recently inspired by outstanding threads from chunkdaddyo and lumperdawgz, i've been messing around with brewing my own aerated teas at home, and after some tinkering i think i've started to get my flowering mix down. for quite some time my friends and i had been using the super tea and budswel teas from the guano company on our crops. while i've always seen good results from these products, and been able to obtain them at a significant discount, i recently started thinking that i could brew a superior tea at home for even less money. this recipe is something very similar to what chunkdaddy has in his sig, i just mixed and matched some ingredients and i encourage anyone attempting something like this to do the same. don't get stuck on trying to get and use exactly what someone else is using, try to think outside the box and make use of what you have available to you. i had to share because this tea is bonehead simple and requires maybe 5 minutes of actual work. i figured for the savings alone it's worth it, then i saw my plants reaction for my teas and my waterings i use reverse osmosis filtered water, definitely not necessary but i have plenty available so it's what i use. ok, to 5 gallons water i add; 2T homemade ewc, 3T sunleaves indonesian(high P) bat guano 2T dr. earth's soft rock phosphate 3T dr. earth's kelp meal 1T e.b. stone alfalfa meal 2T dr. earth's fish bone meal 1T rooters mycorrhizae(not necessary, i have leftovers) 2t molasses the tea gets bubbled with two 6 inch air stones for at least 24 hours, though i usually let it go anywhere from there to 36 hours before i dilute 4:1 with water and drench my smart pots every other week during the flowering cycle. my current girls are absolutely loving this new food and i think im gonna let my buddy have the rest of this budswel as my new bubble brew is blowing it out of the soil.
Hi btc, Thanks for the good vibes bro........your tea sounds like it's gonna goose your girls in their sweet spot. You might want to try to add some fish hydrolysate if you have some or it's available. Really gives the fungi something sink their teeth in lol. Here's a link to a great deal on fish fertilizer. Check out his store also, hes got a lot of our goodies for cheap. Gotta tell you....your grow is looking awesome. Take care, chunk
ah ha! thanks for the tip brother, is that the alaska morbloom that i see at my local nursery? also would the dry fish meal that dr earth's makes work as a substitute? i'm pretty oldschool and would prefer to pick something up in person if possible but i'll order if it's really worth it. thanks for looking out chunk, have a great weekend!
check that, i was just reading that morbloom uses emulsion. that's out. so im looking at some from neptunes harvest, any thoughts?
btc, You don't want to use Alaska if you can help it.......it's an emulsion, not a hydrolysate. This link will describe the basics of the differences in hydrolysates vs. fish emulsions Emulsions are heat processed and are the by products after all the good stuff is removed. Hydrolysates, on the other hand are cold processed and all of the oils and proteins, as well as the vitamins, hormones, enzymes and amino acids are left intact. The oils are like filet mignon to fungal microbes. If you aren't into online shopping.....look to some of your high end nurseries. There are a couple of products I've used, one being Neptune's Harvest, and the other is called Drammatic. Any cold processed fish fert will fit the bill. In fact, Neptune's Harvest has a fish/seaweed liquid fert that gives you the added benefit of seaweed/kelp. I don't think fish meal would give you the benefits in your teas that a liquid hydrolysate would, but it's a great addition to your soil. I would also use the solids remaining from your brew as an amendment to your soils, or even as a top dressing. The solids will still have nutritional value even after brewing. Not much goes to waste in my grows. be cool, chunk
cool, that's what i've seen at my favorite nursery here. looks like i'll be hopping on the bicycle tomorrow for a nice ride to pick some up. i love top dressing with my leftover solids too my fruits, veggies, and peppers out on the patio get all the leftover goodies from my teas and they absolutely love it. many thanks for the advice chunk!
BTC, I use a similar bloom recipe but add beer (heavy real beer with yeast like sierra nevada) I figure all the sugars are consumed by the bacteria.
btc You might want to think about upping your EWC to about 1 cup for 5 gallons. chunkdaddyo link for products is a great deal!! Please, please get rid of any/all Alaska Fish products. It's a dead product by the time it's cooked, strained and bottled. Fish hydrolysate is alive and provides a great food for the fungi colonies. There are a couple of other tricks to bump up your fungi for increased phosphorus uptake (or so it's claimed). Just a thought or two................ LD
thanks for the tip ld. i'll definitely add a couple more scoops of ewc to my next batch of tea. yeah, i had seen the alaskan morbloom at the nursery but never really looked at it. after finding out it was an emulsion i definitely ruled it out... i'm all ears as to anything else i can do to increase the quality of my teas and my grows in general, what'cha got for me?
Take 1 cup of EWC and you want them 'damp' (not wet). Pick-up some baby oatmeal (dry) at the grocery store. Mix 2 tbsp. of this powdered oatmeal with the EWC and put it into a large Ziplock bag. Leave it semi-open. Aerate it a few times a day. In a few days you should see long white strands. If they're blue strands - dump it. You only want white strands. Let them grow until it looks like a piece of food you forgot in your refrigerator. Add your other ingredients and aerate for 18 hours or so. Depends on the size of air pump that you're running. HTH LD
yeah! i had seen a post of chunkdaddy's where he talks about cultivating fungus colonies like this beforehand and then adding to them to the tea. i'm all over it... thanks again lump!!!
I was going to say same thing, you beat me to it.. I would up that to a heaping cup of EWC. As far as the fungi 'tricks' , I do one or two of those myself...I put 3-4tbs of powdered baby oatmeal in my EWC with a loose cover for 2 days and get an insane amount of fungi on the castings before starting my tea. Haven't seen it under a scope, but it was recommended in the Teaming With Microbes book, so I figured what the hell... Peace.
so, i ran out and grabbed a 40 lb bag of agrowinn minerals rock dust today. i'd read an article that ld recommended about including it in my worm bin as well as amending into my soils. does anyone know if would i benefit from adding the minerals to my aerated compost tea as well? or should i just save 'em for the worms and as a soil amendment? thanks in advance for any tips
btc2112 What rock dust can do for you is provide an 'anchor' for fungi to hang on and grow. Keep in mind that 'soil' is nothing more than rotted plant and animal life along with 'shattered rock' (i.e. rock dust) meaning that a 'potting soil' which does not include both 'shattered rock' and humus is NOT soil. By adding a rock dust (and any will do, i.e. Azomite, glacial rock dust, soft rock phosphate, et al) to your mix you're making a 'real soil' HTH LD