Post your Organic Tea Recipe!

[cannabisblunt]

just placed an order, thanks.

[ocitown]

What do these teas do to pH and ppm?

Nice to see those results too.

[LumperDawgz]

In the mid-90's Dr. Elaine Ingham began investigating the use of ACT (aerated compost teas) at Oregon State University in conjunction with a group of researchers at University of Washington - Pullman.

Dr. Ingham later went on and founded the Soil Food Web which has branches in Europe, Asia, South America, et al. This group tests soils, processes, methods and assists farmers and governments in learning how to maximize crops around the world.

Here's a very good article on the "ins and outs" of brewing these teas - link

There's a ton of information at this site on any number of organic farming issues and related topics.

HTH

LumperDawgz

[LumperDawgz]

Originally Posted by ocitown

What do these teas do to pH and ppm?

ocitown

Oh dear! The dreaded 'PH' discussion relative to organic growing!

Here goes - many organic growers start either building their own soil from the ground up, i.e. buying peat or coir, one, all or any of the following: perlite, pumice and vermiculite. Some dolomite lime (to neutralize the peat moss PH) and some kind of a wetting agent. From there you add your compost or earthworm castings which will be PH neutral (assuming that you're using compost which has been correctly made), seed meals or bloodmeal for the 'N' deal and bonemeal or fish bone meal for the 'P' deal. And some type of rock dust.

None of these soil amendments will cause a change in the potting soil's PH.

If you start out with a professional soilless mix like ProMix or Sunshine Mix, these products are made for the nursery industry. Their mixes are adjusted for a neutral PH at the packing shed.

The humic acids in compost (and earthworm castings) neutralize the PH in the soil meaning that even if you add a tea in the PH range of 4-9, these acids keep things in check.

I know that this flies in the face of conventional cannabis growing because much of the information comes from the hydroponic side of things that got transferred over to soil growers.

There's a plethora of information about PH and organic farming so that you can make up your own mind.

One of these days I'll have to pick up a PH meter and see what's going on around here! Or perhaps I can borrow one from another Oregon MMJ grower.

Cheers!

LumperDawgz

[ocitown]

Originally Posted by LumperDawgz

ocitown

Oh dear! The dreaded 'PH' discussion relative to organic growing!

Here goes - many organic growers start either building their own soil from the ground up, i.e. buying peat or coir, one, all or any of the following: perlite, pumice and vermiculite. Some dolomite lime (to neutralize the peat moss PH) and some kind of a wetting agent. From there you add your compost or earthworm castings which will be PH neutral (assuming that you're using compost which has been correctly made), seed meals or bloodmeal for the 'N' deal and bonemeal or fish bone meal for the 'P' deal. And some type of rock dust.

None of these soil amendments will cause a change in the potting soil's PH.

If you start out with a professional soilless mix like ProMix or Sunshine Mix, these products are made for the nursery industry. Their mixes are adjusted for a neutral PH at the packing shed.

The humic acids in compost (and earthworm castings) neutralize the PH in the soil meaning that even if you add a tea in the PH range of 4-9, these acids keep things in check.

I know that this flies in the face of conventional cannabis growing because much of the information comes from the hydroponic side of things that got transferred over to soil growers.

There's a plethora of information about PH and organic farming so that you can make up your own mind.

One of these days I'll have to pick up a PH meter and see what's going on around here! Or perhaps I can borrow one from another Oregon MMJ grower.

Cheers!

LumperDawgz

Great explanation indeed!! +rep

Learning organic is very new to me but also very interesting,any info on these teas and ppm?

Seems these teas are only added every few waterings,whats given between the tea feeds?

[ElDiablo]

I found soil worm casting tea bags for sale in two packs at my local nursery the other day. Has anyone ever used this type of product. The brand was Living Soil, I think.

[LumperDawgz]

Originally Posted by ocitown

Seems these teas are only added every few waterings,whats given between the tea feeds?

ocitown

That's correct. These teas are not fertilizers or nutrients in the sense that we've become accustomed to in the cannabis growing paradigm. They are inoculants, i.e. energizing the micro-herd in the organic compost that you've added to your soil mix. There is no benefit to applying these teas over and over. Maybe twice in the entire grow/flower cycle. Usually only once.

When you spray the teas on the branches & leaves, you are setting up colonies of aerobic fungai - the good guys. Aerobic is stronger in anaerobic in the world of bacteria & fungai as things turn out. By establishing these colonies it is almost impossible for anaerobic fungai (powdery mildew for example) to get established. If you do see a slight re-infestation then another application may be required.

Same thing when you apply the teas to the soil. The aerobic micro-herd kick-start the (sometimes) dormant microbes in your compost and/or earthworm castings and in a couple of days (sometimes within 12 hours) the good guys are in charge with bacteria breaking down the nutrients in the soil mix.

Digested nitrogen is easily assimilated by a plant directly from the bacterial 'exude' or 'slime' - getting nitrogen to a plant is a no-brainer. Phosphorus is a different matter and it would take pages and pages of explanation but here's the Reader's Digest condensed version.

Bacteria has to break down the 'stuff' in the soil. Some things digested by bacteria and floating in the exude like 'N' & 'K' can be absorbed by the plant's root hairs. Phosphorus is broken down into a form that certain fungai can use. It's these fungai strains which then move a new digested form into the plant directly - kind of like a heroin junkie mainlining.

So back to your question about watering. Since we're not trying to high-dose a plant but rather keep the micro-herd alive above and below the soil line, a weekly soil soak and foliar spray of fish enzyme and seaweed extract is all that's necessary along with 1 tsp. of livestock molasses per gallon. That's it. Straight water as needed.

HTH

LumperDawgz

Here's a good fish enzyme product which has the seaweed extract already added. Down-To-Earth Liquid Fish & Kelp and should run under $25.00 per gallon and you use 1 oz. (2 tablespoons) per gallon of water so that will give you 128 gallons for $25.00 and the livestock molasses at the feed/farm store will cost you about $10.00 for 3 gallons. Your great grandchildren will be trying to finish off your bucket of molasses.

Lot cheaper than 'Carbo-Load' or 'Sweet Leaf' eh?

[ocitown]

Originally Posted by LumperDawgz

ocitown

That's correct. These teas are not fertilizers or nutrients in the sense that we've become accustomed to in the cannabis growing paradigm. They are inoculants, i.e. energizing the micro-herd in the organic compost that you've added to your soil mix. There is no benefit to applying these teas over and over. Maybe twice in the entire grow/flower cycle. Usually only once.

When you spray the teas on the branches & leaves, you are setting up colonies of aerobic fungai - the good guys. Aerobic is stronger in anaerobic in the world of bacteria & fungai as things turn out. By establishing these colonies it is almost impossible for anaerobic fungai (powdery mildew for example) to get established. If you do see a slight re-infestation then another application may be required.

Same thing when you apply the teas to the soil. The aerobic micro-herd kick-start the (sometimes) dormant microbes in your compost and/or earthworm castings and in a couple of days (sometimes within 12 hours) the good guys are in charge with bacteria breaking down the nutrients in the soil mix.

Digested nitrogen is easily assimilated by a plant directly from the bacterial 'exude' or 'slime' - getting nitrogen to a plant is a no-brainer. Phosphorus is a different matter and it would take pages and pages of explanation but here's the Reader's Digest condensed version.

Bacteria has to break down the 'stuff' in the soil. Some things digested by bacteria and floating in the exude like 'N' & 'K' can be absorbed by the plant's root hairs. Phosphorus is broken down into a form that certain fungai can use. It's these fungai strains which then move a new digested form into the plant directly - kind of like a heroin junkie mainlining.

So back to your question about watering. Since we're not trying to high-dose a plant but rather keep the micro-herd alive above and below the soil line, a weekly soil soak and foliar spray of fish enzyme and seaweed extract is all that's necessary along with 1 tsp. of livestock molasses per gallon. That's it. Straight water as needed.

HTH

LumperDawgz

Here's a good fish enzyme product which has the seaweed extract already added. Down-To-Earth Liquid Fish & Kelp and should run under $25.00 per gallon and you use 1 oz. (2 tablespoons) per gallon of water so that will give you 128 gallons for $25.00 and the livestock molasses at the feed/farm store will cost you about $10.00 for 3 gallons. Your great grandchildren will be trying to finish off your bucket of molasses.

Lot cheaper than 'Carbo-Load' or 'Sweet Leaf' eh?

So im assuming adding anything should be done with care so not to kill any "good" microbes/bactirias?

[LumperDawgz]

Originally Posted by ocitown

So im assuming adding anything should be done with care so not to kill any "good" microbes/bactirias?

Exactly.

[Corto Malteze]

Homemade plant liquid fertilizer for outdoors (slurry):

Place 1kg of fresh nettles or Russian comfrey (etc...) in 1O liters (2,5 gallons) of rain water, fresh outdoor water, (if you need to use tap water: leave open for 24 hours to evaporate the Chlorine).
Use a 5 gallon plastic container (not metal).
Cover with cloth or loose lid (so flies don't fall in)
To allow best fermentation 20°C. Around 30°C it rots (no good).
Do not put in direct sun.
Mix twice a week.
It shouldn't smell really bad (rotten) when it's done well. It should smell like cow urine apparently haha. Takes 1-2 weeks. If it takes much longer, it means it's not working right.
Filter to keep longer.
Keep in closed jerricans in a cool dry place. Don't leave much air in (like for wine).
Dosage for nettles, russian comfrey etc...: 10% for teas, 20% for foliar feeding.
Use every 2-3 weeks.

[donedeal]

hey lumperdawgz how did you come to know all this stuff?

and i just ordered that book haha

[LumperDawgz]

Originally Posted by donedeal

hey lumperdawgz how did you come to know all this stuff?

Book learnin'

Jethro Bodine was a personal hero of mine as a young kid - 'Commence cipherin' Jethro!' still sends a thrill up my leg.

In all seriousness it's been through working with other farmers in experimental programs through Oregon State University's Agriculture Extension Program in the attempt to get a handle on the various fungai that we have to deal with, especially 'powdery mildew' for which there are thousands of strains & types. It's not like 'red spider mites' where you're dealing with one specific invader.

At any rate after all of the other 'cures' which never worked very well after October 1 when the rain season starts in the Pacific Northwest were exhausted and we began the application of high-fungai aerated compost teas applied on a regular basis throughout the growing season right up to harvest, it only took the first season to convince almost all of us that this was the ticket.

Then the search began through Dr. Elaine Ingham's work at the 'Soil Feed Web' group and their extensive number of peer-reviewed documents on 'feeding the soil to feed the plant' and things progressed.

Finding suitable compost was the first challenge. Earthworm castings are preferred because they're almost always perfect. Better earthworm castings are offered by companies who offer the analysis on the level of microbe activity in their products. Here's such an analysis on the castings one might find in the Pacific Northwest - Yelms Earthworms

Then it was on to building a brewer which was an interesting learning process on why it's sometimes better to buy an item that has already been engineered by experts. Tea brewers were expensive when the information first began spilling out of a handful of universities around the world. Now you can buy them for $150.00 which is a nice deal.

Keep in mind that this science of using ACT is not even 14 years old. Much of the real work has been in the last 5 years having said that. Especially with regard to how to brew a 'high-fungal tea' vs. a 'high-protozoa tea' or why you would or would not want to do that, i.e. those kinds of issues as well as the addition of 'outside agents' like aloe vera juice or yucca extract, et al.

HTH

LD

[LumperDawgz]

Be the first on your block to build a professional compost tea brewer: link

This is the set of plans developed by a research assistant at Oregon State University on building a tea brewer. It cost less than $25.00 though you will have to get an air pump of suitable size for this amount of water.

The link is to a PDF document if that's important. The document is sitting on the university's servers if you're concerned about that as well.

Cheers!

LD

[ElDiablo]

Lumperdawgz,
That air pump that was linked in the OSU PDF you posted was quite expensive. Do you think one like this would work good enough?

[LumperDawgz]

Originally Posted by ElDiablo

Lumperdawgz,
That air pump that was linked in the OSU PDF you posted was quite expensive. Do you think one like this would work good enough?

ElDiablo

Thank you for linking to that specific product and style of aquarium pump. While that pump would not be suitable for a 25-gallon brewer, it is PERFECT for brewing 5-gallons and you could find some who would argue that it would work for up to a 10-gallon.

Still - 5-gallons of properly made aerated compost tea is a LOT of tea. That amount of tea, assuming that you did all of your homework on the ingredients (like not adding molasses and/or bat or bird guanos), then the microbe level in that 5-gallons exceeds the amount of microbes in a ton of compost. Most commercial applications of compost teas are diluted 1:10 so that 5-gallons for even a huge indoor grow is overkill.

It's about inoculation and not feeding the plants directly with nutrients. As far as an N-P-K there probably is none in compost teas.

MarineDepot.com is a good source for the same style of pumps (they appear to be made in the same factory in fact) and here's one example - link

In buying a pump, what you're looking for is the amount of air that the pump produces, i.e. the GPM rate of air. All of these pumps have a low P.S.I. which is what you want.

Good products which should last you several years. Again - look at the 'GPM' rating in the specs of any pump you're considering.

HTH

LumperDawgz