Living organic soil from start through recycling

[ClackamasCootz]

When making a botanical tea with kelp meal in particular, when you strain the tea don't throw the hydrated kelp meal away. It still have as much as 50% of the 'things' you used it for in the first place.

Top dress the plants in your yard, add to a worm bin, etc.

This is not trash or anything close to that......

 

[ixnay007]

Anything I've made teas/infusions from ends up in my garden, it was natural before I tossed it in water, why wouldn't it be afterwards?

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

When making a botanical tea with kelp meal in particular, when you strain the tea don't throw the hydrated kelp meal away. It still have as much as 50% of the 'things' you used it for in the first place.

Top dress the plants in your yard, add to a worm bin, etc.

This is not trash or anything close to that......

I throw my strainings from all brews (compost or botanical) right into the compost tumbler... Minimizing loss means minimizing acquiring new ingredients!

 

[ClackamasCootz]

I probably have the best fed worms in Oregon.....

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

ya? Wanna ship some of those healthy beasts out here to CO? Gonna try an indoor "bed" made of nested rubbermaid tubs for 6 plants - gonna need some bold subterranean excavators

 

[ClackamasCootz]

BuffaLoam - I'd love to get that one from out there.....

BTW - do you know how to get from Oregon to Texas? Drive east until you smell it then head south until you step in it.

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

Shit, I'm headed to seattle in September - I'll bring a checked bag of buffaloam if you pay the baggage fee

 

[chief bigsmoke]

CC you would be proud of us over here: First we tried an Aloe vera tea for the first time, then we took your advice and separated the ingredients of our proven ACT recipe. to make 3 more separate teas as a start...

I've been adding more ingredients and straining them before use.

1.5L Aloe Vera tea (soil drench+foliar) > 1L Kelp Meal tea (soil drench) > *save a little bit of the kelp meal for further decomposition and add .5L Alfalfa Tea (foliar) > 1.5L compost/castings/blackstrap tea (soil drench)

so instead of making tea once a week, we now have our brewer running overtime and we going to be providing teas every 2 days now. with some tasty RO in between.

Anyone foresee any issues with this feeding schedule CC and friends? I'm in early veg-aroo right now



PS I'm going to go herb hunting outdoors today... looking for nettles, chicory, comfrey etc

 

[wingdings]

Amazing thread. Maybe the greatest cannabis thread I have ever read. I have milk goats so there's alfalfa coming out my ears here. I ordered the Bio ag ful humix can't wait to see the results from it. Btw, plants have been praying to the light for a week straight, about the same time I started reading this thread.

 

[Neo 420]

CC you would be proud of us over here: First we tried an Aloe vera tea for the first time, then we took your advice and separated the ingredients of our proven ACT recipe. to make 3 more separate teas as a start...

I've been adding more ingredients and straining them before use.

1.5L Aloe Vera tea (soil drench+foliar) > 1L Kelp Meal tea (soil drench) > *save a little bit of the kelp meal for further decomposition and add .5L Alfalfa Tea (foliar) > 1.5L compost/castings/blackstrap tea (soil drench)

so instead of making tea once a week, we now have our brewer running overtime and we going to be providing teas every 2 days now. with some tasty RO in between.

Anyone foresee any issues with this feeding schedule CC and friends? I'm in early veg-aroo right now



PS I'm going to go herb hunting outdoors today... looking for nettles, chicory, comfrey etc

I am constantly brewing teas whethers its for my veg beds or my med garden. The ladies get watered once in a while. They get more teas than water.

 

[chief bigsmoke]

thats what i like to hear.. yipee

 

[Neo 420]

Just sourced some agave plants. All ready transplanted into my beds.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Here comes for sure one of those questions many of you will consider crazy...but I gotta ask.

I "get" botanical teas, they speak to me soul.

But I do not really understand ACTs, or AACTs or microbe teas. And here is what I do not get...if you have a soil/plant deal going on the plant dumps sugars in the soil at night (correct me anytime I am wrong)...that sugar feeds the microbes that then make the plants next day food. If you dump a shitload extra microbes into the mix how does that work?

Do you force feed the plant essentially? Somebody help me out here. I mean when you feed biological teas all you do is make stuff available and excess gets stored on negative sites or in the microbes...kind of stored like leftovers for later is the way I visualize it....or have I way oversimplified.

on the lavender tea...I used it as a miticide, sprayed it. Have not used it to feed the soil.

 

[Neo 420]

I for one add basic ewc teas frequently because I do not have any mulch and my soil horizon continually dries out. I am just adding back. I would not say it is force feeding.

 

[chief bigsmoke]

Here comes for sure one of those questions many of you will consider crazy...but I gotta ask.

I "get" botanical teas, they speak to me soul.

But I do not really understand ACTs, or AACTs or microbe teas.....

I'll attempt to answer some of your question since I did recently bring up ACT's.

First:

Compost tea is an aerated solution that is teeming with billions of beneficial microorganisms that can be applied directly to the leaf surface of a plant as a foliar spray or used as a soil drench to improve root systems. Compost tea works by putting good biological diversity that your plant needs onto the leaf surface of the plant or the soil. You can enjoy the proven benefits of compost now in a liquid form. Many home gardeners and farmers use compost tea as an organic fertilizer to restore a much needed diversity and population of beneficial bacteria, fungi, and protozoa back into the soil foodweb. Others use compost tea as a foliar spray to reduce disease. Whatever your particular needs, compost tea will help you on the path towards a healthier, natural, organic garden!

The concept behind compost tea is quite simple, though the actual process of making compost tea becomes scientific and very complex. The idea is that compost (full of beneficial microorganisms) is put into water and then nutrients or foods for the microorganisms is added to allow the bacteria and fungi to multiply rapidly. Air is sent through the water to keep the water oxygenated, as this favors the beneficial bacteria and fungi over the pathogens (ex.-e coli). At the end of the brewing cycle, what you have is a concentrated liquid full of billions of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes) that can then be sprayed directly onto the leaf surface. This puts the "good" biology where the plant needs it to protect itself. It keeps the plant healthier and helps it to fight off potential diseases. The "good" biology occupies the infection sites on the leaf surface and is held there by simple sugars that the plant puts out (exidates) that work as a glue to keep the beneficial microorganisms thriving and protecting the plant. Compost tea has been used by many people all over the world with mixed results. Part of the problem relating to studies on compost tea is that there is a high diversity in the quality of the compost tea produced in many of these studies. After all, if you don't start with good compost, don't add the proper amount of nutrients, or don't keep the brew sufficiently aerated, you could be selecting for the "pathogens" rather than the "beneficials," and end up with compost tea that could potentially harm your plants. Much more likely is that the compost tea would be low in bacteria and fungi and have little more effect than putting water on your plant.

http://www.gardeningwithmicrobes.com/aact.shtml

Helpful: I found this great video called "Compost Extract: video microscopy of beneficial soil microorganisms found in compost extracts" to explain it way better than I can. Plus there are great images of all the microbeasties in action.

Damn Nature, you awesome

[youtubeif]muTxPXoAOjE[/youtubeif]

hope this helped a bit. Microbeman and CTguy have info on ACT's dialed. MM was the one who pointed me in the right direction. check out his website here: http://www.microbeorganics.com/ and buy his DVD

 

[YosemiteSam]

I get the extra microbe part. And I get that it would be great to add some before the plant goes in to get live soil.

What I don't get is once the plant is in and everything is going along well how does throwing more in there not change that balance?

The bio teas are replacing things the plant is using and filling cec sites, negative clay sites, negative humus sites. But don't you then want the plant to dictate what it needs?

 

[chief bigsmoke]

Hey Yosemite,

I'm sure one of the big boys with more experience will step up and properly answer that question.

Now allow my to explain why a rookie grower like me rationalized using ACT's on a weekly basis:

- I simply thought that in container growing the actual microbiological diversity is questionable. A lot of ppl use monochromatic soil mixes which lack the ideal environment for the diverse selection of helpful critters. Meaning that, different microfauna like different living conditions. some prefer to live in acidic environments and others more of an alkaline environment.

- Also growing cannabis in our set pH ranges would benefits some critters and disadvantages others. leading to unbalance

- Combined with toxic spills (harmful nutes) maybe its necessary to "replenish" the legion of helpful critters in your containers.

-*added: if your soil mix lacks enough oxygen it may be useful to restock the aerobic crits

Just my two cents. Its also nice to see a positive effect on the plants in the following days... if anything its very important against disease suppression

 

[chief bigsmoke]

worth adding: I also add a little kelp and alfalfa to my acts. some reasoning...

Producing compost tea with or without aeration and nutrient additives greatly affected the
total bacterial population density and proportion of the total population that was metabolically
active or culturable (Figure 1). This data set includes compost teas made from several sources of compost. These composts had different bacterial population densities (data not shown). This difference was responsible for the large range of bacterial populations in both NCT and ACT made without nutrient additives. Clearly, Fig. 1. The influence of aeration and nutrients additives during compost tea production on bacterial population measurements. NCT- not aerated, ACT- aerated.

When indicated, NCT and ACT made with nutrients including combinations of 0.12% w/v soluble kelp concentrate,
0.25% v/v humic acids, 0.30% glacial rock dust, or 0.5%,1.0%, and 1.5% v/v bacterial
nutrient solution (Soil Soup, Inc, Edmonds, WA). Active and total cells determined by direct
counting after staining with Fluorescein diacetate and DAPI, respectively. CFU determined
on 5% TSBA media with 100 ppm cycloheximide. Data from Scheuerell, 2002.

from: http://www.soilace.com/pdf/pon2004/5.Scheuerell.pdfh

see full pdf below

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Its also nice to see a positive effect on the plants in the following days... if anything its very important against disease suppression

That alone is enough even if increased growth rate, increased biomass, etc. weren't enough for chump-change.

 

[Scrappy4]

I get the extra microbe part. And I get that it would be great to add some before the plant goes in to get live soil.

What I don't get is once the plant is in and everything is going along well how does throwing more in there not change that balance?

The bio teas are replacing things the plant is using and filling cec sites, negative clay sites, negative humus sites. But don't you then want the plant to dictate what it needs?

YS, the plants take what they need in a living soil. Our job is to make a diverse offering for them to choose from. The plants sends out exudes through its roots to attract that particular food it wants. The microbes make foods available but it's up to the plant to decide the what's and when's. The food we feed our plants in a living soil is ussually not soluble, but microbes make it soluble. You may have heard the term "made available" used when talking about nutrients because without healthy microbes your food just sets there, so they have to be made available, by microbes or chelating agents. Plants need soluble food whether a microbe makes it that way or a chemist makes it that way. In a chem grow the food is soluble and the plants bypass the food web, and some of those soluble foods like N in an ammonia form will burn root hairs when the plants can't take anymore. The grower is left scratching his head as he adds more and makes things worse, then of course the flushing starts, lol. While burning can happen in organic grows it is not frequent. Scrappy