Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
When to Use Microbial Inoculants
All of these inoculants are best used during the growing season, especially during certain
times of year — planting, high-stress situations, disease-prone times and spring and fall
when microbes can most happily flourish. It's best to apply them in the morning or evening
when there is a lower solar index or on a cloudy day, but this isn't essential. It's also ideal
to apply them right after rain or irrigation and after mowing the lawn.
If possible, compost tea and EM are preferably applied in relatively frequent, smaller
doses, such as on a monthly basis, and weekly during stressful periods such as during dis-
ease season on grapes. If applied through an irrigation system, EM is often used daily, but
if applying it manually, such as through a backpack sprayer or hose-end sprayer, it's often
done monthly. For large areas, it may be done only two to three times per year.
If using spraying equipment, you'll want to filter the compost tea and EM to get out any
rock dust and other solids that are used during the brewing process. With EM, if the
product container has been sitting for awhile, the solids should have sunk to the bottom, so
filtration may not be necessary until you get down to the bottom.
I always like to apply microbial inoculants along with other biostimulants such as sea
minerals, kelp, fish, humic acids, and molasses, or even multiple inoculants at the same
time.
