Please post your recipe! I have ACT's down, earthworm castings as the main ingredient and molasses (unsulphured blackstrap of course) to help activate, with some kelp and/or alfalfa and/or guano. I get comfrey as an ingredient. Dandelion too. But after that I'm just lost. Is a kelp meal and alfalfa just steeped or aerated in water also considered an FPE? Somebody help a light skinded brutha out!
FPE=fermented plant extract. Put plant material in water and let it sit for a month or so. This is an anaerobic process (fermentation). Any plant material that is broken down in water by fermentation (again, an anaerobic process) makes an FPE. A quick botanical tea is made by steeping plant matter in water for a couple days. Aeration can be used to stir the material around, but it's not used to introduce oxygen. Same results are achieved by putting plant matter in water and giving it a stir every so often.
Ok, I get that part. But what is a good plant material to use? Go Kings and f* the Lakers! Anyway, I know what fpe means, no disrespect meant. Fpe, botannical tea,yeah I understand what's going on. It just seems that fpe could honestly be a steepage of some hops and kelp and alfalfa and comfrey and dandelion etc. But as far as feeding my girls soil, what is something to use to make this happen best? Or am I overthinking this?
You can use pretty much any plant material you want. Use what you have available locally. Biodynamic accumulator plants like dandelion, comfrey, nettles, yarrow, etc. will have higher nutrient levels, but most plant matter can be of benefit (except obvious plants that would have a pesticide/herbicide effect). All the plants you have mentioned make good fpes and botanical teas. If you do a google search you can find a list that gives the nutrient content of various plant materials. You can use that if you want to get specific with it. I keep it simple and stick to the accumulator plants and what I have available locally. Hap made an FPE out of kudzu recently. You're overthinking it. Botanical teas/FPEs are just "extras" anyway, they aren't filling in for things that are missing in your soil (and if they are there's a problem), so just play around with what you have and see what they respond well to. Important to remember that if you are after the beneficial compounds (like triacontanol in alfalfa, the host of beneficial compounds in kelp, etc.) then you should go for a botanical tea that soaks for a couple days over an fpe. The fermentation process breaks down the compounds to the elements.
The last thing u mentioned, fermentation process. See, obviously I'm a brewer. The fermentation process to me begins when u add yeast to sugar, on a basic molecular level. Which leads me to 'what sugars am I fermenting when I add plant material to water'? From my knowledge, fermentation begins when an isolated yeast molecule makes love to an isolated sugar molecule, which results in an offspring(alcohol and co2). Not only does fermentation produce co2 it also produces alcohol. So am I to get my plants drunk? I'm not adverse to that cuz the Lord knows I get the munchies when I'm swerved. Gimme alcohol and then give me food. Bad news normally but I can kill some food after I have consumed some brew, from MOPE(my own personal experience).
All plants mine and store 83 elements, some much better than others; it is these "others" that we call Dynamic Accumulators. Here is a quote from Lumper that briefly explains accumulators: The fact of the matter is that there aren't 12 Elements needed but rather 83. Keep that number in mind as you look at plant materials that you might consider using. All plants accumulate these 83 Elements and some plants that do a better job are called 'healthy' by nutritionists and we refer to them as 'bio-nutrient accumulators' and in the dietary world Kale is a better accumulator than Iceberg lettuce so we use terms like 'more nutritious' or 'healthier' - that's from the Elements that are accumulated - Phosphorus, Calcium, Potassium, etc. In the sustainable/organic gardening and agricultural paradigm, we call Comfrey, Kelp, Alfalfa, et al. nutrient accumulators. Same Elements but different terms for the same thing While different plants do store different elements better than others, I don't neccessarily look for certain plants that contain certain things. I just do a wide variety of botanical teas when I feel like it - yarrow, dandelion, kelp, alfalfa - whatever, and let the plants and microbes sort it out. J
[quote name='"beerbrewer"']The last thing u mentioned, fermentation process. See, obviously I'm a brewer. The fermentation process to me begins when u add yeast to sugar, on a basic molecular level. Which leads me to 'what sugars am I fermenting when I add plant material to water'? From my knowledge, fermentation begins when an isolated yeast molecule makes love to an isolated sugar molecule, which results in an offspring(alcohol and co2). Not only does fermentation produce co2 it also produces alcohol. So am I to get my plants drunk? I'm not adverse to that cuz the Lord knows I get the munchies when I'm swerved. Gimme alcohol and then give me food. Bad news normally but I can kill some food after I have consumed some brew, from MOPE(my own personal experience).[/quote] Lol, total drunken high ramblings. I guess its better to drunk post than to drunk text!
Thanx for the help peeps. I've got some kelp alfalfa and hops aerating right now to feed them on Sunday.
Quick question for yawl....when bubbling up a quick botanical tea like Kelp and Alfalfa.... does the container need to be open or can i make this tea is a bucket with the lid on? With a small hole to let air escape. Without going into detail, I was just wondering about this because I'm afraid some unwanted things my get Into my bucket if I leave it open ...thanks blades
I don't see why you can't put a lid on it. Also, with a botanical tea, you don't have to aerate it. The only purpose that aeration serves in a botanical tea is to mix the material around, not to introduce oxygen. My point is that if it would be easier to do it without the aeration (like just put it in a container and stick it somewhere that things can't get into it), that will work just fine.
Some aerate, some don't, and it all good - I mean great. You simply cannot beat a kelp & alfalfa tea that's been soaking for a week to 10 days; eat yer damn heart out Advanced! You got NOTHING on us! And - for pennies! J
one more question, sorry... say 3/4 cup each of kelp and Alfalfa meal in 5 gallons of water soaked for a week...would this tea need to be diluted with water or should I use it as is? Im new at this game
I'd do more like 1/2 cup of each if you plan on soaking for a week. If you were only going to soak for a couple days, 3/4 cup would be fine. 3/4 cup would probably be fine soaked for a week, but I like to be on the safe side. Make sure you do use 5 gallons of water though if you want to apply undiluted.
Interesting. I've been doing 1 cup in 5 gallons bubbled for 24 hours. Applied undiluted. Is this not strong enough? I use a variety of meals - neem, kelp, alfalfa, comfrey, and nettle (a powder, using half the normal amount for meals).
GM, I'm sure that's strong enough. Especially if you apply them often. I don't measure anything, so all my recommendations are approximations. I also don't use teas very often, so I make them a little stronger when I do. But 1 cup in 5 gals is fine. edit: that's the recommendation I gave him- 1 cup per 5 gallons as opposed to 1.5 cups
Ah, thanks, ITG! I missed that he was just going to be stirring for a week. I guess with bubbling you can really cut the time down. And really, I'm happy with my current results so I'm not too worried.
Hey, The other dayleaning over the sink to brush my teethe I was thinking damn my breathe smells bad when I saw the qt of nettle syrup sittig there. It just is a lazy streak that makes me let this stuff sit around without much water and turn to syrup. The recent experienced burn of using too much fruit fpe woke my ass up to the need to read and follow directions. I ran out of alfalfa hay for making teas but luckily I put it into the soil that cycled it in nicely. However it gets in there it's in there So it seems the somewhat diseased plant clones given to me are about pruned of most of their original leaves which is a reminder that prevention. Is so vital not to let the diseas into the leaf surface at all from the gate. Much easier to prevent than to cure. Someone suggested a comparable tea to alfalfa.. was that dandelion? (Although I know alfalfa is a king for many reasons) Does anyone have an opinion about moonflower (alba not datura) fpe? Will it be fungicidal or bad to use on mj? So my syrup is 99% comfrey or nettles then the dilution is much stiffer to regard than just a soak or a bubble. Its easy to over do when I am not paying attention.