i've never had a problem with pests after watering with my kelp meal, alfalfa, and molasses teas but i do usually rake the soil up a wee bit after application. with your soil-less medium you may want to just strain through cheese cloth or even nylons. i'd recommend adding some kelp meal in the future if you can get it, it will round that blend out nicely. good luck, your plants are going to LOVE that tea!!!
Kelp meal! for sure, it was in a jar sitting next to this stuff and I was wondering if I should add some. How much do you think? The recipe above is for 4 gallons
My recipe is very similar to what you're using: 3/4 cup kelp meal 3/4 cup alfalfa meal 1 Tbsp. Molasses 5 gallons water I put the alfalfa and kelp into separate nylons or pieces of cheesecloth, twist them up and tie off the ends. My homemade tea bags go into a 5 gal bucket with the ends draped over the sides, in goes 1 Tbsp. molasses and 5 gallons of water. I let it steep anywhere from 24-72 hrs, stirring occasionally then simply mix 1 part tea to 1 part r/o water and apply as usual. For a foliar spray, I dilute 4:1 and apply about 15 minutes before lights out or just before lights on. That should give you a good base, go ahead and play around with the blend and you can customize according to your plants needs. Enjoy!
Just to clarify do you mean 1 part tea to one part ro water as in like a gallon of tea to a gallon of .. w/e r.o. water is then?
yup, exactly. i typically just put 1/2 gallon of tea into my 1 gallon watering can, fill the rest with filtered water and go to work. Honestly you probably don't have to dilute too much or even at all, I just do to be safe and to make my batch of tea last a bit longer.
How often are you feeding though? Like every feeding with the tea or every 3rd.... Do you ever mix up nutes with the tea before you pour it on
I use my tea every 2nd or 3rd watering. I also feed with Supertea(veg) and Budswel(flower) from the Guano Co. Im sure that I could make my own guano tea for less but the Guano Co. makes really good shit and I can get it locally for very C-H-E-A-P so I haven't even bothered changing. If it ain't broke... I usually water with my homemade tea 3-4 days after feeding with the Supertea and repeat as necessary with a plain watering thrown in after every cycle or two. My current crop is absolutely loving it, it's very hard if not impossible to overfeed and I have yet to burn any tips. I personally don't mix the two teas together but I don't think it would make a huge difference if you did. Oh, I use smartpots which are soft sided fabric containers that drain and breathe very, very well. Because of this I have to water more often than if I had a traditional hard sided container. Just make sure to tailor your waterings to your own setup and if you find that you're watering with the tea often, you may want to ease off the molasses a little bit. Just a tip, good luck
Thanks a lot! Im using a fast drain soilless medium too of sphagnum vermiculite and perlite. It tends to drain most of the water and only hold a small amount that I suppose is good for the roots. Im just hoping it doesn't hurt them in the long run. I wen't and picked up that kelp extract and some ewc. I think I may add them and brew the tea another 12-24 hours. IDK how much EWC to add though... maybe like 1/3 cup?
no worries i'd say for your recipe, provided you plan on mixing everything together 1/3 cup each; kelp, alfalfa, castings plus 1 Tbsp. molasses to 4 or 5 gallons water should start you off nicely. you can then increase the strength as you go, if necessary. i've never brewed my own tea with castings so i can't offer too much advice regarding that but they will add lots more N so just be careful that it's not too hot. less is more...
Hmm I wanted to get some in there because I was told it would help with all the microbes and what not. The bag only has it listed as 1-0-0 I suppose organic nutrients have a lower reading than chemical ferts no?
correct and im sorry but for some reason earlier i was thinking of npk for guano, not castings. castings will add more N for sure but not as much as guano so disregard my last sentence in that last post. you shouldn't have to worry about it being too hot, provided you don't go overboard... i'd recommend getting an airstone if you don't have one already and reading up on suggested aeration times. if you've added microbes to the tea it is possible to over-aerate it and kill 'em all(from what i understand) i'd say 24 hrs or less but make sure to check it out.
Dang I just got on here to post about that. ......................................................................... So yea I got an airstone last night and was airing the alfalfa and molasses mixture all night. Went out earlier and got some ewc and kelp powder. When I added the powder it foamed up everywhere, i mixed it and it went down. I left it alone in the bathroom (thank god I moved it from the carpet closet floor) and when I came back it was foamy as hell and I had to clean up slimy green water Ive been mixing in a 1 gal container cuz i was just using a porpotiante amount to try but now that I feel more comfortable I added enough to make a full batch and was thinking of throwing this gunk into 4 gal of aged water I have sitting in plastic tote I only ended up mixing in about 2 TBSP of EWC or so, I kinda eyed it. Just to start, I was starting to show nute burn I think cuz my tips started browning and I flushed them last night just to be safe
Think I could throw in like a TBSP or so of Dolomite Lime into this tea at some point? Im slightly concerned about soil getting to acidic. I have a meter but I gotta water it to take a test and I can't risk over watering the plant. Its been through enough with being vegged fairly big in a pot too small, then getting some roots torn off.
just ph the tea and adjust if necessary. honestly though, if you're using good water the microbes in your medium and tea should help you keep everything in check.
I mean the soil is already slightly, I was using crappy ph strips that were only in a narrow range of 6.8-8.4 till today, now I have a real meter, but like I was saying I can't test well w/o watering the soil. But back to what you said, these teas should help keep my ph at the right levels in my growing medium is what your saying then right? Edit: Turns out I can't even test it directly in water, I guess these strips probably work better in water anyway
mmm, close but there's more you need to be aware of... do some reading on a soils cation exchange capacity. i would explain but it's A LOT of info. it's some interesting stuff but basically a soil with a high cation exchange capacity(cec) has the capacity to hold more cations. therefore, it requires higher rates of fertilizer or lime in order to change the soils ph. this provides us with a very good buffering effect for our plants, especially when watering with low ppm or r/o filtered water. short and sweet for ya', read up though there's some really good info available. good luck and have fun!
The folks at the Soil Food Web recently updated their web site and have provided a few photos of the microbes we're all trying to introduce into our gardens. Enjoy! LD
great link LumperDawgz, Dr. Ingham has been doing some amazing work up there! there's some good reading there for sure. seems there's a lot more going on in a healthy soil than many people are fully aware of.