Culturing LAB
Lactobacillus aka Lactic Acid Bacteria
When culturing IMO’s you only want the aerobic bacteria, it is the opposite with LAB. LAB are anaerobic microorganisms which, in the absence of oxygen break sugar into lactic acid. LAB man benefit is improving ventilation of air in the soil, which in turn promotes rapid growth of fruit trees and leafy vegetables.
What are the benefits of using LAB in your garden?
LAB has a wide range of benefits, so let’s start with foliar application. Spraying LAB on your plants can help restore microbe loss from the abuse of insecticides or fungicides.
Soil – LAB always works best with the presence of FPJs, IMO’s, and other food for your soil. It speeds up the composting of soil ingredients while preventing decay. LAB is effective at improving ventilation in compacted soils especially when mixed with IMO’s. LAB speeds up the initial growth of plants resulting in increased yield and higher quality plants, increases the solubility of fertilizers, and one of the coolest benefits, LAB increases solubility of phosphates in phosphate accumulated soils, helping the deficiency of the plant and increasing phosphate absorption.
Materials –
– Rice (any will do)
– Dechlorinated water
– Raw/unpasteurized milk
– Jaggery (unprocessed brown sugar)
– Extra large glass jar
– Paper towel/ coffee filter
– Rubber band
– Giant 60ml syringe
How to start –
This is a process done in a couple steps with quite a bit of time in between, so prepare for that.
– ¼ full of rice, then fill ½ way with water, put lid on and shake, strain rice, return back to jar, using paper towel/ coffee filter and rubber band as the lid.
– Let this sit at 23-25 degrees Celsius until it smells sour
– Mix this rice water with milk at a 3-1 ratio. 3 being rice water, 1 being milk. With all the nutrients from the milk the LAB will grow quickly.
– Let sit at 23-25 degrees for 3-5 days
– Or until you notice 3 distinct layers.
– Floating cheese/clear liquid/ and left-over starches and proteins.
– The middle clear liquid is what we want. That is the LAB, use 60ml syringe to suck out only this section. The cheese can be eaten or fed to your pets for increased gut health.
– In order to stabilize/ store the LAB it must be mixed with the same weight of jaggery.
Dilute 1:1000 when using.
1 being LAB-1000 being water