environment. Bacteria break down organic matter into simple compounds like carbon dioxide and water, and they cycle important nutrients such as nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus. Bacteria can migrate to areas that are rich in specific nutrients that they require for growth. Bacteria can also attach themselves to surfaces and form communities known as biofilms.
2. What are Enzymes... An enzyme is a protein that acts as a catalyst. The enzyme is responsible for accelerating the rate of a reaction in which various substrates are converted to products through the formation of an enzyme-substrate complex. In general, each type of enzyme catalyzes only one type of reaction and will operate on only one type of substrate. This is often referred to as a "lock and key" mechanism. As a consequence, enzymes are highly specific and are able to discriminate between slightly different substrate molecules. In addition, enzymes exhibit optimal catalytic activity over a narrow range of temperature, ionic strength and pH.
3. Do enzymes break down any molecule or just specific ones and how specific do they get?
The specificity of an enzyme for it's substrate is generally a function of the enzyme's "active site" or binding site. The structure of the protein determines the range of substrates or "keys" that can fit into the lock. Most enzymes are exquisitely specific. That is, they react only with one specific substrate. Some enzymes, however, have a more flexible active site that can accommodate molecules that are closely related to the target substrate. In this case, there is typically a preferred substrate with which the enzyme reacts at a higher rate than with related compounds.
Blah blah blah what does all this mean. Ok the compounds that bacteria break down are complex and there molecules are also long and complex. So bacteria release an enzyme (or in the case of
hygrozyme it releases the enzyme for us) to break down these long complex chains (molecules). Once they are broken down into something doable the bacteria can now consume the smaller molecules. Some thoughts for further consideration relate to these enzymatic products making nutrient available that we might not want....like nitrogen in late flowering. I don't use
hygrozyme in late flowering stages because I worry that it does exactly that. Also these enzymes(weather fungal or bacterial) function in very specific environments and doing things like adjusting the oh or having drastic temp swings or thing like that can have a disastrous effect on the amounts of bennys in the soil. Always remember just like its hard to duplicate the strength of the sun its also hard to duplicate the diversity and number of bennys(beneficial bacteria and fungi...should have said that earlier for the newbies) in container gardening that would be present in good ole mother nature so whatever help we can get (thru products like
hygrozyme that provide a food source for bacteria helping them to multiply)
But back to my original question I wish someone would tell me what fucking enzymes are in
hygrozyme...hell we don't even know if they are enzymes that are more specific to fungi or bacteria but whatever. In my efforts to dial in on my nutrient regiment I guess I'm going to have to be happy knowing the shit works and leave it at that.
