Microbial is used to stimulate a plant's inbuilt immune system, thus improving overall plant health and increased resistance to attacks from pests and diseases.
With soil based horticulutre many of the bacteria present are beneficial to plants in terms of breaking down organic matter and enabling the mineral elements contained within to be readily absorbed by the plant. In a hydroponic environment these beneficial bacteria are not present, therefore the potential for problem airborne or soil borne micro-organisms attacking hydroponic crops is very high.
Even with a good preventative maintenance program in place, problems can still occur such as algal blooms, pythium outbreaks, mould and mildew attacks. These can occur because of pH shifts, lack of oxygen, poor environment control and imported organic materials transferred by growers from other sites. Indoor hydroponic environments are especially at risk to such pathogens, and the grower must effectively become mother nature by instigating an effective preventative maintenance programme.
Microbial is a wide-ranging aqueous solution derived in part from naturally occurring plant extracts. Microbial is non toxic to humans, animals and plants and is totally biodegradable and environmentally friendly.
Microbial acts as a micro-cleanser and plant rootzone conditioner, which cleans and rejuvenates plants. This allows the plant to naturally withstand attacks from common pests and biological contaminants like bacteria, fungi, algae and viruses.
Before Microbial the only method of treating the above problems was by using heavy chemical sanitisers, fungicides and pesticides which in some cases do more harm than good, especially to crops that will eventually be consumed by humans.
The horticultural industry as a whole will benefit by the use of Microbial in their respective growing environments because the use of pesticides, fungicides and other harmful chemicals can be reduced, if not totally eliminated, in turn reducing grower overheads and also benefiting the environment we live in.
Microbial is becoming the preferred method of overcoming plant related problems, and should be adopted by all growers in the horticultural industry as an integral part of the grower's overall preventative maintenance programme.
