Guano amount for flowering?

[Bud+]

I'm near the end of a coco\perlite mix run that I fed for the last month or so with 1.5-1.8 mS EC and pH of ~5.8-6.2 with Bionova Supermix Soil and switched gradually to Hesi Coco - both at 4-5 ml\L.
I also gave extra PK, enzymes and sugars.

Now I want to change all of that to high P guano and EWC tea to enhance the taste of the buds.
I know how to make the tea but I don't know how much guano I should dissolve in my bucket to keep the elements steady.

To dissolve the guano I put it over a filter and pour water through it to leach the nutrients into my bucket.
I also now add Fulvic Acid per the instructions on the label to help the guano break down faster.

To sum:
1. How much guano should I put per liter (or gallon) at the last 3 weeks of flowering, considering I'm adding Fulvic Acid?
2. Would it be beneficial to add Enzymes and\or sugars?
(and if I should add sugars, does it matter if I use Atami Bloom Stimulator or molasses? the atami product doesn't clog my drippers like molasses but its only 2-3 weeks and I'll chunk them anyway)
3. Should I water with this solution bi-daily like I usually water or should I feed-feed-water? (or feed-water?)

Thanks

 

[EclipseFour20]

I use 4 bat/seabird guanos in my routine (custom Promix medium) and settled on this basic tea recipe:

1 gallon of water
2 ounces of bat guano
15 ml of blackstrap molasses

Aerate/bubble for 48 hours (like compost tea)...72 hours for Peruvian Seabird Guano--and depending on plant size and maturity, each plant (3-5 gallon containers) receives between 9 and 48 fluid ounces of bat tea every 10 days or so.

In the past I have added other components (kelp meal, raw milk, leonardite, hydrolyzed fish, etc) and decided that "less is best"--so, it just: poo, water and mo..nothing else.

BTW...I top dress each plant (around day 21 in flower) with 30 ml of Jamaican bat guano and follow up with Jamaican guano tea until I swap to Indonesian guano tea for the last few weeks.

Caution...Peruvian Seabird Guano is rather hot for soil mixes, I found it best to use in teas only, once brewed for 72 hours.

Cheers!

 

[Bud+]

I got the guano powder and its already super dry.
What would aerating it help? The micros already dried and died.

 

[EclipseFour20]

I got the guano powder and its already super dry.
What would aerating it help? The micros already dried and died.

Dried micros are not dead--they just need to be awaken and fattened up. It is my understanding that air (oxygen) and molasses (food) are needed for microbes to grow; hence I make bat teas in the same fashion I make compost teas. However, the most important reason I use aerated guano teas...plants seem to absorb nutrients faster.

Besides, if one does not bubble the guano tea--you get this god awful scum and stink around 48 hours. I have brewed Mexican bat guano tea for 5 days (got busy and never finished applying tea to all the girls), and had no problems using it. It smelled sweet and fresh...just like it was freshly brewed. But that was not the case once...when a tube got pulled from the air pump and PSG tea sat idle during the last two days (bubbled 1st day...leachate style during 2nd and 3rd day)--that batch was soo bad that my dogs started investigating the grow area for "the dead animal". And shit...that stinky tea stained the white food service bucket so bad that overnight bleach soakings did nothing, besides it took about a month before it stopped emanating a "dead animal stink"!

BTW...I am all about flavors and potency, and my flowers have both--and usually are the top dog at the collective!

 

[spadedNfaded]

This is a good discussion! I just picked up some guano myself. I have dried cave and dried desert. 8-4-1 and 3-10-1. Im confused as to how to apply the stuff because in the organic forums for beginniners LCs mix requires 1/3c high N and 1/2 cup high P. That seems like a lot of guano to me, especially since the bag itself recommends 1-2TEAspoons high N per 8" container diameter. Which i find to be around 1gallon.

Would it be better to use the high P guano as a tea? Throw in a lil 0-0-1 liquid kelp or something like that.

Eclipse - how long of an interval is it between day 21 top dressing and the follow-up tea?

Perhaps you could answer this, should i top dress w 1tsp/gal high N guano a week before the flip, top dress at 1 tsp/gal high P and then make 3-10-1 tea until a couple weeks before flower? Thanks!

- SubN

 

[Bud+]

Dried micros are not dead--they just need to be awaken and fattened up. It is my understanding that air (oxygen) and molasses (food) are needed for microbes to grow; hence I make bat teas in the same fashion I make compost teas. However, the most important reason I use aerated guano teas...plants seem to absorb nutrients faster.

Besides, if one does not bubble the guano tea--you get this god awful scum and stink around 48 hours. I have brewed Mexican bat guano tea for 5 days (got busy and never finished applying tea to all the girls), and had no problems using it. It smelled sweet and fresh...just like it was freshly brewed. But that was not the case once...when a tube got pulled from the air pump and PSG tea sat idle during the last two days (bubbled 1st day...leachate style during 2nd and 3rd day)--that batch was soo bad that my dogs started investigating the grow area for "the dead animal". And shit...that stinky tea stained the white food service bucket so bad that overnight bleach soakings did nothing, besides it took about a month before it stopped emanating a "dead animal stink"!

BTW...I am all about flavors and potency, and my flowers have both--and usually are the top dog at the collective!

Most dried microbes are dead. The ones that can make endospores can survive hot and dry environment.
However, most microbes don't produce endospores and thus when you dry guano (or compost, or whatever) you get rid of almost all the microbes that don't produce endospores.
To my knowledge, the main thing about teas is variety and here you lose quite a bit of it.
An EWC + guano tea makes much more sense to me from an organic perspective.

However, I'm not growing organically. I'm growing with chem nutes (which probably made the medium salty enough for most microbes to be unable to grow there) in coco and perlite mix (so the microbes also have much less surface to grow upon compared to soil).
Instead I'm trying to leach the nutrients off the guano (as I'm pretty sure my medium have low to very low population of micro organisms to do that part) with Fulvic acid.
I use the guano with something like a coffee filter and then I filter the solution again before it gets to my water pump. That way I reduce the clogging factor.

As I run an irrigation system I can't use teas often as it would clog the drippers and create a very nasty biofilm on the tubing walls.
If I'll use tea it would have to be by hand, and I don't have access to most of my plants right now.
I might get it done a week before the harvest, again, to enhance the taste.

 

[EclipseFour20]

I am not smart enuf to debate the dormancy effects of microbes but I do know majority of the microbes purchased for horticulture are in powder form...possibly cuz those available in liquid form are inconsistent due to handling, lack of refrigeration, or exposure to temps during shipping. Maybe you can shed some light as to why majority of microbes available are dry...not liquid.

My routine is as follows--please remember, this works for me, in my medium (hand water), with my particular genetics/strains, and I follow organic principles with a wee twist of biodynamics.

Teas:

I "nute" every 10 days and "fert" every 10 days by alternating between the two (Day 5: Nute, Day 10: Fert: Day 15: Nute: Day 20: Fert...and so on). By delivering guano teas every 10 days, each plant should receive at least 2 applications of all guanos--sometimes more--but never less than 2 apps of each guano tea.

Veg days 1-14 (or so): Mexican bat guano tea at 16-20oz per plant
During the last 7-10 days in Veg: Peruvian Seabird guano (PSG) tea at 9-12oz per plant
During the first 21 days in Flower: PSG tea at 12-24oz per plant
Flower days 22-39: Jamaican bat guano tea at 24-36oz per plant
Flower days 40-58: Indonesian bat guano tea at 48 oz per plant.
Flower days 59-70: Flush

​

or....Mex bat guano during veg and a minimum of 21 days of PSG, 18-21 days of Jamaican, and 18-21 days of Indonesian...with each dosage increasing greater than the previous (less is best)....or something like that.


Soil:

I mix my own soil and add dry fertilizers when I transplant.

Transplant of clone (after rootcube to promix) to quart container: 15 ml of Dr Earth All Purpose (4-4-4) dry fert.
Quart to 2-3 gallon: 15 ml of Dr Earth All Purpose, 15 ml of Dr Earth Bud & Bloom (4-10-7), 15 ml Mex bat guano (10-2-1), and 15 ml of Indonesian bat guano (0.5-12-0.2).
2-3 gallon to 5 gallon: 30 ml of Dr Earth Bud & Bloom) and 30 ml of Indonesian bat guano.
Flush & top dressing around flower day 21...30 ml of Jamaican bat guano is mixed with 4-6 cups of soil and then the container is "top dressed" after flushing--then dosed with Jamaican bat guano tea as well.
​

Also during the first 21 days in flower the girls receive a tea made from Dr Earth Bud & Bloom--at the customary rate of 1 cup of dry ferts and 15ml of mo for every gallon of water (I sometimes add kelp and raw milk as well).

I try to hydrate the girls with compost tea about a day prior to nute/fert teas--nice to keep the microherd charged and soil moist for the bat teas!

Hope this helps.
Cheers!

 

[Bud+]

To my knowledge those powders have only specific microbes that are used to connect broken links in your herd.
They grow each specific microbe and then mix them.

On the other hand, once you just dry guano you don't choose specific microbes. most die, a few survive. As you don't really specifically choose who stays it could be counter-effective to get them over-growing.

When you aerate a EWC or compost tea you use somewhat moist composted material that have a lot of microbial variance that hopefully mainly the beneficial ones will grow out of. (due to aerobic conditions and higher quantity in the compost to begin with)


That is at least how I get it.

 

[DRorganic]

you add microbes from earth worm castings to break down the Bat guano and other fertilizers. the black strap molasses is used to multiply the microbes and add other elements to the plant.