What causes gold spots after I apply aact worm casting tea

<Grasshopper>

Active Member
It looks like gold dusting or tiny flecks. Also sometimes it has more in the veins of the leaf. This is after I apply my organic tea. Do you think that mabey its because the ph of the tea reaches 7.5 - 8 sometimes before I add it. Could this high PH cause cal lockout perhaps? I do know that when I quit adding ph down to the water of when watering my vegging plants that my chocolope plants started showing calcium lockout. When I phed it to 6.5 it fixed it. I have just read a few times that when growing organic I dont need to ph the water. I guess this is not true.

Should I be PHing my aact tea? I just hate the thought of adding ph down to nice rich alive teas.

Your opinions please....help me solve this gold spotting. It doesnt seem to affect the finished product or yeald. I get huge yealds with the teas.

My tea recipe is
Earthjuice Catalist
Fresh worm castings...really freas
Kelp Meal
Molassas
Humic Acid
Sometimes Mycos fungi
 

whitey78

Well-Known Member
RO or tap? And how long you bubbling? If RO I am pretty sure you do not have to PH, tap/aerated...PH.
 

<Grasshopper>

Active Member
I am useing Tap water that is 150 PPM. I had noticed when useing RO water that I would get cal def right away. I have just had better crops with my tap water.

I am bubbling for 30 hours give or take. The bubbly froth starts takeing off arounf 15 hours then I add another teaspoon of blackstrapp molassas and get things really growing. I also use a aquarium heater and keep it at 75 degrees. Its a big dark frothy slimey tea when its done. I then do dilute it down on some of the plants that are not ready for the tea. I like to wait till 2 to 3 weeks into flower for this tea....if sooner it gets diluted more with water. I am useing supersoil also and sometimes I think the tea works so good to make the food availible to the plants that I get nute burn slightly after applying my tea.

My yeald has doubled since useing the teas. Sise by side its a no brainer....but what causes the gold dots. Mabey I will make a utube video of it and post it up here.

Grasshopper
 

whitey78

Well-Known Member
I dont know dude, definitely post a vid or a pic and see what pops up for advice. But my personal guess would be that you should try adjusting the PH to something in the normal range for your medium with an organic PH adjuster, earth juice organic PH up or down is like $16 for a 1 or 2 pound bottle (cant remember, probably a pound or so) just to try and not put anything chemy in there at all. But it could be the tap as well. Maybe theres one element that there is a little more of or something??? post a pic and see how it goes.
 

NightbirdX

Well-Known Member
This could be a couple things. You could be right in saying that it super charges the plant into taking too much nutrients. I have seen this happen when using Humic Acid. Super Soil already has humics in it, you might try backing off.

It very well could be the tap water also. If you have a lot of Chloramines in your water, it will kill off your benes. I would say add the RO water and put 20% tap water into it, and aerate it. If you are trying to do a tea and add microbes, but the Chloramines are just killing things off, it doesn't do you much good. Use the filtered water. You should not have to pH a tea. And if you are using a tea, always add mycorhizzae. You wanna reinocculate every 2-3 weeks.

Don't worry about trying to add too much to your teas, your soil already has everything you should need. From what I can see, it looks like you are trying to add too much to your teas. You put EWC and Kelp meal in there, and then hit it again with EJ Catalyst which is made from EWC, molasses, and kelp. So it seems like depending on how much you put, you could be double dosing most things. I would keep your tea simple. Super soil already has everything in it to feed your plants. I would foliar your kelp or do a tea by itself. And choose what you want to use. I would go with Molasses, Mycorhizzae, and maybe EWC, I'd probably just use the Catalyst since you have it.
 

<Grasshopper>

Active Member
I am useing Tap water that is 150 PPM. I had noticed when useing RO water that I would get cal def right away. I have just had better crops with my tap water.

I am bubbling for 30 hours give or take. The bubbly froth starts takeing off arounf 15 hours then I add another teaspoon of blackstrapp molassas and get things really growing. I also use a aquarium heater and keep it at 75 degrees. Its a big dark frothy slimey tea when its done. I then do dilute it down on some of the plants that are not ready for the tea. I like to wait till 2 to 3 weeks into flower for this tea....if sooner it gets diluted more with water. I am useing supersoil also and sometimes I think the tea works so good to make the food availible to the plants that I get nute burn slightly after applying my tea.

My yeald has doubled since useing the teas. Sise by side its a no brainer....but what causes the gold dots. Mabey I will make a utube video of it and post it up here.

Grasshopper
I did figure this out...for anyone who may stumble across the same problem. I used Earthjuice Catalyst as well as kelp meal in the tea and that was just to much kelp. I removed the kelp meal and the spots went away and all is well now...shagrin
 

blueJ

Active Member
Water, worm poop, molasses, KISS. Mycos when you transplant, not in your worm casting Bacteria tea, humid acid for regular waterings and same with kelp. Kelp initially inhibits bacterial growth so you have to bubble longer. Make a seperate kelp meal tea to get the benefits of kelp.

no need for the catalyst just a lower quality bottled version of what you're trying to make, wasted money.
 

1337hacker

Active Member
How big of a pump are you using and for what size batch?

Your tea seems pretty good but you don't need the humic or the kelp. Lots of times when I am having trouble thinking straight with EJ I refer back to the hydro-organic FAQ and the labeling of the bottle to see what ingredients are in them.

12. I mixed a solution using the Earth Juice Original Formulas "Advanced Chart" and my pH is 3.90? Since 1991 the mass majority, including ourselves, of gardeners who use the Earth Juice Original formulas simply mix with water and use without adjusting the pH. The initial pH of Earth Juice Original formulas will generally be on the mild acidic side, this is primarily due to the natural phyto-acids and amino-acids contained in many of the Earth Juice formulas. These are considered "Weak" acids that will help transport (chelate) nutrients for easy and rapid use by the soil microbes and plants. Earth Juice will adjust and be conditioned by medium and beneficial microbes supported by the applications of Earth Juice.

If you prefer to adjust the pH prior to using here's a few options:

Always mix with portable TAP water and use a high quality professional planting mix.

A. Aerate the solution for 12-24 hours. After the aeration period if the solution exhibits an increased in the pH, do not adjust and use as is. If there is no increase in the pH, adjust the desired pH and use. For the next mix, prior to the aeration process, adjust the pH to 4.5 followed by aerating for 12-24 hours. After this period if there is not increase in pH adjust to pH and use

B. See the Earth Juice "Advanced Plus" Chart. The initial pH using the "Advanced Plus" Chart will generally be a bit higher.

C. Try a partial substitution of Earth Juice Big Bloomin Guano for proportions of the Earth Juice Bloom. Example: 1 tsp/gl Earth Juice Bloom + 3 tsp/gal Big Bloomin Guano. Use Big Bloomin Guano during the Vegetative period at 1-3 tsp/gal.

D. To keep it as easy without any worries, use Amazon Bloom as your medium and follow the Amazon Bloom "Keep It Simple" Chart.


I know it's not a direct answer to your question but I feed 10 + strains the same exact Earth Juice based schedule without ph'ing or bubbling, and have always had fantastic results. Using Grow and bloom will cover your Cal-mag needs , but you are only using the bloom it looks like.

What exactly do they mean in that answer by phyto-acids? Well that's their fancy way of saying humic/ fulvic is already built in so you won't need to add those into your mix because it's already chelating everything. Fulvic/ humics do not effect the pH of your soil negatively and you can feed with them freely without worries, as their FAQ states. So definitely cut those out.

The 3LB recommend a 24 hour bubble time to bring up the pH a little, but I have heard many others say the same thing, that the pH will soar above 7 the longer you go (especially much longer than 24 hours) .

AS FOR CATALYST: I personally love catalyst and hate going without it... it's something that I use every watering pretty much. It's like an all in one for your plants and works with or without the extra fertilizer.

The malt, yeast, molasses and oat bran do a good job of feeding your microbes whether you brew a tea or you are just feeding straight to your soil, and on top of that provide enzymes *hence the name catalyst. You can pretty much stop spending the extra coin on hygrozyme to see the overnight results.

here's another clip from their faq on catalyst:

20. Can I or should I use Earth Juice Catalyst with other plant nutrients? Yes. Catalyst (Canada Xatalyst) is the number #1hydroponic additive in the world. It will improve the performance and effectiveness of all soil and hydroponic nutrients. Due to the potential of accelerated nutrient availability, use caution when using Earth Juice Catalyst with granular synthetic timed released fertilizers.
So
 
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