ORGANIC ACT "TEA" 101" aka "Microbial Extrapolation" via Aerated "tea" or Airlift Bioreacting as MicrobeMan calls it…the following is paraphrased and summarized in portion with all rights and respects going to Tim his site is LogicalGardener.org and he is a boss for breaking it down the way he did, i recommend his site, its a great read, here is merely an intro for those getting into it or those curious how the Dons roll.. microbe wise his work is the best I've found yet, his farm is NO JOKE..)
*TEAS! TELL ME Why?
Stimulates growth mon! feeds soil..and then plants.. being a Microbe Multiplier..
(Essentially the rhizosphere is inoculated with millions of Microbes, whose own processes use only ~40% of their own energy, the rest on the energy is ionically passed onto the plants when the microbes expire, making massive nutrients bioavailable to the plant in a form they can easily transport up stem)
*OK. SO HOW we do dis, den, mon!!?
(There's a HUGE variety of different "tea" recipes out there). I wanted to sift thru the myths and go with data-backed, documented results since we rocking some super beautifully amended living soil RIGHT next to some 5 gallon, mained for 8, humus rich, EWC and Coir (basic) soil (using perlite for aeration/microbe stations). The following recipes will be 100% all natural, and organic as always. Minimal or zero teas on the left (thanks to
@DonPetro) and max organic feeding on the right. Thanks to StowandGrow, (big up!), this is adopted from Microbe Man's Website (LogicalGardender.org) where Tims wicked extensive research bun dem myths..his farm trials were monitored via microscope so they can see micro-beasty reactions on an hour by hour basis..these are the results and final conclusions of their hundreds of massive farm experiments.
So WHATS da MOST basic yet MOST effective way!!??
Tims go-to tea or "Microbial Extrapolation", after hundreds and hundreds of trials, most the time, surprisingly…has only 3 ingredients!
1. Good Water free of Chlorine and Chloramine
2. Vermicompost (VC, or EWC)
3. Organic BlackStrap Molasses (BSM, unsulphured*!)
*in a ratio of
-Amount of Water you use
~40:1 Water to Vermicompost (or 2.38% of total) (42:1 is exact ratio he reps)
200:1 Water to Molasses (or 0.5% of total)
SO HOW MUCH FOR ME DEN!!?? TELL ME BOUT DA SCOOP!
Basically volume is better than weight cause water is heavy. Converted for us medicinal home growers I have broke it down a bit:
23.8mL of VermiCompost or EWC per 1000mL of water/tea
1.5Tbsp per Litre
6.5 Tbsp per 1 Gallon batch
2 Cups per 5 Gallon Batch
and
5 mL of B.StrapMolasses per 1000 ML =
1 tsp per Litre =
4 tsp per 1 Gallon =
~6.5Tbsp per 5 Gallon Batch
(where Tbsp = Tablespoons =15ml and tsp = teaspoon = 5ml, and gallons rounded to 4L cause there are two measurements for gallons, a US gallon has 3.78 litres where UK gallons have 4.54 litres, i like litres they have 1000 mls in em but i have friends in both so heres to us all haha)
JAHJAH! So HOW LONG, boi?
For best results and maximum amounts of all three microbial populations aim for these temps and times although success has been found in other areas to, just not quite as much.
***36 hours - 42 hours ideal, no less than 24
… yall can knock a good 12-18 hours off your activation time with a BSM Spray on your VC, with a lil wheat bran soak, see Microbe Mans link below))
HOW HOT, mon!?
Ambient temps of your grow is best .. or 18-22*C or 65-72*F but extremes have been successful
HOW OFTEN?!
At the proper strength (nice and weak), it is hard to harm ur plants with this.. every watering is ok until microbial populations are at a max, according to Microbe Man.. took him bout 9 years to
get his farm perfect now the microbes take care of themselves)
HOW MUCH to DILUTE?
No need surprisingly, at these sweet scientific ratios, mon. Water spreads the microbial populations out and is just a carrier. in MicrobeMans experience, he applies the "tea" in undiluted form and waters more that day "only if necessary".. his explanations are here, great page:
https://logicalgardener.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=41&sid=15a026b3c1395f92e3a41685e38d5e9a
IS an AQUARIUM PUMP good to aerate a 5 GALLON BREW?
NO. U want a certain flow of air and certain level of dissolved Oxygen (D.o2). You want 0.08CFM / gallon of water and 6+PPM (trust, son) so an aquarium pump will should do 2 gallon fairly well and for sure good for a 1 gallon (or less). Too much O2 is hard to achieve so don't worry. I.e. you would need to be violently spilling. get glass fused airstone after you clog ur cheap one, it will last. Best to soak stone before and after tea as well.
TELL ME BOUT DA STRAINERS!!??
400 micron is the sweet spot but no need unless your foliar spraying, but we're not big on that since we smoke this fruit.
But you may more various reasons so nylon paint strainers will tide you over for a while.. its better than panty hose.. one of the microbeasties can't get thru it.
TELL ME BOUT DA TKO!!
ALSO! if feeding via a spout, try not to have a 90* angle in it, its like Knocking out or crashing all your micro life into a brick wall before dropping them onto the canvas (soil bed)
Happy Brewing, Bredgrens! Advanced teas covered next, where lots of ingredients have good and counter-effects as well!! So we will sift thru the shitt, and come up with some GOLD!
Again thanks to
@DonPetro and
@stowandgrow for dee kickstart, and the MicrobeMan of course!! BIGUP!