Compost Teas - Superpower your microherd.

I got the worst luck man I swear.... I struck out at 2 different feed stores on 2 different days, actually I struck out 3 times as the first time a friend came to give me a ride to one of these places and it was a little late by the time he got there, I called and the one I wanted to go to was closed already. The first one I was out in the country doing a job so I decided to see if I could find something out there, so I found a place with my iphone and got there walked in and ask if they had any of the meals I was looking for, nope...that was store 1 day 1, one word by the shop keeper...nope...

Next day I called up a place, asked over the phone if they had alfalfa meal, kelp meal, whole oats, I think I even asked for soybean meal...all to which I got yups to, as if they were looking at it, if I wanted 50lb bags I'd have to get it out of their warehouse, ok I went down. I got there all they have on the shelf is some epsoma (?spelling) 3.5lb bags kelp meal, green sand and a few other assorted halfway decent things from espoma, as well as the whole miracle grow setup that most stores have. So I asked for alfalfa meal and got a million and one questions about what I was doing with it and why did I need it. Then they couldnt get me the 50lb bags from the warehouse at that minute in time....earl was on a smoke break or some shit so I decided to just get out of there. Its just tough to get this stuff in january for me, also why I could be getting the funny looks and questions. I'm going to try to see what I can order online, if you guys know of any decent websites that arent to obvious on the shipping labels, please post them.

If I cant get what I need I'll just continue with using the GO line for now with kelp/worm tea's with some ground up cherri-O's thrown in....something...I'm going to order some of that ancient forest shit, its a "alaskan" humus/forest mulch or some shit, not sure about being from alaska or whatever but I've actually read posts of people finding live earth worms in the package, so its soil from a forest somewhere, its fairly cheap so.... I think its $12 a bag or something. That and I have to venture a guess and say I can purchase some alfalfa meal from somewhere online, I'd hope. I actually have one more place I can try in another out of the way town. If not I'll just suck it up for another couple months using my bottled nutes and just know that I need to stock the hell up on the stuff from these places once spring time hits, I imagine a 50lb bag of any of those meals would last me a good 30 years or so?? lol

groworganic.com has organic alfalfa pellets and a bunch of other stuff you're looking for. heres a link.

http://www.groworganic.com/organic-alfalfa-pellets-50-lb-bag.html

Are compost tea catalyst just a bunch of BS? Starting to make my own but it seems like everything in these compost tea catalyst i would already be adding to my tea anyway.

Does anything use this stuff? or is a waste of $$ ?

dante76 said:

Are compost tea catalyst just a bunch of BS? Starting to make my own but it seems like everything in these compost tea catalyst i would already be adding to my tea anyway.

Does anything use this stuff? or is a waste of $$ ?

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I don't use it, however if you go a little earlier in the thread there is a small discussion about hygrozyme. If it does anything it speeds up the process, but I don't see it improving results. Growing a microherd, all you have to do is feed them, you can't make them more potent or anything.

cannatricks said:

I don't use it, however if you go a little earlier in the thread there is a small discussion about hygrozyme. If it does anything it speeds up the process, but I don't see it improving results. Growing a microherd, all you have to do is feed them, you can't make them more potent or anything.

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Think of hygrozyme as the clean up crew. They target sources of ammonia (decay or waste).

Compost tea's are Awesome!! My plants love it!!!! Thanks for the great read.

If anyone is interested check out bountea website, I have been brewing it for years.

paint strainer bags , act as tea bags .. get them at home depot , lowes , probably wall mart ! work nicer than panty hose just cuz its a big thing u can throw it all in

hi cannatricks, just found your thread thankyou my man! Here's my current week 1 flower recipe for a peat based medium into 5 gallon buckets with large ladies nylons FTW! lol! @/3 cup peruvian seabird guano,2/3 cups ewc earthworm castings, 2/3 cups high p guano usually jamaican or indonesian, 5 tsp maxicrop 1-0-4, i add that dry micx yo 5 gallons of water i then add that to 5tbs. liquid karma, and 5tbs. black strap molasses. I also have a three little birds method that uses's neptune's harvest nute's but i like this current one im using. I have a question for cannatricks tho. !. i live in a colder enviroment what is the lowest temp my waterbucket can hit before the microherd would be effected? How long can i expect my batch to last if i dont use all 5 gallons in the one watering? Got any juicy new recipes in can sink my brain into? First and foremost let me explain how much i appreciate you posting this thread and your willingness to spread valuable ifo isnt goping unnoticed thankyou sincerely!View attachment 2477305View attachment 2477306Also ive only been airating for 24-48 hours maybe go 72 like you? I have been using a 60 gallon tank air pump lol on a 5 gallon bucket, luckily i can adjust the airflow strength!

cannatricks said:

I don't tend to use mesurements when I make tea, but only because I have PPM meter, as long as the ratio's are the same when I add ingrediants, if I water it down to the correct PPM it should have the same amount of stuff in it.

Tea is very forgiving, so you shouldn't be to worried about having a very high PPM unless you brew for long periods of time. Before I used a PPM meter and had the nursery I would just use a simple tea, so here it is.

5gal bucket
1 cup forest soil
1 cup compost
1 good handful of straw shredded
1 cup sea kelp

bubble for 72 hours, then use!

** on the immediate N, organics are not immediate. I would recommend top dressing with worm castings (maybe 1/2 inch) and then water in well. make sure before you top dress you moisten the soil and break up the top layer, so that the WC's can get into the nooks and crack.

bone meal takes a long time to break down fully. You can add this to your tea and get some of the nutrients out of it (adding more worm castings to the tea is better, they are more soluble), but you only get maybe 2-3% of the N that is water soluble (I add to tea for the microbial food, not for the plant food). As for Urea, the problem with this is that our bodies process all of then things that go into them, and our urine contains most of the waste that we cannot process. It is very difficult to know how strong the urea in your urine is. If you drink lots of water it's weak, if you drink lots of coffee it's acidic, if you drink lots of alcohol, you will almost certainly kill your plants.

Cheers!

If you have nothing else, water it down 10 or 20-1 and try that, it is very easy to kill your plants with urine.

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What PPM are you shooting for in each stage? Veg/ Flower 1-3 Flower 4-6 Flower 6-9 weeks? Do you have a full cycle schedule on what you would use in each stage?

Urea is not made from human or animal Urine it is just found in it. Urea is made from ammonia and carbon dioxide. The ammonia and carbon dioxide are
fed into a reactor at high pressure and temperature, and the urea is formed in a two step
reaction process.

Hi,
Great post on teas. I was wondering if you could give me your opinion on this recipe I am using.Please keep in mind Im bubbling 500 gal at tim got 24 plants in 10x10 mounds.

1- gal fish emulsion (bloom)
1-gal kelp
1-lb alfalfa meal
1-lb azamite
1-lb glacial rock
1-quart humic acid
1-quart fulvic acid
5-handfuls worm castings
2-handfuls artic humis
I bubble 12 hours as I find the heat out here in Cal makes it start to go bad.

I like the information about changing from bacterial during veg, then to fungal during flower. I have been making bacterial teas but am interested in making fungal teas, now I have more of a reason due to flowering needs. I need to read and do more fungal, I will get out the old mason Jars and grow some mycorrihizae. Also a big thanks for advocating the use of home made organics, not using the stuff marketed in bottles.