Tea ingredients

mr jones15 said:

So I've been researching tea. At first I found people are saying compost tea has no affect on plants. Then I stumbled across a thread of people adding things like azomite, oats, molasses, humic acid, fish emulsion, etc. Does anybody have any experience with this? Can anybody tell me good ratios to use for making tea if they are actually useful?

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There's a thousand variations of compost tea intended for different purposes. I tend to use just one simple recipe but there are tea recipes for fungal and microbial dominated teas and for veg, bloom, all purpose, what have you etc etc. You will find a ton of conflicting info & opinions online so IMO the best source to find compost tea recipes is in a book; I recommend checking out True Living Organics by The Rev. This book is the main source of all of my organic knowledge so read it and you'll be a fucking expert too lol. There is a tea sticky in organic that has lots of good info as well I would start there.
As has already been said compost teas provide some NPK benefit but their main function is to keep microbial and fungal populations active in your soil mix. The main ingredient of course is vermicompost and the fresher it is the better. Having a worm bin makes this an easy thing; bagged EWC will work too but will never be as active microbially as it is fresh out the bin. You can also make it with compost from an outdoor pile or composter bin. A form of sucrose like molasses is usually added to provide the micoherd with an easy food source. The bubbles are really what make it all happen: the microbes cling to the air bubbles and and get oxygenated which makes them hungry and horny. They begin to fight and eat and fuck each other until the populations reach a very high level. Then you dump it all into the soil and the party goes on til da break of dawn...
So to answer your Q in short form yes more aeration makes more microbes so you want it bubbling as violently as possible. Pushing a high volume of air through is always good but a cheap fish tank airstone will do for personal size brewing. Here's my all purpose tea recipe:
3-5 gal of clean water (no chlorine / chloramine)
2-3 cups EWC
1 tblspn molasses
2 tblspn kelp meal
3-5 tblspn Neptunes harvest liquid fish w/seaweed
Bubble for 36+ hours and serve
A fish tank heater helps if temps are on the low side. You want the water to be tepid; room temp or slightly higher is best.
Ratios do not need to be exact; this will never burn your plants and you can always add more water to dilute it if you need to.

mr jones15 said:

Yea I just want the basics, wanted to hear a few recipes and get gist of what everyone kinda does and go from there.

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You need a source of bacteria. Preferably 2 or more sources.
5 or more gallons of water in a basin, with lid (clean pure water, not tap water but, RO filtered tap is fine. Better yet well water, or even the best, spring water. This is a whole other topic but, not sanitized water mmkay.)
An air pump that will fill the water with a rolling mass of air
A source of glucose.
Time.

Some plants to experiment on.

This is what people call "inoculant". It is a super charged environment for micro- biology and or fungi. Hopefully the kind that will help your plants grow tall and big assed buds, and not attract pests or harmful bacteria/parasites.

For me it brings dead or sick plants back to life, helps my soil retain moisture, helps the liquid nutrient uptake, helps stave off disease and pests, helps with heat stressed plants, helps with transplants. It does a lot of great things for ALL of the plants in the garden. Some people "folier feed" I do this sometimes.

All of the people using a "dash of this or dash of that" are not wrong in doing so. They are attempting to create something like "earth juice" or other brands of ready made liquid organic nutrient.

Liquid "organic" feeding works faster. This is when i mix my ready made inoculant with ready made liquid nutrient, IN AIR typically, for about an hour or more.

All of my "solid nutrient" has been mixed in my raised pots, well in 2 months BEFORE accepting a plant. Maybe top dress some nitrogen half way through vegetative stage. But really, nothing else solid goes in after the plants go in.

This works for me and MANY other people. It is not the only way. It might not even be the "best" way. Kinda the lazy way but, whatever.

I suggest reading the articles on microbeorganics.com

Southerner said:

I suggest reading the articles on microbeorganics.com

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I read that until i needed a break and im not close to done but it really is one of the best ive seen.

I hate math so I wish he would have overly simplified the ingredients amounts but he linked to a calculator
I guess.

Already figured out I need to increase my brew time.

Also that by adding too much of some things I can disrupt the waters ability to hold oxygen. I think. Lol

Anyway, good find

Southerner said:

I suggest reading the articles on microbeorganics.com

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Excellent read!

Molasses, brown sugar and oat bran have been discussed when carbo feeding. Does anyone use honey? Especially later in flower?

Dmannn said:

Excellent read!

Molasses, brown sugar and oat bran have been discussed when carbo feeding. Does anyone use honey? Especially later in flower?

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This will sound dumb im sure but that's how I roll. And learn
Would the antibacterial properties of honey mess with microbes, fungi or any of the other things?

My guess is no but I still want to know for sure.

I'm going to be the odd man out on this one. Hehehe!

So... I get a 'clean' 5 gallon bucket and a pair of rubber dish washing gloves and a pair of sheers and I take a walk around my backyard. First, I hit my stinging nettle patch and using the sheers I carefully cut a bunch of stinging nettle leaves and throw them into the bucket. Then I hit the borage; the yarrow; milk vetch and I throw in dandelion leaves and flowers until the bucket is half full of vegetable matter. A better list of Bio Dynamic Accumulators can be found here:

https://permies.com/t/19885/list-dynamic-accumulators-minerals-accumulate

Using a pair of long bladed sheers I cut up what's in the bucket making it nice and wet and I add pure water(this means non-chlorinated/fluoridated natural creek or river water) filling half the bucket. Then I cover it and keep it in a cool dark place for two weeks. No percolator at all. Stirring every two days. Whence the vegetable matter has completely broken down and things are smelling like a vegetarian restaurant dumpster I filter out the remaining vegetable matter using a colander and put the finished product into jars.

I feed my plants at a rate of 1 1/2 cups green gack to 2 gallons pure water and add a teaspoon of Veganic Special Sauce and let it sit for 20 minutes before watering. A list of the VSS ingredients can be found here:

http://cdn.arbico-organics.com/downloads/1305420_Veganic Special Sauce-OGTea_12916.pdf

That's my own special concoction. Tadah!

SageFromZen said:

I'm going to be the odd man out on this one. Hehehe!

So... I get a 'clean' 5 gallon bucket and a pair of rubber dish washing gloves and a pair of sheers and I take a walk around my backyard. First, I hit my stinging nettle patch and using the sheers I carefully cut a bunch of stinging nettle leaves and throw them into the bucket. Then I hit the borage; the yarrow; milk vetch and I throw in dandelion leaves and flowers until the bucket is half full of vegetable matter. A better list of Bio Dynamic Accumulators can be found here:

https://permies.com/t/19885/list-dynamic-accumulators-minerals-accumulate

Using a pair of long bladed sheers I cut up what's in the bucket making it nice and wet and I add pure water(this means non-chlorinated/fluoridated natural creek or river water) filling half the bucket. Then I cover it and keep it in a cool dark place for two weeks. No percolator at all. Stirring every two days. Whence the vegetable matter has completely broken down and things are smelling like a vegetarian restaurant dumpster I filter out the remaining vegetable matter using a colander and put the finished product into jars.

I feed my plants at a rate of 1 1/2 cups per gallon green gack to pure water and add a teaspoon of Veganic Special Sauce and let it sit for 20 minutes before watering.

That's my own special concoction. Tadah!

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Interesting, so how is the end result different from compost tea?

charface said:

Interesting, so how is the end result different from compost tea?

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Read ANC's response! Only the guy in the video adds sugar and I don't.

SageFromZen said:

Read ANC's response!

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I watched it,

the sugar is part of the fermenting process and is used to draw the juices from the plants.
Also look up some stuff on the importance of slimes....

ANC said:

the sugar is part of the fermenting process and is used to draw the juices from the plants.
Also look up some stuff on the importance of slimes....

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I saw Jeff at the Cup in 2016. Brilliant man!

What I'm doing isn't fermented at all. I'm basically doing this with multiple accumulators(ie: Nettle, borage, horsetail, vetch, dandelion etc). Then adding VSS to complete the batch.

I like to use kelp and alfalfa sometimes! Like everyone else I always use ewc, compost and molasses! Sometimes I add some bat guano it really all depends on what stage my girls are in! I know the whole feed the soil thing but sometimes adding a Lil of what the plant may need to the tea doesn't affect the soil and puts just a tad boost of extra n or p depending on what stage ur on! But to be honest almost all our your amendments could be added to your tea some just won't do much good! Stick to kelp, alfalfa, maybe some fish or some guano! And of course ewc, compost, and molasses every time!

Basically, cannabis likes green mulches... things like your leaves and grass clippings as well as bacterially dominated soils.

Definitely learning some new stuff here thanks guys.

I am new to working with Dynamic Accumulators. I'd seen the Nettle Fertilizer video and ran with it. Right now I have beautiful deep green foliage and my babies are the healthiest I've ever seen them. Within minutes of application the effects can be seen immediately. Leaves perk and point straight up to the sky following a every dosage. VSS is a fungal/bacterial innoculant. Between the permaculture solution and VSS it's a win-win combination in my book.

charface said:

This will sound dumb im sure but that's how I roll. And learn
Would the antibacterial properties of honey mess with microbes, fungi or any of the other things?

My guess is no but I still want to know for sure.

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I have been hearing things about using honey in the home stretch of flower, IE the last 2-3 weeks, People have been talking about the added density and aroma. Can anyone chime in?

Stick to molasses (1-0-5) about 1% by volume.

ANC said:

Stick to molasses (1-0-5) about 1% by volume.

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I honestly don't measure molasses I just pour for about a second or so! It's really thick so I just make sure a big glob geta into the bucket!