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.

Interesting stuff, this spray. Almost as interesting as spray-on hair! Good catch, FW. URL = a web address, the string of stuff at the top of your browser that usually starts with http:// PB = we just got lazy about typing "Photo bucket." Until Gardenweb very recently included the upload feature for all forums, it was only available for a few forums, and then only for the initial post of a thread. So if one wanted to show their pics, it was necessary to have them stored somewhere in cyberspace first, then to paste the code for having the pic show up, which Larry showed a screen-shot of. Free and easy, but more time-consuming, so the new feature has been getting a lot of action. As you can tell, folks around here can't get enough plant porn, so hope you'll get bit by the sharing urge too sometime! If you ever do get stuck trying to "do pics" feel free to email me. I'd be happy to attempt to help. Basically though, if the pic is on your computer, you can include it in a discussion by clicking the browse button and selecting the pic.

Compare it to Aglaonema 'Silver Bay.'

okay so maybe they are fungus gnats, i really looked at them close and they look like tiny mosquitoes. and they don't really fly around too much, just along the dirt and leaves. i really do think that they bite but maybe its just something else, i know that whatever it is that bites me is also very small. but actually might be smaller. i read that the fungus gnat is not only attracted to over watered dirt, but also decomposing material. one of my plants i know for a fact has a lot of wood rot on the root structure. that plant also seems to be the most infested. also it is very very very humid here so they might be finding enough moisture just from that. i am going to continue to try and let my plants dry out as much as possible, and i am throwing away the insecticide because it doesn't effect them and it is kind of harsh on some of my softer tissued plants. i might get rid of the tree that is decomposing, its a wild cherry tree i dug up last year to try and turn into a bonsai but i think its pretty much a lost cause. as for the rest of my plants. i am not only going to try and make sure my plants dry out but i am also going to try and replant all of my plants in soil that is inorganic so that the gnats have nothing to feed on, all of the soil i have now has a lot of wood in the mix. most of it is miracle grow and i think that the dirt was infected when i bought it. so i just need to spend a little more money and get a better quality soil. and just for the record all of the miracle grow soil that i have bought i have mixed in grit so that it is better draining but i don't think that is going to be enough. hopefully i can get rid of these damn bugs!!!