Brewing Myco Fungal Teas - an expirement

[vinivici]

Hey Guys,

I experimenting with a fungal tea im not sure if it’ll work, but then again that’s why its an experiment.

My goal is to try to make a tea rich with Myco Fungi

I used 2 gallons of tepid water, and 1.5 gallons of pond water from my fish pond.

To that I added:

5tbsp Maxi crop liquid sea weed
5tbsp 5-1-1 fish emulsion
3tbsp brown sugar
1 scoop of pond scum from the bottom of the pond.
A shot of soy sauce
1tbsp Powdered starch that was dissolved in water.

My tea bag:
I took a old bath loofa and cut it into cubes (the reasoning being it would be a good place for the fungi to breed) I stuffed the cubes in a sock along with 5tbsp of Granular Myco Fungi, a 1bsp of starch and 1tbsp of brown sugar.

its been bubbling since Sunday morning, I came home Sunday night and there was a nice white foam on the top. I came home last night after a day of 95 degree heat and the foam had dissipated and the tea went back to is original state.

Its my first tea and I had a few questions.

is it bad to leave the tea outside in summer heat (mid 90’s every day) if so how bad?
Does what I described above sound like its going to work?
Is there anything I can do to improve the tea?

 

[gromer]

Wow I thought I was an organic nut growing fungus to add to my beds and teas and using soil for years on end but youve got me beat beat all to hell.Every time I read a post like this I get all inspired and end up brewing a crazy batch of foamy tea.Let me know how the foam on that ends up.Im sure youll have a great big head spilling out onto the floor by morning.Best of luck in your experiment,sounds great to me!!

 

[minds_I]

Hello all,

Wow, I just use a ewc/guano/dry molasses on a soy meal substrate (carbos)/liquid kelp.

I have on occassion added a teaspoon of dry indo/ecto myco to a gallon of brewing tea along with 2 tbsn of mashed potatoe flakes for carbos and amino acids.

I have no idea if this is effective or not but these teas do not seem to foam as much as those without the potatoes and dry myco innocluant.

The plants look as good as ever and I have had excellent results since. Again, totally no real extremely dramatic results..perhaps a little better.

minds_I

 

[vinivici]

Gromer- Thanks for the kind words, im glad to see my little experiment has inspired another.

as for foam i checked tonight, its still foam free, i cant figure out whats going on. i think heat may be an issue, im going to try to insulate the bucket and see if i can keep the temp down.

minds-I thanks for stopping by! im gonna have to try the mashed potato flakes, it sounds like a very good idea, do you add that into the bag do you let it float free?

after i saw your post i went hunting in my pantry, i found some organic soy protein powder, has amino acids and carbs, im gonna try out a scoop and see what happens.

 

[Guest]

I grow my own mich fungi, It started to check soil for the fungi. Be careful of the stuff you don't want to grow.

 

[guineapig]

A bit of warmth is always good for microbe brewing so the hot temps are a good thing.....also it helps to add an aquarium-style air pump with a good air stone because microbial life needs oxygen to thrive and multiply.....

I found this for you:

"Compost Tea Brewing

Compost tea brewing is based on removing the soluble mineral nutrient and humus
portion of a small amount of very high-quality compost, along with the diverse
microbe population held by the compost, using water and air pressure to brew.
Microbial food sources are added to the tea solution which cause the microbes to
become active and multiply rapidly. Brewed compost tea must immediately be
applied to the crop, ideally within 24 hours. The delivery of a large, microbe population
helps the plants gather needed nutrients from the air, through the leaves, and from
the soil through the root system, provided the original microbial diversity has not
been lost."

There are so many beneficial microbes that you can culture using your homemade brewing kit, it is simply astounding...... add them to your brew, and then watch a few thousand microbes multiply into a few million microbes!!!!!

Love your avatar minds_I.....wonderpets rule!!!


kind regards from guineapig

 

[Amber Trich]

When we use pond water our tea doesnt foam.

What effect will the salts in the soy sauce have on the microbes?

Molasses might be more nutritious for the herd than brown sugar.

Sounds good though.

Good luck, I will keep checking in. We are working towards more fungus in our soil and water too.

 

[gromer]

Huh good point about the soy sauce AT.And as far as temps I dunno about warmth helping the beasties,all summer if I dont have a frozen bottle of water in my tea bucket I dont get any foam.Cold =foam,warm=no foam.Just my experience.Also wierd about the pond water I thought that stuff would billow over I personally wont apply a tea to my mj plants unless it has crazy foam no foam I feed it to the veggie garden and house plants.Thats just me I like proof that the beasties are in there having a massive gang bang Ive found lots of thing will hinder foam.Too much sugar from too much molasses,usin too high of P nutes,not usin enough worm casting and the temp thing have all hindered my foam b4.That and Ive found that If I ro my water I cant get a head of foam either my well water foams every time.PPM is only a little over a hundred and ph flucs between 7.5 and 8 but Im sure the nutes in the tea drop that I just wonder why soo many things affect the foam.Soft rock phosphate wow throw some of that in and youll have a head that goes to the cieling the Rev from Skunk taught me that one.

 

[Vash]

Here's possibly some more info on fungal teas.


http://www.ecostudies.org/compost_tea_recipes.html

 

[Suby]

Vash that is a FUCKING great link, i've been looking for something like that for awhile.

Compost Tea Brew Recipes


In essence, compost tea is not a fertilizer though there are nutrients available in a finished brew. Tea contains beneficial organisms needed to revitalize soil and reestablish a microcosm of bacterial and fungal groups. These groups make available nutrients needed by plants to maintain healthy growth and suppress disease. You may choose to customize your tea to be more bacterial or fungal-based, or have both microbial populations well represented in your finished tea. Using a well-balanced combination allows you to adopt a plant care regimen of enhancing plant growth and, at the same time, suppressing disease pathogens.

The recipes given are for 25 gallons of tea, with an alternate amount in red for 5 gallon brews.

Bacterial Tea

3 cups compost (worm)
½ cup kelp meal
3 oz. blackstrap molasses
3 oz. fruit juice (apple)
½ cup chopped feed hay
3 oz. fish emulsion 1 ½ cups compost
¼ cup kelp meal
2 oz. blackstrap molasses
2 oz. fruit juice (apple)
¼ cup chopped feed hay
1 oz. fish emulsion

Fungal Tea

3 cups fungal compost
3 oz. liquid humates
3 oz. blackstrap molasses
3 oz. yucca extracts (high saponyn)
3 oz. fish hydrolysates (oils)
½ cup kelp meal
½ cup chopped feed hay 1 ½ cups fungal compost
2 oz. liquid humates
2 oz. blackstrap molasses
1 oz. yucca extracts
2 oz. fish hydrolysates
¼ cup kelp meal
¼ cup chopped feed hay

Bacterial/Fungal Tea

1 ½ cups compost (worm)
1 ½ cups fungal compost
½ cup kelp meal
3 oz. liquid humates
3 oz. blackstrap molasses
3 oz. fish hydrolysates
½ cup greensand
½ cup chopped feed hay ¾ cup compost
¾ cup fungal compost
¼ cup kelp meal
2 oz. liquid humates
2 oz. blackstrap molasses
2 oz. fish hydrolysates
¼ cup greensand
¼ cup chopped feed hay

There are numerous recipes for tea you can custom blend one for specific or general needs. It is recommended to have a sample of your recipe analyzed and alter it accordingly. It is best to add all liquids to the water and combine dry ingredients in the filter bag. This will limit the need for any straining.

A "liquid nutrient solution" (marketed by the Soil Soup Co.) is available as a substitute for the molasses. Fish hydrolyzates or fish oils feed fungal groups, where as fish emulsions feed primarily bacterial groups. Chopped hay provides a food source for protozoa and certain plant extracts (yucca, comfrey and nettle) are also needed for fungal teas. When using plant extracts do not use any with a preservative (i.e. alcohol), as it will kill any beneficial organisms present in the tea.

If you decide to use compost tea in your garden and landscape, it is recommended that you not use commercial fertilizers for plant performance.

"Mycorrhizal Tea" is obtained by adding mycorrhizal fungi spores to the working brew. The spores will germinate within a few hours after being introduced into the tea solution.

 

[Suby]

Hello all,

Wow, I just use a ewc/guano/dry molasses on a soy meal substrate (carbos)/liquid kelp.

I have on occassion added a teaspoon of dry indo/ecto myco to a gallon of brewing tea along with 2 tbsn of mashed potatoe flakes for carbos and amino acids.

I have no idea if this is effective or not but these teas do not seem to foam as much as those without the potatoes and dry myco innocluant.

The plants look as good as ever and I have had excellent results since. Again, totally no real extremely dramatic results..perhaps a little better.

minds_I

 

[judas cohen]

Minds I: Thanks for sharing. I've used the other stuff, but not the potatoes I've picked up some neat tricks from you as I run across you from thread to thread.

Vash: It is a fucking great link! I posted it on another site after reading this and got a question I couldn't answer. "Why the apple juice in the bacterial tea?" Anybody know?

Vinvici: Nice experiment! I, too, am wondering about the salt in the soy sauce. The soy powder sounds good.

Octodiem: I sometimes wonder about creating nasty beasties inadvertantly, too.

 

[vinivici]

Vash- Thanks for the link man, it was exactly what i was looking for!

We should start a Tea recipe thead, i'd be nice to have a archive of different recipe's

Judas- In another post i saw muddy waters say that soy sauce was great for fungal teas, soy sauce has a lot of complex starches that the little beasties love to feed on. I also found this on another gardening site

"For a more fungal tea don't add too much simple sugar or molasses to your aerobic teas. Use more complex sugars, starches and carbohydrates like in seaweed, rotten fruit, soy sauce, or other fungal foods."

It didn't seem to hurt adding it, what seemed to work very well was the 1/4 scoop of protein powder i put in, i think the amino acids and whey protein really did the trick.

 

[Vash]

vinivici - One hell of an idea on the "one stop tea shop". I was thinking the other day that it would nice to have a place to go and find teas for seedlings,teas for veg, teas for flower, teas for nute deficiencies. Personally speaking, I think it would be one hell of an asset. Good thought,vinivici . We may need some of the community lobbyists to push that idea. What you think?

 

[vinivici]

damn vash i love the name the "one stop tea shop" sounds like the perfect thread title. i figure if we start posting all the info we have on tea's eveyone else will follow, if we keep things organized it shouldnt be too hard.

imagine strain specific teas for flower and veg :-D

Grow on! and keep it save!... and organic