How to tell if EM is working?

I'm interested in trying EM in my garden and fruit trees this year. I have experimented with compost tea in the past,  mostly using worm castings.

The hard thing is how to tell whether these microbial tools are doing anything, since they work on a microscopic level.

Let's say I buy some EM starter culture, make an intermediate activated batch, then dilute and spray. What do I look for and how soon do you see results?

I guess if you productivity is at a higher level than usual it might be working.
I am on a new homestead so don't have anything to compare it against, but think it would be benefitial here.  Only about 4 inches of top soil in places so will be needing to concentrate it for garden area.  Adding  EM sure wouldn't hurt, would it??

Hello.
Since this is an organism, I am wondering if it requires a lot of organic matter in the soil to work? Our soils are sandy clay, with very little organic matter so we are working on correcting this; will the EM help, or do we need to wait until the soil is somewhat improved?

Cori

Rick Hatchh wrote:I'm interested in trying EM in my garden and fruit trees this year. I have experimented with compost tea in the past,  mostly using worm castings.

The hard thing is how to tell whether these microbial tools are doing anything, since they work on a microscopic level.

Let's say I buy some EM starter culture, make an intermediate activated batch, then dilute and spray. What do I look for and how soon do you see results?

You can easily make an EM solution using local microorganisms which makes more sense to me than using microorganisms that were grown in a whole different part of the country/world. The local ones seem best suited for the local flora/fauna and climate, plus it costs almost nothing to make. Here is a video showing how to do so using the JADAM method (I highly recommend the book).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Uuy8DxGjA