I'm right in the city and just can't bring my self to pull any of the dandelions. I'm in the Midwest and people here laugh at the term organic. Every yard is sprayed with "Scott's this" and "Scott's that". Just don't trust it.. If I still lived out in the country I'd have been using them years ago. The store had the roots and I knew I should've gotten them. I'll get them next time, they also have comfrey root, I bet that'd be good.
Let me ask you Grease, do you think these teas are only necessary in the beginning when starting your mix? I ask because I never see much about these awesome plants. I love my alfalfa/kelp and would like to keep things simple. Maybe I should throw these in my (future) worm bin. My compost would be golden! If I were to do a mix it'd go something like this:
1 cup/cuft kelp
1 cup/cuft neem
1 cup/cuft comfrey
1/2 cup stinging nettles
1/2 cup golden yarrow
1/4? Cup dandelion
Whatcha think?
to be honest I have messed with all these in the past, but found them to be probably not needed, granted I have dialed in my compost to have essentially everything you could want in it.
I still use comfrey, haven't used anymore dandelion since I made my bucket full of them and water, BUT I still have some leftover (it goes a long ass way)
I don't really do teas as much as I used to, I do a AACT only if I feel I need to (if it gets too dry or something).
I do however like SSTs, and I like an aloe and silica "tea" but it's just aloe gel and protekt
All those dynamic accumulators in your compost certainly couldn't hurt a damn thing.
Whether or not it'd net you any discernible difference at the end is hard to say.
For many,
many years i have been tryint ot do alllllll the little tiny things to optimize my herb, and growing techniques. For the last 3-4 yrs I've been seeing what I can SUBTRACT to get the same results...
I just don't have the time needed to do all the nuances that I used to, but damnit my herb keeps getting better and better... so I do the LEAST amount needed to achieve optimal results.