Transcription
Hey guys, today I'm talking about an incredible plant booster for your vegetable garden. This will make your plants grow faster and produce more vegetables than you can imagine.
Now, these are all cherry tomatoes, all the same variety, all started from seed. And as you can see, these two on the end are quite different than the four to my left. And that's because I've made a special concoction that works like magic. It's incredible the growth rate. You can see these are at least triple the size of these. All started from seed at the same time.
So, let's head into the greenhouse and I'll show you exactly how to make this super simple formula. You probably have this in your pantry right now if you're an active chef or cook, but it's very easy to find. It's at almost every grocery store you'll visit. You can order it online. So, just take a close look. I'll bring you around to the other side so you can see the difference before we head into the greenhouse.
So, I'll just give you a closeup of the size of this plant. And as you can I'm hoping that's in view, but there's some cherry tomatoes already starting on the bottom. But as you can see, the size of this plant is a fraction of this plant. And the only difference is this formula that I've watered this with once maybe twice a week in varying stages of the growth, different amounts actually. So in the beginning when they were just seed seedlings, it may have just been a few drops and then I moved my way up to a full cup of watering just to make sure they get off to a great start. And here you can see actual tomato flowers there that are soon be tomatoes. Again, this is yet to produce a tomato. So that's the difference in the four on the right that I showed you versus these two on the left. I just wanted to make the point very clearly that this formula works great.
So one of my gardening friends that I showed this recipe to and I showed the results and then he tried it. He was amazed at the results. He was an older man, but he had never tried this formula. So he refers to it as the Miracle Growth Elixir. I hope I've got that right. But when he said that, it made me laugh because I never really thought of it that way. I just thought of it as a plant growth stimulant. So, it's kind of the same thing, but worded different ways.
So, let me show you how to put this together. I've been accused of rambling. So, we'll put this recipe together really quickly and I'll show you how to do this. So, if you're starting from seed or you're buying at the big box store, just try this formula on a couple of plants and you'll be able to see the difference in a very short amount of time. Anywhere from a month to a month and a half.
All right. So, I'm going to go through the ingredients really quick. To make up a one gallon batch one, I used this Fleshman's active dry yeast. I keep this in my fridge and it works great. You can use different types of yeast. You could use a liquid yeast, bread starter, whatever you have, but just any type of yeast. Second, you're going to need molasses. Now, you can substitute things like cane sugar, white sugar, and just use the same amount. Instead of 2 tablespoons of molasses, you could use, as I said, a type of sugar. Next, you're going to need 1 tbsp of baking soda. I'm going to give you all the amounts exactly how you put this together and everything if I've left something out. So, you're going to need your baking soda. And then you're going to need one gallon of lukewarm water or slightly warm water. Anywhere from 90 to 95°. You can just take some water that you've captured from a gutter. If you're gardening on a small scale, you could use something like spring water, but I would recommend not using chlorinated or florinated water because they do have a lot of extra chemicals in there. So, just remember setting up your own rain catch off a gutter would be a great idea.
Now, the first thing you're going to need is you're going to want to activate your yeast. And this proc excuse me, process can take anywhere from 2 hours to overnight. So, I would just say I would probably just to make sure that your yeast is not dead or that it's not gone bad or anything like that if you haven't stored it properly is just do the overnight method to begin with and then you can reduce the time. But once you add this yeast, you should see a foaming type action when you come back the next day.
So, next we're going to add before we add in our yeast because we want the yeast to go spread across the surface so we have a lot of surface area. So, I'm going to add in the molasses. But again, if you do decide you're going to go with a granulated sugar, you're going to need to make sure that it's mixed properly. So, we're using I'm going to go ahead and double this and make it 2 tablespoons. Excuse me, not two tablespoons. I'm keeping this at its regular rate, which is 2 tablespoons. I misspoke there. And then once you get that in the water, we're just going to stir that in our lukewarm water to make sure it's mixed properly. Our yeast is going to react with this. So, we want to make sure that our sugars are mixed well. Now, if you're using any type of granulated sugar, you're going to make make sure you do the exact same thing and make sure the sugar is completely dissolved in the water. You may want to actually go with a little bit closer to 100° water to make sure your sugar dissolves properly.
All right, so let's add in tablespoon of our active dry yeast. And we don't mix this. We just kind of put it across the top and the results you should see if you wait overnight you'll see a reaction between the sugar and the yeast. It's going to be kind of a foamy almost like a beer type head on it. So just give it a minimum of 2 hours, but I would recommend if this is the first time you've done this, wait overnight to make sure there is a reaction from the yeast and make sure that it's actually live yeast and your yeast has not gone bad.
Now I'll show you some of the yeast and the sugar or molasses water that we've added it to. You can see this foaming action is already starting. And so it may take as little as 2 hours, but again, overnight, I think, is going to give you better results. But again, the yeast will start reacting with the sugar rather rapidly. And I'm going to go over the reasons that this is so important for your garden. And also, you don't want to overuse this because you can have a microbial imbalance in the soil. So, just remember, follow the guidelines to putting this together.
Now, I've allowed some time to pass, and I just want to give you a quick glimpse of the foamy action that started. And the longer you wait, the better this is going to be. But for purposes of the video, I'm just going to run through the list before it actually does an overnight process. So again, if you're doing this for the first time, do an overnight soap there and just let it sit. I would make sure that you start out, one reason it might fail is that if the water you're using is not lukewarm or above 90°. So you want that yeast not going into cold water because you may not not have the reaction you're hoping for. So, just remember, warmer water, but not hot, not over 100°. And you want to make sure that is not chlorinated or florinated. It needs to be pure water. So, if you have to go out and buy some spring water or some very pure water that does not have any added chemicals.
All right. So, I'm going to add in the remainder of our water and try not to make a huge mess here. Our yeast has been activated. And so that rule of making sure the water is the right temperature and allowing time to do its magic with the yeast, you'll have a much better result. If you do this right away, mix it and then apply it to your garden, you're not going to have great results.
So, next thing we're going to do is we're going to pour in our buttermilk. And like I said, just do that slowly and use a stir stick. I usually use paint stir sticks to do that. So today my paint stir stick is m missing an action. So I'm just going to set that off to the side. And then I'm just going to stir it like this. The last thing we're adding is our baking soda. And there's reasons for all of this for your plants. It's going to benefit all of your garden. And you can do this with ornamentals as well. You can do some experimentation. But just stir this first. And then the last ingredient we're putting in is one tablespoon of baking soda. My baking soda is a little bit clumpy there because it's been in the greenhouse. And again, you only want to use one. You don't want to overpower it with baking soda. And just allow it to sit. Allow the yeast to continue to do its reaction with the sugars in the our liquid here, our water. And then you're going to have some really incredible results.
Also, if you're not a member of the Patreon, I'll put the recipe there. and then I'll put some benefits and some different ways you can use it in the garden. So, if you're not a member of the Patreon, please take a look in the link in the description and you can become a member there, which really helps the channel grow.
Now, this is a batch I made yesterday and as you can see, the yeast has really created that beer-like foam in it. And this is ready to go into the garden. So, I always say if you do use mason jars, make sure you don't put the lid on too tight because if pressure builds up, if you had a lot of reactions, it could crack your glass jar or actually something worse. You could have almost an explosion type thing if you use too much yeast. So, just remember, keep the lid on these mason jars very loose or you could cover it with a towel or paper towel or cloth towel and just allow those gases to escape as that reaction takes place.
Now, the next step in this process, I want to talk about applying it to your plants, whether we're talking tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and I grow all of those in my garden and have seen amazing results with this yeast type booster, whatever you want to call it, elixir, I think, is what my friend had referred to it as. One thing you want to do before you pour this, don't pour it directly on the base of the plant, but first, water the soil to prevent microbial overload or shock to the roots. So, I would just recommend doing a nice light watering in your garden before you add this. Chances are it's not going to do anything too detrimental, but just to prevent any accidents from happening, I would recommend watering the soil lightly, especially if it's really dry in the soil. So, that way you'll have better results.
Now, next, I want to talk about application amounts. Now, if you're starting from seed and you're just have a huge seed tray, just having something like this small bottle, you can just put just a small amount, maybe just a few drops on each one in the beginning stages. Once your plant has grown at a small size plant, you might put quarter of a cup of our mixture. Then to a medium size, maybe up to a foot, maybe half a cup. And then once your plant goes into the ground, you can add a full cup of this mixture. One thing you want to do is you want to make sure that you just allow the growth to happen naturally. Don't overload it when it's in its seedling state because that can be a really negative thing. Your seedlings may die.
Another thing I'll talk about is not watering the leaves themselves. Only water at the soil base about a quarter of an inch away from the stem where it's coming out of the ground because you don't want to cause any problems any type of bacteria overload at the base of the stem. So again, not on the leaves, not on directly on the stem coming out of the ground, but just in the soil area around it, especially in the seedling stage where they're just coming out. Make sure you just a little bit away. I know you're dealing with small cells, so just kind of put it out around the edges of the cell so the root system can grow into it and it's not a root shock to begin with.
Now, next, this is a common question I get with all my elixirs and mixtures that I put together. A lot of people ask me when or what time of day do you apply it? I always recommend watering early in the morning if possible. But if you have a really tough schedule, you leave early and you don't have time to deal with your garden. Then do it late in the evening, right around sunset or right before sunset. But I would avoid midday when the plant is most stressed from heat, humidity, maybe a little bit of dryness in the soil. So just do that if possible. Maybe on the weekends, early morning, and then work days, maybe later in the afternoon. That's going to work best for you.
Now, a lot of people ask me, "What is the frequency of adding this formula?" You're going to still water as you normally would, but I would recommend in the seedling stage, just a few drops twice a week, right around each seedling cell tray or every cell in the tray. And then once you see that growth, you can move it up to twice a week, maybe a quarter cup on a plant that's in an individual pot. And again, once it goes into the ground, you can use a full cup. I may have covered this twice, but I just want to make sure that you're not overloading the microbes in the soil and that way you have the proper speedy growth and lots of fruit setting without the problem of any disease or problems harm to the plant.
Now, I want to talk for a minute about what what you'll expect within a certain amount of time. Within 7 to 10 days, you're going to see greener leaves. As you can see on these two cherry tomatoes, the leaves are very green. We see lots of fruit forming. There's going to be faster growth overall. These have tripled the size of the ones that were planted at the same times. Within two to three weeks, you're going to see thicker stems, more branching. When you compare the small ones to these two large ones I have, you definitely have more branching and lots lots thicker stems there. And within 3 to four weeks, you're going to see more flowers and better fruit set. As you look closely, I'm going to try to zoom in right there. It's a little bit hard to see it. I'm trying not to bounce the camera around there too much. you actually see tomato starting to produce flowers which ultimately becomes our tomatoes. So that's a great thing. The other four have yet to produce one flower. So that's what you can expect to see in as little as 4 weeks when you start using this process.
So I want to go through all four of the items and explain what each one does. Yeast is a microbial activator. It's not a direct fertilizer, but it feeds on sugars and it's going to multiply rapidly. but it releases enzymes, vitamins, especially the B complex and organic compounds. So, this is really the most important thing in our recipe here because this makes such a difference in the soil and once you bring your soil alive, you're going to see huge results. Again, you can see already the yeast is reacting with our sugar. So, temperature and sugar is really important. I would go with the molasses, but again, if you don't have access to that or don't have any in your pantry, just use the natural, the most natural sugar you can get. and as a last resort, a white sugar.
Now, three more things I nearly forgot to mention when it comes to yeast. Yeast is going to feed beneficial bacteria and fungi. It's going to speed up the decomposition of organic matter in the soil and it unlocks the nutrients that are already in your soil. So, a lot of times the soil or the plant can't react together well without something like bacteria and microbes that help the two interact. Kind of a symbotic relationship there.
Now, there's a key concept when you're using this particular method with the yeast. It's the microbial cascade effect, and I'm going to put on the screen right here exactly what that means, and that will help you understand it. You can freeze frame the picture and read through that right there. Also, the natural plant hormone production. I'll put what happens there on the screen as well. So, there's two things that this yeast is going to do, and it's a very key component of using this what some people might even call almost a magic elixir that makes your plant growth explode.
So, I try to shoot through the other three ingredients really quickly and explain what they're doing to our recipe here. Our buttermilk is our calcium delivery system. Tomatoes often struggle with calcium uptake and that's going to often lead to blossom inright. Buttermilk is going to provide calcium. It's going to provide lactic acid. and bacteria and that's going to improve the calcium support into the fruit and it's going to strengthen the cell wall. So buttermilk is a key component of this recipe.
Now next is our molasses and I use molasses because it contains minerals. Your sugars may not contain that unless you're talking about natural cane sugar and it may contain some of these things. I haven't researched that. But molasses itself contains iron, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. It's going to feed the microbes longer than plain ordinary sugar and it's going to sustain microbial activity in the soil. So, this is basically what this means, it's going to be an extended nutrient release and a healthier soil ecosystem.
And last is our baking soda. So, this is going to be a pH modifier and it's going to be a fungal control agent. It's going to slightly relate release, excuse me, it's going to slightly raise the pH at the soil surface. It's going to create a less favorable environment for fungal pathogens and the overall effect is going to be it's going to reduce the disease pressure and it's going to stabilize the root zone conditions. So even baking soda in this recipe has a very important use.
Now after saying all this and showing how this goes together and how to apply it to your tomatoes, the real secret is is that the tomatoes depend on the microbial balance in the soil. And there's a very special way that they all interact with the soil. So soil is the key to your garden. So by increasing the microbes, by doing all of this to your garden, you're going to see a huge increase in growth and you'll also a huge increase in harvest.
So a lot of people think if one tablespoon of dry yeast is great, why don't I try two or three or even four? Well, too much yeast in this recipe is going to cause an imbalance. And so you want to make sure that you stick with the recipe exactly as is. What will happen is if you have an excessive amount of microbes in the soil that's going to be competing with your plants and it's just not going to work as well. You're going to have more leafy growth and less production of actual fruit. So remember, stick to the recipe. All this is to one gallon and you're going to apply it exactly the way that I talked about earlier.
Now there's a couple of things you can add to this formula to make it even more potent. One is one teaspoon of wood ash. You can order this online. I'll put a link in the description. Or you can make your own or you can add or additionally you can add Epsom salt. One teaspoon of that as well. That's going to add magnesium and potassium. You'll have even greener leaves, stronger photosynthesis, and you'll have potassium which gives bigger, sweeter tomatoes. So again, these two can make a huge difference in the final result, especially if you like more sweet tomatoes rather than acidic.
So I will say that the final takeaway is this is not just a fertilizer. This is a soil biology accelerator and activator. So as my humorous friend said, he referred to it as an elixir. It's just something that's going to make your soil richer and your tomatoes or whatever you're growing in your vegetable garden is going to be much happier and you're going to see the results in a very short amount of time.
So guys, again, if you want to help support the channel and make it grow even faster, you can take a look in the link in the description to my Patreon. There's a free version and a paid version, and you can download lots of PDFs and see some additional videos there as well. So guys, I really appreciate you watching, and I really am getting a lot of sun today, so I'm sorry. I know the lighting in here is terrible. It's blinding me out one side of my eye, and the other I can see. So have a great day, and thanks a lot.