Earth Juice Rainbow Mix Grow, Need help making Nutrient tea

[Astrobabe123]

I am growing 4 organic plants. 3 in 50 gallon smart pots and one in a 4x 4x2 box. I was thinking about using all organic teas to feed but I want to make sure I am getting the full amount of nutrients my plants need to be healthy and produce a couple pounds per plant. I was recommended by the local guru at the garden shop that if I am making all organic teas the cheapest best way is to use Earth Juice Rainbow Mix Grow fry fertilizer with humic acid. First I put 4ml rainbow mix per gallon of soil in the pots/box. I also put in mycorrizae when planting. Now I want to make a nutrient tea out of the rainbow mix and use it to feed my plants on a schedule of water, myco tea, nutrient tea, repeat. Also, I am going to top dress the plants with the rainbow mix grow every 2-3 weeks. Has anyone ever used the Earth Juice rainbow mix grow to make a nutrient tea or to feed there plants? I am under the impression that all I have to do is aerate the rainbow mix for 24 hours and feed. Any suggestions on how to make a good nutrient tea using the earth juice rainbow mix? Also do you think this will be sufficient to feed my plants or should I think about getting an organic liquid fertilizer to supplement. Any opinions or suggestions help. Thanks for all the help! Listed below are the Earth Juice Rainbow mix Grow ingredients and NPK...



Earth Juice Rainbow Mix Grow (5-5-2) w/mycorrhizae and humic acid
derived from- feathermeal, bat guano, marine bird fossilized guano,steamed bone meal, sulfate of pot ash from langbenite, cottonseed meal and sea kelp. Also, contains .5 percent humic acids derived from leonardite.

 

[canna woop!]

Hi Astro babe welcome to the IC forum, I am canna woop by no means an expert but maybe i can point you in the direction.

Ok so this product you have, would be best pre-mixed into a soil and allowed to sit for a time before usage. It is not really ideal product because you pay way more for per # due to the brand/label/ marketing, and they do not add all the minerals needed, just some random one's that were popular at the time the marketers designed this product. If you calculate how much each supply on the list costs you will see what i am talking about. Additionally, myco's (mycorrhiza) are best applied directly to the root at transplant once, So it's totally not needed after the first application when the roots are inoculated. Also myco tea's are not a recommended practice, since mycorrhiza are terrestrial organisms.

So the concept of nutrient tea, is similarly an issue. Chances are, you are not going to get much out of it as a tea, not more than mixing it with water and most the action from the tea is when the "gunk" in the water hits the soil. you can use an AACT, a botanical tea, or a FPE, but those are different than "nutrient tea." I am not trying to shoot you down, just pointing to the methods that are most likely to lead to your goal of a heavy harvest.

The best thing you can do towards this end is to pre-mix the soil correctly, including correct levels of minerals, compost, and aeration in the soil. Then keep up with insect prevention in your garden and you will see it through to a successful crop. I would not rely on a liquid fertilizer, since they are often chemically adulturated due to lax or nil guidelines for the hydroponic/bottled nutrient industry. If you look at some of the soil recipe's listed here in the Organic Section of ICmag, such as the ones in BlueJay's No-Till design theory, implementation, you will see that mixing correctly in advance is Key to shirking bottled nutrients or other semi-useless over priced products like the earth juice line.

Hope that helps and keep posted,

Canna woop

 

[Granger2]

Atrobabe,
What kind of base soil did you use? I don't know much about the EJ Rainbow Mix, but it seems that 4ml/gal amendment is really lite.

Mycos don't like to be brewed. They want to be applied making direct contact w/roots. Since I doubt that you want to remove the plants and remix your soil, you'll probably need to add nutes in some form.

It is not true that all bottled nutes are useless. There are many ways to skin a cat organically. It can be done by topdressing, bottled nutes, nute teas, etc. If you want to go the bottled nute route, check out BioBizz, General Organics. EJ bottled nutes can be used successfully, but it's pH issues cause it to have a high learning curve. Good luck. -granger

 

[Astrobabe123]

AACT and nutrient questions re: EJ Rainbow Mic Grow

AACT and nutrient questions re: EJ Rainbow Mic Grow

ok so I am not that good with termology yet but I think I got the idea. First I have already properly amended the soil with eathjuice rainbow mix grow and baskashi. So I understand that was the first step. I also have a good base soil mixture of peat moss, compost, pumice, coco, gypsym and lime. Also, when I transplanted my babies from 1 gallon pots to thier permantent homes I directly applied mykos staight to the root ball. So far so good!!

I just finished my first AACT (brewed for 24hrs). I use vermilife tea compost foundation which is basical a premixed foundation for making microorganism tea. check out the product and tell me what you think. http://www.vermicrop.com/vermilife

I made 5 gallons used 1.5 cups of verimlife, 1 cup bakashi, and 6 oz sugar. It came out looking good and smelling earthy. I gave it to my plants this morning so ill see how it goes soon!

I just started a new aerate compost tea this time with more of the intention of feeding my babies.

The recipe I used was 2 1/4 cups rainbow mix grow, 3 cups vermilife compost tea foundation mix, and 6 oz of raw cane sugar.

Any thoughts? I was wondering if it matters if I just aerate the rainbow mix grow with the vermilife tea foundation mix and sugar or should I just aerate the rainbow mix grow and sugar by itself. I am hoping that I can get enough food for them by aerating the rainbow mix frequently, top dressing and possibly adding other component like fish emulsion for extra nitrogen to the aerate nutrition tea to get all the nutrients needed?

 

[Granger2]

Astrobabe,
For 5 gal of tea I would cut the sugar back by half at least. I have to wonder. How much tea does that give you per container? You're in 50 gal and a 4x4 box, right? Not much per. Can you get a big brewing container and a big air pump? Good luck. -granger