Beginner question about topdressing and teas

I'm here again with a complete beginner question that I'm hoping some of you can help me understand. When I purchased my dry nutrients (Elevation Organics Mountain Blossoms line), the guy at the garden shop told me to use it both as a top dressing and a tea.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around why it should be used as both so I'm hoping you all can help explain that to me.

From what I understand, top dressing with it basically causes it to be more of a slow release that continuously feeds the plant with each watering, while using it as a tea is more of a way to get the nutrients quickly dispersed throughout the soil, and the tea brewing process is more or less used to grow beneficial bacteria.

That said; is there any benefit to top dressing with it some weeks, and feeding with tea on others, versus just feeding tea once a week?

One last question...Until this point I've been using salt based nutrients, so I'm used to feeding until run-off. Should I do the same with compost tea? Or am I supposed to feed a certain amount per gallon of soil?

A appologize if these are dumb questions. I'm just trying to avoid beginner mistakes that can be avoided.

Your going to try an put in enough powder to last a few weeks. mix it with all the soil. there is really no benefit to doing it one way or another. i would use it as teas an top dressing but not on a schedule. Everytime you feed with powder , it will continue to feed for a watering or 4.
There is no certain amount of water. You'll want to do whatever you normally do when you first transplant them , then after a couple waterings to get the roots even in the pot, you'll want to just get the top nice and wet but not so much that it runs through. After enoughj waterings your soil will feel like a sponge. Thats perfection.

getogrow said:

Your going to try an put in enough powder to last a few weeks. mix it with all the soil. there is really no benefit to doing it one way or another. i would use it as teas an top dressing but not on a schedule. Everytime you feed with powder , it will continue to feed for a watering or 4.
There is no certain amount of water. You'll want to do whatever you normally do when you first transplant them , then after a couple waterings to get the roots even in the pot, you'll want to just get the top nice and wet but not so much that it runs through. After enoughj waterings your soil will feel like a sponge. Thats perfection.

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Thanks for the reply. Are you saying I should mix the amendments into the soil before I transplant, too? I'm going to be using a 50/50 mix of Elevation Summit Soils Base Camp and Nectar for the Gods #4 and, IIRC, the guy I bought it from said that should be good to start with.

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

Thanks for the reply. Are you saying I should mix the amendments into the soil before I transplant, too? I'm going to be using a 50/50 mix of Elevation Summit Soils Base Camp and Nectar for the Gods #4 and, IIRC, the guy I bought it from said that should be good to start with.

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With my indoor soil, I mix everything together. I dont bother topdressing because the soil is rich enough for the duration of the grow.
I do topdress my outdoor with ewc and insect frass every 2 weeks and fish bone meal at the beginning of the grow then 4 weeks into flower( best guess when flowering starts) I stopped brewing teas, I was using a pump and pvc parts and the clean up was a pia.

natureboygrower said:

With my indoor soil, I mix everything together. I dont bother topdressing because the soil is rich enough for the duration of the grow.
I do topdress my outdoor with ewc and insect frass every 2 weeks and fish bone meal at the beginning of the grow then 4 weeks into flower( best guess when flowering starts) I stopped brewing teas, I was using a pump and pvc parts and the clean up was a pia.

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Thanks for the advice!

Yes , mix ammendments with your soil too. There is very little salt in them dry ingredients so you wont overdo it. Now the object would be to get enough in your soil to not need anything but water but obviously, that is difficult as we dont know exactly whats going on with the soil , yet. I would mix a tablespoon per gallon of soil to start with....then top dress and tea as needed.
since we are just now starting this organic run then stick to the teas and premixed stuff vs top dressing. (if you gotta top dress then you prolly didnt add enough to begin with)
Thats what makes organics so much tougher then hydro or soiless. Its all a guessing game but the end result is way worth it.

Your gonna want to grab some molasses if you havent already. The extra sugar will get everything moving faster. i personally would not use dry organics without molasses but thats just me. The plant feeds the microbes without the added sugars but we add them, just to make sure they dont go hungry.

getogrow said:

Yes , mix ammendments with your soil too. There is very little salt in them dry ingredients so you wont overdo it. Now the object would be to get enough in your soil to not need anything but water but obviously, that is difficult as we dont know exactly whats going on with the soil , yet. I would mix a tablespoon per gallon of soil to start with....then top dress and tea as needed.
since we are just now starting this organic run then stick to the teas and premixed stuff vs top dressing. (if you gotta top dress then you prolly didnt add enough to begin with)
Thats what makes organics so much tougher then hydro or soiless. Its all a guessing game but the end result is way worth it.

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Thanks again for all the advice! I'm really excited about trying out an organic grow for the first time.

getogrow said:

Your gonna want to grab some molasses if you havent already. The extra sugar will get everything moving faster. i personally would not use dry organics without molasses but thats just me. The plant feeds the microbes without the added sugars but we add them, just to make sure they dont go hungry.

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My wife has horses here so there's never a shortage of molasses!

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

My wife has horses here so there's never a shortage of molasses!

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Molasses put in animal feed is sulphured, don't use that. Go to a bulk foods place and pick up unsulphured blackstrap molasses. You can also use malted barley to get the microbes working. I use both, malted barley goes in the soil mix at 1 cup per cubic foot soil and molasses for the last 4 weeks as a tea in flower.

Bignutes said:

Molasses put in animal feed is sulphured, don't use that. Go to a bulk foods place and pick up unsulphured blackstrap molasses. You can also use malted barley to get the microbes working. I use both, malted barley goes in the soil mix at 1 cup per cubic foot soil and molasses for the last 4 weeks as a tea in flower.

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Good to know, and thanks for catching that!

1 tbsp per gallon about anytime you want. I have used it heavy in veg an bloom. I dont see the need for more then every other watering. My partner uses more like 2 or 3 tablespoons per gallon and his looks good too. I think he is wasting it but i dont see anything bad come of it.

Yes, thanks bignutes, i missed that one myself.

Also if you've got horses your well versed in animal feeds and where to buy them. One of the best soil amendments you can buy is alfalfa meal. Go to your feed store and buy a bag of pellet alfalfa if you don't already have it. A 25 kg bag runs $15, buying alfalfa meal at the grow shop is $16 for 2 kg, lol.

If your putting in soil mix grind it up first, put one cup or alfalfa pellets with 3 cups of water and make a slurry of it in a blender.

You can also leave as pellets and soak for a tea.

I wouldn't use alfalfa past the first week of flower

Bignutes said:

Also if you've got horses your well versed in animal feeds and where to buy them. One of the best soil amendments you can buy is alfalfa meal. Go to your feed store and buy a bag of pellet alfalfa if you don't already have it. A 25 kg bag runs $15, buying alfalfa meal at the grow shop is $16 for 2 kg, lol.

If your putting in soil mix grind it up first, put one cup or alfalfa pellets with 3 cups of water and make a slurry of it in a blender.

You can also leave as pellets and soak for a tea.

I wouldn't use alfalfa past the first week of flower

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My wife also works at a dairy farm, and a local grower mentioned to me that raw milk can be used for something, but I can't remember what. I'm assuming its use would probably be for the nutrition and/or bacteria? They have some older cows that still get milked, but the milk from them pretty much just gets tossed, so I'm curious if I should have her bring some home for me to use. I've been meaning to research its use, but totally forgot about it until you brought up the feed store.

It would make your grow area stink. You can try powdered milk in soil mix but i have no experience with that

Bignutes said:

It would make your grow area stink. You can try powdered milk in soil mix but i have no experience with that

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Ok, thanks for that. He had an excited look on his face, when I mentioned my wife worked at a dairy farm, so I thought that maybe raw milk was some sort of great additive to use.

There is a lot of good bacteria in the raw milk but i have no idea how to use it. Id dump a cup or 10 into a compost pile for the fuck of it.

Thanks again for all the advice guys! I picked up an extra bag of each of the soils I'm using and got all my soil and mixed up, along with 1 Tbsp of my fertilizer per gallon, and covered it up until I'm ready to transplant.

Ask @4ftRoots. I believe it’s the lactic acid bacteria in the milk that is beneficial to soils. Being a bacteria it’s best used in the bottom layer of the soil as it can be eaten by beneficial fungus(mykos, etc.). Check out Alan Adkisson and his probiotic method. Not sure how to break down milk by itself but em-1 is essentially that.