Advantages to soil amendments vs organic teas?

I'd like to know if anyone has an opinion on whether to mix guano into the soil instead of making a tea? It seems to me that with the tea you can control exactly when your plant gets different nutes. Are there certain amendments that are better to mix with the soil instead of adding to tea? Or is it best to do both? I'm using mostly bmo products if it matters.

Yeah, I think it up to you. You can control it more with teas, but adding amendments is to ensure the roots get nutes directly. I think its best to do both, but not overdo it. I really like fish emulsion, it is soooo easy to add to water. With guano and blood or bone meal, you have to add it to the water and shake a bunch, or put an air stone in the mix and bubble it for a few days.

For my first season with organics, I used amendments and tea's.


Early spring I mixed soil from the site with Bonemeal, Bloodmeal, Kelpmeal, and two kinds of Guano. A few other non nutrient amendments too like Lime, Epsom salts and Water Crystals.

My plants seemed to get a bit N deficient 2 weeks before flower. So I gave them a strong N guano Tea with molasses. Then in flower I switched to a High P guano for the Tea.


Stuff like bonemeal and bloodmeal are not good for tea. But they slowly break down over time in the soil so that is perfect.

Guano is nicely suited for making Tea.

Thanks for the help. I've been using an air pump when I brew my tea, but I'll make sure to just use my blood meal as a soil amendment. Anyone know how long it takes the blood to break down in the soil? +rep for the help

Yea its 2-3 months for the bloodmeal to break down in the soil. Which is your average veg time for my outdoor situation.

The Bonemeal takes longer to break down like 4-5 months. Which makes it good all the way through flowering.

If you are an indoor soil guy you may wanna use steamed bonemeal which is available to the plants alot sooner and breaks down in 2 months.

You can also use guano in the soil or stay away from animal derived amendments all together by using stuff like Kelp meal, Alfalfa meal and rock phosphate. Using those will keep the smell down.


I think of the tea's as a way to adjust the plants feeding schedule.

But in a perfect world the soil mix should have a fine tuned balance of amendments to get the plants all the way through from start to finish.

I've got a sog type grow indoors, so maybe I shouldn't use the blood meal. I don't veg long, so that blood meal will probably still be releasing N while I'm trying to flush before harvest.

I've never heard of steamed bonemeal, but I get my P from guano and bmo flower power.

I hear a lot about kelp meal though, I may have to look into that. I was thinking of adding some alfalfa as well.

Thanks

Ahh a Sog Grower cool.

So you do a short veg before flower, then maybe use a Nitrogen tea during that time and have a Soil mix balanced for Flower.

You could use a high N Guano or Wormcasting would work well in Tea. Those are high in N and micro nutes.

Also dont forget the molasses in the tea. The sugar will help the microherd.

Xare said:

Ahh a Sog Grower cool.

So you do a short veg before flower, then maybe use a Nitrogen tea during that time and have a Soil mix balanced for Flower.

You could use a high N Guano or Wormcasting would work well in Tea. Those are high in N and micro nutes.

Also dont forget the molasses in the tea. The sugar will help the microherd.

Click to expand...

I think I'll follow that plan, I just need to get some high N guano. Looks like another bmo order is in my future.

Thanks for all of your help.

HowardWCampbell said:

I think I'll follow that plan, I just need to get some high N guano. Looks like another bmo order is in my future.

Thanks for all of your help.

Click to expand...

the guano from BMO is a flower guano...higher in p...for a nitrogen guano you need mexican bat guano

w99illie said:

the guano from BMO is a flower guano...higher in p...for a nitrogen guano you need mexican bat guano

Click to expand...

They have both a high P and a high N guano. I have the 0-7-0 already, but I think their other one is 9-3-2. Thanks though.

Do you guys water with the tea only or do you dilute it? What kind of ppm readings are you guys getting? My teas tend to get stronger as they brew and I have been diluting them to around 500 ppm.

I'm a newb, so I don't have a lot to compare to, but I usually water twice a week. Every other week I substitute tea for water.

I don't have any way to check ppm, so I can't really help you there. I just follow the directions on whatever product I'm using, and add the numbers of the various ingredients. For example, a 5-1-1 dose of fish emulsion plus a dose of 9-3-2 guano gives you a 14-4-3 tea. If I'm way off here someone please correct me.

I let the tea sit for 24-48 hours with an aquarium air pump bubbling the water.

I probably could have fed them a little more often as my tea isn't really very "hot." I'm doing a little experimenting with that on my current crop. Good luck.