Total Noob using teas and I am a believer

keysareme

keysareme

Well-Known Member
I just extracted some compost tea from the collection tray of my worm bin.

Before I diluted it with filtered water it's pH was in the 5s now it's in the 6s and I have about twice as much.

But the EC, and I am glad I checked it before pouring some over four girls in flower, is 3.2?

Isn't this way to high?

Could I just furthur dilute the compost tea with more filtered water till I get a good EC? And if so what would that EC? Organic Soil. Thanks
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
Got a little plant growing in a container beside one of my marijuana plants. I top dressed recently and part of that was alfalfa meal, so I assumed that this was an alfalfa seed that sprouted, but after searching google images it doesn't appear to be that. Anyone have any idea what this is?

image.jpg
 
Mr.Head

Mr.Head

Well-Known Member
After a quicky google I think Don could be right, my first guess was going to be Oak tree. but apparently they don't get the funky leaves till they grow much older.
 
AllDayToker

AllDayToker

Well-Known Member
Hey Stow, wanted to thank you again for the refresher course on the teas. Fed my little plants there first microbe tea yesterday and they were all perked up within a few hours.

Now I just need to get the soil established with them.
 
GandalfdaGreen

GandalfdaGreen

Well-Known Member
st0wandgrow said:
Got a little plant growing in a container beside one of my marijuana plants. I top dressed recently and part of that was alfalfa meal, so I assumed that this was an alfalfa seed that sprouted, but after searching google images it doesn't appear to be that. Anyone have any idea what this is?

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I think the one on the right is a marijuana plant. :eyesmoke: it sure does look like a tomato plant. Good call Don.

ADT.......teas rock.

Keys.......I'm not real good a EC. I know it probably wont help on time but I'll look around. Somewhere in this monster thread there is info on ppm.
 
AllDayToker

AllDayToker

Well-Known Member
Now I just need to buy/make myself a worm bin. Finally getting warm outside I can actually get some compost and such going.
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
DonPetro said:
Dude, that looks like a tomato seedling, no?
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Fuckin eh DP! You're 100% right. I throw tomatos in to the worm bins, and I use the ewc to lay over the top dress. Good call! I'm gonna grow that mofo out and harvest some tomatos from the flowering room. :-)


Mr.Head said:
After a quicky google I think Don could be right, my first guess was going to be Oak tree. but apparently they don't get the funky leaves till they grow much older.
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Yezzzzir!


AllDayToker said:
Hey Stow, wanted to thank you again for the refresher course on the teas. Fed my little plants there first microbe tea yesterday and they were all perked up within a few hours.

Now I just need to get the soil established with them.
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My pleasure ADT. Any time.


[QUOTE="GandalfdaGreen, post: 10553146, member: 589562"]I think the one on the right is a marijuana plant. :eyesmoke: it sure does look like a tomato plant. Good call Don.

ADT.......teas rock.

Keys.......I'm not real good a EC. I know it probably wont help on time but I'll look around. Somewhere in this monster thread there is info on ppm.[/QUOTE]

Ha! :bigjoint:
 
Mr.Head

Mr.Head

Well-Known Member
I haven't grown tomatoes in years, I got a little potted one outside this year and touched it yesterday, forgot how bad those things stink lol.
 
keysareme

keysareme

Well-Known Member
My tomato plants are over 4 feet tall, topped themselves, and are fruiting out green tomatoes right now. They need more room than the 3gallon felt pots they have. One of the coolest plants I have grown.

I fed my girls with the diluted compost tea last night, so we will see how they respond either tonight or in a day or two.

I will be feeding the rest of the diluted compost tea brew to my outdoor fruit/vegetable garden.

I had to add lots of filtered water to bring the ec and ppms to what I felt was safe, and at least this way I took 1 gallon of compost tea, and turned it into 3, which is cool I guess.
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
keysareme said:
My tomato plants are over 4 feet tall, topped themselves, and are fruiting out green tomatoes right now. They need more room than the 3gallon felt pots they have. One of the coolest plants I have grown.

I fed my girls with the diluted compost tea last night, so we will see how they respond either tonight or in a day or two.

I will be feeding the rest of the diluted compost tea brew to my outdoor fruit/vegetable garden.

I had to add lots of filtered water to bring the ec and ppms to what I felt was safe, and at least this way I took 1 gallon of compost tea, and turned it into 3, which is cool I guess.
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What are you feeding to the worms keys? I've never heard of anyone burning, or otherwise harming a plant with a compost tea unless it turned anaerobic on you. I wouldn't worry about EC/PPM. That's a synthetic thing
 
keysareme

keysareme

Well-Known Member
st0wandgrow said:
What are you feeding to the worms keys? I've never heard of anyone burning, or otherwise harming a plant with a compost tea unless it turned anaerobic on you. I wouldn't worry about EC/PPM. That's a synthetic thing
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Oh, ok this is really good to know. I am feeding them all the remains (skins, whats left of the stalks, the small pieces that I choose not to eat), of my organic fruit and vegetables. Some home grown, and most were from organic farmers from the farmers market.

Also, some of the compost I had picked up from a friend, he had a nice wooden bin that he had built, and in it was doing the same thing as me, but his bin had way more avocados than mine. Lots of worms too, so I guess it was fine.

The worms did get quite a bit of onion skins and kiwi peels in the first try, but I've since stopped doing that. The first tray was completely empty of worms when I had checked, they had eaten everything and all moved up to the next tier which was the first tray of compost I got from my friend. There are two trays of his compost, and I will add the fourth tray and it will be from my own stuff again.

What would make it go anaerobic?
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
keysareme said:
Oh, ok this is really good to know. I am feeding them all the remains (skins, whats left of the stalks, the small pieces that I choose not to eat), of my organic fruit and vegetables. Some home grown, and most were from organic farmers from the farmers market.

Also, some of the compost I had picked up from a friend, he had a nice wooden bin that he had built, and in it was doing the same thing as me, but his bin had way more avocados than mine. Lots of worms too, so I guess it was fine.

The worms did get quite a bit of onion skins and kiwi peels in the first try, but I've since stopped doing that. The first tray was completely empty of worms when I had checked, they had eaten everything and all moved up to the next tier which was the first tray of compost I got from my friend. There are two trays of his compost, and I will add the fourth tray and it will be from my own stuff again.

What would make it go anaerobic?
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If you keep the bin too wet you may invite some anaerobic bacteria ..... but it would have to be pretty extreme.

The EC that was registering would be primarily from the disolved solids in your water. That and perhaps if you were amending the bin with some all purpose organic ferts that would have SRP and/or other minerals. Aside from that there should be very little that would register on a ppm wand. Compost tea is very safe to use. You're not "feeding" the plant anything per se ..... you're just adding billions/trillions of new microbes to your medium that will consume the goodies that you added to the soil and make them plant-available.
 
keysareme

keysareme

Well-Known Member
st0wandgrow said:
If you keep the bin too wet you may invite some anaerobic bacteria ..... but it would have to be pretty extreme.

The EC that was registering would be primarily from the disolved solids in your water. That and perhaps if you were amending the bin with some all purpose organic ferts that would have SRP and/or other minerals. Aside from that there should be very little that would register on a ppm wand. Compost tea is very safe to use. You're not "feeding" the plant anything per se ..... you're just adding billions/trillions of new microbes to your medium that will consume the goodies that you added to the soil and make them plant-available.
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Hmm, I kept the Bin is slightly moist, as to endure the constant 80 degrees outside.
It did endure some rain in Feb/March and a little in April, but was always under a table or covered.
If the top tier is dry when I check, I guess I've been putting in water to keep it moist.
Could this be causing some stuff to go on?

The compost tower is now inside the kitchen, where the dishwasher used to be. How cool is that, we took the dishwasher out to put the worm bin in! Anyways, an immediate benefit, now the worms can live less stressed because the temperature is 70 degrees inside rather than 80!

I never poured any fertilizer into the compost bin, nor did any water that had any sort of nutrient in it get poured in, it was always filtered waters.

thanks st0w
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
You'd smell an awful funk coming from the bin if it went anaerobic. If it's in the kitchen and you haven't noticed a stench by now then I think you're fine.
 
keysareme

keysareme

Well-Known Member
st0wandgrow said:
You'd smell an awful funk coming from the bin if it went anaerobic. If it's in the kitchen and you haven't noticed a stench by now then I think you're fine.
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Like, awful smell?, not the, beyond amazing smell of organic matter that it usually smells like? Ok, cool. Thanks.
Do I need to let it brew before I feed to my plants next time? Drain it out and put an air pump in it overnight, or is it good to be watered in as is?
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
keysareme said:
Like, awful smell?, not the, beyond amazing smell of organic matter that it usually smells like? Ok, cool. Thanks.
Do I need to let it brew before I feed to my plants next time? Drain it out and put an air pump in it overnight, or is it good to be watered in as is?
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We're talking leachate here right? Myself, I wouldn't worry about bubbling it, but I can't imagine that you'd have enough to spread around to all of your plants so you would probably have to dilute it to even have enough to bother with.
 
keysareme

keysareme

Well-Known Member
st0wandgrow said:
We're talking leachate here right? Myself, I wouldn't worry about bubbling it, but I can't imagine that you'd have enough to spread around to all of your plants so you would probably have to dilute it to even have enough to bother with.
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Yea, it will most likely need to do its thing and accumulate before I can extract more again? I'm not too sure on the extraction methods, am I supposed to just keep a good balance going in the compost, and that will naturally keep moisture and worm tea brewing in there? Or do I need to run water through it as a way to leech out a tea.

Or am I supposed to take the composted vermiculture and ewc, and brew that in a bucket?

thanks man, its really helping me out a lot, to understand this more, and get more efficient
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
keysareme said:
Yea, it will most likely need to do its thing and accumulate before I can extract more again? I'm not too sure on the extraction methods, am I supposed to just keep a good balance going in the compost, and that will naturally keep moisture and worm tea brewing in there? Or do I need to run water through it as a way to leech out a tea.

Or am I supposed to take the composted vermiculture and ewc, and brew that in a bucket?

thanks man, its really helping me out a lot, to understand this more, and get more efficient
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If you keep proper moisture in the bin there shouldn't be much runoff. Not enough to really use as a tea anyway. What you want to do is take some castings, maybe 2-4 cups and add that to a 5 gallon bucket of water with a good pump and a foodstock (molasses) and bubble that for 36-48 hours. That's where you'll really benefit your plants with the infusion of microbes.
 
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