> It is well known that livestock producers routinely use antibiotics to


I used to have a hydroponic plant set up. A friend gave me a copy of the book: http://www.amazon.com/Supercharge-Your-Garden-Millennium-Edition/dp/B004JKBIQM

To boil this book down to the essence, what it said was that hydroponics sought to eliminate all of the stressors on a plant, like 
pushing through the soil to get water, and nutrients, 
fighting off disease,
fighting to get light, in the proper quality, quantity and timing
protecting against extreme temperatures and weather,
fending off anything that tried to eat it
producing offspring (in some plants)
and getting the optimum oxygen/CO2 mixture
etc.,

And by eliminating all of the stressors, plants grow and or produce much more.

The problem is that when theses stressors are eliminated, the plant doesn't know how to protect itself and the slightest stressor will kill it. You have to become hyper-vigilant. 

That is my version of essentially what antibiotics do.

Alan Faulkner
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