compost tea for exclusive fertalizer

Discussion in 'Organic Cultivation' started by greenjah, May 5, 2017.

  1. greenjah

    greenjah A Fat Sticky Bud

    Well as you guys have seen on my thread i have been having ph issues with advanced nutrients. My new round has been in 5 gal pots for only a week or so and have only been fed/watered 2 or 3 times with the solution ph at 6.3 or higher and ppm at 650 to 700.
    After only that time the soil ph has dropped to 6 already, not sure what it was after first watering but will check on the ones i plant today.
    Anyway i am sick of gett the problems that i get that no one else gets, even advanced nutrients costomer service said they dont know why it would do it but they also say it doesnt matter what the ph is with ph perfect but that is bs because as soon as it drops below 6 i get calcium deficiency.

    Well my solution i hope is to go to compost tea.
    My question are, can i use it exclusively?
    Has anyone done this and did you get top quality out of it?
    how do i use it, what ratio of tea to fertalizer or can i use my ppm meter and just add tea until i get to the ppm i want?
    If so would i use the same ppm that i use for chemical ferts?
    Can i safely use ph up or down without hurting the tea?
    Will the end quality and yield be as good as chemical fertilizers? (i know the ingredients will effect this, suggestions are welcome.)

    Oh and i use rain water so no worries about chlorine or anything else being in the starting water.
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2017
  2. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

    go buy quarts of different brand and see if AN is what is causing the PH to drop in the soil.

    it may be something else, it's more likely an ingredient in the AN causing the issue.

    that way you can make a change before they get transplanted
     
  3. greenjah

    greenjah A Fat Sticky Bud

    Im sure it is something in it to but i have always wanted to go organic and if i have to go experimenting again i might as well do it organic and i dont want to mix dirt so brewing a tea to fertilize with seems to be what will be easiest.
    I want to start small with a few plants and the rest of the plants i will just keep a close eye on and flush when the ph drops and hopefully after one cycle i will know if the tea will work.
     
  4. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

    Run two plants with cutting edge solutions. It will cost less than 40 to test, then make the switch if you don't see it fucking up the soil. You'd be buying nutes anyway right.

    Cutt8ng edge is basically like gh, but way better quality
     
  5. ResinRubber

    ResinRubber Civilly disobedient/Mod

    Teas can rock. It takes a shit ton of dialing in, more than this lazy old fart will do, but can give great results. Why not just go with an organic emulsion instead? Same results with less hassle.
     
  6. greenjah

    greenjah A Fat Sticky Bud

    I have used cutting edge, advanced gave me a much more potent result. Ive come down to either i make advanced work or go organic. I have some things i want to try with advanced like give plain water more often and give the calmag and recharge to them on a water day instead of adding to nutrients.
    Looking into the tea i found that i should airate the water or the bacteria and fungi can die and cause bad things. I have been letting it sit uncirculated until a bit before i water, i let the pump circulate a while ahead of time. Looks like that isnt enough and the recharge sitting could be a factor.

    What is the emulsion?
    When you say dial in i take it i just find a good starting recipe and watch for deficiency and if i get one then find an ingredient that will fix it to add to the tea?
     
  7. ResinRubber

    ResinRubber Civilly disobedient/Mod

    Aeration is key otherwise you end up with anaerobic bacteria that are really bad on root systems. Dialing in is hard because it's all predictive. Teas, like most organic methods, are generally really really slow reacting when dealing with deficiencies and using guano based teas to react to a deficiency can be incredibly hot if you're not careful. You have to know what your plant is going to want weeks before it shows it. With chem nutes it's a game of days for corrections, with most teas it's a game of weeks.

    Emulsions are anything that's been liquefied into plant food. I use the term generally in reference to fish or seaweed hydrolysate. True emulsions are heat processed. Hydrolysate is the same thing except it's cold processed. The reason I like them for organic is they store easily for very long periods of time, are easily measurable for accurate mixing, and take zero time in preparation. Unlike teas that may need to bubble for days before using and can't be stored.
     
  8. blazerwill420

    blazerwill420 Fuck AUMA

    Try growing a couple of plants outside of your greenhouse with the AN. I think your issue is your environment and is somehow causing your ph issues, specifically the temps and humidity.
     
  9. Mrgreengenes

    Mrgreengenes Administrator

    Hey greenjah, I'm in love with Botanicare professional. I'm also trying a Brand called Elite nutrients. So far they seem compairable to Botanicare line. Easy pease mix and the plants are thriving. Check them out.
     
  10. bigbudztoo

    bigbudztoo growin the good stuff

    You and i are both using pro-mix and AN. I am not having the issues that you are. I feed every third watering and add call mag each time. Between feedings, it is just straight ph'd water at 6.5. main difference is that i am only using 3 gallon pots. Can't wrap my head around what is happening with yours.
     
  11. ducrider

    ducrider growing your mamas weed

    Any chance that the rain water you're collecting is being contaminated from your roof or something?
     
  12. greenjah

    greenjah A Fat Sticky Bud

    I should have no problem using all the tea i can make and im thinking it will be cheaper to make my own instead of emulsions plus i will have all that good live stuff with it. I only bought a 3 gal. Brewer and will do only 2 of them to dial in and see if i can get it to compare to chem nute quality.
    Here is a mix i found lots of places on the net, i will start with this and see what happens.
    Guano Tea and Kelp:

    Seedlings less than 1 month old nutrient tea mix-
    5 TBS. Black Strap Molasses
    1-cup earthworm castings/5 gallons of water every 3rd watering

    Vegetative mix-
    1/3 cup Peruvian Seabird Guano (PSG)
    1/3 cup High N Bat Guano (Mexican)
    1/3 cup Earth Worm Castings (EWC)
    5 TBS. Maxi-crop 1-0-4 powdered kelp extract
    5 TBS. Liquid Karma (optional)
    5 TBS. Black Strap Molasses
    @ 1-cup mix/5 gallons of water every 3rd watering.

    Flowering nutrient tea mix:
    2/3 cup Peruvian Seabird Guano
    2/3 cup Earth Worm Castings
    2/3 cup High P Guano (Indonesian or Jamaican)
    5 TBS. Maxi-crop 1-0-4 powdered kelp extract or Liquid
    5 TBS. Black Strap Molasses

    Dilute as needed. Generally, 2 to 3 cups per 5 gallons of water @ every watering.

    Not sure who the credit goes to for this, i find it many places

    Also as far as my ph problem with the AN, I gave some plain water at a ph of 7 and the ph of the soil went up to 6.1 to 6.2. im thinking my style of feeding week almost every watering could be my problem, i am going to try what bigbudz does and do every third watering.
    What ppm do you feed at bigbudz? And say it was a cold crappy month and i only had to water once a week, would you still do only every third watering?

    On the greenhouse progress i got the dry room down and am cleaning up so it is empty when the light deprivation curtain comes in and i finally got a well in. I pounded it in with a T post driver, 15 ft of rock hard clay. My arms are useless for a while now. It is nice and clear and has a ppm of 400 and ph of 7.4. i hope it still has water through a drought. I am thinking of using it for my water days and the rain water for feed days.
    Funny but not funny story about the light dep. I called on the 3rd witch was the date they gave to be done to see if it was the arrival or shipping day. I go through a supply place so he had to call on it. The company who im guessing im not suppose to say per site rules says to the guy at the supply place "what are you talking about". Those F'ers lost my order on someone's desk, hadent even started on it. The supply place gave them my money 8 weeks ago, WTF. Anyway they say they will have it done tomorrow, we will see, a 7 week wait time on a job they can do in 6 days, i sure hope they do a good job.
     
  13. Justcheckingitout

    Justcheckingitout GK Old Timer

    Greenjah, you def got it going on. Hard work pays off.
     
  14. bigbudztoo

    bigbudztoo growin the good stuff

    What ppm do you feed at bigbudz? And say it was a cold crappy month a
    .
    I start the rooted clones in 3 inch pots and feed a weak veg solution after 7 days. As they are transplanted to 1 gallon pots i work them up to 1000 ppm .
    I add a tsp of cal-mag plus to every feeding, which is every third time. When I make the final transplant to 3 gallons and go to the flower table, I feed veg nutes for the first week. I keep the 1000 ppm for the first 3 weeks and then ramp up to 1200 ppm for weeks 4 and 5. I push to 1400 ppm for week 5 and 6. The last feedings are at 1500 before i flush. Again, I add a tsp of calmag plus every feeding. On this schedule, i get those nute burned tips on the fan leaves that i am looking for. oh yeah, i stay with the same schedule even if it is cold. if the plants aren't uptaking as much, i don't force more nutes on them before they are ready. Hope this helps. Good luck.
     
    greenjah likes this.
  15. greenjah

    greenjah A Fat Sticky Bud

    Thank you, that helps a lot. It even helps with the tea, i measured the ppm after a couple hours of brewing and it was 1200 ppm. The tea recipe also says every third watering so i will also dilute that to the same ppm you use for advanced and see how it goes.
    I also ad calmag every feeding, i just used 3 mil so 5 every third should work for me also.
    Thanks again for the info everybody, the first watering of tea will be tomorrow, i will try to keep up on some comparison updates.
     
    bigbudztoo likes this.
  16. ResinRubber

    ResinRubber Civilly disobedient/Mod

    Tea recipe looks similar to others I've seen. I'd go without the liquid karma at first. You've already got similar coverage with the kelp extract and molasses. Pretty much the only additional benefit from Liquid Karma would be fulvic and humic acid. Not much of a fan of adding those two unless I have root zone problems.

    Interested to see how this goes for you.
     
  17. greenjah

    greenjah A Fat Sticky Bud

    Well i got the first batch of tea done and the net says to brew for 24 to 48 hrs.
    At 24 hrs the PH was low 7s and ppm was 2300. I took the tea bag out and watered a few with it. I put the bubbler back in.
    Today after 48 hrs the PH was down at 5 and ppms were down a bit also.(I would assume it was the bacteria feeding off the molasses that lowered the ppm.)
    Wondering if anyone knows what the difference is? Should i wait for the PH to drop to use it or should i use it before it drops, or should i have kept the tea bag in?
     
  18. Discorilla

    Discorilla Shining like a Discoball!

    I shoot for low 6's. 6.3-6.4
     
    ResinRubber likes this.
  19. ResinRubber

    ResinRubber Civilly disobedient/Mod

    Could be a lot of things. Never checked PPM's on a tea. Honestly, the idea never even occurred to me. Interesting though that it dropped...micro elements/nutrients chelating? Would that drop ppm?
     
  20. blazerwill420

    blazerwill420 Fuck AUMA

    Me thinks you are over thinking it. What big bud was saying is along the lines of what I was trying to say. Less is more. Kiss my brother, kiss.
     

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