Poor man's compost tea?

My girls are starting to flower and I want to give them some flowering tea love, but I'm dirt poor. What I have now is flowering bat guano and some good kellogg brand compost. Just went over to buy a fish tank pump on my lunch as that's the only thing I can afford for my girls. It's sad, I've got these lovely ladies stuck in 3 gallon pots because I can't afford anything more.

So my question is can I use only good water, compost, molasses, and the bat guano and come out with a decent tea full of microbes and such?

Also, the smallest pump I could find was a 5 gallon, do I have to use 5 gallons of water? If I wanted to only make a little tea (1 gallon), would it bubble too violently?

Thanks in advance from a first time grower.

Yeh mang you can make a great tea with what you got there.Hey check out Wal mart somtime the one in my area has been stocking Espoma brand Plant tone and Alaska Fish fert.Both are only a few bucks and WELL worth it.The Plant tone contains all the meals and things missing from yer tea.Just a heads up if ya got an extra 7 bucks or so these will be great.They got blood meal and bone meal too but now were over ten bucks gettin a little expensive.LOL!!But yeh what you got will make a fine tea for flowering ladies and the pump is it an air pump?I didnt know they were rated in gallons.Hmm well you can make a gallon at a time no problem,thats usually what I brew up and then none gets wasted.Hope this info is of some help,let me know if I missed anything.Hopefully you can scratch up 10 bux or so and yer Wally world has the good stuff.Good luck bruda!!Gromerr pott!!

yes, i love compost its super charged with good life. You should be fine, thats pretty much all i have too... You dont want the tea to be bubbled to violently as this can be detrimental. You should be ok try it out and get back to us.

make sure your water is chlorine free. if your planning on using tap water let it sit outside and uncovered for a day or so. also if you have a fish pond or lake near you a cup of pond water is always nice has plenty of bacteria. to give the fungus in your tea a boost you can use rolled oats or any kind of starch.

hope this helps.

-vini

you can super charge rolled oats with fungus by dampening the oats and mixing them with some good compost or soil with a healthly beneficial population, leave them in a warm place covered and the oats should grow white fuzzy fungus beards in a few days

hey jon
im not sure what kind of area u live in but if you can get your hands on some nettles u can improve on what u already have. also there are lots of other types of plants u can use to boost the goodness in your tea. and best of all its all free. if there are any hiking paths or areas like that where u live u might wanna take a walk and see what u can find.

hope this helps:
Many common garden herbs and weeds can provide nourishment and nutrients for growing plants, just as they would for people consuming them. As you weed, cut back or harvest these leafy garden greens, save them in a basket or bucket and combine or use them singly to make a botanical tea — recycle those nutrients — and fertilize your garden. Prepare a tea by infusing the whole or chopped leaves in water for a few hours or up to a few days, be sure to stir it every now and then. When you apply the tea, it is okay to use the leaves too, although they may be a bit slimy if you infuse them for more than a day. Below are just a few garden herbs we use:

Chicory, wild and cultivated, is high in potassium and contains calcium and vitamin A.

Comfrey leaves are a good source of calcium, phosphorus and potassium, and contain vitamins A and C, as well as other trace minerals.

Dandelion leaves contain vitamins A and C, as well as calcium and potassium.

Nettle leaves are packed full of nutrients from vitamins A, C, K, B1, B2, B3, B5, calcium, magnesium, phosphate, phosphorus, potassium, boron, bromine, copper, iron, selenium and zinc.

Parsley leaves provide a good amount of vitamins A and C, as well as iron, copper and manganese.

Perilla leaves are loaded with iron and calcium.

Watercress contains vitamins A, C, E, B3, B6, calcium, manganese and iron.

Thanks guys. I hope this comes out ok. 1 gallon of reverse osmosis water, a cup of compost, a teaspoon of guano 0-12-1, and a teaspoon of mollasses. I've got it bubbling in the garage as we speak. Can't wait to get home and check on it.

How often am i supposed to feed?

if your plants are already in bloom, id give em some more guano than that... like 1/4 cup. What do the directions on the guano say? SOme packages tell you how much to put in a tea.

My girls are starting to flower and I want to give them some flowering tea love, but I'm dirt poor. What I have now is flowering bat guano and some good kellogg brand compost. Just went over to buy a fish tank pump on my lunch as that's the only thing I can afford for my girls. It's sad, I've got these lovely ladies stuck in 3 gallon pots because I can't afford anything more.

So my question is can I use only good water, compost, molasses, and the bat guano and come out with a decent tea full of microbes and such?

Also, the smallest pump I could find was a 5 gallon, do I have to use 5 gallons of water? If I wanted to only make a little tea (1 gallon), would it bubble too violently?

Thanks in advance from a first time grower

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hell yes u can. organics can be dirt cheap. you got yourself a good start for a good organic harvest. the bat guano will keep you going. don't be cheap on the compost in the teas.

make sure to go through the organic fanatic collective and organics for begginers, everything you need right there.

Heya guys, that's an interesting thread. I was thinking of a way to add calcium to my soil, but I didn't want to use Calcium Nitrate. And I found this thread. I actually have two of these herbs right now, but dried. Those are Dundelion and Nettle (very good "nutes" for your health too )

Will it be a problem if I use dried herbs, or should I look for fresh ones? Actually they're growin all around here, but their season is at an end, and most of them are almost dead.

And something else, I'm not sure of. Should I just soak the herbs in water and leave them for 2-3 days and then water the plants. Or should I boil the mix before I water the plants?

1/4 cup of guano in a 1 gal of water would be way too much in my experience.

Then again WTF do I know?

A teaspoon may be a little conservative though. But it's smart to start small. :smile:

Maybe up it to a tablespoon if your plants respond well.

I think soma recommends 100 grams mixed with 2L of water, then you use 8oz (about a cup) of that mixture per 10L of water. Something like that...

wow. My "Down to Earth" bat guano 3-10-1 said something like 1/4 cup per gallon or per 5 gallons. I forget... i'll have to go look it up.
http://www.plantitearth.com/store/product.asp?pid=333&catid=1

r_Blunt said:

Heya guys, that's an interesting thread. I was thinking of a way to add calcium to my soil, but I didn't want to use Calcium Nitrate. And I found this thread. I actually have two of these herbs right now, but dried. Those are Dundelion and Nettle (very good "nutes" for your health too )

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yah nettles are great. i used them in my last grow. i gave my NL two teas with them.

Will it be a problem if I use dried herbs, or should I look for fresh ones? Actually they're growin all around here, but their season is at an end, and most of them are almost dead

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ok well the fresher the better. if you can still get out collect alot and save it. let some sun dry, although i wonder if refrigeration is a bad idea.

And something else, I'm not sure of. Should I just soak the herbs in water and leave them for 2-3 days and then water the plants. Or should I boil the mix before I water the plants?

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make a tea by boiling 2 or 3 leaves, make sure theyre the younger ones. with ewc, molasses, bat guano, liquid karma, neptunes seaweed(every other week), and nettles and youve got a great tea.

emmy75, thanks. I'll prepare some nettle tea first thing in the morning. As I said I need it only for the calcium.

I feed my babies 4 cups to a gallon of 10-3-1 bat guano. They love it and beg for more .

Hey Jon ya brother you dont need to spend alot of money to have some great smoke jus keep it organic alot of love and a ass load of patience and before long youll be smoking man ...good luck and be safe.

.i toss clippings from any thing i cut with hedge shears to get my paths clear in the yard into compost pile and toos that in a 5 gallon bucket and let it sit a while when it gets brown like tea i stir it up and mix with plain water for the plants....