Allotment trials with EM in the UK

EM…what on earth?

Healthier plants, bigger yields and all by harnessing natural bacteria. That’s the claim, but will it work? Andrew Seall intends to find out in this new series.

It is a tad cold on my allotment at the moment, and probably is on yours as well, but at least I can comfort myself in the knowledge that many summer pests are being killed off. I am up here to start to plan where to feed my soil with EM without promoting too many pests and weeds along the way.

‘EM…what’s that?’ I hear you say. It stands for effective micro- organisms and is used all over the rest of the world, with claims of great beneficial effects upon plants and vegetable growth and cropping. All over the world, that is, except in the UK, and so this treatment of the soil with EM – and the results – are what I am going to be writing about for the next 12 months. Let’s just see if it can give us the excellent results seen elsewhere.

— Kitchen Garden, February 2005

I’ve now collected the entire series of articles together and made them into PDFs, just to click on the links and read on. 11 articles in total, I felt they were pretty honest and straightforward and very interesting to read. The series is from 2005 and I’m not sure what follow up has been done in the magazine, I plan to dig a bit more and see what I can find.

Regardless, it’s inspiring to read the series, especially as I sit here in minus whatever temperatures and look out at snow and ice and wonder if it will ever be green again. The good news is that it’s soon time to start planting seeds again in preparation for the spring and as soon as you start seeing those little green shoots coming up it feels like, just maybe, there is a chance of meeting spring around the corner. If they can do it so can I!!

Anyhow, enjoy the articles! If you find anything similar let us know and we can post it here.

1. EM_allotment_trial_1_What_on_Earth_is_EM

2. EM_allotment_trial_1_continued

3. EM_allotment_trial_2_More_roots_mean_stronger_healthier_plants

4. EM_allotment_trial_2_continued

5. EM_allotment_trial_3_Hotbeds_and_a_bean_wheel

6. EM_allotment_trial_3_continued

7. EM_allotment_trial_4_Going_like_a_rocket

8. EM_allotment_trial_5_Good companions

9. EM_allotment_trial_6_Making_light_work

10. EM_allotment_trial_7_Roots_of_sucess

11. EM_allotment_trial_7_continued

2 thoughts on “Allotment trials with EM in the UK”

Well it is mid-summer here in Australia, and some days are heatwave conditions, so I might have time to have a read. Thanks for all the work you have done collecting the articles.

Can’t wait to find out how they went…

Take care,
Kerri xx