Compost Tea / Super Soil Question

guanoman

guanoman

Well-Known Member
Q1) If a person does not have 30 days to wait for the super soil to cook outside, can the biological process be sped up by applying compost tea to the soil and leaving it outside for a lesser period of time or using it right away?

Q2) In cooler climates is there a way to test your soil to ensure it has
cooked long enough after the 30 days have passed?
 
ClamDigger

ClamDigger

Active Member
adding compost tea would definitely speed up the decomposition/inoculation phase, just make sure your containers have adequate drainage.
quite a few growers use uncooked super soil. another way to speed up the cooking phase is to turn/stir your soil more often.
as far as i know there is no visual "cue" for when super soil is done, just make sure its mixed really well.
 
guanoman

guanoman

Well-Known Member
OK
Thanks!
Didn't know you could use it uncooked.
Any special directions or just use as normal?
 
Cooter@666

Cooter@666

Well-Known Member
guanoman said:
Q1) If a person does not have 30 days to wait for the super soil to cook outside, can the biological process be sped up by applying compost tea to the soil and leaving it outside for a lesser period of time or using it right away?

Q2) In cooler climates is there a way to test your soil to ensure it has
cooked long enough after the 30 days have passed?
Click to expand...
What are you using for base soil? How old are your plants?
 
S

snagglegraspt

Member
Molasses saves me time: I believe it increases the good biological situation and appears to make the soil ready for planting. I am fortunate in that I am able to buy pickup loads of "molasses waste" from a sugar beet plant. Using about 3 shovel fulls to each hole. (my holes are 4ft X 4ft X 4ft). I find that they are ready in about 10 days of so, however, the planting soil is mostly peat with some finished fruit compost (I have over the years, found that using a lot of organic produce in the compost seems to work well with cannibus). I am, again fortunate, in having access to the left over produce from an organic produce farm.
Hell, I might be in the wrong thread, are you guys indoor or outdoor, I am both, depending on the time of year.
 
S

snagglegraspt

Member
re: "I had read that a..." Injecting Oxy into a pile sounds like it would work, but also sounds expensive. I turn mine by hand: it takes about 2 hours and is worth every minute of it.
If the pile has enough fluff it will need less turning. I have often wondered if I put an air pump on a leach line and ran in through the pile it might give it more oxy.gen and thus less turning and thus be done in less time, maybe even with a higher Nitrogen Content.
Anyone out there ever tried it?
 
W

washedmothafuka

Well-Known Member
ClamDigger said:
as far as i know there is no visual "cue" for when super soil is done, just make sure its mixed really well.
Click to expand...
A white web will form on the top of your super soil after about a month or two or when the inoculation bla bla is finished.

One question though, can I use a guano/meal compost tea on my girls if I am also using the super soil? In other words...can you use the SS and compost teas at the same time? Or is that too much nutrients?
 
Cooter@666

Cooter@666

Well-Known Member
snagglegraspt said:
Molasses saves me time: I believe it increases the good biological situation and appears to make the soil ready for planting. I am fortunate in that I am able to buy pickup loads of "molasses waste" from a sugar beet plant. Using about 3 shovel fulls to each hole. (my holes are 4ft X 4ft X 4ft). I find that they are ready in about 10 days of so, however, the planting soil is mostly peat with some finished fruit compost (I have over the years, found that using a lot of organic produce in the compost seems to work well with cannibus). I am, again fortunate, in having access to the left over produce from an organic produce farm.
Hell, I might be in the wrong thread, are you guys indoor or outdoor, I am both, depending on the time of year.
Click to expand...
WOW man that's F'n cool, post some pic's of your compost
 
Cooter@666

Cooter@666

Well-Known Member
washedmothafuka said:
A white web will form on the top of your super soil after about a month or two or when the inoculation bla bla is finished.

One question though, can I use a guano/meal compost tea on my girls if I am also using the super soil? In other words...can you use the SS and compost teas at the same time? Or is that too much nutrients?
Click to expand...
It depends on the strain....some of mine are water only, but the hungry ones get watered with teas. If your plants start showing deficiencies you can always top dress with the SS
 
chronic coinoisseur

chronic coinoisseur

Active Member
Nitrogen is the basic fuel for decomposition, the more they have the faster the bacteria will work. This theory can be observed in real life by a soils nitrogen actually being tied up temporarily if somthing fresh like glass clippings are mulched on top because the bacteria are using the nitrogen temporarily to decompose the fresh material. Alfalfa is a natural source of high N, is relatively cheap if bought in bulk at a feed store and can readily incorporated into a tea in addition to the compost.
 
Growop101

Growop101

Well-Known Member
Can you fuck your plants up with teas if given to much?? like burn them ? And how exactly do you mix a tea jus throw all your ingredients into a sac and let it soak for a while??
 
Jack Harer

Jack Harer

Well-Known Member
Growop101 said:
Can you fuck your plants up with teas if given to much?? like burn them ? And how exactly do you mix a tea jus throw all your ingredients into a sac and let it soak for a while??
Click to expand...

Not saying no.............but I think you'd REALLY have to try hard to do so. And yes, to the throwing stuff in a sack, but you gotta aerate the mix with an aquarium pump and air stone. Organics are SO VERY forgiving.
 
ClamDigger

ClamDigger

Active Member
Growop101 said:
sick what happens if you dont use a air stone?
Click to expand...
a different set of microbes move in, Anaerobic.
they are not the microbes you want. they make still water manky. (smelly)
the scientific name for "tea" is Actively Aerated Compost Tea (AACT)
another reason for the air stone is that it "mixes" the tea.
 
mr.bond

mr.bond

Well-Known Member
Growop101 said:
sick what happens if you dont use a air stone?
Click to expand...
Here Growop, before you hurt yourself...
https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-how-breed-your-own-beneficial.html
Definitely do not try to brew a beneficial tea without adequate air infusion........

To answer your other question about tea + Super Soil screwing up plants. Let's assume that some tea is brewed properly -- in this way, you are creating billions of these beneficial fungi and bacteria. Adding this tea to a fresh Super Soil mixture will definitely speed up the inoculation process due to the mass influx of hungry bennies that have been pre-bred (brewed). The tea itself cannot burn plants as it contains only slight trace amounts of nutrients. If anything, applying the tea could potentially increase nutrient uptake due to microbial activity in the root zone making the nutes more available to the roots, and conceivably it could burn the plant if the grow medium was very abundant/hot with fertilizer. I would imagine it unlikely though, if the grow medium was really that hot to begin with it would have probably burned the plants already. You are much more likely to see increased water uptake from applying the tea. When I apply the tea, the plants drink like crazy, even within the first 24 hours. Once a functional and bio-active soil culture is created, try to avoid the inclusion of any chlorine through tap water or other sources.

Hope this helps.

mr. bond
 
Growop101

Growop101

Well-Known Member
mr.bond said:
Here Growop, before you hurt yourself...
https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-how-breed-your-own-beneficial.html
Definitely do not try to brew a beneficial tea without adequate air infusion........

To answer your other question about tea + Super Soil screwing up plants. Let's assume that some tea is brewed properly -- in this way, you are creating billions of these beneficial fungi and


bacteria. Adding this tea to a fresh Super Soil mixture will definitely speed up the inoculation process due to the mass influx of hungry bennies that have been pre-bred (brewed). The tea itself cannot burn plants as it contains only slight trace amounts of nutrients. If anything, applying the tea could potentially increase nutrient uptake due to microbial activity in the root zone making the nutes more available to the roots, and conceivably it could burn the plant if the grow medium was very abundant/hot with fertilizer. I would imagine it unlikely though, if the grow medium was really that hot to begin with it would have probably burned the plants already. You are much more likely to see increased water uptake from applying the tea. When I apply the tea, the plants drink like crazy, even within the first 24 hours. Once a functional and bio-active soil culture is created, try to avoid the inclusion of any chlorine through tap water or other sources.

Hope this helps.

mr. bond
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info man, so you can throw any ingredients in the tea mix? is there any mixing cautions? and do you gotta put a certain amount in of each ingredient? you cant just like dump a bit of everythin in sorta deal??
 
mr.bond

mr.bond

Well-Known Member
Growop101 said:
Thanks for the info man, so you can throw any ingredients in the tea mix? is there any mixing cautions? and do you gotta put a certain amount in of each ingredient? you cant just like dump a bit of everythin in sorta deal??
Click to expand...
No problem. Everything you need to know about brewing this tea is in this [LINK] https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-how-breed-your-own-beneficial.html -- including ingredients, measurements, and how long to brew it for. Note: brewing it for 48hours minimum is key, don't shortcut this step.

Because you are brewing bacteria and fungi, they multiply into the billions, so measuring doesn't need to be an exact science, however certain products have different concentrations than others. It's best to just follow the recipe, because it definitely works. Certain things you purposely want to leave out of the tea, like Roots Excelurator for example. Great product, but when used in the tea, it's few key bacterias will likely get overrun by the diversity of the other ingredients you include.
 
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