Nettle Tea

[Retardo Motabon]

I have! I actually told my kids about it the other weekend. I was taught at camp when I was a kid. After a week we could run through a stand of them. Maybe it was Wood Nettle or (Canada nettle), but I know it worked. Now I am going to have to look back into this! The tea is good for you though, lotsa C and other stuff. I actually thought this thread was going to be about drinking nettle tea. Gotta love nature!
RM

 

[jaykush]

hmmm thats weird lol, i wish that worked for me.i drink tea all the time too, i even eat them raw while hiking through the forest(probably the tastiest way to eat them if you do it right). the ones i have around are urtica dioica.

but yea back to the thread, nettle tea kicks ass for cannabis!

 

[DARC MIND]

nettle grows in all parts of the world i believe, read the wiki link. ther usually located near streams, along sides of trails/roads, lawns as weeds & in heavy vegetated areas.
heres a batch i found on the side of a bike trail.

i toped a few of them bushes, being carfully sure them monsters can recover but still gaining two heavy duty trash bags full. then set some to dry and ferment.

for fermenting i think its best to use rain water or taped that has set out for a few days or bubbled. for this batch i used 2 types of wild nettle (mountain/ low valley) and my own grown. i also blended some of the nettle and threw some dry nettle meal as well.

after a week in the 5 gal container and a few turns, i take out the big leaves and stems with a small rake or hand & feed to worms or compost then strain like so...

i use nettle as a foliar spray, soil drench, liquid supplement, dry soil amendment, soil builder/companion plant, compost/worm activator and top mulch.
working with few other common weeds and beneficials; comfrey, yarrow, chamomile to name a few.
ther working for my personal grow and veggie garden

 

[DocLeaf]

Day 3: EC of the water 0.6 - 0.8 EC.

 

[DocLeaf]

Excellent info everyone

approximate dilutions are 1:50 for folair spray if you made a thick strong tea.

Thanks for sharing your method jaykush what EC is the strong stuff?? approx.?

nettle grows in all parts of the world i believe, read the wiki link. ther usually located near streams, along sides of trails/roads, lawns as weeds & in heavy vegetated areas.
heres a batch i found on the side of a bike trail.

i toped a few of them bushes, being carfully sure them monsters can recover but still gaining two heavy duty trash bags full. then set some to dry and ferment.

for fermenting i think its best to use rain water or taped that has set out for a few days or bubbled. for this batch i used 2 types of wild nettle (mountain/ low valley) and my own grown. i also blended some of the nettle and threw some dry nettle meal as well.

after a week in the 5 gal container and a few turns, i take out the big leaves and stems with a small rake or hand & feed to worms or compost then strain like so...

i use nettle as a foliar spray, soil drench, liquid supplement, dry soil amendment, soil builder/companion plant, compost/worm activator and top mulch.
working with few other common weeds and beneficials; comfrey, yarrow, chamomile to name a few.
ther working for my personal grow and veggie garden

Thanks for posting.. DARC MIND ,, you are obviously a nettle tea guru

n.b 25 photos is the limit per post

We grow/keep a nettle patch at home,, mostly for rare butterflies to lay eggs on,, but this nettle tea stuff gets more and more interesting the more we learn / experiment... really tempted to start another nettle patch now after reading everyones comments.

Growing nettles at home is easy enough,, simply lift a rhizome/root section and plant it in a poor stony soil site,, in a few years it will be most invasive in the garden

peace n flowers ppl

 

[jaykush]

EC? fuck if i know i don't measure anything! i go by color first, strong nettle tea has a creamy dark tan color to it. then smell. but really its just instinct.

 

[DARC MIND]

i wouldnt be growing nettle nor others or nearly as sucessfull at growing plants to grow plants if it wasnt for the great jaykush. In todays environmental damaging lifestyles, I find it important specially as an organic gardener, to value and learn of the many natural resources surrounding us so much respect brother man!

nettle juice is wonderfull but dry and or fresh nettle makes soil, compost and worm bins flourish. being those are the foundation to my crops and meds; i find nettle and other like plants to be fascinating.

 

[MJBadger]

DocLeaf , you set a very bad example with your very first pic (flowering) . I have been using Nettle tea for many years for all my garden veg & mj & remember reading something about using only leaf/soft stalk & not flower , apparently the chemical composition of the nettle changes during flower .
I always pick my first harvest while the plants are around 8-10ins & have enough nettle for 2 50gallon drums , once the plants get big or near flower run a strimmer over them & they will reveg giving you a 2nd harvest .
I wish i could find the link i had on nettles but like someone said there are 1000`s of them , the link i had gave the % of all the good stuff & N is around 12-15% , not the highest but balances out because nettle has so many other ingredients 1 of which i don`t think has been mentioned yet Trace elements .
All my garden plants love it but apart from MJ the 1 plant that thrives on it is Banana & Plantain , i also reguarly cook it like Spinach , as said it`s free .

Stay green .

 

[NUG-JUG]

In todays environmental damaging lifestyles, I find it important specially as an organic gardener, to value and learn of the many natural resources surrounding us so much respect brother man!

I'm constantly trying to get to a point where I don't spend a dime to grow anything. It's hard but possible if you just try.

 

[jaykush]

mjbadger that rule is really only when you eat the plants. they form a sort of crystal inside the leaf that is hard for our body's to digest. when using as fertilizer, all is well. even up to seed( because then you get the nutrients packed in the seed as well) but fresh spring growth i find is best. both to eat and to use as fertilizer.

 

[DocLeaf]

Day 4 ,, 0.8 EC ,, dark brownish/green liquid now

Thanks for the input Badger,, different nutrients will be available at different stages of nettle growth

Cheers for the clarification on the above Jay Kush

 

[PrinceOfPersia]

Hey doc, Good thread u got started.

I grow my guerilla in a big patch of nettles.. dig in buckets in the ground and fill em tightly and fill with water,lit on and stir now and then.. asfter 1-2 months i got some strong fert, works good. ill get pics later.

Mj badger,Im pretty sure ive also read somewhere that its best to pick before flower for ferts.. im in on that 1

 

[Balarama67]

PoP, how do you keep the water from stagnating?

 

[MJBadger]

PoP, how do you keep the water from stagnating?

I don`t think it really matters , it stinks to high heaven anyway . Advice is to use a lid on the container . At times i have had some spare from the previous season & just bulked it up with fresh Nettle & carried on using it & the plants thrived .The missus reckons if i could concentrate it even more & spread it around my plot no one will ever be able to smell the MJ in flower

Interesting point about the high iron content , nettles have the highest Plant Digestable iron known in any plant . Thats why i love eating it , it`s hell of a lot cheaper than Spinach .

The Q on dilution rates was worked out 150yr or more back when gardeners had no Nitrogen powder feeds & all plant feeds were produced from organic matter (trial & error). Comfrey tea was another 1 & so was manure tea . 10-1 is the ideal feed rate & advice is not to get this concentration on the leaves as it`s supposed to burn foilage .
My Grandfather was a very keen veg man when a lot of households had a productive garden & he had a permanent metal tank on blocks with a brass tap for his Nettle Tea , so did my Dad so it`s nothing new to me & i`m not sticking my neck out here when i say that any grower using Nettle or any other organic feed will certainly match if not better any grower using artificial feeds .

Stay green .

 

[DocLeaf]

Thanks for sharing info. everyone. One love!

 

[jaykush]

PoP, how do you keep the water from stagnating?

you dont like mjbadger said. this is an anaerobic process. not aerobic like ACT.

great thread doc!

 

[PrinceOfPersia]

Balar, i only stir it now and then when i visit the plot and put the lid back on. The end product stinks alot, its lovely

MjBadger, i also refill when the buckets to 1 cm from top with water whenever my buckets are half filled after use. Havent tried adding more plants content because they normally are in full flower at that point. ofcuz if one looks around in shades and just around you will probally find immature ones not flowering or other strains of nettle. Btw did u guys notice the thin leaves and the fat leaves strains? any1 knows the whats best for ferting? funny i always think of indica vs sativa when i see that.

heres some plants in a grown i a rich natural soil and only fed with nettle.

I dillute 20-1 and only feed 2, 3 times. like i mentioned its pretty hot.

So this year i have 2 x 12 liter buckets for over 500 plants.
thats all my girls get.

What do you guys do?

 

[jaykush]

i find the big leaf nettles work best. you also get the most biomass out of them when managed properly.

 

[The Hummus Monk]

Doc Leaf Nettles!

Are we in a UK hedgerow?

 

[DocLeaf]

We could well be in the hedgerow already...

,, the main reason I'm called DocLeaf,, (other than because of the interplay between the words Dr and leaf) ,,,comes from the following quote about Rumex crispus / aka Dock Leaves:

"The miraculous alleviation of pain is probably entirely psychological; but the confidence-trick is as valuable as notions of tooth-fairies and Farther Christmas, and should be perpetuated stoutly." [R. Mabey]

Ganja is a weed,,, and a weed is just a plant that dwells in the places other plants disdain