Fermented Plant Extracts and making your own nutrient line

[Mogrow]

I got a microscope for xmas. The first thing I looked at was my own sperm(girlfiends request) then it was onto my LB. It's been in the fridge for a couple months. When I scoped it there was NO bacillus what so ever? Anyone scoped theirs? I'm starting another batch today well see how it looks with the new toy.

so you have any swimmers roots????

 

[rootsnshoots]

Jesus Jumpin' Christ on a Cross, girlfiend is right!

Wanna do something really cool with that scope? Make some crystals, you can make them out of many things, but my dad did urine, salt, sugar, and some other things. He had an attachment for his SLR (no such thing as digital cameras back then, video had only just been made available for the general consumer) and his microscope and used a polarizing filter. Grew the crystals on slides, slapped 'em under the scope with the filter and took pix. Those photos resemble satellite imagery, BEFORE THERE WAS SATELLITE IMAGERY! Fractal geometry was unknown then, too.

You can also look at teas, but in the meantime you can literally make art.

Btw, for me personally, I really have trouble seeing bacteria, even at my scope's best of 400x magnification. I can only really make out the big stuff, and am not sure if I'm seeing fungal hyphae or algal threads if they're not obviously green.

Yes happy holidays ;)

Thanks ill have to try some stuff like that! I've been having a hay day scoping things from my tropical fish tank. A small swipe off the bio-filter and a drop on the slide can keep me entertained for hours!

400x is where this baby begins goes up to 100x with 10x and 20x eye scope thingies. Amazing and fun

 

[rootsnshoots]

so you have any swimmers roots????

Let's just say as someone who doesn't want children, I will continue healthy safe habits.

 

[rootsnshoots]

Correction. It starts at 40x. But at 400x I can clearly see a mushroom spore and protozoa. So I'd imagine hyphea and bennies should be easy to spot. I'll brew some tea tomorrow, scope and take pics.

Squig do I need to use a dye to see the LB? And around what magnification should they be visible?

Ps I love this thread and don't want to run off topic with microscope talk. Maybe I'll start one for scoping teas.

 

[Mississip Hip]

I think the best is to use fresh material when possible, but could a store bought extract be used here? I cant find horsetail growing anywhere. Any advice on substituting extract for fresh material would be greatly appreciated. Or... advice on finding horsetail in norcal would be the jam!

Horsetail. (Equisetum arvense). Perennial plant and medicinal herb.
Active ingredients. Diverse alkaloids, nicotinic acid, silica.
Action. Insectifuge, preventive fungicide, plant tonic and growth stimulant.
Preparation. In decoction, boil 1 lb. of fresh plant with 5 qts. of water for 1 hour, allow to infuse 12 hours, filter and dilute to 20%.
In fermented extract, 1/2 lb. of dried plant in 2.5 gal. of water. Dilute to 5% before using.
Horsetail, along with nettle and fern, form the Big Three among medicinal plants for plants, according to the French. I remember my Swiss grandmother gathering horsetail and drying it in pillowcases for use in astringent poultices.

 

[Ohiofarmer]

^ still remeber Protozoa are 50% to 80% bigger then many microbes and some fungi.........Take it easy: and the best tea by far will come from extracting the left over plants themselves, recycling is natures modo. You may not like the color of left over bubble water but the plants love it.

 

[squiggly]

Correction. It starts at 40x. But at 400x I can clearly see a mushroom spore and protozoa. So I'd imagine hyphea and bennies should be easy to spot. I'll brew some tea tomorrow, scope and take pics.

Squig do I need to use a dye to see the LB? And around what magnification should they be visible?

Ps I love this thread and don't want to run off topic with microscope talk. Maybe I'll start one for scoping teas.

You would probably start to see them around 40x (realllly fuckin' tiny though). 100x they'd still be pretty small.

400+ is where you wanna be for viewing these guys. You don't necessarily need a dye to see them, there are several options here:

1. What's really holding you back probably is that they are moving around too quickly through the "layers" and its incredibly difficult for you to focus on one. Try "fixing" some bacteria to a slide using the following procedure:

Place a single drop of clean water on a slide. Take a flame sterilized inoculation loop and retrieve some cells to be studied. Create a smear with the retrieved cells in the single drop of water on the slide.

Using a clothespin or something similar hold on to the slide and pass it over a flame (be quick with it, but don't be a vagina--there is a finesse required here, practice makes perfect--too hot and you kill everything, too cold and you get no fixation.

when you have evaporated at least half the original volume of water you will likely have fixed some bacteria--but you can dry beyond the halfway point if you so choose.

If you were going to use a dye or counter-stain, now would be the time to do it. I could walk you through a Gram-staining procedure if you wanted to get that serious about it.

From here place a cover slip and get it under the scope.

2. There are microscope accessories/attachments that can make seeing bio-life much easier. The most effective for my sensibilities is known as darkfield microscopy.

This uses scattered light instead of direct illumination to view a sample. Only light scattered by the sample enters the objective lens (depicted by the black lines in the picture).

3. The third and final option I'll mention is phase contrast microscopy. It uses a similar method as above, and is well suited to seeing fairly translucent specimens--which bacteria typically are.

Ultimately when viewing bacteria you will do better with a stain, they are really really tiny guys. You want to be at 400x+ to see them well. As a guide, a 200x lens with a 10x eyepiece would make E. coli appear about 1mm long, still pretty tiny for our purposes.

 

[Seamaiden]

I think the best is to use fresh material when possible, but could a store bought extract be used here? I cant find horsetail growing anywhere. Any advice on substituting extract for fresh material would be greatly appreciated. Or... advice on finding horsetail in norcal would be the jam!

Horsetail. (Equisetum arvense). Perennial plant and medicinal herb.
Active ingredients. Diverse alkaloids, nicotinic acid, silica.
Action. Insectifuge, preventive fungicide, plant tonic and growth stimulant.
Preparation. In decoction, boil 1 lb. of fresh plant with 5 qts. of water for 1 hour, allow to infuse 12 hours, filter and dilute to 20%.
In fermented extract, 1/2 lb. of dried plant in 2.5 gal. of water. Dilute to 5% before using.
Horsetail, along with nettle and fern, form the Big Three among medicinal plants for plants, according to the French. I remember my Swiss grandmother gathering horsetail and drying it in pillowcases for use in astringent poultices.

What can you find? I know rice hulls are high in potassium silicate, too, but they decompose slowly so I'm not sure how easily an extract or tea could be made with them.

 

[Mississip Hip]

Udyana Peace had another AWESOME recipe for bugs and mold that I "think" got deleted in one of the breakdowns. I was wanting some for an outdoor bug and mold preventative concoction to spray on the girls this year. ...planning ahead a little....I wish I could find that old thread.

I need to ask some old timers where to find it....one man told me by "wet seeps".....another board member pointed me to some , also;)

 

[Seamaiden]

BUMP. Need time to reread this old thread, but tis the season and it's time to start considering your ferments and extracts!

I've been using plant essential oils for treating spider mites, mostly on my pole beans.

 

[oregonized]

This is just what I have made in the last few weeks, so its just off the top of my head:

Wish I could put together some sort of list of plants that I collect, but its huge!

Today, started: Dandelion Flowers, Peppercress and vetch - [Flower]

Japanese Knotweed[Polygonacea] and vetch. Knotweed is in the buckwheat family, some call it wild Rhubarb, which is its domesticated cousin. Loaded with Oxalic acid [Mite Control]

Common House Weed FPE - Nipplewort [Lapsana], Wall Lettuce [Lactuca]

Habanero Peppers [Mite Control]
Dried Comfrey [flower/fruiting]
Dried Feverfew [mite control/insecticide]
Dried Nettle; place in empty teabag, soak in non-aerated water [veg/all purpose] Dried Chard " "
Nettle FPE: 6.0pH 300ppm KH, soaked about 3 weeks, strained added mineral water [works for everything, full start to finish trials are ongoing........]
Fuchsia FPE :started in September of last year. I strained the liquid and refilled, hoping to get a second run!

 

[oregonized]

Also starting to collect Bracken ferns to fuck around with some sort of saponin concoction......

 

[Mogrow]

i have my eye on a great bed of watercress, bet that's what you call peppercress. it was taste peppery. will get about 20 gallons of the water where it grows, i've drank t before, probably not a good move but i was gassed and needed hydration bad.:hungover:
comfrey is coming along well, can't wait to start using it.
did a cilantro mix the other day, gnats were slowed down somewhat.
peace mogrow

 

[Seamaiden]

Rebump.

 

[shaggyballs]

Anyone here know of Polyamino alchohols ?
They are esters correct?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester

AMINO ALCOHOLS


I has been said it ......that is helps with cell wall penetration!
Are they from fermented plant extracts?
Yeast maybe?

 

[Seamaiden]

Good questions, shaggy. Mayhaps our resident chemistry nerd will have a good response/explanation on this subject. :)

 

[shaggyballs]

Anyone here know of Polyamino alchohols ?
They are esters correct?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester

AMINO ALCOHOLS


I has been said it ......that is helps with cell wall penetration!
Are they from fermented plant extracts?
Yeast maybe?

I just found this.
Auxin stimulates cell elongation by stimulating wall-loosening factors, such as elastins, to loosen cell walls. The effect is stronger if gibberellins are also present.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxin

 

[shaggyballs]

bump

 

[oregonized]

Enzymes are the workers. And they can live on their own for short periods.

Microlife consume energy to produce enzymes themselves or again other important by-products that enzymes use as well. It is a very complicated cycle on one hand, and ubiquitous on the other. [It is only complicated in the amount of sheer reactions from microlife, but as research develops I think these interactions will become more fundamentally taught.... remember even rain has to have bacteria as a precursor.....or so they think]

I will post up some info. I have been messing around with extracting oxalic acid more efficiently with pectinase.
Been soaking different types of oxalic rich material. Again, for me its all about weeds. Japanese Knotweed is in the Buckwheat family [Polygonacea] along with Bittercress or Peppercress I posted above, [which is not water-cress] but is related and is a weed over much of the US, especially in irrigated areas.

Most of the mustard family too, so I am pick Rape or Canola [campestris] which grows very weedy in the ditches and wet fields around me and of course any wild cress.

I have also been trying to a plant called Nipple Wort in the Aster [sunflower] family. It is an edible plant, but according to Dr Duke, it has a fairly high amount of oxalic acid in its leaf material.

 

[oregonized]

Glycolysis and Alcoholic Fermentation Jean Sloat Mortan PhD

This covers "enzymatic pathways" and the differences between glyco and fermentation.