Compost tea, pros needed!

Hey guys. New to the forum, somewhat new to organic growing. Have friends that have been doing it for years that produce absolutely amazing end results.

Basically 2 weeks ago i bought some ready-to-flower clones from a buddy. They are doing GREAT! They are in Subcools super soil recipe, but....they could be doing better. Me and him flowered ours at the same time. His appear to be a bit ahead of mine. We both lolipopped at the same time aswell. His buds are much larger. The only thing separating our set-ups is that, he uses a 600w for 5, i use a 1000w for 8. He is also brewing a tea and using it once a week.

The reason i cannot get his recipe is because things cannot be discussed over the phone and he lives far far away! So I am in need of some professional help!

Anyways, its tea time. I really need to make a base tea. The more i read the harder it is for me to decide how and what the right tea is for me. I understand everyone has their own recipe, but there has to be a base recipe, a guideline which amateurs can use as a reference to start and build their very own! Maybe a list of priority, such as beginning with essentials, and additives down the line like root boosters and others.

This is what i've gathered so far, as i have read MOST of the tea sticky thread by milignant. I am also looking for a tea that i can benefit from in Veg and Flower, so that when i brew, im only brewing 1 tea for both rooms.

Essentials being: (from what i understand)
1. Earth Worm castings
2. bat guano high phosphorous
3. Kelp extract
4.molasses

(my friend uses Roots Exel in his aswell from day 1 of veg to last day of flower)

My first question is, could i make this tea using ONLY Liquid forms of these ingredients such as Budswell liquid to get my High phosphorous bat guano and earth worm castings? Found here: http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/budswel-liquid-bat-guano-high-phosphorous-1-gallon-p-2095.html . Or am i better off using solids inside a "pantyhose" , as well as using the liquid form of kelp extract.

Also i am absolutely open to any other suggestions to add to this tea!!! I am very desperate. I have my air stone and pump on the way, so i need to know what to order next.

Thanks in advance for any information you guys can provide, as i am sure there are many others that are or will be in this very situation.

I would suggest starting like I did. Real simple tea and the one I always start with before I go making an organic nutrients tea(like with bat guano or alfalfa and kelp). First off, no bottle nutes, whatsoever go in my teas, anymore. 5 gallon bucket, 4 gallons ro or declorinated tap water. 1 ecoplus commercial airpump and about 5 airstones. 2-3cups earthworm castings. And 4 tablespoons blackstrap mollases. Brew for 24 hours.

Banana444 said:

I would suggest starting like I did. Real simple tea and the one I always start with before I go making an organic nutrients tea(like with bat guano or alfalfa and kelp). First off, no bottle nutes, whatsoever go in my teas, anymore. 5 gallon bucket, 4 gallons ro or declorinated tap water. 1 ecoplus commercial airpump and about 5 airstones. 2-3cups earthworm castings. And 4 tablespoons blackstrap mollases. Brew for 24 hours.

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Awesome man, thats where i will start. Although... i ordered my pump a few days not knowing how big of one i needed, ended up getting the EcoPlus air regular 2 valve. But my brother is huge into Fish tanks so ill just give it to him for an early christmas present if it is not sufficient enough. Ecoplus Commercial Air 1 2.9 psi 38 Liter/minute with a 4 port valve is the one i should get i assume?

Banana444 said:

I would suggest starting like I did. Real simple tea and the one I always start with before I go making an organic nutrients tea(like with bat guano or alfalfa and kelp). First off, no bottle nutes, whatsoever go in my teas, anymore. 5 gallon bucket, 4 gallons ro or declorinated tap water. 1 ecoplus commercial airpump and about 5 airstones. 2-3cups earthworm castings. And 4 tablespoons blackstrap mollases. Brew for 24 hours.

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I echo this, it's very good info.

ky le said:

Awesome man, thats where i will start. Although... i ordered my pump a few days not knowing how big of one i needed, ended up getting the EcoPlus air regular 2 valve. But my brother is huge into Fish tanks so ill just give it to him for an early christmas present if it is not sufficient enough. Ecoplus Commercial Air 1 2.9 psi 38 Liter/minute with a 4 port valve is the one i should get i assume?

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That pump is a good one, take the brass fitting off and attach a hose to it, the brass fitting constricts airflow,
OK, and one thing to consider, if you are using a heavily amended organic soil (like subs super) then more often than not, you won't need to add much food, if I were you, i'd do a simple AACT tea, and wait about a week afterwards and you'll probably see a difference.
I would be hesitant to feed them, just yet. Two weeks isn't NEARLY enough time for the plants to devour the soil's nutes. In fact many growers don't feed at all using that heavily of amended soil.
Also if you can get your brothers aquarium waste water, that stuff is great stuff, it was my secret ingredient for many many years, good ole dirty fish poo and water.
remember to view teas as two diff types, an AACT (consisting ONLY of BSM, EWC, and water) nutrient teas you can brew guanos and the like.
A really good nutrient tea is alfalfa meal, kelp meal, and rabbit manure. Or my new fav is comfrey, dandelion and kelp meal.
But again, DON"T feed them yet, you'll be asking for trouble, you may never have to feed them...

oh, and some say that kelp meal is a superior product than a liquid kelp, or the soluble one, but I don't have the knowledge to tell you for sure

greasemonkeymann said:

I echo this, it's very good info.

That pump is a good one, take the brass fitting off and attach a hose to it, the brass fitting constricts airflow,
OK, and one thing to consider, if you are using a heavily amended organic soil (like subs super) then more often than not, you won't need to add much food, if I were you, i'd do a simple AACT tea, and wait about a week afterwards and you'll probably see a difference.
I would be hesitant to feed them, just yet. Two weeks isn't NEARLY enough time for the plants to devour the soil's nutes. In fact many growers don't feed at all using that heavily of amended soil.
Also if you can get your brothers aquarium waste water, that stuff is great stuff, it was my secret ingredient for many many years, good ole dirty fish poo and water.
remember to view teas as two diff types, an AACT (consisting ONLY of BSM, EWC, and water) nutrient teas you can brew guanos and the like.
A really good nutrient tea is alfalfa meal, kelp meal, and rabbit manure. Or my new fav is comfrey, dandelion and kelp meal.
But again, DON"T feed them yet, you'll be asking for trouble, you may never have to feed them...

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your supposed to feed your soil tea every week for best results with organic soil like subcools in order to maintain a healthy colony of microbes to break down non uptakeable nutes into salts for the plant. AACT usually doesnt have much of a npk value.

MachiavellI420 said:

your supposed to feed your soil tea every week for best results with organic soil like subcools in order to maintain a healthy colony of microbes to break down non uptakeable nutes into salts for the plant. AACT usually doesnt have much of a npk value.

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According to?

I guess it really depends on what you started with in your soil, and the cec of said soil. I typically don't "feed" anything. Just water and the occasional tea

MachiavellI420 said:

your supposed to feed your soil tea every week for best results with organic soil like subcools in order to maintain a healthy colony of microbes to break down non uptakeable nutes into salts for the plant. AACT usually doesnt have much of a npk value.

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Of course the AACT is mostly devoid of much nutrients, maybe a lil potassium from the molasses, but not much.
I don't feed my soil AACT every week though, it wouldn't hurt, but i'm fairly certain the microbe numbers are pretty high, I use tons of compost and EWC, inoculated bio-char, etc, etc.
Can't see the microbes dying off, the soil has plenty of food for them

greasemonkeymann said:

Of course the AACT is mostly devoid of much nutrients, maybe a lil potassium from the molasses, but not much.
I don't feed my soil AACT every week though, it wouldn't hurt, but i'm fairly certain the microbe numbers are pretty high, I use tons of compost and EWC, inoculated bio-char, etc, etc.
Can't see the microbes dying off, the soil has plenty of food for them

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yea your right, im not worried about my microbes dying off as much as washing them away in my runoff between teas. and like you said it cant hurt, and tea is dirt cheap to make so i do it mainly to give the colony a boost nothing more. no your microbes will not die off in a supersoil mix, unless you fuck up bad.

st0wandgrow said:

According to?

I guess it really depends on what you started with in your soil, and the cec of said soil. I typically don't "feed" anything. Just water and the occasional tea

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according to subcool the guy who built the soil. the OP uses "subcools Supersoil" mix. i know every amendment put in the soil as ive been using it for 3 years now. and as i stated above you feed your "SOIL" as in the living colony of microbes in the soil. not the plant. the microbes feed the plant. (its nothing like synthetics when you're force feeding nutes) the plant takes what it needs as needed via salts excreted by the microbes.

MachiavellI420 said:

according to subcool the guy who built the soil. the OP uses "subcools Supersoil" mix. i know every amendment put in the soil as ive been using it for 3 years now. and as i stated above you feed your "SOIL" as in the living colony of microbes in the soil. not the plant. the microbes feed the plant. (its nothing like synthetics when you're force feeding nutes) the plant takes what it needs as needed via salts excreted by the microbes.

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Well, thanks for the schoolin', but I'm aware of how the soil food web works. Not to sound arrogant, but I probably have a better grasp on it than ole subby does.

My point stands. If you add enough organic inputs to the soil when you build it, the microbes will not run out of food. I plunk another plant right back in to the same container after harvest, with not much more added in terms of "food", and the plants do even better the 2'nd, 3'rd, 4'th time around.

It's complete nonsense saying that you need to "feed" every week.

st0wandgrow said:

Well, thanks for the schoolin', but I'm aware of how the soil food web works. Not to sound arrogant, but I probably have a better grasp on it than ole subby does.

My point stands. If you add enough organic inputs to the soil when you build it, the microbes will not run out of food. I plunk another plant right back in to the same container after harvest, with not much more added in terms of "food", and the plants do even better the 2'nd, 3'rd, 4'th time around.

It's complete nonsense saying that you need to "feed" every week.

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ill say it a million time you feed the soil not the plant and you can never overfeed the microbes in the soil.

MachiavellI420 said:

ill say it a million time you feed the soil not the plant and you can never overfeed the microbes in the soil.

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Can you please point to where I've said you feed the plant??? I haven't.

It may be true that you can't over feed microbes, but why continue to dump shit in there if it's not needed? If you're taking your cues from subcool, that's cool, but IMO he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to living organic soil. I've seen a weed nerd video where he points to mycelium on the soil surface and says "look, the soil food web".

claiming you know more about a soil than someone else who has mastered is ignorant. like i said above it can't hurt so why now etablish a better colony in your soil by ohh i dont know "feeding them".

MachiavellI420 said:

according to subcool the guy who built the soil. the OP uses "subcools Supersoil" mix. i know every amendment put in the soil as ive been using it for 3 years now. and as i stated above you feed your "SOIL" as in the living colony of microbes in the soil. not the plant. the microbes feed the plant. (its nothing like synthetics when you're force feeding nutes) the plant takes what it needs as needed via salts excreted by the microbes.

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Personally i'm not a fan of subs super soil,
I use a 33% ewc/compost
33% aeration (biochar, pumic, oyster shells, lava rock)
33% peat/coco mix
then my amendments, kelp meal, oyster shell meal, neem meal, crab meal, pulverized insects (haven't seen results yet, new experiment)
I do not use anything bovine-related. nor do I use any "hot" manures
depending on supplies I love alpaca manures, and rabbit manures, recently I have tried getting away from them to see if it influences the end product.
Of course minerals too, I re-use my soil so I like slow materials like greensand.. I also like rock phosphates, oyster meal, azomite, basalt, etc

MachiavellI420 said:

claiming you know more about a soil than someone else who has mastered is ignorant. like i said above it can't hurt so why now etablish a better colony in your soil by ohh i dont know "feeding them".

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Well, i'll be Switzerland here, I've been on this site for a while, and I can personally attest to Stow's knowledge, and he is indeed very competent when it comes to the subject of organics.
I would however disagree with you on the fact that sub is a "master" of growing organically.
I also want to add one piece of information, feeding often with an AACT may have some side effect, I haven't seen this happen with AACTs but in theory it is a concern of mine, and that's too much molasses can cause certain lock-out issues with nutrients...
So perhaps too much AACTs could in fact harm the soil after all?

MachiavellI420 said:

claiming you know more about a soil than someone else who has mastered is ignorant. like i said above it can't hurt so why now etablish a better colony in your soil by ohh i dont know "feeding them".

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Subcool has mastered it eh? I think he's mastered the art of bullshitting people like you. That and marketing.

I'm not saying that his soil isn't any good, but he is no savant when it comes to organics. There are multiple folks in this section alone here at RIU that have a far better knowledge of organics, botany, and soil microbiology than subcool.

Continue to worship the cat if you wish....

MachiavellI420 said:

claiming you know more about a soil than someone else who has mastered is ignorant. like i said above it can't hurt so why now etablish a better colony in your soil by ohh i dont know "feeding them".

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And BTW, subcool did not come up with that soil recipe. He borrowed (stole) it from someone else, and now claims it as his own. Do a little research on that and then tell me he's a master.

greasemonkeymann said:

Well, i'll be Switzerland here, I've been on this site for a while, and I can personally attest to Stow's knowledge, and he is indeed very competent when it comes to the subject of organics.
I would however disagree with you on the fact that sub is a "master" of growing organically.
I also want to add one piece of information, feeding often with an AACT may have some side effect, I haven't seen this happen with AACTs but in theory it is a concern of mine, and that's too much molasses can cause certain lock-out issues with nutrients...
So perhaps too much AACTs could in fact harm the soil after all?

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ive never had that

st0wandgrow said:

And BTW, subcool did not come up with that soil recipe. He borrowed (stole) it from someone else, and now claims it as his own. Do a little research on that and then tell me he's a master.

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touchy on the subject are we? your very egotistical, and whatever works for me is what im gonna do. Get over it

st0wandgrow said:

Subcool has mastered it eh? I think he's mastered the art of bullshitting people like you. That and marketing.

I'm not saying that his soil isn't any good, but he is no savant when it comes to organics. There are multiple folks in this section alone here at RIU that have a far better knowledge of organics, botany, and soil microbiology than subcool.

Continue to worship the cat if you wish....

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You bash me because i say "subcool" supersoil. Save your comments for someone who gives a fuck. I wasnt talking to you in the first place.