Tea Brewing Kit Start-Up: Suggestions On Where to Start

anzohaze said:

Pat if you dont mind would y Po u ioad those pics jisy so I can be sure I do it correctly. I have a bigger pump but more air is better.

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Yessir!

In the first photo you can see where I took the brass nipple off (in the picture) and used a hacksaw to make some lines. I find if you don't make the lines the hose tends to slide off in the next photo.



The second photo is where I used a clamp to hook 1/2" tubing right onto the pump. Then I have 1/2" tubing going into an airlift.



Hope that helps!
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Just started brewin' my first tea....2 gallons H20...I tossed in two handfuls of plant compost...A handful of worm castings, and 1 tsp each of : molasses, alfalfa, and kelp meal. I'm going to give this to a plant that just went into 12-12 tonight. Hopefully I didn't screw anything up.

After the brew is done I will clean the stones and lines with hydrogen peroxide and water...Anyone know what ratio that you should mix the two ?

Pattahabi said:

Yessir!

In the first photo you can see where I took the brass nipple off (in the picture) and used a hacksaw to make some lines. I find if you don't make the lines the hose tends to slide off in the next photo.

View attachment 3255316

The second photo is where I used a clamp to hook 1/2" tubing right onto the pump. Then I have 1/2" tubing going into an airlift.

View attachment 3255317

Hope that helps!
P-

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Perfect thank you sir did you drill out the threads on pump for more volume...it eill prob help a.little.with rhe pump getting warm... thanks brother

SpaaaceCowboy said:

Just started brewin' my first tea....2 gallons H20...I tossed in two handfuls of plant compost...A handful of worm castings, and 1 tsp each of : molasses, alfalfa, and kelp meal. I'm going to give this to a plant that just went into 12-12 tonight. Hopefully I didn't screw anything up.

After the brew is done I will clean the stones and lines with hydrogen peroxide and water...Anyone know what ratio that you should mix the two ?

View attachment 3255403 View attachment 3255404

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I would up the molasses to 2 tbsp next time and use about 1 cup of worm castings in a 2 gallon brew.

anzohaze said:

Perfect thank you sir did you drill out the threads on pump for more volume...it eill prob help a.little.with rhe pump getting warm... thanks brother

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I did not drill out the threads! I suppose it could help though?

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Pattahabi said:

I did not drill out the threads! I suppose it could help though?

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Ill try it not sure how to really test it whether it made a difference

DonPetro said:

I would up the molasses to 2 tbsp next time and use about 1 cup of worm castings in a 2 gallon brew.

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I don't know man, I kinda disagree, especially early in the flowering, I don't like too much molasses at first, you run the risk of potassium lockout, and issues with nitrogen uptake, for a 2-gallon brew, i'd use less molasses, for a microbe tea, anyways. Remember that with alfalfa ya gotta brew extra time, this is all according to Tim the microbe guy, and he's got the facts to back it up.
Not to mention isn't 2 cups of EWC more than the recommended 2.38% of the ratio to the water?
Don't take offence, DonPetro, I know you know your stuff. Just sayin... and I LOVE molasses, but I've found a tbs per gallon causes lockout if fed regularly (once a week or so)
From my understanding in a microbe tea you don't need very much molasses. Please anybody correct me if i'm wrong.

@greasemonkeymann stick with MicrobeMan's recipe. 2.38% EWC and .5% molasses. With that said, Donpedro's 1c and 2 tbsp is pretty close in my calculations. I'm coming up with the following on a two gallon batch. Please correct me if my math is off.

2.38% x 2 gallons or (32 cups) = .7616c EWC
.05% x 2 gallons or (256oz) = 1.28oz of molasses

Peace!
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I use 2 heaping cups of ewc and about 3 tbsp for 5 gallons so its about tge same

Yea its a little less than a cup but not enough to hurt anything. And the molasses is actually still on the light side.
2×.5%=.01
.01 liquid US gallon = 2.56 US tablespoon.
As far as i know, the molasses, when used accordingly, acts only as foodstock for the microbes present in the brew. Any residual molasses would then further be consumed by the extrapolated microbes present in the growing medium. Therefore, having very little direct affect on the plant itself. At least thats how i understand it. Now, if you were doing straight water and molasses that would be a different story. Peace!!!

DonPetro said:

Yea its a little less than a cup but not enough to hurt anything. And the molasses is actually still on the light side.
2×.5%=.01
.01 liquid US gallon = 2.56 US tablespoon.
As far as i know, the molasses, when used accordingly, acts only as foodstock for the microbes present in the brew. Any residual molasses would then further be consumed by the extrapolated microbes present in the growing medium. Therefore, having very little direct affect on the plant itself. At least thats how i understand it. Now, if you were doing straight water and molasses that would be a different story. Peace!!!

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I stand corrected, for some reason my math was off, my bad.

DonPetro said:

Yea its a little less than a cup but not enough to hurt anything. And the molasses is actually still on the light side.
2×.5%=.01
.01 liquid US gallon = 2.56 US tablespoon.
As far as i know, the molasses, when used accordingly, acts only as foodstock for the microbes present in the brew. Any residual molasses would then further be consumed by the extrapolated microbes present in the growing medium. Therefore, having very little direct affect on the plant itself. At least thats how i understand it. Now, if you were doing straight water and molasses that would be a different story. Peace!!!

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DonP, I think we are saying pretty much the same thing. I'm coming up with this, but please correct me if I'm doing something stupid with my math here.

1.28us fl oz = 2.5236metric tblsp

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Pattahabi said:

DonP, I think we are saying pretty much the same thing. I'm coming up with this, but please correct me if I'm doing something stupid with my math here.

1.28us fl oz = 2.5236metric tblsp

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You're bang on, my friend.

hey guys now I understand that you can brew a nutrient tea to feed your plant, or a tea to feed and breed the microbes...

It's probably a dumb and obvious question but are the EWC for the nutrient or microbe tea ?

I want to brew a microbe tea next for my plant that is about 5 weeks into 12-12....I was going to use compost and molasses....But was wondering if compost, EWC, and molasses would be better ?

thanks, SC

You can use both compost and wc but still go for 2.38% volume combined. Just know that WC are the superior choice here.

SpaaaceCowboy said:

hey guys now I understand that you can brew a nutrient tea to feed your plant, or a tea to feed and breed the microbes...

It's probably a dumb and obvious question but are the EWC for the nutrient or microbe tea ?

I want to brew a microbe tea next for my plant that is about 5 weeks into 12-12....I was going to use compost and molasses....But was wondering if compost, EWC, and molasses would be better ?

thanks, SC

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you can use a worm casting tea strictly for it's nutrients, almost a waste though, as it's not HUGELY nutrient, (I think it's less than 1/.5/.5, or something like that) it does work well for a light feeding for freshly rooted clones, but you'll get more "bang" for your buck if you use the EWC for the microbe teas, as a nutrient you'd be better off with a different food, a watered down fish emulsion tea works well (but stinky and NOT recommended for outdoor plants, unless you like raccoon/possum/fox/cat/or dogs to dig up your soil....don't ask me how I know.
Worm castings are great, one of my "can't grow without" ingredients, I mean yeah I COULD grow without it, but not the same quality.
Worm castings also work really nice for a top dressing, not exclusively, but with some guano/manure/fish meal mixed in with it, does a good job keeping the topsoil moist also, makes the roots all hairy, peat moss does the same, only with little to no nutrients value, but EWC mixed with a lil bit of bat guano or rabbit manure works REALLY well for plants getting ready to flower or already are flowering, its a nice nitrogen fix for when they usually are running low, depending on the soil mix of course.
sorry for the long-winded answer to your question.

SpaaaceCowboy said:

hey guys now I understand that you can brew a nutrient tea to feed your plant, or a tea to feed and breed the microbes...

It's probably a dumb and obvious question but are the EWC for the nutrient or microbe tea ?

I want to brew a microbe tea next for my plant that is about 5 weeks into 12-12....I was going to use compost and molasses....But was wondering if compost, EWC, and molasses would be better ?

thanks, SC

Click to expand...

Space, DonP nailed this. The EWC and compost actually contain the initial microbes you are going to breed. So basically, if microbes are not in your initial inputs, they will not be in the final product. The molasses is the foodstock to feed the microbes. Thats why all that is really needed is ewc, molasses, water, and air.

So as Don said, compost will work, but you are going to get significantly more bang for your buck with some high quality fresh castings because you are going to start with way more microbes that will grow exponentially. Dried out bagged crap from the hydrostore is not what you want.

Peace!
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This baby came in the mail today.