Local hydro shop makes a compost tea using cow manure and bio char..good?
- Thread starter Pparker88
- Start date
green_machine_two9er
Well-Known Member
Like straight cow manure? Or composted manure? Would depend on how broken down This material Is for me
Pparker88
Well-Known Member
Composted manure and biochar.
Chickjdawg
New Member
To be honest the best compost tea I use Is a 5 gallon bucket, in that I use 1tbs of black strap molasses, 1 cup of worm castings, 1tbs of the flollowing; kelp, alfalfa meal, and bat guano. Up to you what to use but watch this video it will help u more. Hope this helps
Pparker88
Well-Known Member
Do you aerate it? Let it ferment? What’s the process more or less (can’t watch video til later)?
Growitpondifarm
Well-Known Member
Cow manure makes great tea. There are a lot of benefits to cow manure other than the NPK values. Go for it, not sure on the reasoning to adding bio char to the tea unless some of the char is poured into the container when you buy it? Maybe I’m missing something that someone else can chime in on
Pparker88
Well-Known Member
They make an aerated compost tea with cow manure and biochar. That’s what the guy said. And how hot is the tea? I’m in FFOF soil that I already top dressed with Bio Live fert. I don’t want to burn my plants. I wanted to do a foliar and/or root drench. Can I do both or just one or the other?
RandomAsshole1
Member
Probably not. The hydro store by me makes a tea which is a nice gesture but their are several problems that most likely mean its a waste of time.
Teas are mostly not a bad thing in your grow I used to use them and still do it sometimes cause fuck it why not but the people who popularized teas do not brew them anymore due to these below factors parroted by me. They actually do something called compost tea extraction and they get better results with far less work and time. They in fact actively discourage tea usage for commercial grows when called to consult.
1. You have no idea whats in the tea even if they put in what they said they did you have no idea on the sourcing of those materials and IME hydro shop workers have no clue on what they're talking about 1/2 the time. But I am in flyover land so its still semi illegal.
2.The microlife inside that tea is dependant on O2 levels which iirc most studies on teas found them to be anerobic with insufficient O2 levels even when aerated with professional greenhouse equipment.
3. You have no idea the bio-life in said tea due to not knowing whats in it AND not knowing how old the tea is. The micro life at 12 hours is going to be wildly different from the micro life at 18 and 24 and 36 hours. You need to know what biolife your cultivating your tea for and in what time period they are active in. It is not an easy task for a home grower. If you mess it up. You can in worst case scenarios actually cultivate pathogenic organisms like botrytis etc in your teas.
Teas are mostly not a bad thing in your grow I used to use them and still do it sometimes cause fuck it why not but the people who popularized teas do not brew them anymore due to these below factors parroted by me. They actually do something called compost tea extraction and they get better results with far less work and time. They in fact actively discourage tea usage for commercial grows when called to consult.
1. You have no idea whats in the tea even if they put in what they said they did you have no idea on the sourcing of those materials and IME hydro shop workers have no clue on what they're talking about 1/2 the time. But I am in flyover land so its still semi illegal.
2.The microlife inside that tea is dependant on O2 levels which iirc most studies on teas found them to be anerobic with insufficient O2 levels even when aerated with professional greenhouse equipment.
3. You have no idea the bio-life in said tea due to not knowing whats in it AND not knowing how old the tea is. The micro life at 12 hours is going to be wildly different from the micro life at 18 and 24 and 36 hours. You need to know what biolife your cultivating your tea for and in what time period they are active in. It is not an easy task for a home grower. If you mess it up. You can in worst case scenarios actually cultivate pathogenic organisms like botrytis etc in your teas.
Pparker88
Well-Known Member
gotcha...I think I'm going to buy a bokashi bin and go that route moving forward
Richard Drysift
Well-Known Member
Thing about grow store tea or any aact for that matter is that it must be constantly aerated and served fresh. I once had a local grow store with a tea club; was $20 per mo for unlimited tea. I was filling up a sprayer and several gallon jugs each month and spraying my entire lawn and weed plants which was really great but ....nobody except the store owner really took care of the huge tub of worm tea on a constant brew and many times it was anaerobic long before I got there. Stunk like a stagnant pond...That’s when I decided to start my own worm bin and I never looked back. That grow store eventually closed and moved.
I have brewed teas with chicken manure and also tried fungal dominant recipes. Virtually any kind of composted poo can be aerated to grow bacteria but vermicompost is exceptional in aac teas. An earthworms gullet contains high levels of soil microbes that decompose organic matter. Biochar contains probiotics but maybe not as high levels as kelp meal; it’s an alternative.
I wonder if it is possible that the cow manure and biochar may be stable for longer than a worm compost tea. I know from experience that worm tea needs to be distributed as soon as it is done brewing. Either way I don’t see how it could hurt your grow even though there are far better options.
I have brewed teas with chicken manure and also tried fungal dominant recipes. Virtually any kind of composted poo can be aerated to grow bacteria but vermicompost is exceptional in aac teas. An earthworms gullet contains high levels of soil microbes that decompose organic matter. Biochar contains probiotics but maybe not as high levels as kelp meal; it’s an alternative.
I wonder if it is possible that the cow manure and biochar may be stable for longer than a worm compost tea. I know from experience that worm tea needs to be distributed as soon as it is done brewing. Either way I don’t see how it could hurt your grow even though there are far better options.
RandomAsshole1
Member
All my info is me parroting so DYOR. But when I did brew teas I used E.Worm Castings, usually store bought with a cup of my soil amendments and to much molasses. I'm using coots mix more or less. The deficient plants tended to start improving after a week but I had a host of other problems my first run so there were multiple issues I was fixing that could have also helped. I would brew mine for about 20-30 hours at about 70* and use it. No idea what was in the teas microlife wise.
If you have some good compost its easier to just extract the microlife. Which takes about 5-20 minutes? Not all of us have compost though. I think you can even use E.W.C. for extraction? I
If you have some good compost its easier to just extract the microlife. Which takes about 5-20 minutes? Not all of us have compost though. I think you can even use E.W.C. for extraction? I
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Pparker88
Well-Known Member
The guy said the tea was good for a day. And yeah they have it in a machine that’s has it constantly moving with air
Leeski
Well-Known Member
The biology will become anaerobic at at faster rate than that it took to make it beneficial
Pparker88
Well-Known Member
Was just wondering. I’m just going to buy recharge. Also, I’ll be applying FPJ, OHN, BRV solution to the plants with a foliar, then soil drench later in flower. (Which I’ll be using FFJ instead of the FPJ)
Leeski
Well-Known Member
Keep it simple sounds like you wanna Chuck the kitchen sink at them knf is complex knowing what and when is something only you can work out what are fpj and why ..... wcap why & when pros cons ?
insomnia65
Well-Known Member
Can you store teas must they be aerated them for use.
Richard Drysift
Well-Known Member
Not really; they go anaerobic really fast. Use it all up or toss it but any extra teas are good to add to your recycling soil. I give the extra teas to my houseplants and toss the gunk left over in the bottom of the bucket in my soil bin.