Compost tea and compost

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by goombamario, May 31, 2019.

  1. #1 goombamario, May 31, 2019
    Last edited: May 31, 2019
    hello grasscity, first and foremost thank you all so much for being a major inspiration to myself and many others, my passion is nurturing plants to grow to their highest potential, what better way to do it than by doing everything organically i thought. Which is what brought me here.
    Something i have read to be very important (i cant say i have much experience doing it first hand) is having a strong humus which can be accomplished by a few different methods. I work for Chipotle Mexican Grill lol we have a composting program for our kitchen scraps and we have bag after bag of fresh organic material, (which i snatched a few up) as for browns i find it through dead leaves around my home that i collect. I tried my hand at creating my own compost through an “aerated” garbage can that i roll around occasionally and it has been a few months now and seems broken down and like dirt now, really amazing actually. My garden is planted and I am wondering how do i know when to dress this onto the top layer of my soil? Does is it look done? It smells very rich and not gross in any way, i put a few handful of worms i dug up into it as well a few days ago. 5BA7C96E-1238-4904-9AE5-0B5553A5DC7D.jpeg
    A second thing that i read to be.. well secondly important is amendments so i googled away, one brand caught my eye particularly, Down to Earth, perhaps the cool illustrations on the boxes haha. So i bought some, Crustacean meal, alfalfa meal, neem meal, kelp meal, blood meal, worm castings, and a gallon of “Neptunes Harvest fish and seaweed” fertilizer. I have read alot of threads and the basic soil building guides so i an familiar a bit with these products but not the brand. Since my gardens already growing and its to late to till all this in (the soil i used has alot of these ingredients listed) i have read that you can make compost teas out of these ingredients.. sooo i went out and put together a tea brewer of sorts that i saw a picture of and tried to mimic, just waiting on the airpump that i ordered online since i couldnt seem to find one in a store, anyone have any special tea blends they would like to recommend and help me understand a bit more on how long to bubble it, how long it can sit, when to apply it, etc?? Also any other amendments i should pick up, although keeping it somewhat simpler makes sense
    Thanks so much to everyone here and i hope to hear some great recommendations!! CC326B95-28CC-4C45-9FAD-FD17E5B53BB4.jpeg
     
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  2. Here is the said garden im tending to.. I am working on securing this area a bit more so it will allow me to comfortably grow more cannabis 4BACA16F-EB41-4CC2-99A0-F9FDA4F0CA43.jpeg 0E95C8C6-D439-44C3-9520-7F58021F44EF.jpeg 09A333BA-F209-40CF-81FA-EB574823E1A1.jpeg 913A9DC8-BEF8-4F57-97A8-FD95355AA119.jpeg
     
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  3. oyster shell flour, gypsum, fish meal, basalt rock dust, bio char,
     
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  4. nice job on the brewer. i'll offer an opinion on your q's.

    a relatively fool proof way to test compost readiness starts with the sniff test and it reads like it passed that ok. the material should be crumbly and not bound up and/or sticky etc. the second step is to put some in a container and try to germinate some fast growing vegetable seeds. raddish is often recommended because it germinates quickly and is a tender seedling. let the seedlings grow and if they do so in a normal and healthy fashion you're good to go. having said all that if you're using this compost outdoors and it passes the sniff test it's probably just fine for an outdoor top dress on mature plants imo. if you were mixing it in with other media to put into a container i'd do the raddish seed germination task to make sure the compost was 'finished'. growers choice.

    as for the compost tea, the theory states we're ostensibly brewing the concoction for the increased microbial population in order to increase bacterial (or fungal) activity in the soil. as such, for a compost tea we need a source for the bacteria and a food source to feed them. the bacteria source is one or both of compost and/or ewc. the food source is typically molasses. that's it for a simple compost tea ingredients list. since you're growing outside you can freestyle and add whatever you want to but the basics are bacteria and molasses. the dry amendments you have would be better utilized by being mixed together and applied as a top dressing and watered in if you're thinking 'nutrient boost' with the compost tea.

    those are my thoughts. welcome to :gc_rocks:


    cheerios :smoking:
     
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  5. Funny you say that about germinating vegetables to test it, sealed container and everything while im tossing im finding “spouts” germinated of who knows whats lol.
    Molasses thats the ingredient i forgot, thanks for the welcoming words
     
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  6. Hey another question if u dont mind helping me, so this brewer is 20gallons, how much ewc/compost, molasses should i be putting in for optimal microbe populations? And in place of kelp juice im planning on using neptunes harvest fish and seaweed liquid feetilizer, will this be okay ? Thanks in advance !
     
  7. If it’s actually 20gal of water you will be using, go ahead and add 10c of compost/ewc along with about 1c of molasses.

    Figures are based on the 5gal bucket brewer.
    (5gal bucket brewer = 4gal of water)


    Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
     
  8. She has turned into a behemoth, a giant!! I planted a row of corn that will block her from sight completely from prying eyes!! DD760484-DF5F-4191-B84E-14402B3A374A.jpeg
     
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