First I did not come up with this. I found this over at RUI and in no way shape or form am taking credit. I just added a photo section. After low yeild and sick plants I started to question pathogens/disease in my water. I also qustioned my current root inoculant products. After doing much research it seems some have it worse then others. Maybe its just the water. BUT im (some what sickly) glad to read other stories of the EXACT SAME problem as I, same conditions, same eradication steps taken. I searched around over here and EWC tea is NOT popular/ there isnt much info on it over here in the city. I just want to share my experiences and help others to fight this crap. If this works great, this will help step by step to move in the right direction for proper eradication and most importantly PROPER PREVENTION. If it doesnt work, it will be an elaborate explanation of what NOT to do to fight rot. First, MR HEISENBERG made an excelent post here, I suggest you check it out. There is a lot of ground already covered over there. Now, What do we need. -Non chlorinated water -Aquashield (you can order Mycogrow soluble avail on fungi.com for cheap to replace aquashield AND ZHO) -ZHO -EWC (earth work castings, GH anchient forest works best because of its humus but any EWC is a must) -Molasses (unsulphured and black strap seams to be brand of choice) -panty hose or bucket strainers ( NOT required for DWC REQUIRED for any pump system with small parts/sprayers) -bucket/tub/container -Air stones (most run 2x) -Air line -Air pump (MUST be 1watt per gallon which would equate to 6ppm of DO) -48 hours To Begin We will be working with 2.5gallons of water You can adjust measurements acording to what you need from these ratios (Mr Heisberg says 1 gallon of tea will inoculate 15-20 gallons of water). *Fill bucket with 2.5 gallons of non chlorinated water *Ph the water- I figured around 6.o was a good starting point. They are more active at mid 70* temps, so I heated to water. * Aquashield- We will use 15-30ml, I chose to start with 20ml. *ZHO- We will use 1/4-1/2 scoop of the small measuring cup supplied. I chose half cup. * Earth Worm Castings- We want about a cup per gallon, Mr Heisenberg uses 2 hand fulls per 2.5g (when PRE straining, he now tosses it in by hand and at half cup per gallon ratio) so I chose 2x cups (obviously in the PRE strained method). You can pre strain or post strain. Research shows they produce better with the EWC in the soup and post strain, so ill test both ways, but ill try pre straining it first. *Place bucket strainer or panty hose below water line and place over your air supply (air stone in my case). Then tie off the strainer to your bucket handle (or just toss in the soup) *OOps, almost forgot the molasses, this is the food for the microbes. This food will last around 10 days, after that they starve with no new food. This food will always be added to our brewing bucket but NEVER to our rez. We will use 1 tablespoon per 2.5g. (Not using too much is KEY, you dont want to dump excess food into your buckets OR the possablity to create too much action too fast AND depleat the DO available too quckly. remember, if you run on low levels of DO, you lose the aerobic bacteria and in set the anerobic bacteria.) *Drill hole in bucket for air line and instal the air stone. *I would suggest to make a lid so that they can vent fresh air and not get crap inside. Usage * If you currently have rot or slime and want to remove it, use this ratio. * First clean system as best as possible (h202, physan 20, or even bleach if its REALLY bad) *If possible take plants to sink and spray off as much as you can. Set plants/net pots in empty buckets while you scrub the buckets (if your RDWC or CC) * Do a flush to remove the flushing materials as you dont want to run bennes and any sort of cleaner at the same time. * Use one cup of EWC TEA per Gallon of water * Add 1 Cup per 8-10 gallons every 3 days to keep the system properly inoculated. *As soon as your done brewing/there is no air stone in the water. Quickly get them into the fridge to "slow" activity. This will allow you to store in fridge for up to 10 days or foul odor/ which ever comes first. Simple Protection * If you dont have rot and you want to keep the rot/pathogens away you only need to use 1 cup per 10 gallons of water to properly inoculate it. More Info *There are LOTs of different products you can use, most local hydro shops dont carry all these products. What you really want is *Bacillus subtilis *Trichoderma *Mycorrhizae *Glomus This means you can easily use great white or many other products that contain the above items. The reason for the aquashield/zho or mycogrow is price. If your hydro store doesnt have what I suggested, try it and report your findings. It will work, just will not be as diverse as the suggested method. Any EWC will work but the humus in the GW ancient forst really brings out the diversity in Heisenbergs Tea. I will be ordering mine when I finish the stuff I have. If you have rot in your net pot/ around the root crown, it is suggested to pour some of the tea straight through the hydroton. What is your water level? Make sure it is 1" below net pot. What types of things are in my bucket? types of algae or types of rot. Most algae is fed by light. If your algae isnt fed by light then you have the dreaded brown slime algae. It could be white, tan, brown or any variation. It will make your ph unstable and rise out of control, sooner than it should. This is what most the tea users suffer from. This is the ONLY thing that will keep the brown slime algae away. You could also have variation of root rot. This could also be tan or brown if it isnt out of control. It will make your ph unstable and drop out of control, sooner than it should. Once the rot is out of control, you need to win by numbers. Cut/ clean roots and apply tea. New root growth from net pot will be amazing. Enzymes, there good right? Hydro store guy says I need hygrozyme. WRONG, well mostly. If its working, great. If not then you need bennes or the tea. These bennes create enzymes so theres no need to add them. Plus if you add enzymes your effectivly feeding the pathogens. (not sure how the enzymes from bennes are better then enzymes from a bottle, but thats what my research shows). Sugars, Im too new to know this myth but they say that the sugars are a food source for the pathogens aswell. -more to come-
i cant rep you man... but i want to.... great stuff man... you need to start linking to all your threads in your sig...
Checked my tea at the 24 hour mark and boy does it look beautiful! Just like his thread (if using correct ingredients). Photos coming tonight!
I like this a lot! question, does it clog up the airstone after a while? i can't imagine the panty hose being leak proof. + rep man, i like how you layed it all out for us. thank you!
Thanks, I wish I had more info for you right now. I dont know how fast it would clog. I am just starting my first batch. I was told to turn air on before dropping air stone into bucket and to remove before turning air off. Im guessing this effects flow rate? Personally I replace my air stones each grow so I always have a lot of them. If your referring to clogging the actual air stone in your dwc or rdwc system. You are to strain out all the ewc before you inoculate any form of hydro system. You dont want the bennes eating the ewc and not the root rot.
you should splurge on a ceramic air stone.... much more quality product... and they sink, so they dont' have to be glued to the bottom
Hmm. Ill have to see what I have. There grey and heavy as a rock. I always just assumed airSTONE. Was made from rock? LMAO
no those shitty blue one's are not stone... and the don't last very long.... that being said... those ceramic stones are mega expensive.. but once you see the bubble difference, you'll switch
I agree they are garbage. That's why I replace every grow. Thanks again speed I will look into the ceramic ones. Maybe this is aiding my lack of DO?
Nice Dustybowlz.. I just built a similar setup. Again, the credit goes to Heisenberg and Mr. Bond at riu. i use Ancient Forest (ECW) and Mycogrow soluble (similar to Great White), which comes out to be the cheapest (but most complete) combination I can find. I am using a 5 gallon bucket and a micro-pore diffuser /w 600 gph air pump. I mix around 1 to 2 gallons at a time. Heisenberg recommends 1 cup for every gallon on a problem dwc setup, then taper off by lowering the ratio as the bennies are fully inoculated in the root system. Another difference is that I do not use pantyhose or a sock. I brew everything mixed in together, then use a tea strainer at the end (or a coffee filter) and into a pitcher (to be stored in the fridge)
Thanks. I dont want to seem like im taking credit for it. I just want to make sure the awesome guys and gals over here in the city get on on this info. As a noob i had a ruff time getting help over at RUI. That why im here. I still spend time at RUI. Just not like i do here. I want to be a central location for information. I like helping others. I wanted to read the whole thread at rui before i posted this thread. But my condition wasn't allowing me to be patient. I will refresh my thread with current items once i finish the one Mr Heis was so nice to create.
I make a teabag of EWc and a bag of guano add piranha with twice as much molasses or carbo load as recommend I also use a small water pump for circulation. Also keep temps up by adding warm water. Keep it dark by using a towel over the bucket not a lid for maximum aeration. 48 hours sounds like overkill I use after the top becomes frothy around a day. I use this on my soilless mix as well as hydro with great results.
The only reason why I do this now is because I feel all the "good action" happens inside the sock (or nylon in this case), so I just let everything out in the open water until the very end when I would be straining out the tea. I'm basically arriving at the same conclusion as you would, with slightly different methodology. Heisenberg also talks about straining at the very end using a cheesecloth on post 1. I recommend everybody here to spend some time reading that thread. The discussion goes from AF to products like Mykogrow, Great White, Roots Excellurator, Subculture B/M, Oregonism XL, Orca, etc.... some great info nugget in there. Lastly, Mycogrow soluble can be purchased at fungi.com
Nrgpill, Thank you and +REP. I am not trying to hijack his thread or even compete with it. I also hope folks will go over to his thread as it is chocked full of needed information. With that being said I really appreciate all the personal experiences and tips you guys are sharing. There are a lot of folks that arent on multiple forums and im sure they would really benefit from this! I was torn between straining before or after. I swear i heard Heis refer to a "sock" where he puts his hand fulls of ewc. I was just trying to stay as close to the original recipe as possible. It seems you can deviate from original brands if you retain the key players. I will update with other options for materials asap.
no, I want you to be the GC tea evangelist, that is perfectly fine by me. So many here are confused about *zyme products in general and some have literally poured beneficials down the drain by combining them. The real key I think is that one can buy something like Subculture from GH and propagate it further by brewing tea. Brewing tea also allows your bene microbe products last much longer. The cheapest and the most diverse combo to me is Ancient Forest + Mycogrow soluble.
The following is my opinion and not scientific fact. With organics it's not about a perfect formula. First off EWc and any "poop" is not created equally. Different food sources gives you diff bacteria. Second when you use the bubbling bucket method you will have millions of live bacteria in 24-48 hours but also some will have completed their life cycle by then (died). So you will always end up with different results(tea). Lastly the bugs(bacteria) once added to the rootzone will feed off your plants waste and the waste from the bugs benefits your plants. Then Through natural processes the bugs eventually thin themselves out based on the amount of food an the environment provided. So as you can see you really can't over do it and mother nature already formulates it for you. I would concentrate on providing a proven environment then add a variable for experimentation. Good luck and I would never criticize any feedback. Lastly ty for the rep I'm not sure what it means yet.
[quote name='"purplesage"']The following is my opinion and not scientific fact. With organics it's not about a perfect formula. First off EWc and any "poop" is not created equally. Different food sources gives you diff bacteria. Second when you use the bubbling bucket method you will have millions of live bacteria in 24-48 hours but also some will have completed their life cycle by then (died). So you will always end up with different results(tea). Lastly the bugs(bacteria) once added to the rootzone will feed off your plants waste and the waste from the bugs benefits your plants. Then Through natural processes the bugs eventually thin themselves out based on the amount of food an the environment provided. So as you can see you really can't over do it and mother nature already formulates it for you. I would concentrate on providing a proven environment then add a variable for experimentation. Good luck and I would never criticize any feedback. Lastly ty for the rep I'm not sure what it means yet.[/quote] Im not sure if your for the tea or against it? Either way you look at it your saving money and helping your rootzone. Your also preparing your rootzone with other key players aswell. Like stuff that kills fungus gnat larve and the ability to run 72-75* water temps. How cool is that, even if you didnt get all the other benefits? Updated the OP with new stuff.
thanks I tried looking up this hiesinberg tea and couldn't find it the other day and didn't feel like reading a bunch of thread. will be trying this.