Tea Article

[smoketrichs]

So can I feed exclusively on tea?

 

[jaykush]

So can I feed exclusively on tea?

if your growing in peat, probably not. if your growing in some real soil then yes.

 

[Sourbear]

if your growing in peat, probably not. if your growing in some real soil then yes.

So what are the basic ingredients needed for a flowering tea
with lets say 1 gallon pots, the soil is roots organics indoor mixed with Earth juice Amazon Bloom and chunky pearlite and EWC.

would a simple EWC/Molasses/Guano tea work for their entire flowering lives? What would be the cheapest/best mix?

 

[jaykush]

i was assuming you meant compost tea when you said tea. for guano tea recipes and such just do a simple search, there are hundreds of posts and threads about flowering teas.

 

[Dawn Patrol]

Here you g.....check out this guys site......affordable and he is a nice man also.



K.I.S.

Thanks for reposting that Vonforne, I had some of this stuff, lost the link and then ran out of it.

Is Maxicrop a comparable product?

 

[smoketrichs]

Can I just keep the compost tea bubbling indefinitely, and top up with fresh water/molasses/ewc/additives when it gets low? As long as I keep the airstones bubbling 24/7 is that okay?

Also in my soil container grow. Can I switch between fertilizer tea and compost tea? FT-CT-CT-FT-CT-CT-FT alternating b/w the 2 every couple waterings? Fertilizer tea to give nutes, and Compost tea to rejuvenate the bacterial/fungal population.

 

[CT Guy]

Thanks for reposting that Vonforne, I had some of this stuff, lost the link and then ran out of it.

Is Maxicrop a comparable product?

Clackamas Coot would be the one to talk to, but I believe he mentioned that Maxicrop uses a different extraction method that's not as good as what Acadian or Nature's Essence (KIS) uses. If you already have it though, by all means use it.

 

[CT Guy]

Can I just keep the compost tea bubbling indefinitely, and top up with fresh water/molasses/ewc/additives when it gets low? As long as I keep the airstones bubbling 24/7 is that okay?

Also in my soil container grow. Can I switch between fertilizer tea and compost tea? FT-CT-CT-FT-CT-CT-FT alternating b/w the 2 every couple waterings? Fertilizer tea to give nutes, and Compost tea to rejuvenate the bacterial/fungal population.

Smoketrichs,

You'll want to limit your brew cycle to 24-36 hours unless you have a microscope. The issue is that you'll have a limited diversity in your tea over time, as some organisms are better/more efficient at consuming the food resources or other microbes in the tea than others. When I look at a tea that's been going to 60+ hours, I typically see the same morphology (shape) of bacteria and flagellate dominating the tea. Sometimes there's fungal hyphae left, but many times it's completely gone, having been eaten by the bacteria.

I also don't think you need to be applying the tea that frequently. 1X every 7-10 days would be an aggressive rate in my opinion, unless you're dealing with some pathogen issues. At some point, you're maximizing the amount of aerobic biology that the soil/leaf surface can sustain, and I doubt you're having that much microbial loss in the period of 3-5 days, provided you're using good growing methods.

Hope that helps,
CT

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Maxicrop vs. Acadian Seaplants or Nature's Essence

Both products use the same kelp variety out of the North Atlantic. Maxicrop set up their operation in the late 1940's and they use a heated alkaline extraction process. This company established the need and use of seaweed extracts on a commercial level.

Acadian Seaplants and Nature's Essence haul the kelp from the North Atlantic down to Nova Scotia where it is processed into kelp meal and a wide range of extracts for use in livestock, HABA products and medicine. These companies use a cold-extraction process which retains high levels of microbial activity.

Not unlike the comparison between fish emulsion vs. fish hydrolysate - the hydrolysate is an effective food for the soil (in particular fungi from what I understand) whereas fish emulsion not so much. Not to mention the retention of the so-called 'heavy metals' in emulsion products.

Something like that.

CC

 

[mapinguari]

Anyone collect Pacific kelp themselves? I read somewhere that the Atlantic kelp is the stuff we want for gardening. Is this true? How does Pacific kelp compare?

Any tips on how to prepare wild-collected Pacific kelp for use in teas or as an amendment are appreciated.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Anyone collect Pacific kelp themselves? I read somewhere that the Atlantic kelp is the stuff we want for gardening. Is this true? How does Pacific kelp compare?

Any tips on how to prepare wild-collected Pacific kelp for use in teas or as an amendment are appreciated.

mapinguari

It is true that most of the research work on seaweed and its extracts has focused on the variety used by the major processors from the North Atlantic, i.e. Ascophyllum nodosum

Several months ago CT Guy mentioned a researcher by the name of Dr. T.L. Senn who studied the seaweed found along the West Coast, i.e. Nereocystis Luetkeana

Dr. Senn is the author of Seaweed and Plant Growth that is easily found from used book dealers at Amazon.com, et al. His body of work includes over 100 published papers on the use of seaweed and seaweed extracts that span 40+ years.

I also would be interested in looking at research comparing both of these types.

There are 2 seaweed products available on the West Coast made from the N.L. kelp (aka Bull Kelp) and they are in a liquid form meaning that shipping charges probably knocks it out of consideration when you compare the price and application rates of the powdered versions.

CC

 

[CT Guy]

In sharing this, keep in mind it was just one experiment with one commercial bull kelp product. However, the one product sample I tried had no beneficial effect on microbial life, in fact it seemed to suppress it. I was truly disappointed. If you were to collect your own seaweed though and process or compost it, I'm sure it would have benefit. I would be shocked if Jaykush didn't have a story or two about doing it himself. Of course, the extract powders and kelp meal are quite cheap for how long they last.

 

[smoketrichs]

from what I've been reading, adding kelp and other more solid amendments foster a more fungal tea which in turn requires a slightly longer brew time. while molasses fosters a more bacterial brew.

 

[jaykush]

i dont live near the beach sorry, ocean products are not my thing.

 

[MrFista]

I collect wild kelp from the pacific rim a lot. I put it in a barrel to soak with food scraps and fish scraps (I was a fisherman then) rainwater and a handful of dirt. The garden was well away from the house at the time... My veggies put all the neighbours to shame. Cup of the nasty brew to a bucket of water.

Lately I'm not a fisherman but with seaweeds only I've made some potent brews that helped some vegetables do their thing more successfully than without it. We have kelp varieties that grow 2 metres a day. Surely then, filled with goodies. Down the road where my lady friend lives they ring their cucurbits with seaweed as a mulch. Huge crops of pumpkins squash zuchinnis etc.

The idea that the atlantic ocean holds 'good kelp' and the pacific doesn't is completely ridiculous to me.

 

[CT Guy]

from what I've been reading, adding kelp and other more solid amendments foster a more fungal tea which in turn requires a slightly longer brew time. while molasses fosters a more bacterial brew.

Smoketrichs,

The info. that molasses as a bacterial food is not accurate. It will grow excellent fungal hyphae as well and is what I would consider a balanced food source in this regard. I've found kelp to be more of a bacterial food than molasses. Fish hydrolysate is a strictly fungal food for the most part, but most food sources tend to feed both bacteria and fungi. A bacterial tea could be ready in as little as 10 hours. Fungal hyphae takes longer, closer to 24 hours and sometimes longer based on water temps.

However, you really want a balanced tea, I strongly believe having all the organisms in the tea is optimal. You're creating a miniature ecosystem with nutrient cycling, which can then be applied to the plant. By doing so, the plant is in charge based on the exudates it's putting out. If it doesn't need the bacteria then it will go dormant or become food resources for other organisms.

Hope that helps!

 

[CT Guy]

I collect wild kelp from the pacific rim a lot. I put it in a barrel to soak with food scraps and fish scraps (I was a fisherman then) rainwater and a handful of dirt. The garden was well away from the house at the time... My veggies put all the neighbours to shame. Cup of the nasty brew to a bucket of water.

Lately I'm not a fisherman but with seaweeds only I've made some potent brews that helped some vegetables do their thing more successfully than without it. We have kelp varieties that grow 2 metres a day. Surely then, filled with goodies. Down the road where my lady friend lives they ring their cucurbits with seaweed as a mulch. Huge crops of pumpkins squash zuchinnis etc.

The idea that the atlantic ocean holds 'good kelp' and the pacific doesn't is completely ridiculous to me.

MrFista,

My whole point was that N Atlantic Sea Kelp is the most widely researched. I'm not stating that other kelp varieties aren't beneficial and shouldn't be used. I did get dubious results when I looked at a product made from our local bull kelp here in the Pacific NW, however it was one sample and I don't know anything about their extraction process, etc...In addition, even if it didn't work as a microbial food, the plant growth hormones could have offered benefit. I hope people didn't take my original post the wrong way.

 

[Sourbear]

So I decided to go with this for my flowering tea mix.

The Worm Casting Company EWC (175+ microbes or so it says)
Hibrix Molasses
Humic/Fulvic Acids
Seaweed extract
Indonesian Bat guano

i think it shall do pretty dam good

 

[CT Guy]

So I decided to go with this for my flowering tea mix.

The Worm Casting Company EWC (175+ microbes or so it says)
Hibrix Molasses
Humic/Fulvic Acids
Seaweed extract
Indonesian Bat guano

i think it shall do pretty dam good

175+ microbes? They're joking, right? Anyone that says that in their marketing literature doesn't know much about EWC!

 

[jaykush]

oh yea well my EWC have a few billion microbes.