Adjusting Ph in compost tea

[G gnome]

Did you like my joe dirt reference?

 

[steelcanaries]

nice....been thinking about learning about living soil and going back to earth and amending properly so i only have to water and never have to worry about ph....seems like a lot less headaches, and a healhtier product to boot...thinking of picking up the book "Teaming with Microbes" to help get me started...Im over this coco hybrid craziness...lol earth and organics is the way, i should have never switched...I want my pot of medium to be a lil living Jurassic Park...lol

 

[steelcanaries]

if youre talking about the plymouth...ya...thx for the laugh bruv...haha

 

[waayne]

@G gnome Great informative thread!

 

[G gnome]

Thanks for noticing wayne. Check out my grow diary thread archives codeblue and rudeboi

 

[waayne]

I will bro;)

 

[G gnome]

The girl from tech support at G.H. couldn't believe I wasn't over fertilizing.
Shes like" Wait. What are you doing?"

 

[Bannacis]

i dont think he worrys about ph...like he said...if hes all organic...the living soil regulates the ph and swings so the plant uptakes exactly what the plant needs...but because he is feeding the soil with the tea, not the plant, I dont think ph matters...Bannacis, if I am understanding this wrong...please correct me...thx for your input...Bless..

You are correct. no need to ph with TLO.

 

[Bannacis]

I disagree w this. I'm not saying my way is better but I def use the opposite philosophy.
I brew my tea diluted 3 or 5 to 1(basically as much tea as i can spare) Then mix my fertilizers accordingly approaching up to 2000ppm by wk8 of a 10wk cycle at which point i begin flushing. I water w full strength every time no plain water ever. No salt lock or anything.
Since i have employed this technique 1 1/2yrs ago I have maintained an average yield of 1 7/8lbs per 1k but up to 2 1/4. No c02. Three different
strains btw. I assume that due to the abundance of microbial activity the plants are able to metabolize the non organic liquid nutes at a much more accelerated rate. My leave stay green till about wk 9 after a week of plain water.
Check out some garden pice on my grow diary thread archives codeblue and rudeboi

Ok, but nowhere does it say you ph your tea, the living soil will do this automatically. And Tlo you have a very specific mix of ingredients that you cook, so you start with a strong soil mix, the teas just keep the soil inoculated and supplies proper food for the microbes.
Your style works for you as you say, and it will as long as you don't add contaminated water or synthetic nutrients.
its the TLO style (the Revs) version that if you use according to his recipes...you do not have to ph.

 

[Bannacis]

I fill a 64gal res w 48 gal.
In a 32 gal res i brew my tea add half the tea to the big res and nutrient solution as if the tea wasn't even there.
First 2 wks of flower im at 1050ppm of a transitional mix (half bloom half veg mix) and then gradually raise the solution at ever watering as long as the plant responds well (they usually do ) and by adout week i I'm usually up to about 1900 or so. Then its flush time. btw I also reuse my soiless mix.

Well that explains it, your using a resevor, not sure if your hydro or what, but teas are not be kept long, the microbe will die if no roots to attach to.
the no ph only replies to TLO in a soil/soilless medium, with a premixed soil and teas, no phing required... So your Style is not relevant to this conversation.

 

[Bannacis]

A 48 gal res is not considered a tea in this retrospect...lol. its a reservoir. The tea I am talking about is a half gallon to a gallon at most and after your done bubbling it for 24 hours, you add to your medium. basically fixin dinner for your microbes and fungi. once bubbled you use.it will go bad.
So what your doing is correct for your system...plus you said your not all organic. That's the BIG difference. if you use any organics and put in any synthetics or with any EDTA in it or bad water, it will be counter productive. So in TLO...True Living Organic style you feed the soil not the plant...no ph needed.

 

[G gnome]

Well that explains it, your using a resevor, not sure if your hydro or what, but teas are not be kept long, the microbe will die if no roots to attach to.
the no ph only replies to TLO in a soil/soilless medium, with a premixed soil and teas, no phing required... So your Style is not relevant to this conversation.

Alls I'm using the res for is to prepare my solution. Its a vessel.
I hand water soiless.
Tea is tea whether theres 1 or 100 gal of it ,no?
I still think its relevant.
Is it not true that depending upon ph the tea wil either be fungus dominate or bacteria dominant and that canabis prefers an even balance of both? Theoretically then by adjusting the ph you can achieve said balance.

 

[Bannacis]

Ok...The tea im referring to for TLO is not a vessel. It consist of guanos, earthworm castings, compost, other ingredients...etc... it is bubbled for 24 hours then added to soil mix. it needs to be used right away or it will go bad.
A Tea is not a tea, as you refer. You are just creating a reservoir to hold you nutrient rich water...that is not a TEA. You are force feeding your plants!
That means the plant has to work to break down the nutrients in order to use them, with a True Living Organic soil mix and tea the microbes eat and die, that is the food for the plant. So it does not have to waste energy to break down the nutrients.
You said you don't use all organics, a living Tea will not survive non-organic amendments.
When Using a True Living Organic method...You have a living medium, the tea supplies the necessary elements to keep living microbes alive. All natural!!!
When you have a true living soil, the proper nutrients are readily available for the plant to use as it needs them, thus automatically adjusting ph itself.
Im not going to argue with you on this... I know what im talking about...you need to read up on TLO and what its about.
Not saying that your growing wrong or anything, just not what I'm talking about.

on this forum...
https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/getting-to-know-tlo-organic-growing.63839/

http://www.truelivingorganic.com/

deff watch video below.

 

[Lazerus00]

Ok...The tea im referring to for TLO is not a vessel. It consist of guanos, earthworm castings, compost, other ingredients...etc... it is bubbled for 24 hours then added to soil mix. it needs to be used right away or it will go bad.
A Tea is not a tea, as you refer. You are just creating a reservoir to hold you nutrient rich water...that is not a TEA. You are force feeding your plants!
That means the plant has to work to break down the nutrients in order to use them, with a True Living Organic soil mix and tea the microbes eat and die, that is the food for the plant. So it does not have to waste energy to break down the nutrients.
You said you don't use all organics, a living Tea will not survive non-organic amendments.
When Using a True Living Organic method...You have a living medium, the tea supplies the necessary elements to keep living microbes alive. All natural!!!
When you have a true living soil, the proper nutrients are readily available for the plant to use as it needs them, thus automatically adjusting ph itself.
Im not going to argue with you on this... I know what im talking about...you need to read up on TLO and what its about.
Not saying that your growing wrong or anything, just not what I'm talking about.

on this forum...
https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/getting-to-know-tlo-organic-growing.63839/

http://www.truelivingorganic.com/

deff watch video below.

I 150% agree with you but I have a question...really more just something I would like to understand better...So I am using beneficial compost teas with EWC and other ingredients and also use Cap's bennies to brew tea...I use NFTG's nutrient line and also a few other things here and there to foliar or give them a treat...my soil is FFOF mixed 2 to 1 with light warrior and amended with extra perlite and EWC..this is my first grow and is new soil...I don't have a cover crop or anything..Now for my question..since this is the first go with this soil, even though I am staying all organic, introducing healthy microbes and feeding them, don't I still have to worry about pH a little bit bc my soil is not for lack of a better term "fully alive" and I only say that bc I am under the impression the more you reuse and keep you soil living the better it becomes and less you have to worry bc it can protect itself as long as you feed your soil? Any info would be much appreciated..Please and thank you!
-Much Respect

 

[Bannacis]

To have a true living organics system going, it comes down to your soil mix. You need a good recipe of specific ingredients that you put together and let it cook for a few weeks, with the right teas with clean water you can reuse soil for next grow.

When making a soil mix rarely do I use a nutrient product line except Big bloom FF. I use promix, compost, worm castings, guanos, bone meal, blood meal, lime, alfalfa meal, perlite, vermiculite, greensand, rock phosphate, kelp meal, and other amendments. all at specific ratios. then I cook it for a few weeks, turning it every few days. if I am potting seedlings or clones I add more promix cause it may be too hot for the youngins.

If you are using all organic,(all natural) cause some organics are chelated (concentrated) and can be too much and can whack out the balance.
And your water is chlorine/chloramine free.
No synthetics.
then all is good. bare in mind the water source should RO water, cause well water, spring water has minerals in it that can affect your soil

 

[Lazerus00]

Thanks man

 

[Bannacis]

no problem, read up on anything that the REV...(cultivating editor of Skunk magazine) has to say. I follow his word as much as I can.
He has a book on TLO you can get form Amazon.com....he is also revising that book so a new one will be out shortly.

Here's an example of one of his recipes:

REV'S TRUE LIVING ORGANICS SUPER SOIL MIX

TLO Mix 2011 Supernatural Version 2.1 BY: THE REV
Master Soil-Mix Recipe

BASE MIX
2 gal Quality Organic Soil-mix (or good organic recycled soil mix)
2 gal Thoroughly Rinsed Coir (coconut fiber)
2 gal Perlite (small nugget size)
2 gal Earthworm Castings (fresh earthworm castings, and/or fresh compost works too)
AMENDMENTS
1½ cup Grow or Bloom ‘Pure’ by Organicare (or 1 cup 5-5-5)
½ cup Greensand
¾ cup Ground Oyster Shells (1 cup if no crushed oyster shells)
1½ cup Crushed Oyster Shells (optional)
½ cup Dolomite Lime (powdered)
1 cup Prilled (pelletized) Fast Acting Dolomite Lime
¼ cup Blood Meal (and/or High N Bird/Bat Guano 12-8-2 N-P-K if flowering 1/8 cup of each)
¼ cup (heaping) Feather Meal
1 cup un-steamed (granular) Bone Meal (like Whitney Farms brand)
½ cup Bulb Food (3-8-8 as one good N-P-K example)
¼ cup Soft Rock Phosphate (powdered)
½ cup (heaping) Gypsum (powdered)
½ cup Kelp Meal
4 cups (heaping) Composted Steer Manure (this inoculates your mix with specialized bacteria and primo organic matter)
½ cup Azomite granular (add an additional ¼ cup greensand if no Azomite)
1 cup Humic Acid Ore granular (like from Down to Earth brand)
1 cup Alfalfa Meal (or 2 cups pellets – make sure pellets are all organic no additives)
½ cup Rock Phosphate Granular (optional)
1 cup (heaping) organic rice (important for the good fungi in this soil-mix)

If you cannot find certain ingredients, do not substitute...just omit it

 

[Bannacis]

Bannacis...curious...what is your soil mix like?

sorry I forgot about replying to this...lol
My existing medium is about 4 yrs running, over the time I've re-amended it, I've added something new or something that took awhile to get.
And some things you drop. in the post where I put The revs 2.1 recipe... that is what I would call a full fert, now of course some of the things are optional and or not readily available. so you gots to do ur reading and adjusting.
http://buildasoil.com/blogs/news/9885098-why-tlo-dissecting-the-rev-mix-line-by-line

Like the Rev does, I Does...Even break up the root balls... when I prune or pick off dead leaves i'll put em in too.
I made a simple worm farm out of totes... grab some worms from the yard and such... bingo! EWC... but my roomie she liked to fish and she stole mosa my worms...lol
Best thing to do is stay away from high priced nutes... mostly liquids... unless its FF or fishfert. Ilike some liquid kelp/seaweed/squid...but only use small amount...I mean small....Think less is more... Molasses in the tea, cause u needs sugar for them beasties to eat.

When my soil is cooking and I go to turn it, first thing I would do is smell it. then grab a handful and stir it up and smell that.
It should never smell bad, like poo or sour... it should smell earthy fresh natural alive... when you first start mixing and cooking the smell is like a feed mill type smell. then as you ad water and it gets warm and cooks over time its smells will change.
If it goes bad, throw it out and start over.

60 gal black trash can...holes for aeration... compost bin...totes for smaller mixes..

 

[steelcanaries]

Thx for the tips man. I really want to learn tlo now. Will check out book...you say aeration holes for the can used to hold/cook soil mix....if I use a normal size garbage can, should I cook with the lid on to avoid pest and pathogens or off so the the soils can breathe or what not why it cooks? I've read to let cook 3-4 weeks, a month basically, do u use It sooner than that?

 

[Bannacis]

You will need aeration holes, but you don't want it to flood with water if it rains, just make sure it gets sun so it can heat up. Depending on how much it heats up is on how long you need it to cook, at least 3 weeks. you want to make sure it has cooked enough, if you try to use it too early it cook be to hot (as in too strong) for your plants.