Compost Tea- How Much?

[Lacedwitgame]

just curious how much compost tea folks are adding to theyre medium. 45 gal smart pot for example, how much tea would you add to 1 large plant in a 45 gal smart pot? is it 5 gal? is it 10 gal? or maybe 30 gal? do you soak the entire medium?

i have a hard time believeing that these farmers that grow multiple plants in 200 gal mediums are brewing thousand gallons of tea a week, that shit could get expensive! no pun intended.

thanks in advance for the info folks!

 

[vostok]

Where's that 'tea' come from...?
I make my own the veg batch brew from nettles(stinging nettle) hi in (N)
I toke up , insert mp3 player and wander around my village chatting to the moms and stealing their nettles
once I have enough to fill a 2.5 usgallon (10 liter) bucket I fill it with water, and allow it to sit in a sunny spot
at the back of my garden, for 1-2 months, depends on air temp.
On a very windy day I pour the shit thru my sieve, that leaves me with, about a gallon(5 liters)
I then dilute it to 15:1 or there abouts! with fresh water

and then apply it to my 2 week old vegging plants, if ever in doubt dilute it more, or for peace of mind foilar feed the plants
by adding a teaspoon to a 500ml(pint?) hand sprayer will with warm water, and spray 2x times a day,
this is a good way for noobies or hypos like me that can burn plants easily.

if this is your first time with DIY teas ..bring forth the slacker in you grow and use her as the test sample,
the tea should be like weak drinking tea, or dilute more, add 250mls or half a coffee cup to the test plant wait 1-2 days then check
if got yellow leaves etc of nute burn its too hot! ...so flush plant with fresh water

the above is nettles tea for vegging plants ..use the same method for budding plants, instead of nettles use Comfrey(loaded with (P) and (K)
always best to have some in your garden close to the compost bin...

WARNING THIS TEA SHIT ....IS ADDICTIVE

ps I grow strawberries and tomatoes too in my grow room

thanks for the rant ...lol

 

[sworth]

I'm going to try that recipe vostok....is either comfrey or nettle tea aerated whilst sitting though?

 

[greasemonkeymann]

I'm going to try that recipe vostok....is either comfrey or nettle tea aerated whilst sitting though?

no, they are fermented plant teas, not aerated compost teas.
Whats your goal?
nutrients or microbial populations?
Very different.

 

[sworth]

To be honest; my goal is researching "nutrient and microbial populations" now lol

 

[greasemonkeymann]

To be honest; my goal is researching "nutrient and microbial populations" now lol

ahh, gotcha.. we've all been there man, no worries.
A nutrient tea is just like the bottled shit you buy at the hydro store, only natural, cheaper, better, and more effective.
heres a link for AACTs
https://www.rollitup.org/t/soil-food-web-gardening-with-compost-teas.427826/
here's one for nutrient AND aacts.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/aact-bloom-tea-veg-tea-fungal-tea-myco-tea-recipes-from-the-outdoor-guys.516845/
go get yourself some coffee, and read up brother, LOTS of good shit there.
The stickys in this section of RIU are fairly good

 

[vostok]

The bucket is white, its sits at the back of my garden, people visit and ask "whats with the bucket ?" ...I say "Tea, stay clear"..., but the young ones always have too look ...lol and come back with really disgusting faces, lol...it should really stink ...so no I use no bubbler, thats inside with the cloner, note: I do leave it for 1-2 months, much longer than most ...many growers suggest just letting it sit for 1-2 weeks, but I like to really rot it out, any escaping stink..may conceal my weed smell ...? (citation needed ..lol)
As many will remember ..its almost normal for early growers to nute burn their plants, I think if your are gonna use DIY teas(and save a bundle) some nute burn experience is required, and how to correct it once you have it, the correcting part is the VIP, as you may over nute with your own DIY teas and not realize it ....again stay sharp.

ps once you have your tea underway ..avoid smelling it a lot, as often your Farts adopt the same stink and can last for months ...lol

 

[greasemonkeymann]

The bucket is white, its sits at the back of my garden, people visit and ask "whats with the bucket ?" ...I say "Tea, stay clear"..., but the young ones always have too look ...lol and come back with really disgusting faces, lol...it should really stink ...so no I use no bubbler, thats inside with the cloner, note: I do leave it for 1-2 months, much longer than most ...many growers suggest just letting it sit for 1-2 weeks, but I like to really rot it out, any escaping stink..may conceal my weed smell ...? (citation needed ..lol)
As many will remember ..its almost normal for early growers to nute burn their plants, I think if your are gonna use DIY teas(and save a bundle) some nute burn experience is required, and how to correct it once you have it, the correcting part is the VIP, as you may over nute with your own DIY teas and not realize it ....again stay sharp.

ps once you have you tea underway ..avoid smelling it a lot, as often your Farts adopt the same stink and can last for months ...lol

word there man...
my comfrey/dandelion FPE has been going/sitting since.. hmmm I think like September?
But shit, a tiny bit goes so damn far... I use a pint glass of it per 4 gallons, and my plants LOVE it, especially my French lavender, comfreys (yea sorta cannabilistic, feeding comfrey to itself), and my jasmines.
Great shit...
but yeaaah... don't stick yer nose in there...
Side note, out of curiousity, I added a tablespoon of BSM, and bubbled it with my air pump for about 30 hrs, back in I think January, and the smell went away... aerobic bacteria OWNS anaerobic...
smelled just like a AACT does after that..
kinda cool.
But now it reeks again..

 

[vostok]

I like to sit mine for months vs those that sit for weeks, I see it as, there is much movement in the bucket via temperature inversion,
shit moving up and down due to the change in the days temperature,
so letting it sit longer gives more time to extract the goodies to the water ...er perhaps ..lol
I don't really see the advantages in inserting an air line, there may be some ...but dude I'm a stoner ...even lazy lol
Dandelion, I've not used many have I do have some (many) in my lawn, whats the advantages P+K ..?

 

[Richard Drysift]

One thing about making teas whether they are from aerated compost or anaerobic fermented plant material is that you can customize them. There is no set recipe or ratio: it's really up to you as long as you realize the difference between them. Compost teas harbor microbial life so they should be aerated to maximize O2 levels which spur higher populations of microbes whereas fermented plant extracts need no dissolved oxygen at all. AACT feeds the beneficial bacteria while FPEs feed the plants directly. Ex:
So I got a mason jar about half full of shredded dandelions I picked off my lawn & filled it with water. It's been fermenting in my basement for a month or so - guess I forgot about it. I planned to dilute it with rain water & keep it on a shelf for feeding my plants in veg.
I also have been making compost teas. You do not need to have an elaborate tea machine to make it either just get a tote bin & some airstones. Put your half the amount you wanna make of good clean water & add a few handfuls of EWC. Then add some molasses and whatever else you want to at say a tsp per gal: alfalfa meal, kelp meal, liquid fish ferts, etc. I like to use a fish tank heater to get the tea up to about 70degF and then I just bubble that shit for a day or 2. When it's all foamy you know it's teaming with life. Dilute by 50% & give it to your plants. easy breezy

 

[Lacedwitgame]

9 reponses, and not 1 answer to the original question............. not really looking for recipes, ill be using aerated compost tea fed with molasses.

the question was, how much tea would a typical mature plant call for in a 45gal smart pot.

5 gallons? 10 gallons? 20? or need to completely soak the medium?

 

[Richard Drysift]

Just dump it in til it starts to go through to the bottom - I like to about give it another light drenching with the runoff using a turkey baster about 20 mins later but if you just be sure to soak the roots with your tea that'll be fine too

 

[sidewing]

you gave give it as much as you want.. depending on the type of tea.. if its simple bacteria tea.. you can give 100 gallons of the stuff and you'll be fine. or 1 gallon. just depends on the bacteria you want to populate in your soil.

if its a guano tea, you use an amount that varies depending on the amount of guano you put in it

but since you said compost tea which is a simple microbial tea, go as heavy as you want. you cant add too much bacteria to your soil.

 

[Lacedwitgame]

guano tea is actually more like it, i plan on using guanos,chicken manure,liquid kelp & molasses.

im debating if im going to brew a liquid silicate with the tea or just add it to the medium seperately.

 

[jamesthefarmer]

well honestly you want to be careful, with whatever you use you do want to put to much and fry anything it depends on how established your plant is in the 45, because otherwise you could get pockets of build up, i would recomend .5-1 gallon per 10 gallons of soil depending on how much moisture you have and if they are above ground, in my personal opinion i would recomend picking up a 3 part hydro nutirent line and mixing in mycorrhizae and letting it bubble, but i have also contemplated using fish hydrolysate as my main sources of n with something to raise it a little maybe, then using bat guano as my pk booster and adding kelp/rock dust/myco's/cal mag as for a ratio, i would aim for 300 ppm starting going up to however the plant likes. hope that helped il have to make a thread for this probably but how do you all feel about compost tea compaired to a hydro nutrient with myco's added and bubbled for 4 hours to a day?

 

[MistaRasta]

9 reponses, and not 1 answer to the original question............. not really looking for recipes, ill be using aerated compost tea fed with molasses.

the question was, how much tea would a typical mature plant call for in a 45gal smart pot.

5 gallons? 10 gallons? 20? or need to completely soak the medium?

I'll make this simple.

Peat holds a lot of water. When putting water through my containers I go by a percentile.

5% of your medium -light watering

10% of your medium- regular watering

15% of your medium- heavy watering

In a 10 gallon container a light watering would be .5 gallons.

A regular watering would be 1 gallon.

And a heavy watering would be 1.5 gallons.

So in a 45 gallon for watering id go about 4 gallons of water regularly....This is all subjective to plant size and grow style.

When plants are still small only give a gallon or two until you notice a change in how much its drinking.

Definitely helps me base my waterings so everything stays nice and moist not overly dry or wet, just right.

(This also pertains to teas because you don't want over do it. I give them a root drench when using teas. No runoff

 

[st0wandgrow]

9 reponses, and not 1 answer to the original question............. not really looking for recipes, ill be using aerated compost tea fed with molasses.

the question was, how much tea would a typical mature plant call for in a 45gal smart pot.

5 gallons? 10 gallons? 20? or need to completely soak the medium?

Just water your friggin plant with it! How
Much water would you normally use to water your plant? That's how much compost tea you can use. My gawd

 

[Lacedwitgame]

james & mister rasta.....THANK YOU! these were the type of responses i was looking for. this thread has served it purpose. thanks guys, feel free to close it now if need be.