First Time Organics

I've been doing hydroponics but am experimenting with three other completely organic soil plants. I got the root-bound plants from a friend when they were six to eight inches. I transplanted them into organic soil which had sphagnum peat moss, coco fiber, perlite, worm castings, diatomite, lots of fungi strains, and organic fertilizer. I've since just added water and they have loved it. Now they're big and need to flower so I'd like to make a tea.

I have an aerated five gallon bucket, Organic Indonesian Bat Guano (0.5-12-0.2), General Organic's BioWeed, Hygrozyme, and Ful-Power fulvic acid and Organic unsulfured molasses.

Each of the three plants holds 3/4 of a gallon or so before it makes a mess. Ideally I'd like three gallons that I can feed most of and use as a foliar spray (maybe even spray on my hydroponic plants?)

I don't know if Hygrozyme or Fulvic acid should be added to the tea or if I should add right before I feed.
I found a lot of confusing recipes online to make concentrated teas but I only need three gallons. Ideally I'd like to not have to dilute the tea before use. I've found conflicting ranges for bat guano from 1 tbs/gal to 1/3 cup/gal. Some recipes call for a lot of molasses but a few say to use very sparingly.
BioWeed instructions read 1/2 ts to 1 ts per gallon for every watering but should I add more for tea?

Any ideas?

http://www.youtube.com/user/OrganicTexas#p/search/3/bGISMHOCuhU

This is a long great link on compost tea. I got it from someone here sorry not to give credit can't remember who. I'm not familiar with the premixed stuff but any manure is great, meaning any decayed natural stuff. I always have add little worm castings. I go for a dilute mix myself. I shot for about 1 cup of stuff gallon of mix, tablespoon of molasses. To foliar feed I dilute 1 cup -1gallon and water with it full strength. You can always add more to the next mix.

You really need to dilute for foliar feeding, leaves can be burned very easily. Less is best when you foliar feed and you can always build up but once over done, it isn't a pretty sight. But you are on the right track, as to spraying those plants in hydro - you certainly can.

Snew you have a great organic thing going on, man. Thanks for spreading the word so freely

Requiem, I hope you find the organic smoke excellent and abandon the chemicals

Rrog said:

Snew you have a great organic thing going on, man. Thanks for spreading the word so freely

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Thanks Rrog. I try to share what I find.

Rrog said:

Snew you have a great organic thing going on, man. Thanks for spreading the word so freely

Requiem, I hope you find the organic smoke excellent and abandon the chemicals

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So far I like both, but my hydroponics veg in a month and a week or two while soil takes two months plus. I can outpace all the soil growers I know, but they grow soil with chemicals. Hygrozyme is good for chemical setups that can't incorporate the natural biotic balance.

snew said:

http://www.youtube.com/user/OrganicTexas#p/search/3/bGISMHOCuhU

This is a long great link on compost tea. I got it from someone here sorry not to give credit can't remember who. I'm not familiar with the premixed stuff but any manure is great, meaning any decayed natural stuff. I always have add little worm castings. I go for a dilute mix myself. I shot for about 1 cup of stuff gallon of mix, tablespoon of molasses. To foliar feed I dilute 1 cup -1gallon and water with it full strength. You can always add more to the next mix.

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Nice videos. I finished the second and will start the others tonight.

Anyhow, I made tea a day and a half ago. I tried to make it a light brew. Three heaping teaspoons of guano/kelp/molasses per 2.5-3 gallons. I don't have much foam but it smells good/earthy. Think it's good?

djrequiem said:

So far I like both, but my hydroponics veg in a month and a week or two while soil takes two months plus. I can outpace all the soil growers I know, but they grow soil with chemicals. Hygrozyme is good for chemical setups that can't incorporate the natural biotic balance.



Nice videos. I finished the second and will start the others tonight.

Anyhow, I made tea a day and a half ago. I tried to make it a light brew. Three heaping teaspoons of guano/kelp/molasses per 2.5-3 gallons. I don't have much foam but it smells good/earthy. Think it's good?

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I think the tea will benefit anyone, organic or not. The beneficial bacterial are always good, I always use them following any treatment.
What I've gathered from vegetable, lawn farm based tea use is that even:
· in the soil they dilute, not just foliar spray. If increasing beney is what is desired then stronger is not needed
· they don't seem to use a lot of sugars molasses, 1-2 tbsp in 5 gallons, shorter brewing times do not require it
· most importantly they brew short times 18-36 hours, this is the peak beneficial activity.

There's a wealth on organic farming by those guys. MJ like all plants has its unique needs,but the similarities are numerous. Glad you enjoyed it.

I'd like to see how a real soil grow (compared to a medium with organic ferts) compares to chem hydro. Speed-wise, that is. I would think that a plant grown in a no-till environment (with the Endo-M Fungus already networked and active) would give chem hydro a good run for the money

Rrog said:

I'd like to see how a real soil grow (compared to a medium with organic ferts) compares to chem hydro. Speed-wise, that is. I would think that a plant grown in a no-till environment (with the Endo-M Fungus already networked and active) would give chem hydro a good run for the money

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I've wondered this myself. I have four strains, Blueberry, Sour Diesel, Afgoo, and Chocolate Kush x Cherry Kush cross. I've grown Blueberry only hydroponically and they exploded. My plant count is six legal, so I stay within that. I feel I maximize production hydroponically because I can quickly outgrow my friends in soil. However, I do have three organic soil based plants too. I bought everything organic with the big OMRI logo on the back. So now I have a bunch of clones in rockwool that could go either way and I'm not even half through my organic supplies. I'm thinking about growing a few side by side, straight hydroponic and organic soil supplemented with only with fresh teas. Blueberry and Sour Diesel produce much more than Kush (low yield) and Afgoo (slow). Maybe I'll have the Blueberry and Sour Diesel go head to head. Also, I wonder if the Blueberry would have a cleaner taste organically?

Well, you'll not have to flush out chem ferts when you harvest. That's a clue. I was deliriously happy with my first non-chem grow. Part of the slowdown with some soils is that they're all virgin soil. No network of fungi established yet etc. So the plant starts out with no assist.

If the soil is left undisturbed after the first plant is harvested, there is a dynamic network of fungi and bacteria in place ready to plug in to the new seedling or clone. Big difference.

Also, virgin soil does not have a bunch of nutrients stored and ready for use. Takes time to build up the pantry. Mature soil is distinctly different than virgin soil.

great start! I love guano, and was fortunate to come into a lot of wonderful compost from some of my raw foodist friends. great work everyone!

you have local compost? That's fabulous. Add EWC and your guano and no more bottled ferts.

It's been two light cycles since I fed them. They all look nice and I even noticed some nice new flower growth on the sprayed hydroponic plants. I thoroughly fed my soil plants which I let get a little dry, sprayed them all at half strength and got no burn. They look like the leaves puffed up a little bit, but maybe they just wanted water.

Could be. I used BlueMats this round for watering. Kept the soil continuously moist, not wet. Top inch or so was dry. I never watered once by hand. My point being that they do well continuously moist, and maybe avoid dry soil conditions

the only bottles stuff ive been using is just organic cold pressed kelp, alaska fish fertilizer, and in bloom i add earth juice rainbow mix granules.. should i start cutting the "over the counter" products out?

I would, yes. If the soil is initially amended properly, the soil can be used over and over with a simple addition of some compost and EWC on top. A bit of tea now and again, some molasses. The compost and EWC have most of what is needed. Again, the key is to start with that properly amended soil.

Personally, I still buy materials for the soil. Rock powder, guano. Also Crab Meal, Neem Meal and DE for soil pests. I had zero pests this run. Just perfect. Best harvest I ever had. I would encourage you to not use the bottled stuff, as you're just about there already and you have that fantastic local compost, which is just like gold.

Is there anything a plant might miss from kelp and guano that would ever halt/slow flower development?

These items can still be added as top dressing