OrganicSmokeOnly77
Active Member
Good morning RIU,
Been doing a lot of research on microbes and organic gardening and wanted to give and receive some input.
Foundational Research
When Fungi, Protozoa and Nemotodes eat bacteria and other nematodes and fungi in the soil, Nitrogen is released in ammonium form.
If nitrogen-fixing bacteria are present, they turn the ammonium into nitrates. If they aren't present or are present in small numbers, most of the nitrogen stays in ammonium form.
Both ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen are readily available to plants.
Different Plants prefer different forms of nitrogen. Most trees and perennial plants prefer ammonium. Most Annuals, herbs, and vegetables prefer nitrates.
Cannabis is an ANNUAL herbaceous plant, meaning it has no persistent woody stem and completes its life cycle in only a single growing season under normal conditions. (Most of us know this)
Bacterially dominated soils produce lots of nitrates. Fungally dominated soils produce lots of ammonium.
There are two main ways to alter the dominance of the soils.
1. Teas: We could produce bacterially dominated compost teas, Fungally dominated teas, or balanced teas.
2. Mulch: Brown, undisturbed, carbon-rich mulches (straw, dead leaves) are favored by fungi while green, shredded, nitrogen-rich mulches (yard clippings, shredded green leaves) are favored by bacteria.
Conclusion:
As organic Cannabis growers, we should be focusing on producing bacterially dominated teas and using green mulches that would produce the nitrates our plant prefers, instead of focusing on complex super teas with all sorts of nutrient inputs. A simple tea made from vermicompost (bacterially dominated by nature) and a simple sugar (cane sugar, maple syrup), then properly aerated and given to a properly amended soil mulched with a "green" substance would provide all that is needed for bacteria to dominate and our plant to thrive. If you wanna add mycorrhizal fungi, breed them in a simple tea of compost containing these spores, throw in some rock dust and/or baby oatmeal for the fungi to feed on and attach to, and aerate and apply. Again these can be altered to be balanced by adding both to a tea, or mulching with Browns and greens. Too much focus is put on the extra tea ingredients instead of the proper outcome, imho. I'm not saying simple sugars and oatmeal are the ONLY ingredients we should use ever, because there are plenty of simple microbe foods for them to feed on (a littlebresearch on your part needed here), but let's focus on these simple to digest foods that our microbes can easily multiply on, rather than extra inputs our plants CAN use but will take longer to break down. This is especially true if you are only brewing 24/48 hours. It won't hurt any I suppose, but these things can be added to the soil mix with the same results and without any loss when straining. Think about it, will the microbes even be focused on complex foods that they need to release enzymes to break down complex chemical bonds for (ie. Blood meal, phosphorus compounds, bone meal), or will they focus on the simple foods they can readily digest such as baby oatmeal or maple syrup? The point of our tea making, again, is to breed a large number of microbes in a short time that we can inoculate our soils with so they can break down our are soil amendments and feed our plants. If you're a commercial grower and you want to do all these complex teas, then by all means. However, for a beginner or hobbyist that can get overwhelmed by the thousands of recipes out there, I think keeping it simple, focusing on the true purpose of the tea brewing process as well as the preferences of the plant, is the way to go.
Thoughts?
*Disclaimer: I'm saying bacterially DOMINATED, not fully bacterial. Fungi are just as important to the soil food web, especially mycorrhizal fungi, and should be maintained and allowed to grow as well. Something like 2-3 bac-dom tea applications for every one fung-dom tea application is my method.
**Disclaimer: I am also not saying that adding extra nutrient inputs to the teas are bad or wrong, just overkill. Teas are meant to breed microbes. If your soil is properly amended and you recycle the waste from the plants back onto the soil surface as mulch, there would be no need to add complex things to your teas. Add these ingredients to the soil instead and inoculate properly with the right tea; the rest will take care of itself.
Sources:
Teaming With Microbes
By Wayne Lewis and Jeff Lowenfels
Been doing a lot of research on microbes and organic gardening and wanted to give and receive some input.
Foundational Research
When Fungi, Protozoa and Nemotodes eat bacteria and other nematodes and fungi in the soil, Nitrogen is released in ammonium form.
If nitrogen-fixing bacteria are present, they turn the ammonium into nitrates. If they aren't present or are present in small numbers, most of the nitrogen stays in ammonium form.
Both ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen are readily available to plants.
Different Plants prefer different forms of nitrogen. Most trees and perennial plants prefer ammonium. Most Annuals, herbs, and vegetables prefer nitrates.
Cannabis is an ANNUAL herbaceous plant, meaning it has no persistent woody stem and completes its life cycle in only a single growing season under normal conditions. (Most of us know this)
Bacterially dominated soils produce lots of nitrates. Fungally dominated soils produce lots of ammonium.
There are two main ways to alter the dominance of the soils.
1. Teas: We could produce bacterially dominated compost teas, Fungally dominated teas, or balanced teas.
2. Mulch: Brown, undisturbed, carbon-rich mulches (straw, dead leaves) are favored by fungi while green, shredded, nitrogen-rich mulches (yard clippings, shredded green leaves) are favored by bacteria.
Conclusion:
As organic Cannabis growers, we should be focusing on producing bacterially dominated teas and using green mulches that would produce the nitrates our plant prefers, instead of focusing on complex super teas with all sorts of nutrient inputs. A simple tea made from vermicompost (bacterially dominated by nature) and a simple sugar (cane sugar, maple syrup), then properly aerated and given to a properly amended soil mulched with a "green" substance would provide all that is needed for bacteria to dominate and our plant to thrive. If you wanna add mycorrhizal fungi, breed them in a simple tea of compost containing these spores, throw in some rock dust and/or baby oatmeal for the fungi to feed on and attach to, and aerate and apply. Again these can be altered to be balanced by adding both to a tea, or mulching with Browns and greens. Too much focus is put on the extra tea ingredients instead of the proper outcome, imho. I'm not saying simple sugars and oatmeal are the ONLY ingredients we should use ever, because there are plenty of simple microbe foods for them to feed on (a littlebresearch on your part needed here), but let's focus on these simple to digest foods that our microbes can easily multiply on, rather than extra inputs our plants CAN use but will take longer to break down. This is especially true if you are only brewing 24/48 hours. It won't hurt any I suppose, but these things can be added to the soil mix with the same results and without any loss when straining. Think about it, will the microbes even be focused on complex foods that they need to release enzymes to break down complex chemical bonds for (ie. Blood meal, phosphorus compounds, bone meal), or will they focus on the simple foods they can readily digest such as baby oatmeal or maple syrup? The point of our tea making, again, is to breed a large number of microbes in a short time that we can inoculate our soils with so they can break down our are soil amendments and feed our plants. If you're a commercial grower and you want to do all these complex teas, then by all means. However, for a beginner or hobbyist that can get overwhelmed by the thousands of recipes out there, I think keeping it simple, focusing on the true purpose of the tea brewing process as well as the preferences of the plant, is the way to go.
Thoughts?
*Disclaimer: I'm saying bacterially DOMINATED, not fully bacterial. Fungi are just as important to the soil food web, especially mycorrhizal fungi, and should be maintained and allowed to grow as well. Something like 2-3 bac-dom tea applications for every one fung-dom tea application is my method.
**Disclaimer: I am also not saying that adding extra nutrient inputs to the teas are bad or wrong, just overkill. Teas are meant to breed microbes. If your soil is properly amended and you recycle the waste from the plants back onto the soil surface as mulch, there would be no need to add complex things to your teas. Add these ingredients to the soil instead and inoculate properly with the right tea; the rest will take care of itself.
Sources:
Teaming With Microbes
By Wayne Lewis and Jeff Lowenfels
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