Citizen Bubba's law abiding grow box

Compost teas help to uptake the nutrient immensely, i personally am using the Bountea system right now, (1 qt Alaskan Humus, 1 cup bio activator, handful or two earthworm castings, and some more bennies, whatever i have on hand usually, mix in a 5 gallon bucket, aerate for 12-24 hrs, filter, then mix 5:1 to 2:1 water to tea) but i feed with Dyna-Gro. I use Foliage-Pro and Pro-tekt. Nothing else. I mix equal parts of the two into my water every other feeding, or more often. Most compost teas do not have enough nutrient in them for the needs of our plants, but they def help soil life.
The maroon purple stem indicates a hungry plant, i would feed her soon, and remember just cause one can handle this much doesn't mean the other can. But like EC said, start slow and move up in increments, hell almost everything i said here has come from my learning directly from him.

if going the tea route, brew it up like T said. bennie tea will really help em take off and help nute absorbtion a lot. high bio life in the soil likes under 450ppm feedings, higher levels can kill em (esp using synthetic nutes). when on the full feed schedule, tea once or twice a week and boost PK nute feeding @ wk4/5 through wk6/7, tea the next week or so and then start flushing with plain H20 @ the last 10days before chopchop. soil + teas will produce the best quality end product IMO

Thanks guys. I rummaged through my freebies from htg. I have several packs of Roots Organics stuff. I checked the chart and, for the stuff that I have, it showed to feed Nitro Bat Guano (9-3-1) along with Elemental (Ca/Mg). So I mixed up a 1/4 strength solution and fed the tall girl. She has maroon/purple streaks on her stalk and branches have the same, but it has looked this way since it was a seedling so I really don't think it's malnourishment related.

The directions called for it to be mixed for 12 to 24 hours.... I assume this means to mix it up and let it set, I'm not big on stirring bat poo all night should I have put an air stone in there? I think the packet actually says to minimize air stones and pumps...

Also, what is the accepted way of measuring flowering time... Does the clock start when you flip to 12/12 or does it start once you see flowers? Or does it really matter

Most guys count from day one, some after the first week, i don't even count anymore, just guess most of the time, not proper but i have not figured out a way that i actually keep track.
I personally aerate the hell out of my tea, i use my hydrofarm air pump (dual diaphragm), using a total of 3 air stones, with 2 lines going to one, 4 lines total.

TruenoAE86coupe said:

Compost teas help to uptake the nutrient immensely, i personally am using the Bountea system right now, (1 qt Alaskan Humus, 1 cup bio activator, handful or two earthworm castings, and some more bennies, whatever i have on hand usually, mix in a 5 gallon bucket, aerate for 12-24 hrs, filter, then mix 5:1 to 2:1 water to tea)

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Thanks guys, let me see if the noob has it straight . When you add all those ingredients to the 5 gallon bucket, do you also add some water before you aerate? If so, how many gallons of concentrated tea do you end up with? Trying to figure out scale as I only need 2 gallons every three days or so and you can't store for more than 3 days yeah?


Also, the dilution range of 5:1 to 2:1 water to tea, would this be such that you would start at 5:1 and increase through flower to 2:1? Or would it be 5:1 for using as a supplement or 2:1 if using as primary nute? Sorry for the 20 question routine.


Finally, as a supplement to the tea, would the Phos Bat Guano (0-7-0) be enough to add in weeks 4/5 through week 6/7 or do I still need to add nitrogen? Man I thought it was freakin complicated before lol. I also have the following in my stock of freebies..


Nitro Bat Guano 9-3-1
Sea Bird Guano 0-12-0
liquid Mexican bat guano .8-.5-0
Bio Root liquid 1-1-1
CaliMajic (Ca/Mg) liquid 1-0-0
Pure Tea Blend .5-.5-1


I would like to use what I have, but if I need to chuck it all and get something different, I'll do that too....


Oh, check it. I'm going to start a Pink Diesel Auto that a friend gave me today and stick in the cab if I can find room. As I passed my male Snow Goddess clone off to said friend, I will still be within my limits. I'm stoked! You know, the fem autos will provide me a good buffer so I can always be sure I have 3 plants in flower.

Pretty high n tired but i will do my best here.
I make a 4 gallonish batch in the 5 gallon bucket, the solids don't take out too much, maybe a half gallon. Yes add water to the mix, i usually start with the water and then add all the stuff i talked about. Of course use dechlorinated water, letting it sit out for 24 hours is enough for this.
The reason i say 5:1 to 2:1 is more based on how long i actually brew the tea, sometimes i forget and only get a 6 or so hour brew in, so i lay it on heavy to make sure there is lots of life in the mix. Othertimes i will brew for 24 hrs or more and then i don't add as much because there is much more life per gallon of tea.
Teas are tricky on how long they last, a lot of people refrigerate their tea, but in the interest of not getting divorced, i do not. I have brewed teas for roughly a week before they started to become anaerobic (bad bacteria) and stink. More food is needed for the longer brew (molasses is a common food for teas, i use the bioactivator, but its pricey) but the nice thing about teas is you can try and learn very easily, if it smells good/natural then it should be fine for the plants, if it starts to stink like sour milk, etc then toss it.
You can certainly do smaller brews of only a gallon or less, but your house plants, veggies, lawn etc will all love the teas, unless you add a lot of nutrients. I had mentioned before typically teas do not have enough nutrient to sustain our plants, but some do add enough nutrient into the tea itself to feed only tea. And then there is supersoil, but that is another topic.
I try to keep it as simple as possible and really can't tell you the best way to accomplish what you need for your plants, ec could i am sure, but i know dyna-gro would probably be his suggestion too. I can help you get wholesale on it if you need.

Wow, thanks Tru. That was a lot to ask coming from a noob late on Saturday night. I'm sure you banked considerable Karma as a result of your help I really did do a fair amount of research, but the opinions were all over the place, so I was hoping I could get some direction from folks I trust, which I did. Thanks again, I'll pick up some dyna-gro.

Thought I would post some natural light pics, they look very healthy to me. I didn't really notice any difference after the feeding this weekend. I will be getting stuff for teas and the Dyna-gro today, I suppose I will start at 1/4 strength on the DG. Also, check out the purple stripes on the stalk of my tall gal, she's stylin.

The feedings shouldn't really show much as far as plant change, maybe a little faster growth, but i know that hasn't been an issue. Its the lack of feedings that will really change the way the plant looks, so the fact they haven't changed is a good thing.
They look very healthy, stalk isn't too discolored, but the purple on the leaf stem indicates she is pretty hungry, but your picture shows how the color is increasing as you head up the stalk and she got hungrier. Starts very green with thin maroon stripes, hits the next set of branches and adds some more maroon, another set of branches and the maroon is in thick stripes.

Thanks T. I have my dyna-gro bloom & pro-tekt. Do you think I should start at 1/4 or a little higher? A 1/4 dose for 1 gallon is only 1/16 of a tsp lol

My bottles are in the dungeon right now, but isn't production dosing 1tsp per gallon? I will update later when i look to make sure, but i know i haven't used a tsp in a long time, always a tbsp or two for 2 gallons.
Start light though, maybe 1/8th tsp per gallon, you can burn the plants going to much right away, a smaller does will show better what they are ready to handle, less risk of hurting them.
For future reference i use Foliage-Pro instead of grow or bloom, just run it all the way through veg and flower. It is hard to find, but if you like the DG maybe we can split a gallon of each (i can get wholesale pricing).

I bought the bloom lol, oh well.... I'm down to spit some of the foliage-pro with you sometime. The bloom says 1/4 to 1/2 tsp per gallon. I mixed some up which I planned to feed in the morning at 1/8 tsp... do you need to let it set overnight? or can you feed straight away.

This stuff seems like you could just mix it with your res water....

Yeah you can do whatever with Dyna gro, it will grow plants in any medium, most any type of plant. Its actually for orchids or something.
I put it in water that has sat out for 24hrs to get rid of the chlorine, but it goes in and mixed slightly, then into the plants immediately. Then over again 3 or 4 more times lol, i need a bigger watering jug....

Bubbagineer said:

Thought I would post some natural light pics, they look very healthy to me. I didn't really notice any difference after the feeding this weekend. I will be getting stuff for teas and the Dyna-gro today, I suppose I will start at 1/4 strength on the DG. Also, check out the purple stripes on the stalk of my tall gal, she's stylin.

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They are looking BEAUTIFUL, Bubba.

with DG, we found that you can use foliage pro (I think they are renaming it) for veg->bloom, saves on costs of having 2 types and cycles through the bottle quicker. it was originally designed for NASA to grow plants in a space lab and has just about the fullest range of nutes (macro and micro) in a single package vs other brandings that seem to require more and more additives every year + A&B&Micro regulars. I like the KISS method and DG fits the role perfectly

Awesome looking plants and I think the purple racing stripes are totally cool. With leaves that lush I wonder if the coloration has more to do with the LED light spectrum than nutes?

nope, not the LEDs. they actually cover the color spectrum much better then an HPS or MH, but they lack the penetrating power and raw energy output that you get from an HID. there are some other differences, but none are related to how a plant uptakes & utilizes nutrients.

i totally agree otherwise though, Bubba's plants are looking gooooood on track for lotsa goodness

I fed Frick and Frack a 1/4 strength dose of dyna-gro bloom and a 1/2 dose of Botanicare organic tea this morning - no ill effects so I will step it up for the next feeding. I am seriously considering adding the DG to my reservoir once I verify the dose they need. Seems like it could make for serious buds... the organism that's getting fed being able to suck down more or less juice on demand via the Blumats ... kind of like the experiments where they get the mice hooked on cocaine... but things are running pretty good right now, would hate to fuck it up now lol


The plants just amaze me every time I open the cab. They smell like something crawled up a skunk and died, but only really bad when you jostle them around. I pinched off some bottom leaves this morning and then had to head to the dentist, I had to use wet wipes before I went in cause the stink just lingered.... oh, cavities suck but the continuous whipit machine (i.e. laughing gas mask) rules.


Please check out my bonsai palm tree. I'm guessing clones probably shouldn't look like this.. at least it's green. GreenPeak told me that Indica phenos are exceedingly rare (1/16 to 1/64 or so) in this strain. The short girl (SN2) is turning into a straight up shrub of an Indica - you have to work to get a look at the stalk, so I think I may have something special here

Frick and Frack. That's funny. My Dad used to say that all the time. I also remember when I was really young I got two hamsters. I wanted to name them Twit and Twat. I never could figure out why my Mom didn't like those names.

They sure do look BEAUTIFUL, Bubba!

always give 3days to judge effects of any nute changes, it takes a couple days for signs of change to show. at least until you get used to the patterning and signs