hey man, i just started trying organics and so far so good. if i may put in my 2¢ here.
go to your local shop that sells Earthworm Castings, grab up a 10$ bag of the this will last you for 10 grows if you choose to use it for tea purposes only, i ammend my soil with 3/4 of the bag then use the remaining 1/4 to make my tea.
you dont need the kelp, it is helpfull but not necessary.
get a bottle of unsulfured molasses
a air pump with a airstone, this will last forever and is a good investment. if you dont want to brew tea anymore you can use it to setup a small hydro system for shits and giggles. it will never be "not usefull"
depending on the size of your grow you will need a bucket, if your only growing 1-2 plants i would say a milk jug or 2 gallon pale would work great like a mop bucket. if your grow is a larger scale your going to want a 5 gal bucket. i use both depending on what i have to water.
and you will need a "tea bag" i dont really know what to recomend here, i used a sock but im sure there is better out there to use, i heard the paint strainers work well....
so far with these items your up to 25$ maybe 30$ but some of this shit you may have already so this will cut costs.
then follow the recipe for a simple tea, baisicly add some castings to the "sock" tie it to the rim of the container so it is immersed in the water. add the molasses and optional kelp and the air pump. come back in 24 hours and immidiatly feed it to your plants. the whole point of brewing a tea is to populate your soil with microbes that break down other shit in the soil to provide nutes, it also adds nutrients to the soil but thats more or less a side bonus. if you buy a gallong jug of this "tea" by the time it braves the changes in temp and no oxygen the microbes will be dead and you will be left with some shitty smelling water. its not only better to make your own but more sensible if you want to get ALL of the qualities of a good compost tea.
i just finished my first batch yesterday and watered my plants (all but one, i overlooked on accident) i brewed my first batch in a 5 gal bucket. since i missed 1 plant i decided i wanted to make another gallon(just got done mixing it it is going to set till tomorow then i will feed with it)
im not saying this is the correct way to do the tea but all i did was add 1 cup castings to a gallon jug (no teabag just dumped them into the jug) i figure if i can ammend my soil with them then they arent going to hurt anything sitting on top. added my molasses and 1tblsp of happy frog 3-4-3 fertilizer (not sure if the happy frog does much but i add it just for extra avail nutes upon watering) and my molasses. remind you that i didnt use any tea bags for any of this its all just free floating in the jug. i added my water and shook it up, then added airstone. it literally took me 5 min to put together and i would be willing to bet its going to be a better tea than what your going to buy at the store.
anyways thats my story, im new to organics and all the shit i just said may be totally bogus and wrong but thats what im doing.
Ps. the plants i watered last night with the other tea seem to love it, they have already shown a improvement in growth and it has been about 12 hours
Gl on you adventure man and happy growing
Matt
