When, and how often do you use AACT?

Hey nerds,

So I'm relatively new to organics and using supersoil, but I love the idea of the benefits it offers, that being, the cleanest, tastiest smoke, and a just add water simplicity. My question though, is how often should I use AACT, and is it a good alternative to use if the supersoil runs out of gas late in flowering?

Just applied my firs aact. Useibg SS in 5 gal pots and i noticed they need more gas around 20 days int flower. 6 cups ewc 4 cups supersoil. A tbsp of humic acid and 2 of azomite. Still waitin on results b

I've also noticed an early fade on certain strains. I think this has to do with the as ratio though. Any help on the frequencies of teas?

no help yet, but if we keep chatting someone who actually knows is gonna come help us. Like I said, it was my first ever application. I also applied it to all my stewing supersoil to boost microbe numbers.

I'll chime in. Compost tea brewed without any guano or other NPK sources aren't going to provide your plants NPK unless there iis still juice in your soil for the beneficials to make available to the plants.

If you need a nutrient boost, I'd recommend top dressing with some guano (or super soil) THEN watering it in with an AACT.

Really though, if you are already fading just a few weeks into bloom, you probably need something faster acting like some
Earth Juice. Bubble the Earth Juice for about 24 hours and you've got a frothy, living treat for your plants.

Thanks for the response spicy. I use bat guano, ewc, and seabird guano, along with molasses, seaweed extract, and go floralicious plus for my humic acid. Would this provide enough nutritional supplementation as a "feeding" for my supersoil? My initial idea was to feed, water, water, feed, water, water, etc. my impression was the idea of supersoil was to take the science out of the feedings by simply adding water. What ami missing? Please help me find the light.

sampras

The nutes you are citing are appropriate for your plants fading in super soil. Assuming you made the super soil according to instructions, just use more of it next time for the strains that are heavy feeders. Two weeks is kind of an early fade, but they all feed differently. I would top dress the guano for slower release.

I use compost teas aka aact once every 2 weeks. Top dress with nutes when needed. If you have deficincies then is when you want guano teas. The roots can uptake nutes instantly then. other than that mixing nutes in soil yields better results over all tyan nutes in a tea.

I use supersoil also along with aact teas. Some strains like more SS than others. I actually noticed much better yeald on my Powerplant (which is a heavy producer) with less SS. I only use like 2 inches of SS for this strain and others like almost half full of SS.

Truthfully...since I started useing teas I use way less SS. Lots of times none on new strains to me.

As for when to use the teas I always wait till the flowers have quarter size heads before useinf the tea. Go by the metabolism of the plant. I sometimes use tea twice during flower and sometimes only once. Watering with guanos and mollasas as well in between. I also like to use Carborator starting after 3-4 weeks. This really boosts the pistol growth and makes lots of trichromes. Try the Carborator at 1/2 teaspoon per gallon along with 2 tablespoons molasses around week 5 and 6. I dont go for snake oils that the hydro stores sell but the carborator works great and is organic and 1 bottle lasts months and is still almost full still.

So to address your question about how aften to make a tea....once mabey twice durring flower. I run a perpetual room so I have 2 plants comming down every couple weeks and new plants in flower every couple weeks also so I am makeing the teas pretty often and when one of the older girls look like they need a boost I give her a shot while I am feeding the younger ones then I let her have it.

My tea is made like this.

6 gallons water
1 cup fresh worm castings (directly from the worm farm...not some dried up crap at the hydro store for 25 bucks a bag!)
1 shot glass of molasses
2 shot glasses of Earthjuice Catalist
some jurrasic acid (humic/fulvic acid)

I use a aquarium heater to heat the water to between 72-78 degrees and bubble violently with a high powered air pump and big air stone for 24 hours or till there is a big dark foam head.
I use a painters strainer bag for the castings. The 1-2 cups of castings will be one big slimey ball of microbes when the tea is done...I squeeze the strainer bag and get all that wonderful poo goodness. (ruber gloves of course)

Hope this helps some. Im still a noob with only 2.5 years growing but have really come a long way from when I started.

GH

Heres my situation..... I finally got with the program and decided it was time to mix up a batch of SS but when I got to the one and only game in town as far as grow stores they only had a couple bags of ocean forest and these giant bales of happy frog soil conditioner meant to be mixed with what you got going on in your back yard.... So I bought one of those, all of the ocean forest they had and then I hit up a normal gardening store and they had Dr. earth soil which I also purchased. I mixed up a bale of the conditioner and from there I think I put equal parts dr. earth to ocean forest, then mixed in my SS ingredients. Now I dont know what I did wrong or if the soil-less mixes I used werent up to par, they all had myco and the required base ingredients but I got no myco web..... I thought I wet it too much, then I decided I didnt wet it enough...... and so on the shit storm continued.. So I'm just going to mix up a fresh batch in the near future but for now I'm going to run with what I have.

Anyhow I am still following the basic premise of filling half the pot with SS and then using the regular base etc.... so after I sexed I put them into 5 gallon pots and its going on almost 3 weeks and only a couple of my girls were looking right, not great but they looked like they werent lacking anything, maybe a few crunchies resembling a CA def.. but nothing major. The majority of my plants however were looking like they were in need of N amongst other things and they werent "taking off" like they should under a 1000 watt MH and a container full of nutrition... So this is when I figured out I must have done something wrong with the supersoil...... It was then decided that either I had to step up with some bottled nutes or compost teas and I decided on compost teas because I have just had enough of the bottled shit... A bottle of liquid fish fert is about as far into bottled shit as I wanna get now a days.... So a few nights ago I mixed up the first batch of AACT with supersoil and I have to say I am soooooo happy I did as are my plants, I wish I did this sooner but I was worried about over nuting them with it.... I have never seen growth like this over night....seriously some of them grew 2-1/2 - 3" in 24 hours on top of going from that shitty light green to that nice dark green that healthy plants have.. Amazing..... no other word can sum up what I saw from giving them a tea. Just a single application so far has turned this grow around for me, I was really starting to worry about having to dump these ladies and start over or taking cuts and starting from there but on some of them I wouldnt be able to take a clean healthy cut.

Anyhow this is what I used in my tea per gallon of aerated tap water... which was in last months issue of skunk but I changed it a little bit to what you see below

1/2 tsp of high N bat guano (mexican 12-1-1 I think)
1/4 tsp of 0-5-0 guano
1/2 tbs of pure granular grow (by organicare)
1/2 tbs of kelp meal
1/8th tsp soluble seaweed
1 TBS of general organics bio marine
1/2 cup of worm castings
1 TBS of molasses
1/8 tsp (total in the entire 4 gallons of tea, not per gallon) of azomite (in the article it states that using too much azomite can cause a fast build up of salts in the root zone so I think I will stop using it, theres some in the soil so I'm gonna leave it alone....maybe every couple teas use it, which it states that the "rev" (not a fan by the way) uses it every 3rd tea.....

The tea I based mine off of was considered a veg tea which is bacterial dominant, for a flowering tea you will want a fungal dominant tea and there is a difference and if you dont know the difference I suggest learning it. A bacterial tea can be kept brewing for a lot longer than a fungal based, eventually the bacteria will eat up the fungi which isnt a bad thing if thats the kind of tea you want but its defeating the purpose. Theres a lot of information to be had here on RIU as well as with google about compost teas, however there isnt much in the way of using them with supersoil but that will be changing soon as more and more people are using them. It really started my plants going in the right direction in a big way. I was worried about using the pure granular on top of the guanos and bio marine thinking that it was going to give them too much but it worked out and my girls (and boys who are waiting to die) loved it. If you are using SS that was properly made I would suggest starting slow with anything that has a higher NPK rating, other than the guano and soluble seaweed you shouldnt be using things with high NPK ratings. The one thing I would say is to get familiar with the way they smell, if it smells like shit or nasty in any way get rid of it because its no good. Your teas should smell earthy and/or like the molasses. And more molasses isnt always a good thing, 1TBS per gal is about all you need. I will usually add a little more to the mix if I'm going to keep it going for a couple days but maybe a TBS for the entire 4-5 gallons I mix. As far as frequency you can in theory use them at every watering but I would start with every 3rd watering and up the frequency from there, see what works for your setup and strains. Also, these teas can be used as a foliar spray.......

I cant think of anything else at the moment but tonight when my lights come on I will grab that issue of skunk and post the teas as they were listed in the magazine for you guys... But one thing I wanted to mention was how one of the posters above said that teas dont work like chelated nutes, that is incorrect....(not calling you out or anything like that) the truth is actually the exact opposite, it is like chelated nutes and works instantly. I cant imagine ever using bottled shit again....ever.... That was my whole reasoning for getting into supersoil aside from the dankness people grow with it, the idea of just watering and concentrating on what the plants are telling you rather than loading them up with shit... I think the compost teas are just a continuation of that, granted to use which tea at the right time takes some thought and some energy to brew, its very simple and super effective when done right and couldnt be any more organic if you tried......

Great post, thanks for the info whitey!

Here are those tea recipes.....

These are all for 1 gallon of tea and if there is azomite listed in the recipe do NOT use more than 1/8th tsp in your tea, it says up to 10 gallons or you could end up with salt build up. I would suggest not using it if you are running supersoil or soil that you've amended with azomite.

Also, these tea recipes state only reverse osmosis, rain water, or distilled water should be used in teas but I find my aerated tap water works fine without any problems, these teas list CA/MG in the recipes as well and I believe that is to account for the use of non-tap water, again I'd leave the CA/MG out unless you are using RO water or something along those lines OR your plants need cal mag...... More isnt better....

For the 2nd half of flowering/finishing teas its suggested you run these up until about 2 weeks before estimated finishing time, basically like you would with bottled nutes.

It is suggested that everything is put in the brewer and bubbled 6 hours prior to adding the castings or compost.

All purpose simple tea:

1/2 tsp high nitrogen bat or bird guano (9-3-1, 12-8-2 or similar NPK values)
1/2 TBS kelp meal
1/2 TBS all purpose like pure granular by organicare
1 - tsp soluble seaweed or kelp
1/2 TBS molasses
10 drops (wtf ?? I said as well..) of camg+ general organics
1/4 cup of big bloom by fox farms
1/2 TBS liquid fishy fertilizer 5-1-1 for npk values....
1/2 to 1 cup of fresh earth worm castings or compost...


All purpose or veg tea:

1/2 tsp of high N guano (same as above for ratings)
1/2 TBS of kelp meal
1 TBS of all purpose like pure granular by organicare (grow)
1/2 tsp of soluble seaweed or kelp
1/2 tsp of feather meal (says optional on this one)
1 tsp of humes gardening blend (it says optional on this and I cant really find this stuff except for the humes website, it has yucca and a few other things in it but I didnt purchase it)
1/8th tsp of azomite (no more than 1/8tsp per 10 gallons of tea or salt build up can occur......leave it out if theres any kind of question....)
10 drops of ca/mg+ general organics (again, if you arent using reverse osmosis water I'd suggest leaving it out unless your plants need it)
1 TBS of liquid fishy fertilizer 5-1-1
1 TBS of molasses
1/4 cup of big bloom (fox farms)
1/2 to 1 cup of earth worm castings or compost....

First half of flowering tea:

1/2 tsp of high N bat or bird guano, same as the first 2
1/2 TBS of kelp meal
1 TBS of all purpose like pure granular from organicare.. (I may possibly think about mixing the grow and bloom formulations for this one)
1/2 tsp of soluble seaweed or kelp
1 tsp of humes gardening blend (optional)
20 drops of ca/mg+ from general organics (leave it out if you are using tap until you know they need it....)
1/2 tsp liquid fishy fert 5-1-1
1/2 TBS of liquid fishy (gem it states???, I dont know what this is) or general organics bio marine
1 TBS of molasses
1/3rd of a cup of big bloom
1/2 to 1 cup of earth worm castings or compost

second half of flowering/finishing tea

1/2 TBS kelp meal
1 tsp of all purpose like pure granular by organicare (bloom)
1/2 tsp of soluble seaweed or kelp
1/2 tsp of humes gardening blend (optional)
10 drops of ca/mg+ by general organics...
1/2 tsp of liquid fishy (gem ...again I am not familiar with these products other than the GO bio marine which is what I use) or bio marine from general organics...
1 tsp of molasses
1/4 cup of big bloom from fox farms
1/2 to 1 cup of earthworm castings or compost...


As you see above I did not follow these to the letter, compost teas do not need to be exact and you can use what you like or what you have..... I think these tea recipes I listed out are more for those who arent using a nutrient line or like myself, super soil and these teas would be the only form of nutrition the plants would be getting other than an amended base soil, so you may want to start off without the heavier NPK rated products..... I myself feel I needed these things due to my mishaps with the SS and had good luck with it so far. Also, I am not really a fan of the liquid products in my teas and using the GO bio marine was a first for me, but I will be leaving out the other liquids for now aside from molasses obviously.

Also dont think you need all that stuff I listed out, a basic veg tea can consist of 1 cup of castings per gallon and 1 TBS of molasses.....and thats it.... Castings are the base of most compost teas, kelp meal is another one that I would suggest grabbing.... As far as all the other stuff I wouldnt worry about going and blowing a bunch of $ on.... this stuff is meant to be cheap and extremely effective, which it is but it can get insanely expensive just like anything else in this "hobby" ... As far as all purpose pure granular from organicare (grow 6-6-5 +8%ca bloom is 1-5-4 +6%ca) is used and I wanted to try it but I think any kind of organic all purpose fertilizer with similar NPK ratings can be used just fine and I wouldnt worry to much about finding anything with an added % of ca....., Dr. earth, happy frog, espoma and a bunch of others can be gotten fairly cheap (the organicare stuff is actually really cheap as well now that I looked...) and would work fine I'd imagine.


A few DONTS that were listed in the article....

Do not adjust the PH of tea, not necessary and will hurt the micro-life
Once the tea is brewed dont add any liquids except straight water..... * you can dilute these teas quite a bit if needed a gallon of brewed tea can be made into 2 before application but I have been going with 1/3rds myself, 1 gallon of water 2 gallons of brewed tea to stretch it a little when needed....
Dont add mycorrhizal fungus products to your teas because the fungus will die without living plant roots to attach to within 24 hours or so....
Do not use an organic liquid product with an NPK rating higher than 3 (the one listed exception is the maxicrop fish fert thats 5-1-1 )
Do not keep a tea bubbling for more than a week and do not try to store it..... (For flowering or more fungal teas I wouldnt go to much longer than I had to unless you experiment with time frames yourself to see how long before they go bad... bacterial/veg teas are fine for that long but I try to brew and use it as needed rather than hanging onto it.....)

The last one states that you should NOT use city/tap/municipal water for a living soil mix.... however if you are running supersoil or any other organic feeding regiment and have been using aerated tap water you will be fine. My water is around 100ppm and I havent had any issues yet....aside from when I tried to run reverse osmosis..... my plants seemed like they were lacking everything... but the reason for this is the chlorine/chloramine in the water..... Chlorine bubbles off easily in 24 hours, I hear all sorts of horror stories about chloramine but I have not encountered it yet and I live in a fairly large city so..... you know what you have been using and what has been working so dont let that get to you.... if you run into issues then experiment and see what you need to do....

There a tons of tea recipes and I just figured I'd share what I came across recently and had some good luck with, but again I feel these teas are meant to be the only source of nutrition so if you are running super soil or another form of nutrients, start slowly with the guanos and higher NPK rated stuff.....

Heres something that was right in the sticky section of the organics thread.


https://www.rollitup.org/organics/427826-soil-food-web-gardening-compost.html