The Actinovate and BiotaMax are both products that contain beneficial fungi and bacterial that are intended to prey on the disease causing fungi and bacteria in the soil. Just as people eat yogurt, kefir, and buttermilk to re-establish beneficial gut bacterial to treat an upset stomach, these soil probiotics help plants fight off diseases. I keep trying to imagine the interactions between either of these with the Myco-Grow. It sort of reminds me of the old story of Satchel Page about a thermos bottle keeping liquids either hot or cold. "How to it know?" Part of my brains says the microbes in the Actinovate and BiotaMax will prey on the mycorrhizal fungi in the MycoGrow that we want to get established in the soil. On the other hand, the MycoGrow contains many of these same microbes in addition to the mycorrhizal fungi, so they must play well together. While I've already bored everybody besides you to sleep with the benefits of mycorrhizal fungi to a plant's roots, these other microbes play different but equally important roles in the health of the soil and plants. Just as lady bugs, lacewing larvae, and praying mantis come in like the calvary to eat the aphids, spider mites, and thrips, these soil probiotics fill a simlar role. They will kill off the bad bacteria and fungi that cause plant disease such as Damping off, Powdery Mildew, Verticillium, Fusarium, Black Spot, Rusts, Fire Blight, and Phytophthora root rots and blights. It's difficult to say anything for sure since the ingredients of the products don't give you any idea of how much of the microbes are included, only which ones are included. My hunch from reading over the info on all three products is that the Myco-Grow contains almost everything that is in both of the other two plus having the Mycorrhizal fungi. The Actinovate only has one strain of bacteria, so I'm guessing the BiotaMax will do more good than the Activovate. The Myco-Grow contains: Endomycorrhizal fungi Glomus intraradices, Glomus mosseae, Glomus aggregatum, Glomus clarum, Glomus deserticola, Glomus etunicatum, Gigaspora margarita, Gigaspora brasilianum, Gigaspora monosporum Ectomycorrhizal fungi Rhizopogon villosullus, Rhizopogon luteolus, Rhizopogon amylopogon, Rhizopogon fulvigleba, Pisolithus tinctorius, Laccaria bicolor, Laccaria laccata, Scleroderma cepa, Scleroderma citrinum, Suillus granulatas, Suillus punctatapies Trichoderma fungi Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma konigii Beneficial Bacteria Bacillus subtillus, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus azotoformans, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus pumlis, Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus stearothermiphilis, Paenibacillus polymyxa, Paenibacillus durum, Paenibacillus florescence, Paenibacillus gordonae, Azotobacter polymyxa, Azotobacter chroococcum, Sacchromyces cervisiae, Streptomyces griseues, Streptomyces lydicus, Pseudomonas aureofaceans, Deinococcus erythromyxa ======================================================= The Biota Max Soil Probiotic contains fungi Trichoderma harzianum Trichoderma viride Trichoderma koningii Trichoderma polysporum bacteria Bacillus subtilis Bacillus laterosporus Bacillus licheniformus Bacillus megaterium Bacillus pumilus Paenibacillus polymyxa bacteria for fixing nitrogen ======================================================= Actinovate contains only Streptomyces lydicus bacteria ======================================================= You said you had 10 tomato plants. I'm assuming that means 5 Earthtainers, so for a good experiment I would suggest the following: One with no probiotcs added One with MycoGrow only One with BiotaMax only One with MycoGrow and BiotaMax One with MycoGrow and Actinovate My newest topic I'm reading research on is using Aspirin as a soil drench and foliar spray to help plants fight diseases and stress. I'll post something when I find enough to indicate whether it's a fad or fact.

mrlike2u, thank you for clarifying! The picture really ISN'T my gritty mix... that is an online picture found that has a similar problem to mine (the yellowy stuff). The gritty mix is sifted 1:1:1 at AT LEAST 1/8in or just a tad smaller (bigger than 1/16 for sure). There should not be a watering problem since there is a WICK in place. I think it is a problem with the bark. Because all of the other pots don't have this problem of fungi. It is just the Michelia which has this problem and the bark in that mix is pine bark that is of a different brand than the Repti Bark of the other plants. I would like to inquire if anyone knows what type of fungi that would be and if that is something I should be concerned about. I am positive that it is NOT salt buildup: not at pot rim, or top of soil, but about 2in deep into gritty mix. They are ROUND in shape. Thank you, Ruby

>> You're changing your mind about whether there was a solid basis for recommending a treatment in this case? Earlier in the thread when I pointed out that it was unclear where the "skin fungus" diagnosis came from, you said: "Ok - that makes sense.". No, I agree that asking if someone has been diagnosed makes sense. But we didn't get an answer - so we can assume nothing about that person ... yet you follow up on an indeterminate situation by assuming that people are making guesses as to what it is. We don't know if it was self diagnosis or a definite diagnosis. >> Your other link is on effects of herbal oils on bacterial cultures No, on the effects of essential oils on fungal cultures, as we were discussing tinea, a group of fungal diseases. Also, I suggest we keep in mind 3 other things here: location, location, and location. Trying to treat an internal infection with a substance only shown to be effective in test tube studies does require extrapolation that may be unwarranted ... some organ in the body may absorb or metabolize the treatment and keep it from reaching adequate concentrations where the infection is. On the other hand, when we are dealing with skin infections, essential oils can be applied rather directly. There are other studies that have shown that essentials oils applied to the skin of humans are effective in treating dermatophyte fungal infections - I know you've said that you can't be expected to look up any information beyond what is presented (which doesn't stop you from giving an 'expert' opinion on something that you are unfamiliar with) - so I'll leave one such link here, though it certainly isn't the only one. My bottom line - plants (and bees) have evolved to produce plenty of antifungal substances, and applying such substances to non-life-threatening skin infections appears to be a reasonably effective manner of treating such infections. Here is a link that might be useful: Broad spectrum herbal therapy against superficial fungal infections.

It is good to summarize the ways in which bacteria save a plant's energy, which can be re-directed towards growth and production (which is what we care about here). - they fix N in the soil, of course. - they largely transport organic N from bulk soil to the rhizosphere, where the plant puts out sugars for their consumption. They are very green as a material (C/N of 5 to 9), and this transport allows the plant to work with puny roots. A typical plant roots will access only 2% of the soil in the volume defined by its dripline circle times its height. No need to access more, and therefore spend energies on root development, if nutrients are carried to you. - that N is in amino-acid form, which are absorbed directly, saving the plant the work to re-assemble the amino-acid from elemental N. Granted the aminos are in the form of bacterial predators feces, deposited right there. I speculate that the protozoa also want sugars, so that N is further concentrated in their feces. - they save the plant substantial defense energy, when the bacterial mix is right. Arbuscular myc. also do defense by covering roots and P and water transport. They also do pre-filtering of bad things such as aluminum ad cadmium, so that the plant nutrients absorbed through them are less contaminated. Relative importance of these creatures for plant development depends on which one is the limiting factor for growth.