How much dr.earth to make 5 gallons of fert. Tea ?

So I’d like to make a fertilizer tea with dr.earth homegrown , how much would I use per gallon of water ?

I plan on using dr.earth and molasses and brew ..

But how many tbs of dr.earth per gallon of water?

https://drearth.com/product/home-grown/ You can zoom in on the back of the bag in the pic if you hover your mouse over the image. Tells you the recipe

Why not top dress the dr earth into your soil/medium at 2TBSP per gallon of medium and make a compost tea to compliment it?

StoneSoup said:

https://drearth.com/product/home-grown/ You can zoom in on the back of the bag in the pic if you hover your mouse over the image. Tells you the recipe

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Thanks , it wouldn’t be to strong?
just wanna make sure I don’tbrew up a tea thts to strong.. so u think there recipe would be fine ?

I’ve never attempted a dr earth fert tea. Sounds kind of risky. With a top dress you can amend the top of the medium and take note of when you did and wait 2-3 weeks to amend again. A top dressing rate of 2TBSP per gallon of medium isn’t too much as long as the leaves on your plants are lightened up and not dark green showing you they’re getting hungry and ready for a top dressing. Otherwise you can burn your plants if you feed when they’re already fed or over fed. Pics of your plants?

I've made nutrient tea with bas craft blend. It gives you a lil more readily available nutrients to get thru until the top dress breaks down enough. That being said I don't do it anymore. Just compost tea. I use Neptune's Harvest fish fertilizer, for readily available now.

Hollatchaboy said:

I've made nutrient tea with bas craft blend. It gives you a lil more readily available nutrients to get thru until the top dress breaks down enough. That being said I don't do it anymore. Just compost tea. I use Neptune's Harvest fish fertilizer, for readily available now.

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I did it once too. Pain in my ass compared to just top dressing. It was an experiment on a houseplant. The plant liked it, but no more than just top dressing and watering.

I would start with 2-3 Tablespoons per 5 gallon bucket.

Go light at first and observe for a few days. If it doesn't have the effect you want, hit your plants with another dose.

Ppms aren't reliable using organics however in this case I would get a reading and only try a lower amount. When I do concentrated worm leachate I'll dilute until it reads somewhere in a range I'm comfortable with. Using dr. Earth like that sounds risky as mentioned it's not made for that kind of use. Something like alfalfa meal, kelp meal, bat guano which are waaaaay lower in organic food I'll only use 1 to 2 tbls per 5 gallons of water. Normally adding a cup or 2 of worm castings.

IMO top dress as needed - per container - scratch in then water. I feed once per week myself.

Less drama . And instead of “ tea “ do a kelp watering between scheduled feed . Remember you are only trying to balance what the plant uses and medium being exhausted.

EWC in your initial mix is recommended too.

And depending on medium used - some can be made into a tea also. FFOF ( ocean ) for example can be cheesecloth bagged and bubbled for a potent tea then “ leftover “ soil bag put into solo cups for new seed starts ( waste nothing ).

But your plants your rulez.

I’ve been mixing my own soil using :
Sunshine mix 45%
Patio plus 30%
Malibu compost & Wiggle worm 10%
Perlite chunky 10%
Crushed mosquito dunks too dress
Great white @ transplant
Dr.earth dry ferts 2-3 tbs per gallon mixed in

I went cheap with the patio plus , was dealing with fungus gnats of course but got it under controlled with Spinosad & mosquito dunks

and top dressing dr.earth every2-3 weeks

With touch ups/as needed or every3 weeks with :
5-1-1 fish fert
1 tbs of molasses
2-3 drops of coco wet (2-3drps or 1-2 ml??)
(Should I add ewc aswell?)

I was thinking of supplementing cal-mag also as a foilar spray since I have the botanicare cal mag and I read it can hurt the bennies , so a foilar spray would be preferable..

But I was thinking of doing it like this^ and halfway into veg I would hit it with a dr.earth fertilizer tea (just to try something new )

but wanted some input before I try it , which I always do with a new method ..

So thanks guys ! I’ll stick what I been usually doing and just use a tea with the ;
Fish fert 5-1-1
Molasses
Ewc (which would be better just use sparingly/touch up or every 3 weeks?)

here some pics they seem to be stretching growing lanky due to insufficient lighting soI put a stinger light up sp3000 ) hopefully tht will thicken them up before initiating flowering

Dr Earth has been my base nute and tea for 12+ years now.
If I make a 5g bucket I use a cup if I brew a gallon I use 2-3 tbsp 1/4c max.

I amend my soil and very seldom need to topdress, and as far as top dressing 2 tbsp per gallon of soil seems heavy to me.
That's almost a cup for a 7g bag. I've always feed on the light side.

Cool so u have experience using the drearth as tea ..

If I decide to just top dress , would u suggest using 1tbs per gallon in 20gallon pot?

also when I top dresser/drearth , can I top dress with Malibu compost & wiggle worm half cup of each? Or would ewc be just fine? I would like to use both although

Hash Hound said:

Dr Earth has been my base nute and tea for 12+ years now.
If I make a 5g bucket I use a cup if I brew a gallon I use 2-3 tbsp 1/4c max.

I amend my soil and very seldom need to topdress, and as far as top dressing 2 tbsp per gallon of soil seems heavy to me.
That's almost a cup for a 7g bag. I've always feed on the light side.

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Depends on plant size. Monster plants consume a lot more.

Hollatchaboy said:

Depends on plant size. Monster plants consume a lot more.

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I’m watering first bout 2-3 liters and then top dress and water it in with 1-2 liters ..
I usually water a bit before fertilizing to avoid loosing fertilizer in runoff ..

I also defoliated this plant few days ago ..
Before :

southbayLA154 said:

I’m watering first bout 2-3 liters and then top dress and water it in with 1-2 liters ..
I usually water a bit before fertilizing to avoid loosing fertilizer in runoff ..

I also defoliated this plant few days ago ..
Before :View attachment 5146905

View attachment 5146904

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If you're going to grow in living soil, you don't want runoff.
Water 5-10% water to soil volume. Should be just enough to moisten soil, but not over saturate.

southbayLA154 said:

Cool so u have experience using the drearth as tea ..

If I decide to just top dress , would u suggest using 1tbs per gallon in 20gallon pot?

also when I top dresser/drearth , can I top dress with Malibu compost & wiggle worm half cup of each? Or would ewc be just fine? I would like to use both although

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I usually get a nice foamy tea with molasses, a microbe powder called Stump Tea, and DrEarth
If you don't strain the tea it's a tea topdress double shot.

1 tbsp should be a good starting point, you can always add more next topdressing if the plant looks like it needs it.
A half cup each Malibu and wiggle should be fine too.
Like I said I don't top dress much. So others who do it more often can give you better guidance.

Hollatchaboy said:

Depends on plant size. Monster plants consume a lot more.

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My friend uses way more than I do amending and topdressing, he measures with his hand. His current plant is actually growing into and above his lights, I helped him tie and bend some tops the other day.. He uses 10g bags to my 7's also.

Hash Hound said:

Yes 1 tbsp should be a good starting point, you can always add more next top dressing if the plant looks like it needs it.
A half cup each Malibu and wiggle should be fine.



My friend uses way more than I do amending and topdressing, he measures with his hand. His current plant is actually growing into and above his lights, I helped him tie and bend some tops the other day.. He uses 10g bags to my 7's also.

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I've learned the hard way, size matters. Lol
It's hard to overfeed with dry ferts. I don't really measure out a certain amount anymore, I pretty much just ballpark it. Not saying it's impossible, but if you got big plants, they can most likely handle it. It depends on the strain also. Some are bigger eaters than others.

Hollatchaboy said:

I've learned the hard way, size matters. Lol
It's hard to overfeed with dry ferts. I don't really measure out a certain amount anymore, I pretty much just ballpark it. Not saying it's impossible, but if you got big plants, they can most likely handle it. It depends on the strain also. Some are bigger eaters than others.

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Last round I learned you can overdo it, lol.

PadawanWarrior said:

Last round I learned you can overdo it, lol.

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For sure, it's possible. There's actually a lot of variables involved. I had a hard time keeping up with my last run, cuz she ate fast and big. The sip could've been why I'm guessing though.