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.

Hi!! new to posting here, but I am sharing your frustration over GSTs. I just ordered 3 more from Shady Oaks, and two bit it by the time I got up this morning. I thought maybe a tiny spider was getting the one itty bitty, but I couldnt see too well, but it may have been another cat I saw balled up over him. Thinking it was a spider, I swatted it away. So I have one lone cat left, just like last time. The last one got really big, and I guess he finally wandered off to pupate. But he sure didnt move much. So I will watch the one ittbitty. I did get some really huge PVSTs. I have never seen one! I really hope they pupate alright. And after being so sad over not getting any BSTs on my very lush fennel, I ordered some along with this order, and presto! new hatched cats! Oh and GF when just hatched look like short little yellow strings. Then they get red. I watch them munching out my kitchen window.The funny thing also is my mom thought I was insane when I started getting into this, so that my then 5 yo son could see the lifecycle, after awhile, and taking her to Shady oaks for the tour, she absolutley loves it too now. This is addictive. They're like my little babies!!--Traci

Normal indoor temps work.

Actually, I found out a little trick by accident, lol. I tried to feed her one day, and had no luck getting her to unroll her proboscis, and since they are so feisty/hyper and so tiny/delicate I stopped trying and gave up. Well the next day, I noticed she was perched vertically on the side of the mesh cage and she hadn't moved in a while so i did the little "blow" test to see if she moved and happened to notice that right when I did it, she started unrolling her proboscis, so i did it once more and she unrolled it again. So I hurried and made some more sugar water and i got two toothpicks, I wrapped cotton around one toothpick and soaked it in the sugar water, I kept the other toothpick in my other hand and then I picked her up (wings folded, in between my index and middle finger) and I turned her to where she was facing me and lightly blew into her "face??" and as soon as her proboscis started to come out from that little groove, I hurried and put the toothpick inside the little loop and tried to finish unrolling her proboscis, and ran into another issue, lol, their proboscis is soo long, that when you try to unroll it with the toothpick, it gets wrapped around it too tight to finish unrolling, like it gets stuck, so I ended up putting the toothpick underneath the little loop and was able to get it unrolled without any problem and as soon as i got the tip onto the soaked cotton, she left it there and started drinking right away. I held her the whole time, they are so fast, I was afraid I would never catch her if she took off. The cloudless sulphurs seem to be very very delicate compared to the gsts, I noticed ANOTHER leg in the reptarium when I was cleaning it out the other day, long after she had left, and I barely handled her at all while she was indoors, in fact I think I only picked her up twice. The GST i had for three weeks (due to bad weather that prevented me from releasing her) never lost a single leg, or anything else, and I picked her up at least once everyday for 3 weeks to hand feed her. I don't know how the sulphur lost two legs in less than 3 days, she seemed to get around fine in the mesh cage, and anytime I saw her zooming around or getting anxious, I darkened the room and she calmed down almost immediately, so idk. Apparently, she was able to get around just fine even though she had lost a leg (or two) because she didn't seem to have any trouble whatsoever climbing or walking, and her balance didn't seem to be off at all. Just thought I would warn you about he leg issue if you are keeping your CS in a mesh enclosure, not sure if this is a common problem or not.