What compost to use in our teas??

[Son_of_a_Batch]

Hi everybody. We use ACT to feed my plants occasionaly... at the moment we use worm casts from the hydro store which are expensive and mass produced. We were curious as to what compost everyone else uses in their teas.

We would also like to know if using spent soil from a previous crop, might contain the microbes that a specific genus of plant prefers. i.e. my old soil used to reproduce/multiply the bacteria in it to feed my new crops.

Or is it possible just to dig rich humus from outside (where we live is full of soil microlife) and use it in a brew?

thanks in advance
SOB

 

[jaykush]

i use homemade castings for ACT, best results by far.

you can use old soil to brew a tea, but it would be better to just re use the soil. take advantage of the microbes that dont multiply in water well too.

as for the soil from outside, you can do a method called beneficial indigenous micro organisms ( IMO or BIM for short ) culture them, then apply to your soil or compost piles.

 

[guest2012y]

Watch out for EWC's that are in bags in which you can not see the EWC's.
Most of the local suppliers around me use some form of filler,wether it be sand,wood,or straw...it's pretty lame.
There are some which are legit,and since I don't have a worm bin I'm glad to buy and use high quality pure castings that are fairly local.
Jay's got it right....make and use your own for best results.
Check into the BIM culture....cool stuff.
But you can use any high quality compost and get good results from a tea......yet the pro's use EWC as the main source for tea.

 

[Son_of_a_Batch]

The EWC I use is bio bizz and looks ok to me. Just doubt the worms are fed much variety. I have a bin myself it just seems to take forever to produce!

 

[hopleaf]

i use this wonderful compost produced by a small company called purple cow. it is by far the highest quality compost for making teas i have ever used. i'll also put a tablespoon of kelp and some budswel to make a super tea. here's the purple cow desciption:

Purple Cow Organics Activated Compost With MicroLife is a scientifically formulated, tested, and certified premium compost - vermicompost based product. It delivers a full-range of benefits, along with metabolic building blocks to enrich and enliven your soil's foodweb. Purple Cow is formulated beginning with composted leaves and alfalfa fiber. Alfalfa contains a naturally-occurring plant hormone; triacontanol, that research has proven to promote root growth. During the composting process of Purple Cow, beneficial "soil foods", including greensand, rock dusts, and kelp meal stimulate a diversity of microorganisms along with adding macro and micronutrients. Kelp contains growth hormones, auxins, cytokines, and gibberellins, which increase root development substantially. Finally, MicroLife, Purple Cow’s own blend of vermicompost worm castings, is added for final activation of the product. Purple Cow supplies beneficial microorganisms and organic humus to the growing media of soil, harmoniously enhancing your soil's biology and making nutrients more available for plant uptake. Purple Cow improves soil structure and porosity, creating a better plant root environment, resulting in a healthier plant overall.

i like my own compost too, but the hops get all of that and the cannabis gets the purple cow. mostly becuase i can sleep soundly knowing the right stuff is growing in my indoor soils.

 

[jaykush]

I have a bin myself it just seems to take forever to produce!

concentrate on multiplying the worms at first rather than producing castings. once the population is large enough the food will decompose fast and give you castings fast. to do this dont put a small amount of worms in a huge bin, you want them concentrated, even if it means starting in a 1 gallon bucket. when you take a handful out it should be crawling with worms, not just a few here and there. if you keep the density high while upgrading the size of the bin according to the worm population, you will have a huge bin with TONS( at some point literally lol) of worms in no time.

 

[Microbeman]

concentrate on multiplying the worms at first rather than producing castings. once the population is large enough the food will decompose fast and give you castings fast. to do this dont put a small amount of worms in a huge bin, you want them concentrated, even if it means starting in a 1 gallon bucket. when you take a handful out it should be crawling with worms, not just a few here and there. if you keep the density high while upgrading the size of the bin according to the worm population, you will have a huge bin with TONS( at some point literally lol) of worms in no time.

100% correct; Densley placed or crowded worms reproduce much much faster.

 

[Son_of_a_Batch]

I will try getting more worms then. thanks for the heads up!

 

[CannaExists]

concentrate on multiplying the worms at first rather than producing castings. once the population is large enough the food will decompose fast and give you castings fast. to do this dont put a small amount of worms in a huge bin, you want them concentrated, even if it means starting in a 1 gallon bucket. when you take a handful out it should be crawling with worms, not just a few here and there. if you keep the density high while upgrading the size of the bin according to the worm population, you will have a huge bin with TONS( at some point literally lol) of worms in no time.

Jay, I could use some help in this area!

My wormbins have slowed down ever since I divided the contents of 1 wormbin between 2 bins, in an attempt to end up with 2 CastingGoldCreators. Instead I went from 1 productive wormbin, to 2 not-so-productive wormbins. I expected the worms to multiply quickly, but it's been quite awhile and their population hasn't skyrocketed.

Unless there is some kind of WormMultiplying SuperFood, It seems like perhaps the best thing for me to do at this point is buy some more worms. To complicate things just a bit, I have a side concern I must insert. Everytime I put some food in there for the worms, after later inspecting the food it is usually crawling with little mite-like creatures along with the worms. I'm wondering if they're competing with the worms for food, making matters worse?

 

[jaykush]

i would simply just put them in two smaller containers until the population is dense enough to go back to the full containers. when they are in smaller bins, you will have to feed less initially, but being so close together they make babies a lot faster too.

other critters are fine, i have beneficial mites, springtails, woodlice, all kinds of living creatures in my worm bin.

one thing that helps imo is biochar powder along with the normal scraps. makes for killer castings and makes them breed like mad as long as there not spread to thin.

 

[Frankinsensi]

Jay, I could use some help in this area!

My wormbins have slowed down ever since I divided the contents of 1 wormbin between 2 bins, in an attempt to end up with 2 CastingGoldCreators. Instead I went from 1 productive wormbin, to 2 not-so-productive wormbins. I expected the worms to multiply quickly, but it's been quite awhile and their population hasn't skyrocketed.

Unless there is some kind of WormMultiplying SuperFood, It seems like perhaps the best thing for me to do at this point is buy some more worms. To complicate things just a bit, I have a side concern I must insert. Everytime I put some food in there for the worms, after later inspecting the food it is usually crawling with little mite-like creatures along with the worms. I'm wondering if they're competing with the worms for food, making matters worse?

CannaExists ~ I've read that calcium is primarily what is needed to reproduce, so introducing some, when you want to build a population up is a good idea. If you boil egg shells, dry them and grind them up in a coffee grinder, they will be quickly available to the worms. The boiling makes it easier for them to be broken down by the microbes/worms. I do this and have a massive population. Oyster shell flour is good too.
Also, if you freeze their food, which breaks down the cell walls, and thaw it out before introducing it to the bin, the worms are able to process it much faster.
They love dead leaves as a primary bedding material.

From reading your 'humanure' thread, I understand that there should be no shortage of worm food at your place, lol. We have similar diets. I easily maintain a massive population of worms and have so much castings I end up throwing them in the garden!

 

[CannaExists]

Awesome advice guys! I just sifted through 2 whole worms bins, removing every worm and egg I could find. They will be concentrated into a smaller container. I will be definitely be implementing leaves, food-freezing, and a calcium source.

I can just see the booming populations!

Thanks guys!

 

[CannaExists]

I mite have some awesome pictures to show you guys:

This is what happened when I put a banana peel in my wormbin material after I took the worms out.

I posted this both because it's fucking awesome, and just to totally make sure that this amount of mites can coexist peacefully with my worms.

 

[jaykush]

your fine those mites are all part of the decomposition process.

 

[Son_of_a_Batch]

do you folks chop your worm food?

 

[jaykush]

for the most part yes, i have a food processor i got at the thrift store for 4$. makes for happy worms. but i also just throw things in there whole as a long term food source.

 

[Stankie]

Until I get a bokashi bin up and started, I usually freeze my scraps first. It kills the material and makes it decompose almost instantly. I put in some fresh trimmed cannabis leaves about 2 weeks ago and I can still see them in there. . . .

 

[PhytoChrome]

ACT is my favorite option:

Compost (Suspended in a cloth)
Liquid Kelp
Fish Emulsion
Aerated for 24-48 hours

Larger bubbles (not an airstone) dislodge more organisms from the compost, and don't break up the fungal hyphae

Adding molasses can produce a more bacterially dominant tea.
Just my two cents!

 

[GrinStick]

is adding amino acids to tea a beneficial application?
just bought some flavoring that has 16 amino acids in it (food grade), curious as to whether or not adding it to my tea would work.

2 cups ewc and compost w/bennes', tblspoon bone meal, teaspoon blood meal, tblspoon alfalfa meal, suspended in cloth
15 ml blackstrap molasses per gal
5 mls humic acid per gal

aerated continuously in well water.

still i'd like to know about the amino acids....

 

[jaykush]

grin whats the sodium content? are you talking about braggs?