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Compost Tea - A Complete Guide
- Thread starter joe fresh
- Start date
If you don't need the bennies, then skip the act and soil drench or use a ferment style tea. Bubbling is for the bennies.. If you use the act past their prime, you get anaerobic micros which could harm you and your ladies.....
Thanks for your advice!
Yes, its the anaerobic shit that can kill you. Why do you think soap labels always says "kills 99.9% of germs" it's that anaerobic .10% that can really kill you.
R.Fortune
weeddaddy50
Member
Joe
Joe
thanks for the info......my problem is the finish cycle in my garden.....I am using.....mollasses + seabird guanno (0-7-0) and potassum (0-0-52) both are grainular + cold pressed liquid sea kelp....and my flowers are nice but they never get that super thick white frost that I see in the pictures of some of the IC'ers....
Since I am totally organic...and all my sutff is OMRI certified...just looking for something that will really kick my girls into overdrive the last 4 weeks of flower.....I usually mix the crap out of it....but I am using tap water and Phing it to 5.5 to 5.8.
any help would be welcome.
Joe
thanks for the info......my problem is the finish cycle in my garden.....I am using.....mollasses + seabird guanno (0-7-0) and potassum (0-0-52) both are grainular + cold pressed liquid sea kelp....and my flowers are nice but they never get that super thick white frost that I see in the pictures of some of the IC'ers....
Since I am totally organic...and all my sutff is OMRI certified...just looking for something that will really kick my girls into overdrive the last 4 weeks of flower.....I usually mix the crap out of it....but I am using tap water and Phing it to 5.5 to 5.8.
any help would be welcome.
Simple ......
1. Strain
2. Dialed in environment
3. If your growing organically, your ladies should take what they need when they need it....
4. A little stress
5. Did I say strain already? IMO the strain would be the most deciding factor for the frost factor
Well so far all is ok I have only used it once when I transplanted my 3 week old seedlings into gallon pots. I got a free quart and diluted it into 2 gallons of PH water and gave each pot 12oz ( one red plastic beer cup worth. )
I didn't really search out any info until tonight and came across this thread and several others on different forums and just really learning about it and how to use.
My problem I see know is keeping it alive until I can use up a gallon. I have it bubbling in the closet to keep it cool and in the dark but what do I feed it to keep them alive long enough ?
I had in the past taken two plastic trash bins and started a small garage worm farm and every now and then I would just flood it with water and collect the run off. Is this kinda like that ?
S_a_H
What did you PH with? Got to be carefully what you put in your soil. (Remeber it's all about the bennies)
Any thing you brew at home would likely have more microbes than the product you used. I say that because usually commercialized teas are small targeted microbes that are in a dormant state or it would be depleted of oxygen and you would have a bottle of funk by time you got it home. The key to the diverse microbe population is great compost. Hands down!!
I know it's been awhile since the last post, but I've been reading up on compost tea brewing. I found a recipe online and just bought all the ingredients from the store today. I wanted to get some opinions from experienced folks. This is my first brew and I was going to follow the recipe word for word. It says the brew will last days and to store in the fridge for the last ten days. I've seen some of you disagree with this and say to use the tea within hours of brewing. I am going to be using tap water after letting it sit for a couple hours. Anyways here is the recipe/instructions...
This tea will be different from the kind you can buy at the hydro store. It will be organic in that it will contain microbial life and fungi but will not contain any plant food. So do not add any kelp or any organic nutes. Also never ever add organic nutes in DWC. If you want to go organic hydro then you should switch to ebb and flow or another method that doesn't involve complete root saturation. Additionally, no matter what the salesperson at the hydro store tells you, never add enzyme products like Hygrozyme to a DWC system. It will make the cyanobacteria reproduce like they're on fertility drugs. Do not add bloom boosters either or the same thing will happen.
Get a bucket (could be five gallons, could be fifty, it's up to you), fill it with water, add an airstone, and get some bubbles going. RO water is best, but not necessary. Also don't think that RO water will prevent slime from growing, it won't.
Use one handful (per gallon) of General Organics Ancient Forest. This stuff has 30,000+ strains of beneficial bacteria. Put this in a tea bag of some kind. I use paper towel tied up into a teabag. You can also just dump it in a bucket and strain it later. You could also combine some stuff from a local garden store: earthworm castings or peat humus. If you only have earthworm castings, those will do in place of Ancient Forest.
Put in some Great White or other product that contains mycorrhizae, beneficial bacteria, and trichoderma. Mycorrhizae is a symbiotic fungi and that keeps crud off your roots. You could certainly just use this alone and see improvement. I use about a half scoop for five gallons of water.
Add about one capful of Aquashield (liquid compost). There are other brands of liquid compost available as well. This is the starting point for the microbe reproduction process.
Add a few drops of Molasses so the microbes have some food. For five gallons, I add about a teaspoon.
Let this brew for 48 hours then add it to your res and plant sites. You can give about one cupful per gallon. Keep it in the fridge (it lasts 10 days) and keep adding a cup a day until it's gone.
There are other products you can use such as GH's Subculture B and M, but I don't have experience with them. The recipe above is fairly cheap considering what you get out of it. The microbes brewed in tea will be more numerous than if you just add the ingredients to your res. Do not add Ancient Forest to your DWC, that part you have to brew as a tea. Even if you are lucky enough to not have the slime you will get improved yields by adding compost tea as the beneficial bacteria and fungi help the roots take in food.
This tea will be different from the kind you can buy at the hydro store. It will be organic in that it will contain microbial life and fungi but will not contain any plant food. So do not add any kelp or any organic nutes. Also never ever add organic nutes in DWC. If you want to go organic hydro then you should switch to ebb and flow or another method that doesn't involve complete root saturation. Additionally, no matter what the salesperson at the hydro store tells you, never add enzyme products like Hygrozyme to a DWC system. It will make the cyanobacteria reproduce like they're on fertility drugs. Do not add bloom boosters either or the same thing will happen.
Get a bucket (could be five gallons, could be fifty, it's up to you), fill it with water, add an airstone, and get some bubbles going. RO water is best, but not necessary. Also don't think that RO water will prevent slime from growing, it won't.
Use one handful (per gallon) of General Organics Ancient Forest. This stuff has 30,000+ strains of beneficial bacteria. Put this in a tea bag of some kind. I use paper towel tied up into a teabag. You can also just dump it in a bucket and strain it later. You could also combine some stuff from a local garden store: earthworm castings or peat humus. If you only have earthworm castings, those will do in place of Ancient Forest.
Put in some Great White or other product that contains mycorrhizae, beneficial bacteria, and trichoderma. Mycorrhizae is a symbiotic fungi and that keeps crud off your roots. You could certainly just use this alone and see improvement. I use about a half scoop for five gallons of water.
Add about one capful of Aquashield (liquid compost). There are other brands of liquid compost available as well. This is the starting point for the microbe reproduction process.
Add a few drops of Molasses so the microbes have some food. For five gallons, I add about a teaspoon.
Let this brew for 48 hours then add it to your res and plant sites. You can give about one cupful per gallon. Keep it in the fridge (it lasts 10 days) and keep adding a cup a day until it's gone.
There are other products you can use such as GH's Subculture B and M, but I don't have experience with them. The recipe above is fairly cheap considering what you get out of it. The microbes brewed in tea will be more numerous than if you just add the ingredients to your res. Do not add Ancient Forest to your DWC, that part you have to brew as a tea. Even if you are lucky enough to not have the slime you will get improved yields by adding compost tea as the beneficial bacteria and fungi help the roots take in food.
S
SooperSmurph
Love the thread, especially the large list of different tea recipies from various forum members, been using and enjoying some dormant state teas from Dragonfly Earth Medicine, such as Lush Roots 840 and Fat Flowers, the only thing I question about the product is their choice to use organic cane sugar rather than dried molasses as the microbe feeding agent, which has me adding about 1 tsp of that black lovely stuff per gallon of tea I brew.
Most people say a microscope is needed in order to truly gauge the effectiveness of each batch of tea, what would you consider the minimum level of magnification for inspection of microbe population? So far my 100x hasn't been showing me much, but I might not be looking for the right things since the last time I used a microscope for these purposes was Bio 101.
Most people say a microscope is needed in order to truly gauge the effectiveness of each batch of tea, what would you consider the minimum level of magnification for inspection of microbe population? So far my 100x hasn't been showing me much, but I might not be looking for the right things since the last time I used a microscope for these purposes was Bio 101.
JayTrinity
Member
Can any one tell me how to extend my tea an extra day?
I used squid and so its stinky. I dont think amonia yet.
I was going to tea today but got sick in bed and wanted to know can I "Extend" the life of my tea one day by putting some more carbs or great white?
Its super cool out, but im fearful iv just waisted 16 gallons of tea.
How to extend a day?
I used squid and so its stinky. I dont think amonia yet.
I was going to tea today but got sick in bed and wanted to know can I "Extend" the life of my tea one day by putting some more carbs or great white?
Its super cool out, but im fearful iv just waisted 16 gallons of tea.
How to extend a day?
JayTrinity
Member
ALso I added just now a splash of humic acid, by mistake.
Im not sure if im brewing up some cosmic mess.
Just dilute to be sure or test for PH?
Can to much humic acid hurt? The bottles of carbs and humic acid look 100% the same.
Again this is 16 gallons! I just put about 3oz of humic acid by mistake.
God I hate being stupid.
Im not sure if im brewing up some cosmic mess.
Just dilute to be sure or test for PH?
Can to much humic acid hurt? The bottles of carbs and humic acid look 100% the same.
Again this is 16 gallons! I just put about 3oz of humic acid by mistake.
God I hate being stupid.
its all about achieving that biomass, if you think its anerobic, dump it; however, if the tea doesnt stank like molasses 12 hours after you add a bunch, use it.
weeddaddy50
Member
Since using the one of those
Since using the one of those
Tea formulas....in flower.....my garden very happy.....what a difference......thanks....I am using
this one....
Mix # 3
I use 2/3 cup of
Peruvian seabird guano
Jamaican bat guano
Worm castings.
5 tbs of maxicrop 1-0-4 powdered kelp extract.
I also add 5 tbs of liquid karma
5 tbs blackstrap molasses.
Mix into 5 gallons of dechlorinated water.
I let it brew for two days and then use.
This is the flower mix I use with every watering. The veg mix is the same except for 1/3 cup of each and instead of jamaican bat guano use Mexican.
Since using the one of those
Tea formulas....in flower.....my garden very happy.....what a difference......thanks....I am using
this one....
Mix # 3
I use 2/3 cup of
Peruvian seabird guano
Jamaican bat guano
Worm castings.
5 tbs of maxicrop 1-0-4 powdered kelp extract.
I also add 5 tbs of liquid karma
5 tbs blackstrap molasses.
Mix into 5 gallons of dechlorinated water.
I let it brew for two days and then use.
This is the flower mix I use with every watering. The veg mix is the same except for 1/3 cup of each and instead of jamaican bat guano use Mexican.
