Bag o Weed, here is what I read from Heisenberg about brewing and competition: [quote name='"Heisenberg"']We will only be feeding the microbes in this tea; never add food for the microbes to the res itself. It's okay if the bennies in the res starve. You will be replacing them every few days. Now let the tea bubble at room tempeture for 48 hours. It can be used after 24, but will be more active and diverse at 48. If you use EWC you will probably notice a foam eventually, this is normal. After 48 hours you can store the tea in the fridge where it will stay fresh for about 10 days. Once it starts to go bad it will develop an odor. If you ever detect an odor from your tea, throw it out and make a new batch. Fresh tea can have a range of smells from earthy to mossy to shroomy. Bad tea smells like gym socks, fecal matter, or decay.[/quote]
I tried the DWC Root Slime Cure from Heisenberg and it did not work too well for my slime issue. Undercurrent told me to use 2 cups of worm castings and 4 gallons of RO water, but in bubblers and use nothing else, use from 6-24 hours. The sugar raises sugar bacteria and those are not what you want. This worked the best for me, the Great White, ZHO and others I tried to add did not work as good as just worm castings. Kiss-Keep it Simple Stupid. This cleared up my "snoot" roots very well.
This is cool stuff and I like making things.Ill try it out if I keep having root problems.They seem to be doing alot better now though. Thanks for posting.
Hey GC, I made up a batch of this to see if it will help with my PH issues, which I outlined in this thread here. The drop is still happening, though it has slowed a lot, so I figured I would try this since by all accounts it's beneficial anyway. And maybe it will help someone else down the line. The hydro store didn't have the exact myco products that the OP suggested, but they had Great White (yeah, expensive) and another batch of microbes made by Mother Earth Organics and I used honey in place of the molasses. As an organic soil grower i always have some EWC available, so for $20 I got enough product to make multiple batches of tea. I made 1 cup of tea per gallon of water in the system, it foamed up just as advertised and has been bubbling for two days, so I'm about to filter it and add it to the reservoir. I have a few hours until lights out and then I'll be gone all day tomorrow so hopefully I'll have some positive results by then. Fingers crossed...
I'm happy to report that the Heisenberg tea was a complete success! After 10 days or so of fighting my dropping ph I added that tea 3 days ago and waited. Since the tea was pretty acidic (ph 3.5) and had a significant PPM (500) I couldn't tell if it was affecting the main solution or not. So yesterday I figured the tea had been in there for 48 hours and should have done it's thing, so I gave the girls some feed (Lucas system) to get back to normal levels. I wake up this morning to find PPM has dropped and ph is rising - back to normal. And I love that I did it with just a few bucks worth of microbes - no res change, no harsh chemicals, no scrubbing out containers. And the number one lesson - calibrate your PH meters regularly ladies and gents, especially if you're like me and have a cheap one. Special thanks to Heisenbeg and the OP wherever they may be.
i have a question......could you just use a compost tea with coco and nothing else,or would u have to use the tea everyother feeding of the lucas formula?....trying to ease into organic,eventually stop using chem nutes,and use nothing but tea all the way thru the plants cycle......i would love to hear some suggestions or is this not possible with great results???
This sort of tea isn't quite what you're looking for, I think. This is mainly a microbial tea, and I don't know if it would have enough nutrients in it to feed a plant, I'm sure you'd need to add something to this with some N-P-K.
ebay...grow and bloom mother earth/iguana..brand new unopened 25.00...lol....its the only way I can afford an products
EWC, Mycogrow and ZHO are around 30 bucks from amazon. And it will make enough for a year... And it can be used for dirt etc... It will increase water uptake, they drink more, so you will have to cut back on nutes or U will burn em'. You save money several ways brewing your own tea.
Guys, I just wanted to post this up on GCF to show everyone that the EWC does indeed work. I did not get the ZHO or Mycoblast powder. I used GH Subculture-m, Aquashield and Big Worm EWC in the dosages that Heisenberg stated. I also had some roots excell and rapid start, and some voodoo juice that was a free 250mL sample from the hydro store. All dosages added were as directed, but for 2 gallons (as the brew was 2 gallons). BUT, for the molasses, I took one cup of distilled water and put it into a little pot on the stove over medium heat with the 1 tbsp of unsulphured Black Strap Molasses, and stirred until the molasses was completely dissolved. The reason? Think of all the beneficial microbes fighting for a bite of a glob of sugar! By melting the sugar into a syrup, we are doing what brewers do: spreading out the sugar for the microbes so you have even, rapid growth. After about 6 hours, I had the desired foam. I only brewed my mix for 36 hours, and VOILA! I struggled with the whole "sterile" grow, and decided to give it a try. After a month in Veg, I lost my NYC Diesel and my Qrazy Train was lookin good, but no growth. The first picture is of the roots that grew out, and were slimed by the algae. I treated both 20 Gal reservoirs with the EWC, and about 6 hours later I saw new growth out of the ends of my damaged roots and the sides of the net pot. Then about 12 hours later (roughly 8pm the same day) , the next picture shows significant growth (remember, my ladies were STUNTED!). Then, the next morning! Holy moley! Then another 12 hours, and then finally THIS morning! 72 hours after inoculation, this plant did a complete 180! That was 5 days ago. I'm completely legal in my endeavors, a MM patient just trying to share the knowledge and methods that have been worked on, and then expanded. I wish you all the best, and to those that are hemming and hawing about whether or not to make the switch from sterile to benne..well, I didn't see NEARLY as much growth with the sterile option as I do with the beneficial fungus and bacteria I brewed up! Happy Growing, friends!
It should still work without Botanicare's ZHO, the 3 particular products were chosen by Heisenberg as they were felt to give the best broad spectrum of beneficial bacteria, but on the original thread he states substitutes can definitely be made. Aquashield is listed as another good product to use, and GH's Ancient Forest could be substituted for any number of high quality earthworm castings. I'd suggest reading the original thread to learn more on this, I didn't come up with any of it myself (it's now >193 pages of discussion!)
I am experiencing some after tea slime is this normal and if what do I do with it ?How long do I wait to clean up res again and add new Nutrients?