Fermented plant extracts

[GoneRooty]

mustard, Brassica juncea, can be used as a green manure in agriculture. What about making FPE with it, or tea of somekind?

 

[Corpsey]

so nothing we can do with canada thistle?
im trying to search online for anything and cant seem to come up with any ideas.

 

[jaykush]

mustard makes a good mulch for me. i cut it back and use the leaves as mulch. then it grows back and i repeat all summer long.

the thistle can be chopped up and composted BEFORE any seed head forms. even if you cut off a premature flower head, it will still turn to seed. if you get it early it makes great compost material and decomposes fast. on another note the blooms can be cut off and used for a flowering extract.

 

[3rdEye]

I've got to get out to a few local parks where they have several acres of stinging nettles that i could grab for free. I'm thinking that catnip could also be pretty useful and i have access to a fair amount of that.

Anyone use catnip for things besides getting cats all goofed out and for tea? It's a nice tea for people who have ADD/ADHD type energy and wish to focus a bit more.

Great info on those thistles Jay. Didn't realize they were like hydras.

 

[3rdEye]

Nice start! Wait until about the end of July. You should be amazed with the amount of plant material you'll be able to harvest even on your first cut.

CC

Those just got put in the ground a few days ago and they are already up and jumping. Watching them develop is already fun. If they keep growing at this pace i might have to cut them before july to have some space!

Let's say a person took 1 acre of land (43,560 s.f.) and you planted a Yarrow plant every 2' on center, i.e. each plant would have 4 s.f. of area. This would give you just under 11,000 plants.

And let's say that at the end of the growing season you harvested all of these plants and let's say you grossed 10 lbs. of biomass per plant. That would give you over 100,000 lbs. of material to work with.

So how much Yarrow essence/extract could you come up with irrespective of the cost of extraction?

You couldn't help but make money - assuming you could find enough people to actually buy it.

CC

I want to grow yarrow, but i didn't know i could earn millions of dollars doing so.

If the oil were only 0.1% that would still be 100 lbs of oil to sell.

 

[jaykush]

be careful with parks where there are a lot of people, sometimes things can be contaminated by lack of care on some peoples part.

catnip works great, i use it like lavender for more of a pest spray rather than fertilizer.

 

[CC_2U]

Those just got put in the ground a few days ago and they are already up and jumping. Watching them develop is already fun. If they keep growing at this pace i might have to cut them before july to have some space!

3rdEye

I bought 4 root starts and one of them simply looked like a piece of wood. There was absolutely nothing that indicated that it would grow anything. The other 3 weren't exactly covered with much either.

The barest of the root starts was the first one out of the ground with new leaves. Hard to believe.

RE: Yarrow

In the pack of seeds I purchased the local Yarrow variety was included. A few days later I was at the nursery and they had 4 or 5 varieties of Yarrow - one has red flowers, another has red & white flowers, another is purple and another that has the word 'blue' in the name. I can't remember the other.

These were in #1 standard nursery pots and looked very healthy. I planted them in the raised beds here and there. The growth rate of this plant is almost like something out of science fiction. The Yarrow with the red flowers already has 10-12 flower heads at < 12" in total height.

By September they should be 4 or 5' maybe? LOL

CC

 

[CC_2U]

Jaykush

Comparing Lavender with Yarrow as far as the insecticide benefit - which plant do you think has the most bang for the buck?

Would the brew time for Yarrow be similar to the Lavender Tea recipe? Dilution rate pretty much the same?

Thanks!

CC

 

[jaykush]

as far as insecticidal properties lavender wins, as far as beneficial stimulus goes ill have to go with the yarrow. it just stimulates the goodness in all kinds of plants.

yarrow can be brewed for longer to be a nutrient extract. dilution rate is all on how strong you make it.

 

[organicterra]

http://calphotos.berkeley.edu//flora/

Here's a pretty good site for plant identification.

 

[jaykush]

what i have found best for identifying plants is flickr groups. if you set up a free account and upload your photos of various plants to certain groups. most will get an ID within a day or so. ive yet to post a plant there that i have not got an ID from someone.

followed by local knowledge. if its growing around you, chances are quite a few people at least know its name.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Got gifted a box of overripe pineapples at my local greengrocers... time for a nice big batch of ferment!

Might give a couple to my pigs if they lucky...

 

[CC_2U]

It's official - the smell from fermenting nettles is beyond simple terms like vile, putrid, sewage.

Friggin' unbelievable. And it's not even close to finish. It's been 8 or 9 days and no warm weather. I can't imagining brewing this within 100 feet of your home during the summer months.

CC

 

[DARC MIND]

yarrow

yarrow


grows great around the compost bin and as a groundcover/border plant..the blooms give a neat essence to the garden and make some killer tea's for pretty much anything you spray it on..

oh & no worries when foliar spaying with fermented plant tea's, i truly believe they make my skin softer and smoother,possibly healthier

 

[jaykush]

It's official - the smell from fermenting nettles is beyond simple terms like vile, putrid, sewage.

Friggin' unbelievable. And it's not even close to finish. It's been 8 or 9 days and no warm weather. I can't imagining brewing this within 100 feet of your home during the summer months.

haha dont worry you get used to it, i can take big whiffs of nettle tea now. where as when i first smelled it i wanted to throw up. you also see what it does to plants and say to yourself "eh....its worth it."

 

[GoneRooty]

RE: Yarrow

These were in #1 standard nursery pots and looked very healthy. I planted them in the raised beds here and there. The growth rate of this plant is almost like something out of science fiction. The Yarrow with the red flowers already has 10-12 flower heads at < 12" in total height.

By September they should be 4 or 5' maybe? LOL

CC

Glad to hear your Yarrow is doing so great!! I just got a local Yarrow from a lady around here today, and she says they can very easily get 4 foot tall. Hope mine does that good!

 

[MrFista]

CC_2U - there are a couple of coolly named chemicals that microbes process from nitrogenous wastes, this is likely your smell.

Cadaverine and putrescine.

 

[schwagg]

aka Poopdeath

 

[CC_2U]

Mr Fista

Thank you for posting those terms - I looked them up to understand what you were talking about.

I was planning on using the nettle tea (and others as harvest allows) on the indoor MMJ garden. This should be a real test on how well my air filter system is working.

CC

 

[CC_2U]

Darc Mind

The photo you posted of the Yarrow with the purple flowers is one of the types I picked-up at the nursery. Beautiful plant!

CC