Bat guano. Tea vs. top dressing.

B

BigB 420

Well-Known Member
Just curious really if applying bat guano as a tea will have different results from applying it as a top dressing? Is tea faster acting? Is one more likely to burn?

Top dressing sure sound easier.

Also, if I needed say 30-40 gallons of guano tea, could I brew a super strong batch in a 5 gallon bucket and then water it down?

Thanks!
 
LoRd MeGaTR0N31

LoRd MeGaTR0N31

Well-Known Member
Top dress man cant go wrong. Imo I never like the sound of teas for outdoor. I think Top dressing is so easy I just top dress my babies like a day before its suppose to rain.
 
Garden Boss

Garden Boss

Well-Known Member
Tea's can be a beautiful thing. My buddy brews a wicked concoction every week for his babies(3 feet taller/bushier than mine)... by brewing you make nutrients instantly available for uptake/ absorption. I would look into it man. That's the route I am heading next grow. I have a lot to learn on brews and recipes :)
 
B

BigB 420

Well-Known Member
Thanks man. I'm trying to learn about both options.

I did a compost and worm castings tea earlier this week after doing a compost top dressing.

Sort of a combo of bennies from the tea and sustained food from the compost. The girls seem to have loved it.They're growing fast right now. Hopefully the bat guano will give them plenty of available nitrogen for the stretch.
 
Vapekush

Vapekush

Active Member
I like to top dress and use teas. As long as you're running organic you can do both without having to worry about burning your plants.

Top dressing is nice because it helps to revitalize your soil.

Teas are nice because they are fast acting AND they also seem to help plants become more resilient to mold rot and some pests.

You can certainly make a concentrated mix to dilute for immediate use but don't try to store it for more than a day or so. As the tea sits the microbes die off and tea will go from smelling like fish tank water to smelling like a swamp on a hot day. For more info, check out the organic forum.
 
B

BigB 420

Well-Known Member
Thanks! Sounds like a lot of people use both. Seems both have benifits. I'm not running 100% organic, but I'm trying to keep my soil fed and alive in between applications of Maxsea.
 
Deltron 3030

Deltron 3030

Well-Known Member
I go OCD with the goodies I add to my soil. Top dressing your amendments along with a badass tea recipe is a two pronged approach to killer buds. Along with guanos I LOVE to add trace minerals (get as many as you can into the tea and soil, theres over 100 minerals plants use). Rock dust, algae and seaweed extracts, sea water concentrate are all great to add. The beneficial bacteria in the soil will flourish with the abundance of minerals. When you top dress the guano add some worm castings in as well. Depending on the variety of casting many will contain chitinase which "dissolves" the chitin in exoskeletons making your plants a death factory for bad bugs. Good luck with the grow my man, were almost at that home stretch now and next thing ya know were gonna be trimming those gorgeous buds!
 
T

TWS

Well-Known Member
I do both, but only did teas a couple of time this year because the top dressing has been sufficient. I've done more Molasses and micro feedings then teas . Question ? do any of you guys add micros or cal mag from time to time ?
 
B

BigB 420

Well-Known Member
Deltron 3030 said:
I go OCD with the goodies I add to my soil. Top dressing your amendments along with a badass tea recipe is a two pronged approach to killer buds. Along with guanos I LOVE to add trace minerals (get as many as you can into the tea and soil, theres over 100 minerals plants use). Rock dust, algae and seaweed extracts, sea water concentrate are all great to add. The beneficial bacteria in the soil will flourish with the abundance of minerals. When you top dress the guano add some worm castings in as well. Depending on the variety of casting many will contain chitinase which "dissolves" the chitin in exoskeletons making your plants a death factory for bad bugs. Good luck with the grow my man, were almost at that home stretch now and next thing ya know were gonna be trimming those gorgeous buds!
Click to expand...
Good info, thanks!

I took a salad bar approach to my soil this year, I have a great soil place local to me that sells soil for gardens, compost, mulch, landscaping stuff, etc. so I mixed up a bunch of stuff figuring that I'd give the plants and micro herd a salad bar of food and then let them choose what they wanted. I just counted and Between what was in my soil and what I've added I have 27 ingrediants in my pots right now.

This organic thing is a deep hole to dig into but the science and biology of all the stuff working together is really interesting.
 
Garden Boss

Garden Boss

Well-Known Member
TWS said:
I do both, but only did teas a couple of time this year because the top dressing has been sufficient. I've done more Molasses and micro feedings then teas . Question ? do any of you guys add micros or cal mag from time to time ?
Click to expand...
I add Cal Mag every feeding I can. I can see they are stronger thicker branches than previous years. I am a BIG believer in brewing Molasses for my babies 48 hours before feed day. Seaweed Extract for my Micros...
 
P

Pastures of Plenty

New Member
Garden Boss said:
Tea's can be a beautiful thing. My buddy brews a wicked concoction every week for his babies(3 feet taller/bushier than mine)... by brewing you make nutrients instantly available for uptake/ absorption. I would look into it man. That's the route I am heading next grow. I have a lot to learn on brews and recipes :)
Click to expand...
I am running completely organic and am very interested in teas. I found this 96 page PDF written by Dr. Igram, a guru from OSU who put this together for her grad work. I don't have any experience at all with guano but just bought some 0-13-0 and have been looking into threads.
 
Dgringo69

Dgringo69

Well-Known Member
Top dressing will allow the nutes from the dressing leach into the soil. An actively aerated tea spawns huge numbers of beneficial microbes that go to work breaking down organic material into usable food for your plants. Neither dress nor tea will burn. Tea is the way to go for sure or even better..tea and dressing. Tea can be diluted at a ratio of 10/1. That is 10 gal of water to 1 gal of tea. Be sure to use dechlorinated water! Happy growing:)
 
B

BigB 420

Well-Known Member
Dgringo69 said:
Top dressing will allow the nutes from the dressing leach into the soil. An actively aerated tea spawns huge numbers of beneficial microbes that go to work breaking down organic material into usable food for your plants. Neither dress nor tea will burn. Tea is the way to go for sure or even better..tea and dressing. Tea can be diluted at a ratio of 10/1. That is 10 gal of water to 1 gal of tea. Be sure to use dechlorinated water! Happy growing:)
Click to expand...
Good info! Thanks.
 
Dgringo69

Dgringo69

Well-Known Member
Pastures of Plenty said:
I am running completely organic and am very interested in teas. I found this 96 page PDF written by Dr. Igram, a guru from OSU who put this together for her grad work. I don't have any experience at all with guano but just bought some 0-13-0 and have been looking into threads.
Click to expand...
Guano is a nice additive to use in a tea. For example in a vegging tea use high nitrogen guano and in a flowering tea a high phosphorus guano but the bread and butter is a good compost or even better..worm castings! These are your bases for compost teas. There are also products on the market that come complete with all of the beneficial microbes that can be aerated then added strait to hydroponic systems without having to mess with all of the material associated with a compost tea. Compost tea is best used in soil but a compost tea can be used beneficially as a foliar spray no matter your growing method. Happy growing!
 
nuggs

nuggs

Well-Known Member
i started using tea this year. I bought vermisoil foundation -food source and molassas and minerals. I feed once a week and they were doing great till one got root rot from the silt in the tea from the casting and bat shit. one of my big girls died before I figured out why.
i make my mix in a 55 gallon barrel and a air pump. I always put the foundation in a mesh bag but the silt is so fine it went through the bag and eventually clogged my soil. something to watch out for. I'll be posting on my thread some pics if your interested in looking.
 
Dgringo69

Dgringo69

Well-Known Member
nuggs said:
i started using tea this year. I bought vermisoil foundation -food source and molassas and minerals. I feed once a week and they were doing great till one got root rot from the silt in the tea from the casting and bat shit. one of my big girls died before I figured out why.
i make my mix in a 55 gallon barrel and a air pump. I always put the foundation in a mesh bag but the silt is so fine it went through the bag and eventually clogged my soil. something to watch out for. I'll be posting on my thread some pics if your interested in looking.
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Good info! I haven't had any problems with the silt but I can see where it could become a problem. I use squares cut from plant cover fabric as my tea bags and I don't have any silt what so ever. Try it out:)
 
B

BigB 420

Well-Known Member
nuggs said:
i started using tea this year. I bought vermisoil foundation -food source and molassas and minerals. I feed once a week and they were doing great till one got root rot from the silt in the tea from the casting and bat shit. one of my big girls died before I figured out why.
i make my mix in a 55 gallon barrel and a air pump. I always put the foundation in a mesh bag but the silt is so fine it went through the bag and eventually clogged my soil. something to watch out for. I'll be posting on my thread some pics if your interested in looking.
Click to expand...
Huh never heard of that before. Good info. So the soil lost its ability to drain and started holding too much moisture?
 
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