Milk... sounds awesome?

[HappyHouse]

So ive been hearing that a 10-30% milk to water mixture is a good fungicide. Anyone have any experience with it??

Thanks!:Cool:

 

[Magic]

No i have not personal, ive seen people use it for cal, and other nutes thats inside of it, but i do know you gotta be careful with milk beacuse it can spoil and create a awful smell, even with water mixed with it so if that does not bother you the smell of spoiled milk then by all means shoot for it. but i never heard about it being used as a fungicide. hope someone with more knowlegde chimes in would love to see what else you can use milk for.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

From what I've read; it doesn't act so much as a fungicide as it does as a food source for beneficial bacteria to help them compete with harmful bacteria. It also seems to be pretty hit or miss based on the testimonials I've just looked at (plus like IDS said; wait til that milk sours under your lights, stinky stuff man.) I'm very much speculating here; but I think the train of thought is that there is Lactobacillus bacteria in the soil, which is part of the lactic acid bacteria group (converts lactose and other sugars to lactic acid.) Milk typically contains lactose, so you're feeding the Lactobacillus bacterial microbes in the soil the lactose that they need to maintain healthy growth.

Here's a snippet from Garden Guides.com

Lactobacillus Benefits
Lactobacillus is a beneficial bacterium that helps sterilize soil and remove byproducts that can build up and create a harmful environment. The presence of lactobacillus limits the undesirable organisms in the soil. This creates a more balanced environment that is able to support plant life. Lactobacillus contributes to decomposition and disease suppression. The bacterial cycle is responsible for regulating the balance of composition in soil, to encourage life by increasing the formation of humus. Lactobacillus also performs as a growth regulator for fungi, yeast and aerobic bacteria.

If you were growing outside I'd say it might be worth a shot; but that would turn into a stinky mess indoors and you still may or may not fix your bacterial problems.

Anyways hope that helps a bit (or maybe raises more questions!) :smokebuds: :karma Cloud:

 

[HappyHouse]

Thanks for all the info! :High 5: So one of my seedlings got some mold on the stem, "damping off" is what Im told is what happened. I started spraying a 30% milk solution on it, and yeah it did get a little smelly for a second, but the circulation seemed to take care of it within an hour or two after the smell showed up. So the smell isnt that big of an issue. Im also told 30% is kinda high and im sure if i backed it off it would smell way less, but like i said its never really bad to begin with. :booya:I also noticed on the wikipedia it listed it as a natural fungicide, but yeah how much can we trust a wiki? I think imma keep at it ive been doing it twice a day for about 2 days. It seems to have gotten rid of the mold in the soil that made it to my other plants but i dont know if the infected seedling is gonna recover

 

[breederj]

I've never used that method. Neem oil seems to get rid of mold. I don't drink milk. But I like organic solutions. Yeah

 

[lr2jd]

As far as I know, milk doesn't work at all. Fungi hate acids, and milk is quite high in the PH scale (alkalic?). It's beter to use something with a lot of silica (which makes your plants more resistant). I've had great results with a Sodium Silicate (NaSi4) solution. However, the Na (sodium) can be harmfull, so dilute it some more than the package advises. This isn't very biological, but by using the right type of soil (with a lot silicates) you can make it so. Helps great agianst mildew and stemrot.
If there's a case of random stemrot, you cán use NaCl (kitchen salt) after cutting and cleaning the wound to prevent spreading. Mix this salt with vaseline to make it stick. It doesn't kill the fungus, but makes it inactive. I reported fungal growth of 0.01inch per 3 months after this treatment.

 

[HappyHouse]

Thanks for the info LR, the milk seemed to stopped the fungal growth as of now. Considering the amount there was before im going to say that the milk worked. Yes it did get a little smelly for maybe an hour but after it aired out i never smelled it again. Ive tried the baking soda method, with less success, but you live and learn right?

So i did get the stem rot, could you explain what you mean by cutting and cleaning it out? Im assuming your referring to cutting the small spot of mold that was on the stem? The seedling is very young about 10 days now and the stem rot really slowed the growth. I think i stopped it with the milk method but for future reference im just curious. The stem is really tiny so it seems very difficult to cut it out without killing the poor lady. Either way, how would i clean it out? PHd water or some sort of solution?

New developments! my seedling that had the stem rot is now recovering!! she had some nice healthy looking new growth this morning!! woo hoo the milk worked!