Compost Tea in a f/d Hydro Set Up

vtm760

Active Member
well like the title says, im thinking about using a compost tea for nutes in my veg room. I currently am using general hydroponic nutrients, the "expert recirculation" program.

i do a lot of clones and when i had soil mothers i didnt have problems with rooting times.
now that i have a hydro set-up for my moms i'm getting some longer rooting times.
i believe this is because of the high nitrogen level - causing longer rooting times.
to solve that problem i have been flushing my plants with plain water a day before cuts are made.
that is a major pain in the ass and since i have 4, 20 gal reservoirs in my veg room. So I was thinking about doing an organic compost tea for veg to save money on nutrients and also so i dont have a problem with longer rooting times. (i think i read a thread that stated organic nutrients are obsorbed through the plant differently, eliminating the need for flushing.) if that is incorrect i would appreciate it if someone could let me know.

my question is this: has anyone ran a compost tea for nutes in a f/d type set up? is that going to clog my pump or should i be alright sense the material is in the stalking or "tea bag"? am i going to see any difference in production since its just in veg?

any info or suggestions are appreciated, thank you :)
 

vtm760

Active Member
thanks for all the replies guys, did a lot of searching and found out that if i tried to do some organic nutes that i make myself in my hydro set up that ill get a bunch of stuff clogged up in my lines as well as bad bacteria problems after a while. dont try this guys! i'll just have to suck it up, the nutes are worth the price.
 

penguinking

Well-Known Member
do you think the lines would clog even if you filtered out ALL of the sediment? my buddy brews his own tea that he uses in soil and asked me if i wanted a gallon to use in my hydro set up. I think i may give it a shot... I mean he uses a water pump from his res to his plants and it never gets clogged.
 

vh13

Well-Known Member
Filters work, but they need to be cleaned or replaced. All the pumps I've worked with need to be cleaned at times too. I think the bigger they are the less often though.

I like to brew a thick batch of compost tea (with my nutes) and use it in DWC. It works well there. I imagine if you strain/filter it ahead of time it should work fine. The micros are just that... micro. ;-)
 

BendBrewer

Well-Known Member
I don't think the tea would replace your nutes. The way I understand it, the tea helps my plants take in the nutes. The tea itself doesn't contain any nutes. The one I make doesn't anyway. I run GH nutes in my RDWC and I am a complete Tea-aholic. Kicked a problem's ass that I had and I think the stuff is magic for my roots. I always have a bucket of tea brewing.
 
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