S
sativaking
Kind of a newb question. Has anyone had less occurences of nute burn when using compost teas instead of synthetically made nutrients?
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RustyShcklfrd
Member
I think the short answer is yes, but theres a lot more to the answer.
It's less likely in organic growing, but yes it happens. Alfalfa meal can cause burning, especially if it clumps up. The clumps get physically hot and can off gass N, and cause leaf tip burns.
But in general if you see burning in a organic garden, something somewhere is out of balance.
I have had issues after using sul-po-mag as a soil additive whenever I fed anything with K after the sul po mag. But it is a little unusual, and I've never heard of burning after using compost tea.
S
sativaking
I guess it was a very generalized question (and it could be a silly one). Thats why i said it was more of a newb thing to say...I think initially what i meant was.. is there less of a chance for nute burn when using organic ingredients opposed to something synthetically made.
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Short answer is yes there is much less chance of burning if the growing medium is properly amended, but as Mikell pointed out dumping a mix of organics onto a plant can sometimes cause issues.
I think one of the major issues for a synthetic grower to wrap his head around in organic growing is that it is a much slower, drawn out process to properly prepare an organic growing medium than it is to mix a salt or chemical based feeding solution and apply and then measure and change as necessary.
For me, the beauty of organics is that much of the work is done before you ever put the plant in the medium. Once the mix is prepared, I innoculate with AACT and let the microbes work their magic. 3-4 additional innoculations throughout the plant's life (and maybe a little topdressing depending on the strain) are all that is required other than proper watering so for me it makes the day to day maintenance very easy.
Cork144
Active member
From what I can tell a lot of the organic feeds arent the nutrients themselves, they contain what beneficial microbes eat which they themselves produce what the plant needs to eat, so with an aerated and strained compost tea, I cant see you getting too many issues.
I have a question myself, with organic growing, is there such a thing as too much perlite? I am considering 50% compost 50% perlite and feeding aerated teas
I have a question myself, with organic growing, is there such a thing as too much perlite? I am considering 50% compost 50% perlite and feeding aerated teas
Perlite does not add anything besides areation, because of that things like pumice or lava rock provide homes for microbes and areation, plus they have the added benefit of not breaking down quickly like perlite.
And that much compost is generally frowned on. You can do it, but pay attention to soil texture. Too muddy can be a problem.
Cork144
Active member
Cheers, I've always used garden compost from garden stores, I spend a lot of time breaking it down with my hands and have always used a lot of perlite to prevent it being too muddy.
As I am switching to organics all opinions and information is absolutely valuable to me,
I am fairly ignorant when it comes to soils, I've always just used the garden stores compost bags, so it may even be a peat compost, I cant remember lol I threw the bag out and its the first grow I've done in 6 years
Cork144
Active member
I've always liked a lot of aeration in my soil and dont mind having to water more often because of it, but now I am having to think about my medium beyond just something to hold my roots while I had forced chemical nutes into them.
Would 30/30/40 peat/compost/coco be a better alternative?
Would 30/30/40 peat/compost/coco be a better alternative?
B
Baked Alaskan
Instead of coco try local topsoil. Get the topsoil from a healthy area and you get all sorts of beneficials.
I don't remember where I found it on these forums but the base of all my mixes to start with is 33% peat, 33% perlite and 33% commercial potting mix. Start here, add amendments and then innoculate with AACT and you should be at a good starting point.
once you have success and confidence with this mix, you can play with it if you want. for example, this year I used 33% peat, 33% perlite and 10% EWC, 10% compost and 13% potting mix.
I would normally count EWC as an amendment but at this volume I consider it part of the base mix. Still to early to determine how good this is though......
expealadocious
Active member
I feel like coconut coir is good as its own thing when used alone but isnt a great addition to a soil mix per se...
