Dude, by your title I thought you were drinking the compost teas... O_O

L0L But No. :D

Sweet man im glade to hear your success with the compost tea! What recipe are you using and which guano are you using in your compost tea? What rate of application do you use to feed your plants?

Great to hear Bro. Would love to know some specifics on your routine.

Yeah man, lets hear some specifics!!

Hey guys!

Brand of Guano's are Sunleaves.

Well I been using a lot of info found here in this organic soil forum and a few other posts here @ The Farm, in Skunk Magazine and at their Indoor Forums; stuff written by the Rev. I think some of the info I have been using was also written by him here, but under another handle long ago...the stuff seems to have the same writing style. Recently I purchased the book Teaming With Microbes, which everyone seems to recommend on this subject, haven't finished the book yet though but worth the $24 so far.

I'm in organic soil. Mostly Fox Farm Ocean Forest and Light Warrior. Recently I have been reusing soil by adding Worm Castings, Mushroom Compost, Greensand, Azomite, Rock Phosphate, Bone Meal, 10-2-1 Mexican Bat Guano, Fox Farm 5-5-5 dry fertilizer w/ myco's, Epsom salt, and Dolomite Lime.

I mostly don't start feeding anything except Great White's myco fungi (every 14days) for about 30 days in these rich soils. I use RO water. And use water-only about every other watering. For teas, I been doing about every 8-12 days apart. Most of the tea recipes are really the same or at least same ingredients with different Guanos depending on Veg or Flower Cycles and nute needs.

Basic Tea

• 1gallon RO water
• 1/4c Worm Castings
• 1/4c Mushroom Compost
• 3ml Maxi Crop
• 1tbl Molasses
• Optional, Great White about 2 hours before end of brew.

Now let's start adding in some goodies for plants that are needing nutrients.

For Veg Cycle

• 1gallon RO water
• 1/4c Worm Castings
• 1/4c Mushroom Compost
• 3ml Maxi Crop
• 1tbl Molasses
• 1tsp-Heaping 5-5-5 Fox Farm Peace of Mind (w/ Mycos)
• 1-2tbl Peruvian Seabird Guano 10-10-2 (5.5% of that N is water Insoluble.)
• 1-2tbl Mexican Bat Guano 10-2-1 (9% of that N is water Insoluble.)

For Bud (Early to Mid Cycle)

• 1gallon RO water
• 1/4c Worm Castings
• 1/4c Mushroom Compost
• 3ml Maxi Crop
• 1tbl Molasses
• 1tsp-Heaping 5-5-5 Fox Farm Peace of Mind (w/ Mycos)
• 1-2tbl Indonesian Bat Guano .5-12-.2
• 1-2tbl Peruvian Seabird Guano 10-10-2

For Bud (Past Halfway and Late Cycle)

• 1gallon RO water
• 1/2c Worm Castings
• 3/4c Mushroom Compost
• 5ml Maxi Crop
• 2tbl Molasses
• 1tsp-Heaping 5-5-5 Fox Farm Peace of Mind (w/ Mycos)
• .5-1tbl Indonesian Bat Guano .5-12-.2
• .5-1tbl Peruvian Seabird Guano 10-10-2
• 1/4tsp Soft Rock Phosphate

Additional Thoughts and Findings.

• If I don't have a tea brewed and feel the plants need some food I have been using Fox Farm Big Bloom at 7ml per gallon and/or 2-3ml of General Hydro's CaMg+.
• Bacteria microbes are more preferred for Vegging plants and first half of flowering.
• Fungus microbes are more preferred for Flowering plants.
• It is hard do a tea wrong. Keep it bubbling, don't brew too long when looking for Bacteria Microbes, use immediately, don't save the extras. And these recipes can be used loosely it seems; you can even add all kinds of dry amendments like the ones listed at the top of this post that I mentioned adding to reused soil. Examples: Add Extra Azomite, a little Green Sand late in flowering, or some Dolomite Lime for Cal Mag, and so on...
• FYI - There are fungal recipes for late flowering where you actually grow and put a little fungus (mold) into the tea. Read up on it.
• When mixing the tea with water; Strain off most of the nute-additives from the tea for smaller plants or just mix it all in for more mature bigger plants, no need to strain. I have done this multiple ways now and for different gardens but dipping with a pitcher into the tea via a 5-gallon bucket is pretty good because the tea can be mixed-up each time you get some. Or fill water jugs partially up and top with the tea. I like the 5-gallon dipping the best, I don't strain anything out, but don't always use the super thick stuff at the bottom, But have though ;) Just depends.
• I try to flush for 3+ waterings before harvest by making the plain RO water run out the bottom of the pot.
• Whether you agree or don't agree I have not been PH'ing my teas or water for a while. Couple reasons why. RO water's PH doesn't read right and will mess up your PH meter. RO Water is ph7 basically (after it sits for a little while) and has no ions (or something like that) for the meter to read. You can test the PH of the tea to find out if it is higher in fungas/bacteria. PH up and down solutions will kill the micro's you just gave life to. There is an excellent thread in this forum about PHing teas/organics, just read the whole thing to get the "eureka's" at the end of the thread.
• The expensive EC Stick I bought not too long ago is now worthless with teas. Serious LOL. You can brew up a tea that is black as night full of goodies and the EC meter says 0.
• I have been using Great White brand of Myco-Fungi recently and LOVE it. There is a huge difference in root balls when I transplant and cut down. I do the Great White at about 1/2-3/4 recommenced strength because someone here at The Farm mentioned he didn't see any noticeable difference using full strength and he actually tested the stuff for the Urban Gardener article a few months ago...plus the stuff is expensive lol. Been using it about ever 14 days until about 3-4 weeks before cut-down. I have been adding the Great White to the tea at the tale end, about 2 hours before use of the tea. I have had very good luck adding Great White to the Basic Tea Recipe up above for small plants.
• *THIS* is the most important thing right here that I personally had to learn and just didn't "get it"; True Living Organics *is different* than using all organic based bottle nutrients. BIG DIFFERENCE! Example: If you get these much-wanted microbes to grow in your soil and then use organic nutes via premixed store bought bottles, you will kill the live microbes! I just didn't get this like I said. I would use Fox Farm soil's having beautiful picture perfect plants and then pour on a bottled nutes and instantly my plants looked stressed, not happy and I couldn't figure out why my "organic" grows didn't work out right. I was confusing two totally different types of organic growing.

Seriously guys, these teas have made my plants SO much more healthy. Still some strains needs more or less of some things here and there, but overall plants love the live mico's. You know when your plants are just so happy that all of the leaves are pointed upward? Well with these teas the plants will look like that pretty much everyday (like their suppose to) including even late in bloom. There are so many more white pistols growing out of maturing buds. And like I said before, the smell, taste, and looks of the bud all increase. We just grew buds that had major purpling that I almost had never seen in the strain where it was only a hint before if grown good.

Anyway if you made it through all of the info thanks for reading my recent findings. I tried to add in as many "eureka's and ahhh-ha's" that I learned on my newb way over from so-called organic-bottle grows. I'm no expert yet and like I mentioned earlier all of this info and much more is on the net for research, just search with these 3 keywords; Organic, Compost, Tea. Heck there are even some good videos on Youtube on the subject!

And if anyone wants to chime in anything please feel free to, really.:talking

OK I'm spent, time to go look at the garden and make clones! :pimp:

Well done and great post. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us.
Happy growing :)

~D~

Quick question on the re-read......why do you wait until 2 hours before using the tea to add Great White??? Why not add at the start with all the other ingredients to maximize the Beni population??

Thanks

~D~

Dulce said:

Quick question on the re-read......why do you wait until 2 hours before using the tea to add Great White??? Why not add at the start with all the other ingredients to maximize the Beni population??

Thanks

~D~

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Thanks Dulce, I'm glad you enjoyed!!

I have gotten conflicting advice on when to add the Myco fungi's! Check this thread out I started --So not totally sure which is right way, but I have read more people stating the Myco's die quickly if they do not have roots to connect to....I am open to other feedback of course.

Thanks again for sharing interest!

Those recipes are really good and I will be trying them out in the future fosho! Matter of fact im going to buy the world of guano set from sunleaves and start brewing right away! Your recipes were very similar to the ones I use except for the guano in the veg tea! Anyways im glade to here your success with some truely organic methods of growing ganja! Peace out!

shavits said:

Those recipes are really good and I will be trying them out in the future fosho! Matter of fact im going to buy the world of guano set from sunleaves and start brewing right away! Your recipes were very similar to the ones I use except for the guano in the veg tea! Anyways im glade to here your success with some truely organic methods of growing ganja! Peace out!

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Hey, glad you like! Yeah that set of guano from Sunleaves looks like the way to go. The small kit is under $30 bucks, for I think 4 different guanos. ....I saw this online after visiting my "local" store. Don't think they had them as a kit, but yeah I would have bought that if it would have been an option! ;) I agree about the similar recipes, that was what I first notice when researching; most everyone has the same basic ingredients and way of doing it.

I understand diluting the Basic Recipe to at least 10:1 ratio of water, strained, makes a great foliage spray. I am interested in trying this, but haven't yet.

Peace and Pot and good luck with your teas!

OpTikFiber said:

Hey, glad you like! Yeah that set of guano from Sunleaves looks like the way to go. The small kit is under $30 bucks, for I think 4 different guanos. ....I saw this online after visiting my "local" store. Don't think they had them as a kit, but yeah I would have bought that if it would have been an option! ;) I agree about the similar recipes, that was what I first notice when researching; most everyone has the same basic ingredients and way of doing it.

I understand diluting the Basic Recipe to at least 10:1 ratio of water, strained, makes a great foliage spray. I am interested in trying this, but haven't yet.

Peace and Pot and good luck with your teas!

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what do you mean by strain? do you have to strain the tea before using it period?

i plan on using this tea as a supplement is low doses and as a foliar...

jakew215 said:

what do you mean by strain? do you have to strain the tea before using it period?

i plan on using this tea as a supplement is low doses and as a foliar...

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Oh, just make sure you strain the tea before putting it in a sprayer or it will clog the sprayer up....thats all ;)

What's the mushroom compost for. Also these are basically teas to replace your base nutes with right? Also do you or can you use bloom booster? Can the mix be made more concentrated and diluted down more?

Teas do not and cannot fully replace nutrients. Their main purpose is to make existing nutrients more available to the plants by increasing the chemical and biological activity in the soil. Teas do contain some nutrients, but not enough to feed the plant. You still need to have nutrients for the plants in your soil prep, and/or feed with liquid nutrients via the soil or foliar feeding. Or in other words, if you were growing a plant in a relatively inert media, like say coco, and gave them nothing else but tea, you probably would not get very good results. Also, too high a level of most essential elements inhibits the soil organisms and counter-acts the effects of teas. Hence you want your tea to have low PPM's and never mix fertilizer in with it.

Also guano's do not really impart nutrients to the tea when brewed. Though they do contains many of the essential elements, they are not in an available form and must be broken down in the soil over time to be of use. You could brew them for a month and you still would impart very, very few nutrients into your brew. Small amounts of gunao in tea can impart unique organisms found in the guano in your tea, but if you are looking to add nutrients using guano this method is not going to do much. A much more effective use is to top dress with guano, and then apply your tea.

If you notice none of the professional's like Dr. Elaine Ingrahm, or any of the organic vineyards and farms use guanos in their teas and this is one of the main reasons IMO. Not to mention guanos are quite toxic and need to be handled carefully, plus they can contain pathogens that can contaminate your teas, cause considerable ecological damage in their production, and are not a sustainable source of fertilizer.

Good info on the recipes though - tea really does make a huge difference!

im trying a tea recipe but im getting alot of bubbles anybody know why.thnx

Venom818 said:

im trying a tea recipe but im getting alot of bubbles anybody know why.thnx

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That's what you want,for it to get all bubbling full of myco's,should get real foamy at it's peak,Then will dissipate if brewed too long

Venom818 said:

im trying a tea recipe but im getting alot of bubbles anybody know why.thnx

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Well, you are pumping air through it! Haha, sorry, I know...not helpful.

From what I understand you want to scrape the foam scum.


1 quick question to the OP or anyone who knows: I see a lot of recipes recommend using a strainer (p-hose) for the particulates, guano, castings etc. Would that still be usable as fertilizer after the brewing? Topsoil dressing?

Related question to anyone, since regular drinking teas are mostly dead, preserved green plant matter, couldn't you just add a bag of green tea for some veg nutes? :rofl Ok, ok, I'm not funny...but seriously. Couldn't you?

Here's good starting point for information:
http://gardeningwithmicrobes.com/teaarticle.shtml
http://gardeningwithmicrobes.com/teaarticle2.shtml

Personally I don't use guano in ACT because the purpose of ACT is for beneficial aerobic microbes, NOT nutrients. If you want the high P or high N guano, then just mix it separate with water and do a soil drench (no brewing time), or topdress the soil with it.

I don't believe you need a separate tea recipe for veg or flower. I can expand on this if people are interested in what I mean.

Lastly, you don't need to be adding mycorrhizal fungi to your tea. It should be added only 1 time at the beginning of your plant's life (seed, seedling, clone, etc). Once it forms a symbiotic relationship with your plant's roots, your done. Any additional applications are just a waste of money. You also don't want to put it in your tea unless you're dipping the roots or doing root injections (for trees or established non-cannabis plants) because it has to come IN DIRECT CONTACT with the roots. It could sit in spore form just 2 mm away from a root hair and never for an infection/colonization! All myco products are expensive in my opinion, so save your money and just apply it one time!

Oh, and mushroom compost can really vary on quality and nutrient content. Mushroom compost is all over the place as far as what it consists of but the biggy is that it is either treated with steam or formaldhyde before sale to kill the mushroom spores...If it does not smell like earth DO NOT USE IT!