keepittrucckn420
Well-Known Member
I have been reading great stuff on teas lately and I'm just asking if anyone has a preference over a guano or worm tea. Is one better then the other for flower or veg?
Tea preference
- Thread starter keepittrucckn420
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Robert "Bob" Dobbs
New Member
I dont know that it matters after all of the reading i've done man.. I think the whole "schtick" is to innoculate your soil with *tons* of microbes, and a wide variety of them. check out microbemans website microbeorganics dotttttttttt com. (rollitup wont let me post a link) He has a few vidoes / interviews on youtube also. Definitely set me straight and saved me a shit ton of money on buying additives I didnt need for efficient compost tea.
Rasta Roy
Well-Known Member
Top dressings are best man. The whole brewing tea process isn't as necessary as growers think Worm castings are good if your plants are already doing well and you wanna keep the train running. Bat guano is good if your plants are lacking and you need a quick boost that will turn things around quick.
Robert "Bob" Dobbs
New Member
Before you knock compost teas, I'd read up on the research on microbeorganics dott com I think the whole point is to maintain a large and diverse team of microbes. They will die off naturally if you dont maintain an optimal environment for them-- consistent moisture/oxygen/temperature and sugars(which your roots will provide) being key once you've innoculated. So to that point, yeah if your soil is already alive, then you dont need compost teas. If you start seeing deficiencies or pH issues, its likely that a lot of your microbes have died off and need to be replenished. I had this experience on my current grow. I used 'organic soil' and had deficiencies galore until I hit it with compost tea after 36 hours of brewing.. not a complicated recipe either: molasses, worm castings, water and oxygen.. the plants recovered in a few days.
keepittrucckn420
Well-Known Member
Hey bud appreciate the feed back. I should have started with I'm in coco. Can you top dress in coco?
keepittrucckn420
Well-Known Member
Yeww! Good read that clarifies it for me thanks! I'm going to be using it in coco for now and plan on "cooking" my first batch of soil soon and they should go hand in hand!
Thai_Lights
Well-Known Member
De chlorinated water is my tea preference
Thai_Lights
Well-Known Member
My tap water is like 5ppm maybe 10 max.
hillbill
Well-Known Member
.4 ppm here!
Toxic Avenger
Well-Known Member
When I brew I start with fish mulm/aquarium water. I figure that way I can skip dechlorinating. Pretty sure it's adding beneficial bacteria to the equation too.
Richard Drysift
Well-Known Member
Teas are needed more when you are starting off an organic mix than after the soil has been recycled a few times. The more important thing is to keep adding fresh compost to your mix in whatever form you can get it; preferably fresh worm castings. Worm tea does not do as much to actually feed the plants as it does to increase microbial activity. Once your mix achieves supernatural status you won't need to give teas as much. Simply adding EWC as a top dressing is usually enough at that point.
Guano teas supply a bit more NPK value than EWC teas do and guanos can really up the bacteria count as well. My teas froth up like a mfer when I bubble bat or seabird guano. I tend to give guano teas to plants in veg and EWC teas to plants in bloom if at all.
Coco is not really intended for organic growing as a medium unless you have nutrients you plan to use. It is good to add to a a heavy organic mix but it won't sustain your plants for long by itself even if you top dress with EWC. Fresh EWC btw is the shit; and the fresher it is the better. Having a worm bin ups your organic game to baller status.
Guano teas supply a bit more NPK value than EWC teas do and guanos can really up the bacteria count as well. My teas froth up like a mfer when I bubble bat or seabird guano. I tend to give guano teas to plants in veg and EWC teas to plants in bloom if at all.
Coco is not really intended for organic growing as a medium unless you have nutrients you plan to use. It is good to add to a a heavy organic mix but it won't sustain your plants for long by itself even if you top dress with EWC. Fresh EWC btw is the shit; and the fresher it is the better. Having a worm bin ups your organic game to baller status.
keepittrucckn420
Well-Known Member
Hey rich thanks for the tips bud!! I actually have been building one this last week and lucked out there's a worm farm down the street from me! I was hoping to make the teas to clean any stuff in my lines and and going to start cooking up some soil after I get some ewc! Thanks bud!
MustangStudFarm
Well-Known Member
I have been using coco coir for worm bedding and it has really thrown off my K and sodium levels! I don't think that I will use coco based anything anymore. Plus, black strap molasses and kelp has a lot of K in it too. I was dealing with K tox for a while now and didn't realize it... I will use kelp by it's self now and cut the other stuff out and stop using coco for worm bedding. My worthless 2cents...
Rasta Roy
Well-Known Member
Yeah I never got why anyone would use coco for worm bedding anyway. The whole point of the worm bin is that you are only using waste materials not buying materials to add into it.
hillbill
Well-Known Member
I use casting/compost teas with forest floor bottom layer decay and molasses alternating with weak Alfalfa/Kelp tea and clear water 1-2-3. Been With this a while. I top dress at 4 weeks with fish bone meal. Very seldom have deficiencies in 1 1/2 gallon organic mix. The plants love the light teas. I use that watering schedule til the last day but keep soil a bit drier last 2 weeks.
MustangStudFarm
Well-Known Member
I am going to use leaf compost from now on like in my outdoor worm bin! I think that I figured it out this year, collect the grass clippings in the summer and the leaves in the fall and wait until fall to add them together. It was basically just adding grass compost to leaves. I forgot, I also add rabbit bedding during the summer to give some brown to the grass. I use rabbit bedding for top-dressing also.
Here is my worm bin, used plastic pallets that measured 3'x3' each.
Rabbit bedding, grass clippings, uncharged biochar, lots of egg shells, and food scraps. I have been feeding the good scraps to the rabbits 1st and the rotten food to the bin. I compost the manure anyways and the worms show up on their own, I don't have to inoculate the bins with worms...
My rabbits are spoiled compared to some that I have seen. I have started eating more veggies and the rabbits have been getting lots of leftovers. They get a big metal fan in the summer and go in my garage during the winter. I really want to have a run cage set up by next spring. I saved these guys from someone's stew pot a couple of years ago. The owner's were tired of taking care of them.
DonTesla
Well-Known Member
What size pots do you suggest ..
DonTesla
Well-Known Member
I would say.. amend leaf mould, amend compost.. shit, amend castings, get started asap, but yeah teas are good til then, but full spectrum living top dresses are even better imo as well, so experiment gently along the way and share you findings with at least me lol..
also, in general, bacterial dom teas are best for vegging, and fungal dom teas are best for flowering.. so you tweak/ prep your batches accordingly now, if you like.
If you win a cup, we want a shout out! aha!
keepittrucckn420
Well-Known Member
Don thank you! Appreciate the info I will give that a shot my next run! I've been looking into guanos as well. Have you or anybody used kelp4less? They seem to have some pretty good stuff!