SST - Sprouted Seed Tea

Me I think that the Haz c might not be fond of the extra stuff, especially if not needed. My Has c cross is very sensitive too.

 

Should an airstone be added when soaking the malt barley grain for 18-24 hrs?
Do you use it straight up at 1oz/1gal or dilute?
My brew store doesnt carry organic 2 row.. Should I order some or is the non organic acceptable?

 

Hey doc, here's what works for me.  You can use a lot of different seeds for this, doesn't really matter.  Faster germinating ones work better tho.  I use barley and radish for the most part.  I soak them for 8-12 hours and then rinse them 4 or 5 times.  The rinse is important
because there is a growth inhibitor naturally in the seed casing.  I then drain off all the water and keep them moist for 24-72 hours (I put them in a cup and put a damp rag over the top of them) and store them in a dark space.  When the root reaches the length I want I put them into a blender with a bit of water and blend until I have a white milky looking fluid.  If I spout 1oz of seed I dilute it into 2.5 gallons of water and spray my plants.  If there is any leftover I use it in the soil.  It's as easy as that.
 
By the way, welcome to GC.  I don't know what your method of growing is, but check out the organic forums and learn to grow better herb for a lot less cost.   

 

Hey 7557rb,
I understand the method you are talking about.. My questions were in reference to what jerry posted from LD, but thank you for replying. I am a long time GC organics lurker (since 08')   I used to post here sometimes, but I guess my old posts are gone cause it says this is only my second post.
 
>>"brewers also use whole grains which have been germinated and kilned to the point where they're dry which leaves the original enzymes intact!!!!!!!!!!!!! What this means is that if you were to buy the 2-Row Barley Malt GRAIN all you need to do to make an enzyme tea is to grind these ‘malted grains' and add them to water and let them brew for several hours - 24 is at the high end and 12 hours would be at the low end." <<
 
So when it says to let "brew" for 12-24 hrs does that mean just soak in water or would the agitation from an airstone aid in the enzyme extraction?
 
 
I am also curious how people are implementing SST's.
Are SST's being used in place of, or along side, ACT's and /or botanicals? 
 
Also, I read that 6 row barley has higher levels of enzymes, so I wonder why LD suggested the 2 row?

 

Here is the way I look at it. Enzymes are present in seeds and endosperm surrounding the seed. It is the role of these enzymes to "prepare" the soil for new seedling growth. I feel confident that this probably involves stimulating microbe activity in the soil to promote seed gestitation and young growth until it can support itself. When introducing these enzymes into an existing growing plant it stimulates the same biological activity, but the existing plant can take complete advantage of this stimulation via established roots system. It is also enhanced by the use of fulvic acid foliars, IHMO. An airstone may extract more enzymes but either way they are still there in anerobic conditions as well. Think of a seed falling onto shitty soil.I personally water with coconut water and foliar with fulvic. Every week to every other week depending on phenotype.HTH

 

Here's one thing to understand about enzymes..... these things are not alive... enzymes are just specialized proteins. Proteins are polymers made up of amino acid monomers. Proteins serve many different functions in cells.. there are transport proteins that are embedded in cell membranes and transport materials, there are proteins that are used in cell signaling/communication, there are proteins that serve as storage -- they store amino acids to make more proteins, and there are enzymes.

Enzymes are special proteins that act as biocatalysts, speeding up the rate of chemical reactions. They do this by lowering the activation energy required for a reaction to take place.. think of activation energy as a "hump" to get over before a reaction can take place.... like the little push that makes the dominoes fall... a chemical reaction is just an exchange where bonds are rearranged between atoms. There are reactants, and there are products.. for example, in photosynthesis, the reactants would be Carbon Dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), and light energy; the products are Glucose (C6H12O6) and Oxygen (O2). All of the same atoms are present, the bonds have just been rearranged.. anyway back to enzymes.. these things make chemical reactions happen more quickly than they would occur in the absence of enzymes. They do this by lending some energy to get the reaction underway.

This is much easier to understand if you can visualize what an enzyme looks and acts like... think of an enzyme as a blob like in that old horror flick, The Blob (lol). This is a blob that is made of amino acids that are all folded and twisted all over each other. On this blob, there is a spot on it called the 'active site'. The active site is a spot where a substrate will stick into it just like a puzzle piece. There are specific enzymes that are matched to go with specific substrates and they work because the substrate fits right into the active site like a puzzle piece...

Ok, now what is a substrate? It depends on what you are looking at... in the case of the enzyme Chitinase, the substrate is Chitin. Chitin is a structural polysaccharide found in the cell walls of fungi and the exoskeletons of arthropods. It is a polymer (polysaccharide) made up of glucose monomers (monosaccharide). You can think of Chitin as being like a chain and the links are glucose molecules. When Chitin, the substrate, bumps into the active site on Chitinase, it attaches right to it. The enzyme then changes shape, and breaks apart the bonds holding the chain together. What you are left with is glucose molecules.

One thing I said earlier-- enzymes are not alive. These things just float around and when they bump into their substrate, wham they break it apart (or build it into a larger molecule... can go both ways). So there is nothing conscious happening here... so, knowing this, we can look at our SSTs aka enzyme teas under new light... when you apply an enzyme tea, you are increasing the concentration of enzymes in the soil. That means that you are increasing the number of collisions that enzymes have with their substrates and thus increasing the number/rate of chemical reactions in the soil. You are boosting the nutrient cycling process! Bacteria and fungi exude enzymes in order to break down organic materials. By adding bunches of extra enzymes you are helping this process tremendously!

 

What he said.  Speaking of which my outdoor girls just got their ish of SST this mornin'.  They're lovin it!!!

 

Thank you all for so much information. I do wonder, since the enzymes aren't living, do they still need to be refrigeraterefrigerated if not used immediately?

 

yes yes yes. They can still break down so you want to ensure to do that,

 

I wondered the same thing. I remember @[member="BulbaStoned"] mentioning that he was freezing his into ice cubes and using it when he wanted....Please correct me HaGGarD if i misquoted you. If i didn't though, please expound?

I hit everybody with some SST last night so hopefully when I get home today there will be leaves reaching for the sky like somebody has a gun pointed at em

 

I'd assume that the only thing you have to worry about is if the mixture begins fermenting. So I would opt for freezing over refrigeration. The cooling won't damage the enzymes.

 

Thomasmfjefferson2 and I had a conversation somewhere around here (I think in his thread) about SST and Coconut water. I pretty much get the same leaf response from the coconut water and it's alot faster a process. Only big difference we could think of is the price comparison.

 

Yeah I got a serious response from coconut water for sure lol. Yet to try corn or alfalfa sst... only barley so far... might try em side by side w/water only next run.... the coconut water appeals to my lazy side :lol: no sprouting necessary.... the malted grain sst idea is appealing too....

 

I've done the sst, foliar and soil drench, using barley and radish seeds.  They work great.  Bulba what mutations were you seeing? Expound on that a bit please.  I also have some alfalfa sprouting seeds that I have yet to try.  If I remember correctly LD recommended using half strength of the barley and corn seed.  I'm gonna be trying alfalfa on Sunday.
 
BAS is also supposed to get their malted barley seeds in sometime in July.  I really want to try that also 

 

Edited for brain fart.    I seem to get em more often as I get closer to 60.  
 
I asked about buckwheat not barley.  Anyway let us know what you think about it, and how your plants respond to it.