When making Alfalfa and Kelp tea is ok to not to bubble and only steep for about 48 hours? Would bubbling instead of steeping make it more effective? If a soil has Alfalfa and Kelp already in the soil mix what exactly is the purpose of adding the tea. Thanks to all
I don't believe many here use teas anymore. We do top dress with freshly ground malted barley though. Barley enzymes- amylase, arylsulphatase, β-glucosidase, cellulase, chitinase, dehydrogenase, phosphatase, protease and urease. These help break down our amendments so the microbes can digest them and make them more readily available to our plants.
So for the most part 'no till' growers are using large amounts of soil mostly in beds etc. Im guessing teas would be more helpful for smaller amounts of soil or are teas just 'outdated' when it comes to organics? Organics seem very fluid when it comes to what people are doing.
Teas still have their place in organic soils. If you run 5 gallon fabric pots you'll likely need teas to keep your plant happy through out flower. We suggest 10 gallon pots for auto flower varieties and 20 gallon pots for photo period plants as minimums. Beds are great if you have the room. But, these pot sizes work well.
I have a question about using a raised no till bed. Does having that much damp soil indoors in a confined space cause you guys a lot of humidity issues? I have made my own organic soil that worked well and I’m currently using bio canna but have been thinking more and more about going no till. I’m the type op person that wants to do something right if I’m going to do it. The room I currently have doesn’t have space for a dehumidifier and it’s a lot smaller then I’m used to so I don’t want to jump into something I’m not ready for yet, space wise. Kush's man cave
I can't speak with experience for beds. I run large pots. I have equal sized blowers on my intake and exhaust with speed controllers. I run my exhaust at a slightly higher speed to create a negative pressure on my tent. I never had an issue with moisture myself.
Anyone Indoor Photoperiod 12 0n/5.5off/1on/5.5off/repeat for veg? I read a thread somewhere a while back that suggested to save power during the hot months that you could veg for a 12 hour period of light followed by 5.5 off, then 1 hour on, then 5.5 off again. That allows me to use lights and A/C off peak hours and when outside temps are cooler. Also to keep plants and clones in veg for longer periods of time more economically. I'm about to switch to flower? Anyone else use this method for Veg?
I've heard of it. Never tried it though. This may be helpful. The Cannabis "Gas Lantern Technique" | Dark Heart Nursery Or research: Gas Lantern Routine
Thank you Tim, I was doing 18 to 20 hours on and then the warm weather came in I had planned on keeping these in veg to clone so I switched over to this photo system iSo it's called the gas lantern technique, thanks for that I didn't know
Your welcome Paracelsus, it's actually called the Gas Lantern Routine or GLR. That article just refers to it as the Gas Lantern Technique. I don't grow indoors during the heat and humidity of July and August here in NY. It can be done with the right set up and some added cost. But, I'm capable of growing enough to cover those few months down time.
I still do occasional teas! mostly in smaller containers like you said. I like doing a tea with homeade EWC, Alfalfa, brown sugar/molasses and fish. For me if the container is less than 10 gals and im vegging longer than a 3-4 weeks its a must. In 7 gal pot ill do one tea half way through veg and a flower tea with more P&K at onset of flowering. Speaking of teas Might have to brew a lil something for these outdoor ladies i have in 7 and 10 gals they’re getting big fast! Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
hmm first thing i notice is the substitution. oyster shell flour/powder is a liming agent, and will buffer pH to some extent (raising it towards basic). crab shell meal the CaCO3 stays tied up (possibly bound by the chitin and other proteins?) and won’t effect the soil solution or bind with CEC sites until the soil digests it. you may have inadvertently pushed the soil pH far enough to cause some nutrient lock out. the good news is it will eventually flush out after enough waterings. i’m unfamiliar with the early mofo mix. is it like a modified coots? i know he runs a simplified mix these days that’s just peat:compost:aeration plus something like 12c of basalt rock dust per cuft!
teas draw out the soluble components from the steeped material, making a solution that can be directly absorbed thru the roots bypassing the soil food web. this can be useful for making quick corrections when you notice a deficiency. they often will also function as bacterial food, promoting a short population boom, which can also translate into a boost of available nutrients released into the soil solution (and thus available for uptake by the plant roots). usually only a portion of the tea constituents will be metabolized by the soil life and the majority will be absorbed by plant roots or drain away. i mostly use teas and fermented plant juices and extracts as a foliar feed. this way i can avoid disturbing the microbial balance in my soils, but i can still deliver customized nutrients directly into the plant tissue. in regards to your question about bubbling vs still, the issue is the production of acetic acid (vinegar) or alcohols. since the microbes responsible for those conversions are anaerobes, keeping the dissolved oxygen levels high could create an environment in which they cannot function and therefore no vinegar or alcohol would be produced. i like to decide whether i want a vinegar or a tea before i start making something. many of the natural farming inputs are vinegars, so they can certainly be useful and beneficial, but should only be applied in homeopathic dilutions (usually 1:1000). if you were to foliar or root drench with too high a concentration of a vinegar you would kill the plant (straight vinegar makes a very effective herbicide). one positive is in the process of metabolizing the plant constituents into vinegar, the microbes convert some of the nutrients from non-soluble to soluble forms, broadening the extraction. if i’m making a tea i’m bubbling mostly for agitation. i would avoid brewing for longer than maybe 4 hours just to be on the safe side. a good example of a happy plant tea is fresh wash water from making water hash. just agitation and a bit of time. if you have a ph meter you can watch the ph drop as the vinegar is produced, to give you an idea of the timeline. if you have active soil life it’s a lot easier to simply top dress these types of amendments. the microbes can work together to process and make available every element in the plant material in a way that is impossible in a water extraction.
I'm no expert, but I have made plenty of 'teas' that weren't bubbled. I would NOT advise steeping for more than 24 hours, though - as I have had anaerobic bacteria start to thrive even with regular stirring. With bubbling, you can steep the tea longer - and you get a nice infusion of helpful microbes because of the aeration! I will tell you why *I* have used teas in the past: my containers were too small, and my plants needed more nutrients than the soil could provide.
I use simple teas every grow. Alfalfa tea for when my autos are just about to flower, then again a few days later. Kelp when they are about 2 weeks in flower. Neem tea from when they are seedlings as part of my IPM. My teas are real basic, tsp or so of whatever into about 8oz of water. Cap, shake like hell. Stick on the counter for a few hours, then filter, into the fridge till morning. Dilute 2oz of that with 62oz of water and foliar my main stem and leaves. As for active tea, nah. Top drees vmc and mbp only.
Sprayed heavy neem before vacation, came back a week later to half my plants eaten, lost a couple little ones, one huge one...