im using the bucket with air stones and such. ive got some kelp meal and am curious if i should add molasses. i know you do when you have alfalfa, which i do have but not sure if its the right kind. my alfalafa is form the pet store. its 2 in squares for rabbits. i have the blackstrap molasses too. this is my first tea so i dont want to screw it up. ive treid looking around for an answer but nothing concrete.
Its more food for your microbes and plants - use it. I add extra every 2 to 3 days as the microbes will breakdown all the sugar quickly. I use cheesecloth to create a ball of the EWC and guano and let it hang suspended over the airstone. I am thinking of just adding everything in a free suspension formula and filtering it out as I use it. I am not sure which way would be best / easiest. Here is my current recipe - always willing to have people give suggestions to improve it. Vegetative ACT \n1 Gallon - Water \nDay #1 - Add the following per gallon: \n2 TBSP - Worm Castings (1-0-0) 1 TBSP - Bat Guano - Mexican (10-1-1) \n1 TBSP - Blackstrap Molasses \nDay #2 - Add the following per gallon: \n1 tsp - Kelp Meal \nDay #3 - Add the following per gallon: \n1 tsp - Blackstrap Molasses \n\nFlowering ACT \n1 Gallon - Water \nDay #1 - Add the following per gallon: \n2 TBSP - Worm Castings (1-0-0) 1 TBSP * - Bat Guano - Mexican (10-1-1) 2 TBSP - Bat Guano - Indonesian (0.5-13-0.2) \n1 TBSP - Blackstrap Molassess \nDay #2 - Add the following per gallon: \n1 tsp - Kelp Meal \n\nDay #3 - Add the following per gallon: \n1 tsp - Blackstrap Molasses \n*Omit Mexican bat guano the final 3 weeks of flowering
No, you do not need molasses in your kelp meal tea. Molasses is generally added to compost tea, which you will often see referred to as an "ACT" (Aerated Compost Tea) to be used as a food source for microbes in the compost/vermicompost during the extended brewing process. With a simple kelp tea this is not necessary, nor would you really even want it. Use around a quarter cup of kelp meal per gallon of water and brew for 24-36 hours. Very simple and very effective. J
^^^ What Jerry said..... kelp and water only. Julius was describing an ACT, which has a completely different purpose.... and even then, his recipe was not a normal one.... it may work OK for him, but it's not recommended to put guano in an ACT..... it doesn't contribute microbes, nor will it feed microbes.... so it really has no place in a microbe-tea. Also, the process of adding different things each day.... that's not the usual method of brewing ACTs. And kelp meal initially suppresses the growth of microbes, but feeds them after 24 hours.... so I would put that in at the very beginning.... just my thoughts. For info on ACTs (not kelp tea or other botanical teas), check out this site: www.microbeorganics.com
Any stage bro. Kelp rules. You can also mix a bit of your alfalfa in there too with the kelp, no worries. Leave the BSM out unless you're doing an ACT.
With a good soil how often should one of these mixes be applied? Thanks again for answering my dumb questions.....I'm just making sure my ducks are in a row before a start. And I apologise if I hijacked your thread OP Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum
Honestly, if your soil is good enough, ideally, you'd only need water. No teas or nothing. But most growers like concocting these magic potions and have a hard time just watering plain water . I have a pretty awesome living organic soil right now, I'll do a kelp/alf tea once a month/every 3weeks. Starting to get into SST's... Those are fun
Gives the colony a 24 hour jump before it is suppressed by the fresh kelp. I add more molasses to keep food in there. How can bat guano not feed bacteria?
i totally misunderstood what that meant.. i thought it meant to add kelp meal after 24 hours after there is good bacterial growth in it already..i added a good pinch less than a tbs at 14 hours,, im letting it go til 2:30 tonight for 36 hours at 70 degree temps.. should i let it go for say maybe 40 hours so the kelp meal i added would still be food somewhat?
I can't say for sure what adding kelp meal half-way through a brew will do..... my instincts tell me that's not a good move, but it's not something I've experimented with or heard of people experimenting with. Why would you want to get a good head-start, and then suppress them, make their growth go backwards, so that they spend the rest of the brew catching back up? Hmmmm...... You don't want to keep adding food.... in an ideal ACT, you add everything all at once, right in the beginning. If you brew for 36-40 hours, you will have a balanced ACT (meaning a good balance of fungi, bacteria, and protozoa), and there will still be plenty of foodstock for them. If you add too much molasses (sugars), bacteria will dominate at the expense of the other microbes (fungi and protozoa). Guano doesn't feed them because it is fossilized shit. Takes a lot longer than 3 days bouncing in water for it to break down and release nutrients. Your best bet with guano is either to add it to an outdoor plot where it will have the next 10 years to break down and release nutrients, or to ferment it. The fermentation process breaks the guano down into its constituent elements..... Again.... microbeorganics.com is the source for info on ACTs
Nope, you want to put the kelp meal in at the beginning.... it suppresses microbial growth for the first 24 hours, then feeds them afterward. So if you are brewing with kelp in your recipe, try to let it brew a bit longer. If you were going to brew for 36 hours, brew it for 42-48 hours instead. If you are brewing without kelp, go for the lower range. For your tea that is currently going, I would let it brew until about 42-48 hours, especially since you added the kelp meal late.
I have read quite a bit on that site. What can I use other than guano that will not stink because I brew in the basement. How do you ferment guano?
When I make ACTs, I follow the recipe posted on www.microbeorganics.com..... so I use worm castings, molasses (though I'll use organic agave nectar when my molasses runs out), and usually a tiny amount of kelp.... sometimes fish hydrolysate. If you have a good compost, you might throw in a tablespoon of that..... diversity of microbes and all. I haven't noticed any stink.... certainly not like what I've smelled when I made botanicals out of neem or dandelions/nettles/yarrow/comfrey. Here's a post from LumperDawgz on how to ferment guano: You'll need a bottle of EM-1 and you can get that at Amazon.com (it's the agricultural version of this lactobacillus culture) called SCD Bio Ag and it's $12.50 per liter/quart and delivered it's about $18.50 This is your fermenting agent. Take 2 cups of your guano and add to 1 gallon of pure, clean water (aerate for a couple of hours) and there's no need to worry about pH as we'll be going extremely low by the time the fermentation process is completed. Add 1/4 cup of kelp meal Add 1/2 tsp of sea salt - not table salt. You want a sea salt that has not had iodine added to the product Add 1 oz. (2 tablespoons) of the SCD Bio Ag culture. Ferment until it reaches a minimum pH reading of 3.4 and a pH of 3.2 is better yet. This is extremely important. Strain and keep the mix (obviously - LOL) and use the guano and stuff in your worm bin or top dress your plants outside, etc. There is still a lot of value in this so it's not waste at all. Add 1/4 cup to 1 gallon of water and apply as you have the Budswell product. The lactic acid created by the lactobacillus moves the breakdown of phosphorus. Plants themselves create both lactic and citric acids that are sent down to the root zone by what are called plant exudes. These specific acids assist the bacteria colonies to begin to make the phosphorus available to the root zone. Adding a viable humic acid is helpful in this process. That's it! You can use the SCD Bio Ag product to make bokashi bran, fermented seed meals like the experiment that Chunkdaddyo and running. The fermented 'fertilizer' mix that I made up was taken down < 2.8 PH and it makes up 10% of the humus level in the potting soil. HTH LD EDIT: Depending on ambient temperatures, the fermentation process should take about 14 - 21 days. Warmer is better, i.e. 85F and up to 95F but it''s not mandatory.
Too much science involved in fermentation for me. I'm taking your advice and adding the guano to my soil (1 TBSP of Mexican + 1 TBSP of Indonesian per gallon of soil - or 6 TBSP + 6 TBSP per cu ft.) along with my other amendments. I adjusted my EWC based on Microbeorganics suggestion of 2.38% EWC, 0.5% Molasses, and 0.25% Kelp 1 Gallon - Water 6 TBSP - Worm Castings (1-0-0) 1.25 TBSP - Blackstrap Molasses 1 tsp - Kelp Meal (I'm taking his advice of "less is more")