Soil Food Web Gardening with Compost Teas

Rising Moon

Rising Moon

Well-Known Member
I am thinking to break up the colonized mass into little chunks and bury them under my plants when I transplant.

Im pretty sure in the book it talks about making tea with this as well.

I need to re read.
 
Rising Moon

Rising Moon

Well-Known Member
Basically, I took a handful of homemade compost and leafmold, added some hemp powder, dried yarrow, comfrey and seaweed, and just enough water (damp sponge like)

I put it in a brown paper bag, in the closet, and hopefully in 3 days, it will be fully colnized by the fungi in the compost.
 
Sincerely420

Sincerely420

New Member
I'm on the same page I. The same book as ya lol!
I haven't used the oats yet,but I have used some of my soil as well as kelp meal to add to the fungal count.

I picked up the book again a couple weeks ago and got worried because I thought I was only brewing teas with w EWCs as compost, and only adding things that multiplied bacteria. I began to think I my soil would become too bacterially dominated..

Just to be sure I switched it up a little and stop using EWCs in my teas, and started with the soil.
kelp meal is awesome for trace elements, macro and micro nutes, and for adding to the fungal count.

PLEASEE let me know how the experiment goes!
And forgive me if I'm in the wrong lane, but I thought u were asking how to build the fungi count...
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Is that compost? If so, just add as a top dressing, or make a slurry and drench soil. I'm not much on bubbling it for days before adding.
 
H R Puff N Stuff

H R Puff N Stuff

Well-Known Member
it says N'riched compost the ingredients are forest humus ,compost ,composted chicken manure ,worm castings ,kelp meal ,bat guano ,gypsum oyster and dolomite lime. i was hoping to make aact with it just got air stone and pump, but i have never made tea before, will top dressing be as effective thanxs for the reply.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
If your soil is up and running, then I would just top dress with EWC. Control what you add, rather than buying mixes.

You can use that bubbler for Barley Sprout Tea, or other great Botanical Teas.
 
Cann

Cann

Well-Known Member
Rrog - Any word on the bioactivity of Aloe and the whole 20 minute ordeal? I know cootz has been MIA for the last few days so we may just have to wait for his return...

itching to know...cause I got some aloe leaves from a week ago that I would love to use..just want to make sure they havent "gone bad" whatever that would mean
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Oh, sorry! I thought you were asking about botanical teas, like comfrey or such. Aloe is 2 Tablespoons per gallon. Use quickly! Let us know how you like the plant's reaction to a foliar!
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
I'm evolving...

Cool on the worms. I thought so. Curious- do you go deep into amending the VC as with biochar, rock powders, etc? Like you would a soil.
 
SpliffAndMyLady

SpliffAndMyLady

Well-Known Member
Glad to hear it, we all are right now actually! Even though most are oblivious to it, good to know your life force is flowing.
Nope, I don't amend my VC. I throw amendments in my bins, let it compost for awhile, then use that VC. Unless that's what you meant but I do not add amendments to my vermicompost.
 
Cann

Cann

Well-Known Member
Rrog - Not sure if you are understanding still...Ill spell it out more. A while back you mentioned that when using fresh aloe, it needs to be used within 20 minutes or so before fermentation sets in and starts spoiling the secondary metabolites, enzymes, etc. What I am wondering is if that 20 minutes refers to the time after you filet a leaf and expose the gel to air, or the time after the leaf was removed from the mother plant. The reason I am wondering is that I harvested some rather large leaves from a plant about a week ago, and they have been sitting around since then. They appear fine except for the incision area which has oxidized and turned reddish brown, but they are as plump as a fresh leaf still and appear normal otherwise. Is it safe to bet that these will be just as good as a fresh harvested leaf assuming it is less than 20 minutes from filet to the ladies?

I hope that makes sense now...let me know if it still doesnt

oh and btw - a gnarly storm came in last night and soaked my soil mix of yours that was drying on a tarp! :wall: it looks like slop now and is starting to stink again...put it into a 60 gal smartpot and brought it inside as soon as I got home, but the damage has been done...luckily since it's so-cal the sun is back out today and should be for the rest of the week, so I will have it out and drying again ASAP, but damn this has set me back quite a bit. Almost had the anaerobic problem solved and then nature decided it wasn't quite ready for that...

on a high note, I am about to go pick up some fresh local EWC (finally found a source yay!!!). I already have a bale of peat, 50lbs of pumice, and all the amendments I need to get another batch in the making. The only thing missing is good humus, and I finally found some :)
 
headtreep

headtreep

Well-Known Member
I better get my organic material sources lined up when I move back to Socal Cann haha. Seems like all the good stuff is up in the North :)
 
Cann

Cann

Well-Known Member
Just got 100lbs of castings for $50 and they are so much better than store bought!!! Little baby worms in the mix, egg cases, soil mites, etc - all a good sign of some castings that are alive and well! Excited to get this into a soil mix...everyone is getting a topdressing tonight :) along with some neem, crab, and kelp meal. very very happy
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Cann- So sorry for being dense. I would guess you are just fine, as there's been no exposure to O2. Not sure how Aloe propagates, but that leaf has gotta be viable.

Great news on the VC find! That stinky soil is weird. Like no one here or at IC had an idea. In all honesty, I'd swear it was urine. What else would have such free N? You said that's not possible, but I really dunno.
 
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