ACT Application rates ?

[De La Luz]

Hi Folks,
I'm new to ACT's and I'm wondering about application rates...?
I use 3 gallon pots with a good soil mix (Promix, castings, lime, perlite, etc)

Should I feed the garden one gallon of ACT per container, per watering (like my previous nute schedule) or should I dilute the ACT with additional water? like say a 1 to 4 ratio ?

Also, concerning grow & bloom cycles... can I use my ACT as a base and supplement with guano/kelp teas during different stages of each cycle? or is the ACT enough on it's own through out both cycles? How about ACT supplemented with kelp... ?

Gracias

 

[CT Guy]

De La Luz,

I don't have much time right now since I'm at work but wanted to write a quick response to at least a few of your questions.

1. First off, make sure you are making the ACT properly, this is the most important thing and all my recommendations are made with this in mind.

2. Water is merely a carrier. With properly made ACT it can't be overapplied and can be applied at any stage of plant growth (though you may not want to foliar right before harvesting, and humates in your tea could stain the leaves). Use de-chlorinated water or de-chloramined water to "dilute" with. 1 to 4 ratio is just fine. The extra water is just to allow for an even application. So if you normally water your plants with 20 gallons of water and have 5 gals of ACT, just plan on adding 15 gallons of water and use it to replace a normal watering cycle.

3. Rates are really dependent on your plant health, disease pressures, quality of biological activity in your soil. Some people are applying 1x a week, some are 2x a month, it really varies. You will need to figure out at what point you're maximizing your benefit, and a lot of that will be dependent on the quality of soil you're growing in.

4. Good soil means little to no nutrient additions during the life of the plant. You may be able to get by with just ACT or maybe small amounts of seaweed or other "organic nutes."

5. I don't think there's any perfect application schedule/rate for everyone. I'd start at 1x every 2 weeks and see how that goes. Maybe apply on 1/2 the plants to see if you're getting a benefit from it, or if you need to up your application rates.

6. I can't stress enough how important it is to follow a recipe or brewer design that's been tested, it will make a HUGE difference in the quality of you tea.

Cheers,
CT

 

[De La Luz]

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks CT guy, I appreciate the info and it has helped to clear up some questions that I've had.

I do have a good compost tea recipe and am using a vortex brewer.
Tea recipe is 1 tbsp tonic , 1 tbsp bio dynamic tea inoculant , 1 tbps molasses per 5 gal tea

My soil mix is LC's Soiless Mix #2.

Another question that comes to mind...

Once I've brewed the tea for 24-36 hrs. and I dilute 1 gal tea X 4 gal water to feed... at this point should I add the liquid kelp to the diluted tea mixture?

Any other helpful suggestions are welcomed!

 

[mad librettist]

I do have a good compost tea recipe and am using a vortex brewer.
Tea recipe is 1 tbsp tonic , 1 tbsp bio dynamic tea inoculant , 1 tbps molasses per 5 gal tea

any compost in there?

 

[NUG-JUG]

I just used some regular unsulphered molasses in my tea but not blackstrap. I was comparing the ingredients to my empty bottle of the good stuff and noticed higher levels of sodium in the regular stuff and much less potassium (140mg to 730mg in blackstrap!)

Obviously I should've found more of the good stuff but I had the other molasses on hand and used it. Will the sodium harm the herd?

 

[De La Luz]

any compost in there?

Yeah, the tea inoculant "Genesis Compound" is like a "concentrated" compost...
here is link to the tonic, Genesis compound, their BD compost and the vortex brewers

http://www.naturalscienceorganics.com/nsoproducts.html

 

[mad librettist]

gotcha ty.

looks interesting. worth a thread. I wonder what the process is to preserve the biology?

 

[CT Guy]

Thanks CT guy, I appreciate the info and it has helped to clear up some questions that I've had.

I do have a good compost tea recipe and am using a vortex brewer.
Tea recipe is 1 tbsp tonic , 1 tbsp bio dynamic tea inoculant , 1 tbps molasses per 5 gal tea

My soil mix is LC's Soiless Mix #2.

Another question that comes to mind...

Once I've brewed the tea for 24-36 hrs. and I dilute 1 gal tea X 4 gal water to feed... at this point should I add the liquid kelp to the diluted tea mixture?

Any other helpful suggestions are welcomed!

The bio dynamic tea inoculant is the biology source? I know some guys who do the same thing as this company. I guess I'm not completely sold on bio-dynamics. I think it works because it promotes biological growth in the soil, but some of the claims seem a bit far fetched to me. I'm not here to criticize bio-dynamics though, I think it's a perfectly acceptable and healthy way to grow. I just don't think that 1 T. of material, even if it's biodynamic, is going to contain enough biology for a 5 gal. brew. (We're talking about maximizing our results here). I've tried to get my friends to get a microscope and do some testing, but it seems to me that those people in bio-dynamics tend to want to follow Steiner's recommendations and not concern themselves with testing.

As for the kelp, it would be fine to add the proper amount to the tea, right before application. If you were using our kelp extract powder, you're looking at maybe a tablespoon for the 5 gallons of liquid.

Hope that helps, and didn't come across harsh. Personally, I'd up the biology, meaning adding more of the inoculant, vermicompost, or some other compost source. Typically for 5 gals you're looking at 1-2 cups of material.

 

[De La Luz]

The bio dynamic tea inoculant is the biology source? I know some guys who do the same thing as this company. I guess I'm not completely sold on bio-dynamics. I think it works because it promotes biological growth in the soil, but some of the claims seem a bit far fetched to me. I'm not here to criticize bio-dynamics though, I think it's a perfectly acceptable and healthy way to grow. I just don't think that 1 T. of material, even if it's biodynamic, is going to contain enough biology for a 5 gal. brew. (We're talking about maximizing our results here). I've tried to get my friends to get a microscope and do some testing, but it seems to me that those people in bio-dynamics tend to want to follow Steiner's recommendations and not concern themselves with testing.


Hope that helps, and didn't come across harsh. Personally, I'd up the biology, meaning adding more of the inoculant, vermicompost, or some other compost source. Typically for 5 gals you're looking at 1-2 cups of material.

Thanks, very helpful, not harsh at all.
I still do not fully understand the concentrated nature of the bio dynamic preps that compose the tea inoculant but that used in conjunction with the "Tonic" Thalassa mix, molasses ... brewed in the vortex pattern is suppose to yield great results... I'll keep you posted.

Added to LC's soil mix #2 I also added the company's BD compost (mixed in at about 5% of the soil mix).

I'm all about testing myself ... Steiner's recommendations do include elements of the "Super Natural" so they are hard to quantify. That said, I suspect that A/B ing teas side by side would answer some questions.