Another Simple Compost Tea Recipe

[MayoMaster]

Hello everyone!

I am finally making the switch to organics and am developing my first AACT. I have been doing my research and would like to know if this simple recipe would be good as I can get all the listed ingredients locally:

COMPOST TEA

Veg Tea Recipe:

½ Cup Ancient Forest
2 Tablespoons Organic Corn Meal
(Mix AF and CM 3 days before brewing tea in a container 80 degree in a dark place to jump start fungi)
½ Cup Earth Worm Castings
¼ Cup Maxicorp Liquid Seaweed
2 Tablespoons Dr. Earth Alfalfa Meal
2 Tablespoons Wholesome Sweetner Certified Organic Molasses
Brew in Nylon or Paint strainer for 48 hours.

Flower Tea Recipe:

½ Cup Ancient Forest
2 Tablespoons Corn Meal
(Mix AF and CM 3 days before brewing tea in a container 80 degree in a dark place)
2 additional Tablespoons Corn Meal
3 Tablespoons Earth Worm Castings
½ Cup Maxicorp Liquid Seaweed
2 Tablespoons Dr. Earth Alfalfa Meal
1 Tablespoons Wholesome Sweetner Certified Organic Molasses
Brew in Nylon or Paint strainer for 48 hours.

What do you guys think?

 

[st0wandgrow]

I would go with the paint strainer bag and avoid the nylons. The nylons aren't porous enough and can trap some bene's in them.

What you are proposing is fine. You need to ask yourself what your objective with this tea is, though. If you are looking to make an aerated compost tea you only need a *quality* source of compost or vermicompost (making your own is best) and a source of carbohydrates for the microbes (unsulphered blackstrap molasses). The point in making an ACT is to multiply the microbes present in your compost, then apply to your medium. This process can multiply the microbes by up to 10,000x if done properly.

If you are looking to make a nutrient tea for your plants, then you don't need to add any compost source or carbohydrate. Items like alfalfa meal, kelp meal, corn meal, guanos, etc can be used to this end. This tea is simply stripping the organic ingredients in your mix and adding a readily available food source for the microbes that already exist in your medium.

I don't think brewing a tea with all of the above added is necessarily bad, just wanted to highlight the distinction between the two teas.

 

[MayoMaster]

I would go with the paint strainer bag and avoid the nylons. The nylons aren't porous enough and can trap some bene's in them.

What you are proposing is fine. You need to ask yourself what your objective with this tea is, though. If you are looking to make an aerated compost tea you only need a *quality* source of compost or vermicompost (making your own is best) and a source of carbohydrates for the microbes (unsulphered blackstrap molasses). The point in making an ACT is to multiply the microbes present in your compost, then apply to your medium. This process can multiply the microbes by up to 10,000x if done properly.

If you are looking to make a nutrient tea for your plants, then you don't need to add any compost source or carbohydrate. Items like alfalfa meal, kelp meal, corn meal, guanos, etc can be used to this end. This tea is simply stripping the organic ingredients in your mix and adding a readily available food source for the microbes that already exist in your medium.

I don't think brewing a tea with all of the above added is necessarily bad, just wanted to highlight the distinction between the two teas.

So are you basically saying: The compost, EWC, cornmeal and molasses is the microbe aspect of the tea, and the seaweed and alfalfa meal are the nutrient additions?

I wanted to make a tea that had some of both worlds. I was going to use this tea on one of the three:
A Homemade mix consisting of:
SOIL Mix:
*pre-recipe notes*
½ Part = ½ 5 gallon bucket, 1 part = a 5 gallon bucket full, ¼ part = ¼ 5 gallon bucket, etc.
Use 2-3 cups of nutritional amendments per 7.5 gallons, do not undercut / exceed. This is in total of everything added. (Note: Always use double the Kelp Meal, so for example, mix 2 cups kelp meal, 1 cup All purpose fertilizer, 1 cup **** meal, 1 cup ***** meal, then from that dry mix, take your 2-3 cups of Nutritional Amendments)
Base Soil Mix:
¾ Part Pro-Mix
¼ Espoma Organic Perlite
¼ Part Wiggle Worm Earth Worm Castings
¼ Part Ancient Forest Soil
2.5 cups of Nutritional Amendment( Listed Below)
4 cups Gaia Green Glacial Rock Dust

Mix thoroughly, and moisten so the soil is damp, then set in container for at least 4 weeks. The longer, the better.

Nutritional Amendments:
1 Cup Dr. Earth’s All Purpose Fertilizer
1 Cup Dr. Earth Alfalfa Meal
2 Cups Dr. Earth Kelp Meal

**OR**
Using M3 soil which is a michigan made mix that is water only

***OR***
using subcools prepackaged super soil in half of the pot, with either promix, subcools organic soil, or roots organic soil in the top 50%.

Which of these combinations and methods would work? Or will all of them work with my proposed tea? My only worry is burning the plants.

My goal is to produce plants that compete with what I am doing now. That is 4x 600w HPS with AN Grow A + B, occasional voodoo juice, Bloom A + B, Big Bud, B-52, overdrive, with carboload inbetween, occasional hygrozyme. I have some beautiful girls, but my goal os to produce equal sized plants that are simply organic. This is a minimum goal, I hope organics will outdo this synthetic set up by a mile, but if it can at least compare, (ignoring time input and cost) and gimme better tasting / smelling buds, I would be the happiest camper in the world. I want to do it right the first time, I have a month before I start anything, all input is appreciated.

 

[MayoMaster]

Sorry, missed some of the things you stated in my reply. I am basically asking if my tea is a nice combination with an amended soil that will provide a little bit of everything needed. I want to have a homemade soil mix, with a homemade compost tea and make the best quality medicine using said methods. In my current situation, homemade compost tea and EWC are not possible, that will be in the future when my understanding of organics has furthered. I am just a smart individual who loves research and loves trying new things. Again, all input would be most appreciated, and I do appreciated your input. I was kinda wondering about Microbe VS nutrient tea. I want to do both in one, but nothing that would be potent on any end. Basically push my girls to 110%, have them be green from start to near finish, and need to only add teas and water. No chemicals in a bottle, just homemade brewed soups and soils that I can legitimacy say I made myself and be proud of the medicine I produce.

 

[st0wandgrow]

The ACT does not need anything other than compost/vermicompost and molasses. This will multiply the microorganisms exponentially. Additional ingredients that seem like a food stock for the microbes will actually hinder their multiplication. I only use an ACT a few times during a cycle. I like to build my soil (like subs super soil) and wet my mix down with an ACT while it's "cooking". This way I am introducing billions of microbes in to my mix to start breaking down the organic inputs before a clone even hits the dirt. I will use an ACT again in veg, and one more in early flower.

In veg, and throughout flower I will bubble nutrient teas consisting of alfalfa meal, kelp meal, etc. You can really play with this and find what you like.

This all helps, imo, but if you aren't starting out with a quality source of compost in your mix, then you are behind the 8 ball for the duration. I have to run, but if you want we can discuss brewing ACT's and nutrient teas further later on. You can put together a relatively inexpensive brewer that will meet all of your needs. A *good* air pump and oxygen diffuser is all you need.

 

[st0wandgrow]

FYI, it's quite difficult to burn your plants with organic ingredients.

I use 1 cup of alfalfa meal, and a half cup of kelp meal to 4 gallons of water to make my nutrient tea. 2 cups of vermicompost and 4 tablespoons of black strap molasses for my ACT. Brew the nutrient tea for 24 hours, and the ACT for 24-36 hours.

 

[MayoMaster]

Well I definitely have all the stuff I need, I have air pumps from a past hydro set up. I am just using up synthetic nutes that I have spent money on, as I am not a waster. I don't have access to a good local compost, would ancient forest soil, http://www.hydrogalaxy.com/growing-media/ancient-forest-5-cf-humus-soil-amendment/?gclid=CIamlN_U4rkCFaXm7AodjiIARw be a good compost? This seems like the best thing I can get my hand on locally. I live in a small town. Also, I want to make something like subs super soil, but some of the ingredients are hard for me to find. Would you mind listing a super soil recipe you have made with either easy to find ingredients, with their brand names, and/or something I can purchase online and have shipped? This is probably the biggest problem I am having. I do like learning things though, and now a seperate AACT and nutrient tea makes sense. So I can do, veg AACT, nutrient teas for veg, then flower ACT(fungal heavy), and nutrient teas for flower.

 

[MayoMaster]

Also, any photos of past ladies with your teas would be awesome. I love the simplicity of your teas, that makes me excited and wanting to see the results so that maybe mine can stay that simple. Basically what kind of yields do you get using your method and lets say, a 600w hps for flowering.

 

[st0wandgrow]

Here's what I would do:

Hop on the computer tomorrow and buy a pound or two of red wiggler worms. Uncle Jims ships nationwide, or you can find a local option if you prefer. http://unclejimswormfarm.com/

Google worm bins. Buy one or make one. It can be as simple as a rubbermaid tote (25 gallon+) with 1/4" air holes drilled in it. Your bedding can be coco coir, or shredded carboard, along with a bit of topsoil. You said you don't like to waste, so now you can throw your table scraps in to your worm bin and have your new pets turn that in to some black gold for your plants. The spent material from your nutrient teas (alfalfa pellets, kelp meal, corn meal, etc) will also be fed to your worms. Now you're on your way with your own source of vermicompost while you're preparing this batch of soil. This should cost you no more than $50 for the worms, $20 for the tote, and $10 (maybe) for bedding. You will spend that much on a couple cubic feet of pre-packaged EWC. Plus it's easy to do, doesn't smell, and takes up no space. I'm a complete moron with handyman stuff, and I was able to bang this out with ease. No excuses for you!

As far as your current situation, you can easily amend a good bag of commercial organic soil. If you have alfalfa meal, kelp meal (you looked a little heavy on this up above. I wouldn't use more than 1 cup per cf), and an all purpose organic fertilizer like Espoma Garden Tone (or the Dr Earth stuff you mentioned) you're pretty much set. I would consider some neem seed meal too. Order it from here: http://www.neemresource.com/ The shipping is a bit steep, but it's supposed to be the best stuff you can buy. Add your amendments to the soil, wet it down a bit, and let it sit. At least 30 days if you can.

During this inoculation period, your worms should be busy. By the time you're ready to stick some plants in your soil mix, you will have a decent amount of worm castings to top dress your ladies with, and start making ACT's. You can top dress a 1/4 cup of your organic fertilizer at a couple intervals during flower too. Other than that it's just water, with an ACT and nutrient tea mixed in every so often.

Check out the vermiculture thread in this section. Also check out Gandalfs "Total noob using Teas" thread, and Rrogs organic living soil thread in the Michigan section. Lots of good info scattered around the site.

As far as the results go, I'm a registered caregiver in a medical state with legal limitations on how much I can posses, so I don't make a habit out of talking numbers on here.

Let's just say that I've done the hydro thing, and the synthetic nutes in soil, and the yields are comparable .... but with a much nicer end product. I will throw some pics up tomorrow (lights are off).

 

[st0wandgrow]

To get an idea on yield, here's a pic of a 14 week sativa (mango haze) that is waiting to be trimmed. I burnt it a bit by top-dressing it with neem seed meal. That stuff is hot as far as organic ingredients go. Don't do that.





Here's another cola from a plant I grew called Norther Skunk...





Roots, shoots, fruits (in that order). Give your girls plenty of room to stretch their legs out, ample light, and a solid soil with some tlc along the way and yield won't be a concern.

 

[GandalfdaGreen]

To get an idea on yield, here's a pic of a 14 week sativa (mango haze) that is waiting to be trimmed. I burnt it a bit by top-dressing it with neem seed meal. That stuff is hot as far as organic ingredients go. Don't do that.


View attachment 2833525


Here's another cola from a plant I grew called Norther Skunk...


View attachment 2833530


Roots, shoots, fruits (in that order). Give your girls plenty of room to stretch their legs out, ample light, and a solid soil with some tlc along the way and yield won't be a concern.

Those are some colas st0w. Wow. St0w taught me everything he just told you. It works. This is great info. Take care. You are going to love this.

 

[MayoMaster]

To get an idea on yield, here's a pic of a 14 week sativa (mango haze) that is waiting to be trimmed. I burnt it a bit by top-dressing it with neem seed meal. That stuff is hot as far as organic ingredients go. Don't do that.


View attachment 2833525


Here's another cola from a plant I grew called Norther Skunk...


View attachment 2833530


Roots, shoots, fruits (in that order). Give your girls plenty of room to stretch their legs out, ample light, and a solid soil with some tlc along the way and yield won't be a concern.

Those are some beaut's! I am definitely looking forward to this. For now I wont be able to make my own EWC though, I will attempt to do this in a couple of months from now. So with your teas and top dressings, do you make your ACT the same during all stages of the plants life? or do you try to vary the stronger bacterial or fungal presences one way or the other?

 

[MayoMaster]

BTW, I am very busy today but I research when I get time. I will read those articles you posted later tonight possibly, or tomorrow and see what else I can pick up. Vermicomposting seems awesome, but I am broke as a joke and cannot start worm farms currently. I will be able to in a few months though.

 

[st0wandgrow]

Those are some beaut's! I am definitely looking forward to this. For now I wont be able to make my own EWC though, I will attempt to do this in a couple of months from now. So with your teas and top dressings, do you make your ACT the same during all stages of the plants life? or do you try to vary the stronger bacterial or fungal presences one way or the other?

My ACT is 2 cups vermicompost, and 4 tablespoons of unsulphured blackstrap molasses to 4 gallons of water, bubbled for 30'ish hours. I wet my soil mix down with an ACT, then let it sit for 60 days. I then apply the same ACT week one of veg, week 3 of veg, and the first week of flower. That's it for ACT's. If my colony of microbes isn't rocking by the time I flip to flower, then something went wrong and I'm in trouble either way. I don't brew my teas for specific microorganisms. I go with the assumption that my home made vermicompost is teaming with a good variety of beneficial microbes. Without the use of a very expensive microscope, there is no way to verify the various critters present in your brew.

I use an alfalfa pellets/kelp meal nutrient tea once a week all through veg, and the first 5-6 weeks of flower. This is 1 cup of alfalfa pellets, and a 1/2 cup of kelp meal to 5 gallons of water, bubbled for 24 hours (then I throw the spent alfalfa and kelp in my worm bin).

I top dress 1/4 cup of Down to Earth Vegan Mix (and cover it with EWC) in the 3'rd, and 6'th week of flower. I will also bubble a couple teas of this Vegan Mix in week 7/8 of flower. You can use an Espoma product for this, or the one you mentioned above. Aside from that it's just RO water, occasionally mixed with aloe juice, fulvic acid, and a shot of Pro-tekt here and there.

That's it.

 

[MayoMaster]

My ACT is 2 cups vermicompost, and 4 tablespoons of unsulphured blackstrap molasses to 4 gallons of water, bubbled for 30'ish hours. I wet my soil mix down with an ACT, then let it sit for 60 days. I then apply the same ACT week one of veg, week 3 of veg, and the first week of flower. That's it for ACT's. If my colony of microbes isn't rocking by the time I flip to flower, then something went wrong and I'm in trouble either way. I don't brew my teas for specific microorganisms. I go with the assumption that my home made vermicompost is teaming with a good variety of beneficial microbes. Without the use of a very expensive microscope, there is no way to verify the various critters present in your brew.

I use an alfalfa pellets/kelp meal nutrient tea once a week all through veg, and the first 5-6 weeks of flower. This is 1 cup of alfalfa pellets, and a 1/2 cup of kelp meal to 5 gallons of water, bubbled for 24 hours (then I throw the spent alfalfa and kelp in my worm bin).

I top dress 1/4 cup of Down to Earth Vegan Mix (and cover it with EWC) in the 3'rd, and 6'th week of flower. I will also bubble a couple teas of this Vegan Mix in week 7/8 of flower. You can use an Espoma product for this, or the one you mentioned above. Aside from that it's just RO water, occasionally mixed with aloe juice, fulvic acid, and a shot of Pro-tekt here and there.

That's it.

What product do you use for fulvic acid?

 

[st0wandgrow]

What product do you use for fulvic acid?

Bioag Ful-Power. Their TM-7 more recently (which has fulvic, humic, and trace minerals).

 

[GandalfdaGreen]

That info is priceless. If you do this then you will be all set. I can't endorse this info enough. Honestly.

• You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to st0wandgrow again.
  
  
  
  

 

[MayoMaster]

Ok so I have done a little more research, and going off of what you have told me, how does this sound:

I will make my own vermicomposting bin in 2 months time, and also will be able to build my own soil at this time, so those are 2 future projects I am super pumped about.

I will use purchasable premixed Subcools Super Soil in 30% of my first containers, the other 70% will be Pro-Mix.
After a few weeks I will transplant this to a 5-10 gallon pot with 50% Subcools Super Soil and 50% Pro-Mix

The veg time for this plant will be 2 weeks cloning, 6 weeks vegging.

ACT on initial transplant consisting of 1 cup Ancient Forest Soil Amendment (Best commercial compost I have found so far), 1 Cup Earthworm Castings, and 4 Tablespoons Unsulphured Molasses, this tea will be used Veg Weeks 1, 3, 6. Flowering week 2, and maybe again at week 4 if I am feeling frisky (can't hurt can it?)

Protekt Silicon, BioAg tm-7, and BioAg Ful-Power will be used every other non-tea watering during veg. After week 2 of flowering, I will no longer add Protekt(unless you say otherwise And after week 7 of flower I will stop using Tm-7 and Ful-Power, and only use plain water.

Nutrient tea consisting of 1 Cup alfalfa meal and 1/2 cup kelp meal every week starting week 2 of veg. and ending at the end of week 7.

Nutrient Tea with 1 cup Espoma Organic Tone during week 8.

9th and final week of flowering, plain water.


If there are any adjustments you would make, let me know. Also, Do you PH your water on plain water days? or just go with the assumption that the organics take care of that? Also, does adding organic nutrients in the final weeks alter taste? Or should I do a normal flushing for a week or two, to leech out the nutrients in the soil?

One more additional Question: I have a powdery mildew problem in my house. It was not started by me, but I am the one who has to deal with it. We have been currently using Eagle 20, and that has near eradicated it. What I am implementing now is a hardcore bleach water clean once per month in vegging areas (floors, walls AND ceilings) and in flower rooms as soon as they are harvested. I am also going to be buying more fans to increase air flow in all areas of the grow rooms. My question is will the ACT be good as a foliar spray to help battle PM? I plan on using eagle 20 2 weeks before taking clones to start oganically, just to ensure they do not have PM in their systems before I switch to organics. I know prevention is key, but besides GreenCure and Mildew Cure, will ACT's be a better option?

Sorry for so many questions, I love learning shit.

 

[st0wandgrow]

Sounds like a good plan mayo! Keep an eye on the alfalfa/kelp teas with that super soil. I've never used subs soil, so I don't know what will be bio available at what point, so I would start out diluting your tea with 50% water to start and up it from there based on how the plants respond. Always start low, and adjust from there. If your plant looks like it is using/needing nutrients, then continue with the teas. If not, I would cut the nutrient teas out at the end of week 6. Same goes with the TM-7. It's potent stuff, so start with half of what's recommended and work your way up. TM-7 has both fulvic and humic acid, along with trace minerals. The ful-power is straight fulvic. So it's kind of redundant, imo. I would use the TM-7 for soil drenches, and the ful-power for foliars. In veg, and the first few weeks of flower I give my plants a weekly foliar of ful-power/aloe/pro-tekt. The planst love it. You can use the TM-7 and pro-tekt up to week 8 on a 9 week flowering plant. There is no need to "flush", as there is no salt build up with organics. The microbes in your soil supply the plant with bio available nutrients as the plant needs it. Complete symbiosis between the plant and the micro life.

As far as the PM goes, the best organic method to deal with it is making a horsetail tea. I know that people will foliar spray an ACT as well with the idea being that the beneficial microbes present in your ACT will overtake and consume other invasive microbes on the leaf surface. Not sure if it will eliminate something like PM, but I don't think it will hurt. As you mentioned, air flow is key, and try to keep a handle on your relative humidity in your flowering room.

 

[Nullis]

In my opinion you don't really need to brew separate compost and nutrient teas. An actively aerated compost tea can be about as simple or as complex as you want it to be. It could be as simple as a cup of forest humus in a gallon of water along with some blackstrap molasses. The microbes in the humus\compost will be teased out and they will propagate, and there will be some nutrients in such a tea as well (in solution and retained within the cells of the microbes).

Other amendments such as kelp meal, alfalfa meal, soybean meal, etc. can be added for the microbes as well and not just the nutrients they contain. Nutrients are often locked up within more complex compounds, which different microbes can break down and cycle (retain, immobilize or mineralize). Bat\seabird guano itself should have dormant microbes and can be used as an inoculant. Ancient Forest\humus is a great inoculant, with tens of thousands of species of bacteria, thousands more species of fungi and other organisms such as nematodes and protozoa (excellent biodiversity). Earthworm castings tend to be dominated by bacteria, and also contain protozoans and possibly nematodes (these eat bacteria and fungi, releasing the nutrients they contain). Alfalfa meal may contain protozoa, as well as hay and grass clippings.

Different kinds of microbes prefer or are able to utilize different food sources, depending on which kinds of enzymes they have available to them. For example, bacteria can only work on the surface of a material and most of them cannot readily digest complex carbohydrates. What they can do is multiple very rapidly, and they can readily utilize simple sugars, which include glucose, fructose, galactose, ribose, etc. (monosaccharides) and some disaccharides like sucrose (comprised of a unit each of glucose+fructose), maltose (two glucose molecules).

Fungi take a bit longer to multiply, but unlike many bacteria, fungi are more adept at breaking down complex substances, and fungal hyphae are actually able to penetrate solid materials to assist in their digestion. Fungi can break down oligo and polysaccharides (strach, cellulose, chitin, pectins) and other complex macromolecules such as lignin. This is why the fungi in a given substrate will really take off once you add a source of complex carbohydrates such as corn meal, kelp meal, soybean or oatmeal. However, I would give them a little longer than 3 days to colonize. If you want a tea to be more balanced or dominated by fungi, you'll want to use less molasses (a teaspoon or so) and add pro-fungi ingredients. Humic acids and yucca extract are also more conducive to fungi.