Compost Teas - Superpower your microherd.

So I have done a lot of research over the years on compost teas and use a couple different types in our little nursery, but growing MJ has renewed my want to make things perfect and so I've been doing some experimentation and more reading. I couldn't find a good guide on here for Compost teas, I saw a few that showed the some recipes/techniques, but no one explaining the 'Why'; so I thought I would put up this little guide for peoples use.

Compost Tea-
Compost Tea is more or less a liquid version of your compost pile. This simple version is take your compost; throw it in a bucket filled with water for a week; strain; and Voila! you have compost tea. We will start with this, and work our way into better teas.

Why it works-
In organic gardening fore-thought and time are your biggest allies. There are not many 'instantaneous' nutrients that you can use to 'fix' your problems. You can't put raw sea kelp on your soil and expect it to work at all, this is because organic matter is a Compound, and nutrients that your plant can uptake are elements. There is a big rift in this site on the knowledge of how organics work (I think through the horrible marketing of these 'organic extracts') Organic gardening works because of a Microherd. The bacteria and fungi that live in your soil. These organisms work to break down these Organic Compounds into Simple Elementsso that they may be taken in by the plant directly. When you look at a box of organic nutrients and you see an NPK ratio, that is not instant, that is what is left after it is broken down through composting (whether in your soil, or in your teas) There is a great post HERE explaining this very well.

Basically, bacteria break it down, fungi move it around and into the roots.

Cannabis and Compost Tea-
The ratio of bacteria - fungi is rather important as you go through your cycle of life. Most plants prefer one or the other, however Cannabis is a little strange being an annual it changes it's needs based on the period of it's life cycle. All plants do this to a point, but with the strains bred over time to take on more nutrients then it would in nature, Cannabis is a fickle girl to get the most out of her. Teas strong in Bacterial count are great for vegetation phase, and the stretch phase of flower, this is because Cannabis takes up WAY more nitrogen then any other nutrient and this uptake is needed during the growth of the leaves and stems. The bacteria are needed to keep breaking down your nitrogen so the plant can uptake it. After the stretch (which means start during as organics do take time) fungal teas are more useful. Some Fungi are known to allow plants to absorb more K (needed for flower!) and allow greater movement of nutrients throughout the soil. You don't need the breaking down from bacteria as much, as they have been releasing the P and K that the plant hasn't used.

A note about a particular fungi-

What Are Mycorrhizae?

“Mycor” – “rhiza” literally means “fungus” – “root” and defines the mutually beneficial relationship between the plant and root fungus. These specialized fungi colonize plant roots and extend far into the soil. Mycorrhizal fungal filaments in the soil are truly extensions of root systems and are more effective in nutrient and water absorption than the roots themselves. More than 90 percent of plant species in natural areas form a symbiotic relationship with the beneficial mycorrhizal fungi.

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http://www.mycorrhiza.com/?cid=60

Here is a little list of regular additions to compost teas, giving you an idea of what types of ingrediants promote which growth

In our Nursery I use straw as my primary fungal food, most organic carbon matter is great for fungi to attach to; and sugars (molasses/sugars/etc.) this directly feeds the bacteria so they can multiply.

Back to the original recipe, Compost + Water + Time= compost tea.
Now we want to supercharge this tea with aeration, this will provide a couple of HUGE benefits. The first being, harmful bacteria are more prevalent to anaerobic conditions (no air involved), Ecoli is one you probably recognize, it doesn't thrive will in aerated teas, but in a anaerobic tea, it breeds like crazy. Also this provides a constant movement of the water, circulating the microorganisms so they can work together better and reproduce much much more quickly. The difference in time is from weeks to days.

Now looking at our simple tea Compost, Water, Air,[less] time = better tea. But we are still missing the fungal part. We have bred a great amount of bacteria but there is nothing for the fungi to attach to and the bacteria have overgrown them. Add any kind of raw organic matter that will float, you don't need to over do it, but a handful of ground oats, a bit of straw cut up, some raw sea kelp, whatever you have around will do if your compost is good from the beginning.
I also have a great tip, if you are having problems getting your fungi to get moving go to a nice fertile forest bed and dig a handful of soil out, this is so full of fungi that you won't need much else to get it started.

Now to balance out the fungus and bacteria I add a couple spoonfuls of raw molasses to feed the bacteria.

So our simple tea is getting more complicated, but still very simple.

Water
Compost
Forest Soil
Organic Matter (something that floats!)
Sugars
Aeration
Organic Compounds
Time

This should be your base for all compost teas. Now any Organic Compounds you add to it will get broken down very quickly (in a matter of days) so the nutrients will be usable to the plant, as well as supercharging the micro herd in your soil. How you alter the ratios of the ingrediants above denotes how bacterial/fugal your tea is.

Very Simply, bacterial compost can be made using 30% floating organic material, 45% organic compounds (bone meal, guano etc,) and 25% compost; whereas, fungal compost can be made using 45% floating organic material, 30% organic compounds, and 25% compost. If you would like to create a more balanced compost, use 35% floating organic material, 35% organic compounds, and 30% compost.

My simple Veg tea (that I also use for my nursery)
25% Compost
10% Straw
30% Organic Compounds (sea kelp, alfalfa meal, bone/blood meal)
30% Worm Castings (very high in bacteria)
5% Molasses

My currentflowering tea recipe
25% Compost
10% ground straw
10% ground oats
30% sea kelp
10% alfalfa meal
5% worm castings
10% fresh forest soil
a pinch of molasses (probably 1tbsp per 5 gal)

I brew my Teas with an airstone for at least 72 hours before use. My veg tea is self sustaining, every week I add more water and ingrediants, with the flowering tea, I make it, use it, and toss it. (if anyone has experience getting a fungal tea to brew for long periods, let me know!)

Please post your own tea recipes, and if you are wanting to brew one up yourself, lets see if we can make some from what you have on hand!

Cheers People
CannaTricks

Nice I never brewed before but prob gonna on next run. Nice that all those things are easy to get.

Hi Cannatricks.. thanks for the post.

Great info, couldn't find a lot about AACT's on the site (but maybe I just don't know how to look)

I am brewing a half-assed AACT in my basement right now for the first time. I don't have access to compost that I trust right now so I'm using Bat and Worm shit.

How import is the state of the compost? ie, the only real solids I added to about 3-4 gallons of water was about 3 cups of the Guano and Castings.

I'll add some oats as you have suggested above as I'm in flower right now

The only point I wanted to add was that I read in Teaming with Microbes that you can add Mycorrhizae to the tea but should only do it at the very end when you are about to use it as Mycorrhizae requires exudates from the plants roots to survive.

If you are brewing with just bat guano and castings you are going to make a very bacterial heavy tea. Even with the addition of oats, you won't have the fungi to take hold.

I would dump what you have, get new water and add in oats 1/2 cup per gallon, molasses (or sugar, just a tsp per gallon or so) and some soil from a wooded area (try and find somewhere with a good mossy old floor. This soil will contain a huge amount of fungi, and is geared for fungal from the beginning. after a couple of days of brewing you can begin (just a bit a day) adding the castings and the guano. This should allow your fugal tea to brew.

If you use hardcore bacterial teas during the flowering cycle you can't accidentally tip the balance and kill off what wonderful fungi you have in your soil (I did for years before I realized that dumping strong tea on my plants was much the same as spraying the soil with chemicals.) If you've read Teaming, he makes a very good comparison of soil life as a huge war. You want the war to go as hard and bloody as it can be, but you don't want to send in too many troops and end the war. Make sure with any unbalanced tea you water it down considerably. PPM if you have it probably 100-200.

I pulled the Mycorrhizae out in quote because it is a special fungi and needs a separate post. I hadn't used the little guys, on purpose, until recently. I have always recycled soil and roots so I would imagine my soil is pretty well saturated, because roots can stay alive for quite a while with soil and water and there are constantly little sprouts popping out of the soil. lately, I have been adding a layer of forest peat on the top of my soil and let it sit before I plant, I don't have enough data to tell you if it's making a huge difference, but we shall see. I have heard you can add it right before a feeding, however I never feed tea (or anything besides water) to my seedlings, so if I were to do it that way (i don't have a way to culture them here) I would probably sprinkle around the base and water them in.

I have been using this: http://www.gardenerspantry.ca/microorganisms/effective-microorganisms.html in all compost tea I made this past grow, seems to work really well.

Would using a strong bacterially dominant tea for re-conditioning soil work?

I use planters inside and they hold a lot of soil.

I know the soil should get hotter, but if I give it a couple of weeks shouldn't it be fine?

I use hygrozyme. I have pulled pots to check what it was doing. It works. Most of the organic matter had colonies that looked like mold. The plants love it.

I transplant teens into the beds, so no tender babies going into the soil.

Is there enough organic matter left from the roots (I pull the ball out) to concern myself with burn? I am thinking no. Because the plants are in the same moldy colonized decaying root matter their whole life anyway. And they eat it up!

Thanks for any input...

Endur0xX said:

I have been using this: http://www.gardenerspantry.ca/microorganisms/effective-microorganisms.html in all compost tea I made this past grow, seems to work really well.

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Great site,

I bookmarked it for future reference! Glad I'm Canadian, have to try to find something like that locally.

Buddy Hemphill said:

Would using a strong bacterially dominant tea for re-conditioning soil work?

I use planters inside and they hold a lot of soil.

I know the soil should get hotter, but if I give it a couple of weeks shouldn't it be fine?

I use hygrozyme. I have pulled pots to check what it was doing. It works. Most of the organic matter had colonies that looked like mold. The plants love it.

I transplant teens into the beds, so no tender babies going into the soil.

Is there enough organic matter left from the roots (I pull the ball out) to concern myself with burn? I am thinking no. Because the plants are in the same moldy colonized decaying root matter their whole life anyway. And they eat it up!

Thanks for any input...

Click to expand...

Using super strong bacterial (or fungal) teas can really help when you are mixing soil. I also do not rip all the roots out of my soil, but I take the rootball. The old threadlike roots will be broken down and used for new food. You can add whatever teas you want in the mix stage of your soils, but always let them sit for at least a month to let the colony get in there and establish itself.

With hygrozyme, I don't know enough about it to make a call on it's usefulness. I am vary wary of anything that say "secret formula" or "doctor approved" (really my doctor approves your protein shake for my plants?) It is also stated that it contains no bacteria, which I would say means no fugus, or anything that we are trying to culture in our soil. Although this may feed the microherd, it is not adding more organisms into your soil.

I would drop the hygrozyme and use some compost (fresh not store bought) and/or some rich forest soil.

This is directly from hygrozymes website

HYGROZYME may well be "the greatest breakthrough in Horticulture in the last decade." Simply explained: it is developed using a proprietary bio-fermentation process, made from ALL NATURAL ingredients that produce a supply of BACTERIA-FREE enzymes and complex chains of amino acids.

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Growing organically is using the soil to do the work for you. This is growing with organic chemicals, and not what a compost tea is for.

EDIT:
This might be great to add to tea's though, as long as you have a herd in the first place.

Good info thnks op. I have been brewing teas for about a year and recycling soil. Best flavors, great yields and cheap. I use microbemans recipe and just brew a few liters at a time. We don't need much and its better to have a small well aerated tea than a large poorly aerated one of course.

1 liter rain, well, spring or R/O water
25ml fresh castings
8ml blackstrap molasses
4ml kelp meal
1.5 ml fish hydrolysate

Aerate for about 36 hours and dilute it into plain well water before watering. Fresh slimy castings are much better than bagged stuff. In my case castings are the most expensive part of recycling soil so making your own has multiple benefits.

Apparently white mold loves whole wheat waffles

We just got these little gems in, we sell them for $50
http://www.sunlightsupply.com/p-14269-flo-n-brew-system.aspx

kekekeke, make that brew box thing into a 15gal, 950gph pump set costing 50$ and I will buy it. That fish pump wont cut it for my fungi. <3

cannatricks said:

Using super strong bacterial (or fungal) teas can really help when you are mixing soil. I also do not rip all the roots out of my soil, but I take the rootball. The old threadlike roots will be broken down and used for new food. You can add whatever teas you want in the mix stage of your soils, but always let them sit for at least a month to let the colony get in there and establish itself.

With hygrozyme, I don't know enough about it to make a call on it's usefulness. I am vary wary of anything that say "secret formula" or "doctor approved" (really my doctor approves your protein shake for my plants?) It is also stated that it contains no bacteria, which I would say means no fugus, or anything that we are trying to culture in our soil. Although this may feed the microherd, it is not adding more organisms into your soil.

I would drop the hygrozyme and use some compost (fresh not store bought) and/or some rich forest soil.

This is directly from hygrozymes website



Growing organically is using the soil to do the work for you. This is growing with organic chemicals, and not what a compost tea is for.

EDIT:
This might be great to add to tea's though, as long as you have a herd in the first place.

Click to expand...

Are you saying it takes a month for ACT to start working?

I've just started building a 4x8 worm box. Hope to have about four of them going before spring. Shooting for worm casting tea. I have several compost piles going with different mixes to feed the worms. It all looks good on paper. so now I just need to keep the worms alive.

Buddy Hemphill said:

Are you saying it takes a month for ACT to start working?

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No, it doesn't take a month for the tea to work, it starts immediately.

It takes a month (or more, a few is better) for your soil to break down some when adding organic compounds (guano, kelp, castings, etc.) the tea in the beginning of this will help this process work. However, if you have mixed a soil, feed tea into the soil, then walked away, when you return to your soil after a month or so it should be absolutely robust with life.

At this stage you have a huge number of microbes competing for food. I've only gone over bacteria and fungus for the tea's, but when getting into actual soil there is a whole host of microbes that work together to form a mini ecosystem. Now, if you go back to a very strong bacterial tea what can happen is you outnumber any number of those other organisms that have been competing to form a balance, when you add at this stage your tea should be not as strong when highly bacterial, as not to give your bacteria an unfair advantage to the other microorganisms in your soil. This is especially relevant for fungi, there is generally a limited number of fungi in an amount of soil, they take a long time to reproduce, however they will get much bigger. If you begin to kill these off because of a very high bacterial count it is very difficult to get them started again.

This is the reason for going over the "balanced tea" approach in the OP, making a tea without bacteria, or without fungi, you won't have a tea that you can do much more then nudge. With my high fungi flower tea I can add 1/2gallon of tea at 600-800ppm and the growth is amazing. If I were using a strong bacterial tea at that point I would stick to 350PPM or lower.

cannatricks said:

No, it doesn't take a month for the tea to work, it starts immediately.

It takes a month (or more, a few is better) for your soil to break down some when adding organic compounds (guano, kelp, castings, etc.) the tea in the beginning of this will help this process work. However, if you have mixed a soil, feed tea into the soil, then walked away, when you return to your soil after a month or so it should be absolutely robust with life.

At this stage you have a huge number of microbes competing for food. I've only gone over bacteria and fungus for the tea's, but when getting into actual soil there is a whole host of microbes that work together to form a mini ecosystem. Now, if you go back to a very strong bacterial tea what can happen is you outnumber any number of those other organisms that have been competing to form a balance, when you add at this stage your tea should be not as strong when highly bacterial, as not to give your bacteria an unfair advantage to the other microorganisms in your soil. This is especially relevant for fungi, there is generally a limited number of fungi in an amount of soil, they take a long time to reproduce, however they will get much bigger. If you begin to kill these off because of a very high bacterial count it is very difficult to get them started again.

This is the reason for going over the "balanced tea" approach in the OP, making a tea without bacteria, or without fungi, you won't have a tea that you can do much more then nudge. With my high fungi flower tea I can add 1/2gallon of tea at 600-800ppm and the growth is amazing. If I were using a strong bacterial tea at that point I would stick to 350PPM or lower.

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Sweet, thats kinda what I was thinking.

My issue is that I have (3) 16'x4'x16" planters inside and the cost of filling them up is ridiculous. I run 60 day strains to boot.

I have to start recycling this soil. But I have to find a way to do it quickly.


I have experimented with Hygrozyme and teas alot.

What do you think about this. I have ckecked hygrozyme out in clear dixie cups before in organic soil and it really starts forming colonies (or allowing colonoes to form because of the rapid acceleration in decomposition) very quickly.

Perhaps do a side by side with the 2, tea and (xbrand) enzymes. I would use hygrozyme because I have some..lol.. I think I need to do this for my own knowledge. I dont have a problem with enzymes in my feeding program. I root with cheap IBA and use sensi A/B for veg...with teas in between feedings. I dont have a strict organic program.

I just need the fastest way to break down my old roots short of straight chems.


I think I might catch brain damage if we even try to define "organic chemicals" as they relate to gardening enzymes. Or maybe I dont wanna know. I thought hygrozyme was totally cool for an organic program though....? Is it not cool to call your garden organic if you use hzyme?

Very glad I read this, I've been applying worm casting tea to my vegging plants @ 2 cups of castings per 5 gallons of water, brewing it for 48 hours and my teas are coming up around 400ppm, the first one I applied was almost 500ppm. I've been trying to give it to my vegging plants once a week with my general organics nutrients, I see you arent a fan of bottled nutes so thats all I'll say about that but I had a question about using a few other things I have to make a more fungal tea.

I have some steamed bone meal that has some myco product in it (raw materials arent all that available to me so I have to use the 1 and only hydro shop in the state as I live in a city and gardening is scarce and if you are an indoor gardener, your only growing one thing (MJ) so I have to be careful), as well as some soluable seaweed. How does one use bone meal in a tea, the seaweed is obviously soluble, do I just toss it in the bucket or do I have to put it in a stocking/sock like I do with the castings? I didnt strain the last couple of teas I applied but I think I will in the future, I saw the castings floating and going right into my soil, but I amended my soil with castings so I didnt think much of it, but it makes me think I need to back off of the casting teas in general because of that.

This is my first run at organics, and teas are definitely a must I'm thinking, but I've just starting to kinda figure it out over the past few weeks. Even though those teas I added were highly bacterial, after applying them to my plants a second time I started to see them come to life differently than I've ever seen any of my plants grow, so I know I'm on the right track but I need to get to using raw materials rather than bottled stuff, but I can only do that in the spring/summer months due to there not being a whole lot of gardens around.

Thanks for posting this


Edit: I did some digging around and found a "feed" store, they have kelp meal, and alfalfa pellets or alfalfa cubes....can I use either of those alfalfa products in a tea if I break them up? Or should I keep digging until I find alfalfa meal or just break down and order it online from somewhere?

Buddy Hemphill said:

Sweet, thats kinda what I was thinking.

My issue is that I have (3) 16'x4'x16" planters inside and the cost of filling them up is ridiculous. I run 60 day strains to boot.

I have to start recycling this soil. But I have to find a way to do it quickly.

I have experimented with Hygrozyme and teas alot.

What do you think about this. I have ckecked hygrozyme out in clear dixie cups before in organic soil and it really starts forming colonies (or allowing colonoes to form because of the rapid acceleration in decomposition) very quickly.

Perhaps do a side by side with the 2, tea and (xbrand) enzymes. I would use hygrozyme because I have some..lol.. I think I need to do this for my own knowledge. I dont have a problem with enzymes in my feeding program. I root with cheap IBA and use sensi A/B for veg...with teas in between feedings. I dont have a strict organic program.

I just need the fastest way to break down my old roots short of straight chems.


I think I might catch brain damage if we even try to define "organic chemicals" as they relate to gardening enzymes. Or maybe I dont wanna know. I thought hygrozyme was totally cool for an organic program though....? Is it not cool to call your garden organic if you use hzyme?

Click to expand...

I haven't used the hygrozyme as I've said, but it seems to be an organic additive as approved by the USDA. I use large planter boxes in my nursery, although I have a little more time to wait with mine (I have a nursery, no buds in the greenhouse) I usually pull as much of the plant as possible from the soil, including the soil in the center, this goes straight on the compost. Then I gently break the soil up with my hands, I would then Add (it's different for nursery plants, but if I were to grow buds out there) Bone Meal, Sea Kelp, Castings, compost, and Sea kelp to my soil (Make sure to add your nutrients to keep up with your soil, I find that N is depleted very quickly and K takes longer. You should not re-fertilize with the same nutrients you started with while reusing soils. go heavy on N, and light on K as a generally rule, when remixing) Then I would hit the whole thing with tea, and cover it with a nice 6" layer of straw (if you are doing lots of plants, you may be able to mulch with the plant matter from your harvested plants.) 1 month is fine for this (the deep bedding will help amazingly), maybe with your enzymes you can make it faster, I don't know.

This really is ideal in organic growing to be using large amounts of soil, and if you are mixing in the planter and letting it cook there, you have less breakage of the fungal structures when planting. If I wanted to try hygrozyme (which I don't, lol) I would try it on one side of a planter like this, and see if there was a difference between the growth in one side of the planter to the other. Also when you do harvest you can get your hands in the dirt and see if the side you gave the enzymes has a higher density of microbes. It sounds like you've got a nice big space to play.

Do yourself a favor though, and try one pot with "bottled organics" and another with good base soil and a balanced tea feeding. I'm not saying one will be better then the other, but if you have the same (or better growth) you can throw out all those bottles your spending money on.

I don't want to get into what organic/non-organic is. I personally only use what I can pick up off the ground, and make in my greenhouse, if it comes from a factory or a lab it stays out of my garden. I don't knock anyone for going "in-organic" but I do know for a fact that growing with what the earth provides is, much, much cheaper then any other alternative, and although I don't get the yields that some growers get, I have had people lay on the ground and complain about the spins when they try out my stuff.

Cheers, and let me know how it works out for you. I would love to chat after you get some experience for the hygrozyme, maybe you'll make me a believer, lol.

whitey78 said:

Very glad I read this, I've been applying worm casting tea to my vegging plants @ 2 cups of castings per 5 gallons of water, brewing it for 48 hours and my teas are coming up around 400ppm, the first one I applied was almost 500ppm. I've been trying to give it to my vegging plants once a week with my general organics nutrients, I see you arent a fan of bottled nutes so thats all I'll say about that but I had a question about using a few other things I have to make a more fungal tea.

I have some steamed bone meal that has some myco product in it (raw materials arent all that available to me so I have to use the 1 and only hydro shop in the state as I live in a city and gardening is scarce and if you are an indoor gardener, your only growing one thing (MJ) so I have to be careful), as well as some soluable seaweed. How does one use bone meal in a tea, the seaweed is obviously soluble, do I just toss it in the bucket or do I have to put it in a stocking/sock like I do with the castings? I didnt strain the last couple of teas I applied but I think I will in the future, I saw the castings floating and going right into my soil, but I amended my soil with castings so I didnt think much of it, but it makes me think I need to back off of the casting teas in general because of that.

This is my first run at organics, and teas are definitely a must I'm thinking, but I've just starting to kinda figure it out over the past few weeks. Even though those teas I added were highly bacterial, after applying them to my plants a second time I started to see them come to life differently than I've ever seen any of my plants grow, so I know I'm on the right track but I need to get to using raw materials rather than bottled stuff, but I can only do that in the spring/summer months due to there not being a whole lot of gardens around.

Thanks for posting this


Edit: I did some digging around and found a "feed" store, they have kelp meal, and alfalfa pellets or alfalfa cubes....can I use either of those alfalfa products in a tea if I break them up? Or should I keep digging until I find alfalfa meal or just break down and order it online from somewhere?

Click to expand...

Cannatricks would likely be better to answer this as I have zero experience, but I'll give my opinion anyway...

I would think that you'd be able to add your Black Diamond (Humic acids), BioMarine (cold processed squid) and Bioweed along with some the kelp, Oats, Hay, Straw (anything brown and harder to break down) This would encourage a fungal-dominant (or at least more balanced) tea

The bone meal could also work, however the myco would likely be eaten by all the other microbes as you were bubbling as Endomycorrhizae requires roots to survive and propagate.

whitey78 said:

Very glad I read this, I've been applying worm casting tea to my vegging plants @ 2 cups of castings per 5 gallons of water, brewing it for 48 hours and my teas are coming up around 400ppm, the first one I applied was almost 500ppm. I've been trying to give it to my vegging plants once a week with my general organics nutrients, I see you arent a fan of bottled nutes so thats all I'll say about that but I had a question about using a few other things I have to make a more fungal tea.

I have some steamed bone meal that has some myco product in it (raw materials arent all that available to me so I have to use the 1 and only hydro shop in the state as I live in a city and gardening is scarce and if you are an indoor gardener, your only growing one thing (MJ) so I have to be careful), as well as some soluable seaweed. How does one use bone meal in a tea, the seaweed is obviously soluble, do I just toss it in the bucket or do I have to put it in a stocking/sock like I do with the castings? I didnt strain the last couple of teas I applied but I think I will in the future, I saw the castings floating and going right into my soil, but I amended my soil with castings so I didnt think much of it, but it makes me think I need to back off of the casting teas in general because of that.

This is my first run at organics, and teas are definitely a must I'm thinking, but I've just starting to kinda figure it out over the past few weeks. Even though those teas I added were highly bacterial, after applying them to my plants a second time I started to see them come to life differently than I've ever seen any of my plants grow, so I know I'm on the right track but I need to get to using raw materials rather than bottled stuff, but I can only do that in the spring/summer months due to there not being a whole lot of gardens around.

Thanks for posting this


Edit: I did some digging around and found a "feed" store, they have kelp meal, and alfalfa pellets or alfalfa cubes....can I use either of those alfalfa products in a tea if I break them up? Or should I keep digging until I find alfalfa meal or just break down and order it online from somewhere?

Click to expand...

Always good to see someone fighting the "dark side", lol. You can add bonemeal directly to the the tea (but it does stink, just a warning) but I doubt that is going to provide a good amount of fungi. I don't know where you are located, but a handful of forest soil is pretty accessible for most anyone, start with this, and if you are going to a feed store (ideal, I buy all my stuff from the local Grange) grab the kelp meal, it;s great organic matter for the tea to break down, tons of micro-nutes, and high K values. I wouldn't use the pellets of the cubes in tea, I use straw, which you could buy there; but you need to buy a bale usually. You could substitute your floating matter with ground oats (original raw oatmeal, ground in a coffee grinder) They will work just as well. You are really just trying to add a floating surface for the fungal hyphae (their 'feet' more or less) to anchor to.

Just forest soil, water and oats will form a fungal tea. Always go back to the original recipe of "floating organic matter" (fungus) X "high sugar Matter" (bacterial) X "organism heavy matter"(bacteria and fungal colonies)

Take the ingredients you have and put them into one of those 3 categories. Then just ratio out to have a little heavier on the floating matter, and add high fungal count matter to get it cooking.

Cheers!