I've read a lot of forums on AACT's and soil amendments and have found many ingredients to be mentioned in both. My question is regarding each following amendment, are they better utilized as a tea or soil amendment? Usually the more water soluble it is, the more likely it is thrown into a tea.. I'm pretty sure these are integrated into the soil but please correct me if I am wrong: azomite (trace minerals) and dolomitic lime but what about: kelp meal, alfalfa meal, bone meal, blood meal, guano, worm castings, rock phosphate and I am very sure I missed other things.. Any insight is much appreciated..
There are threads on both soil and on teas in the stickys. Basically there are compost teas called ACT that use compost or ewc, a sugar like unsulfured molasses and bubbled for 24 hours or longer with an adequate air pump. Water solubility would make no difference in these teas. And there are nutritional teas using any number of organic nutrients. More soluble things would act faster with these teas. Soil recipes are all over the map on ingredients. Again read the stickys.......MIW
Thank you for your response, I understand AACT's quite well because I am currently a freshman studying biochemistry and have a extensive background in botany..I guess the answer to what I am asking is not discernible.. I understand that most things are beneficial if integrated into the soil but some things like guano is much more efficient and effective as a tea because it is dissociated into ions and more available for uptake by the roots. I was thinking of putting lime, azomite, bone meal and alfalfa meal into the soil, and maybe adding rock phosphates and dried blood. I guess that only leaves ewc, compost, guano and maybe kelp meal along with unsulph. molasses to go into the tea. Is there anything wrong with this recipe or anything that can be done to improve it?
I use home made teas for nearly all of my manual fertilizations but that's after those added to the soil mix begin to become insufficient, both from depletion and the increased food requirements of plants as they grow larger. Many organic fertilizers actually work somewhat better when mixed into the soil. These nutrients in the soil turn into teas as they soak in each watering and they receive aeration through the porosity of the base soil. Unlike regular teas, however, organic fertilizers in the soil have the added benefit of further encouraging microorganism populations, who then break down insoluble substances in the fertilizers that would not have been carried over through teas. Worm Castings, especially, are an excellent fertilizer to mix into the soil. In addition to everything else mentioned, they have a great consistency for a substrate. They loosen the soil mixture and improve aeration considerably.
To me, this topic is the best here on how to mix different styles of organic soil mixes. http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/951816-what-soil-recipes-do-you-guys-use.html
If you want to be a senior studying biochemistry you will have to do your required reading. Read the stickys. If you had a botany background you would not be asking these questions. Forget the shortcuts, do the work, or suffer the consequences......MIW
One of the things MI Wolverine is suggesting, perhaps, is to seperate your usage of components to the "tea" specific to that which you are trying to accomplish and never the two should mix. IOW, if you want to brew a tea specific to extract microbes from the components all you should use is EWC, quality finished compost, and a food source such as unsulphered molasses or agave or other non-processed and similar additive to feed the microbes. That's it for an ACT/AACT. If you are wanting to brew/percolate/areate a nutrient "tea" for nutrient value then add the components such as kelp, alfalfa, rock dusts, ewc, compost, guano, etc. and brew away. The point being is don't attempt to brew an ACT/AACT for microbe population value and include any other thing except the EWC, quality finished compost, and a food source. Two different "teas" for two different purposes. Here's something else to think about and FWIW it's above my grow-grade to know such things, but think of the chemical interactions of what you are including in your non-microbe teas and how that might effect the quality of your nutrient teas. For example phosphorous in many of its mighty forms changes elementally in compostion upon contact with water and thus is unavailable for plant root uptake. I think the same can be said about Ca and Mg and perhaps other elements. If you are into ions and what-not research those ions that are the only plant usable form and go from there. Mineral elements, aka "nutrients" are only absorbed by the plant roots in specific formulae (think phosphorous/nitrogen cycles) and as such any of the other forms and chemical structures must be altered to be plant root available (organics typically) or supplied in the elemental form the plants can use (synthetics almost always). You're on the right track and are connecting the dots correctly. Specific "tea" for a specific purpose. Don't combine the two - keep them seperate. HTH
Thank you for the clarification kind sir, that's more along the lines of what I was looking for because I know certain reactions with the almighty solvent of life, water, changes everything. I wasn't sure if categories of teas are defined, just assuming that throwing all of it in would work, but that can be quite wasteful and also smothersome in terms of giving what it is the plant needs at an arbitrary stage. Following this logic, we could say a good fungal and bacterial tea would be comprised of the compost, ewc and some source of sugar. And when needed, a nutrient boost tea would comprise of let's say guano and kelp meal. This tea wouldn't necessarily need any molasses if you don't need any root friends, right?
Hahaha, no worries. I wasn't expecting an extremely detailed answer, just a discussion of a topic that isn't really covered. I doubt you guys care but I started my grow about 2 weeks ago with some bagseeds as a trial run. I'm not going full out because the heat in my attic is unconditionable in the summer (good ol' Texas) and because I am leaving around June/July so I am postponing the full experiment until around October when the temps cool down. Hopefully pick up some REAL seeds in California and somehow bring em back with me.. Unfortunately the bagseeds I have are quite old and I guess you could say dried up in terms of energy left inside the seed. About 6/20 seeds germinated but somehow only ONE seed has survived as the other ones dried out.. Its on day 13 with a 400w MH.