Total Noob using teas and I am a believer

Hell yeah on that. What is right around my corner is some true dank. I am really talking about the Kali Mist , PE, and others. A true giant leap up in the gene pool. The pictures of the good stuff from VISC will be worthy. Thanks guys. I am drooling thinking about the oil and things I can make from it.

I am proud to say that between you and Myco I've been convinced to switch to organic for my indoor too. It'll be a 'phasing out' over time: First up, I am dedicating two of my Tahoe clones to dirt bags over the weekend, replacing the hydro mommy. I'll be cloning off the LVBK soon too, each mum will be replaced by two of her babies in dirt too.
My flowering room is ebb-and-flow, so it'll stay hydro for a good while, hoping to get a good hybrid system going while I take the time to research organic hydroponics. I'll be going closer to 'home' by replacing the Hydroton with Coco CROUTONS that drain exactly as perfectly.
Gandalf, is it possible to adapt these teas to work in a hydroponic system? I hear organic hydro is hard work but I don't mind keeping a VERY close eye at all. I also am an insomniac of note lol, my garden keeps me sane. My clones are watered at 3am every morning, it's just how it ended up being

Or should I just use the ol' ebb and flow tables as, well, tables with a drain for run-off? I like the ebb-and-flow because of fungus gnats, not much problem if the substrate stays dry on top but a bit of an issue with top-watering. Fungus Gnat City out here :/

I am ready to receive thy wisdom!

The results speak for themselves, though. I can single out only ONE hydro grower on here who's plants look as good as these do. Talking to him I get the impression it's many, many years experience that got him where he's at. Have a look at this, NFT at it's best, the Doc is an ARTIST. EXCELLENT bud-porn lol:

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/654784-og-raskal-fire-alien-kush.html

He's right up there with you guys, seriously. Absolute magic.

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/654784-og-raskal-fire-alien-kush.html

I couldn't be happier to read that bro. I really think you'll enjoy the final product, and get to see the true expression of your genetics before your eyes. The difference I've seen has been nothing short of miraculous. I only flushed my Skunk#1 one time, and I'll say it prolly didn't even need that. You don't see farmers drown their fields every year at harvest time, right. I did use bottle nutes on them though, so I thought it would be beneficial. the nutes i speak of were 100% organic but, they are what they are, and when I grow with bottles I flush. There are however a couple of bottled amendments I like to use in flower that I don't see a need to flush while using. There is so much B.S. hocus pocus myth about flushing, and I think in growing MJ in general, so I try not to worry about what I don't feel affected by. Anyways I'll start looking into organic hydro some, and see if i can find some good info to link you to. I don't even know if you can use an a.a.c.t. with hydro as I've never had to look it up, but I don't see why not. I would leave the molasses out cause it will foam up like all get out in a hydro system with aeration I do know that. You have some nice strains going man. We'll get em taken care of bro. Best of luck with your bio adventure, I'm sure you'll be successful, and love the results of the finished smoke. Peace out.

That's great Mad Hamish!

Keep us posted on the organic hydro research. Some people like to use AACT's as a foliar spray to keep pm and other unwanted guests at bay, but I'm not so sure you can effectively use something like that in a reservoir. I'm trying to envision how you could have a thriving micro-herd of beneficials in a medium such as hydroton that is being flooded and drained every few hours. I could be wrong, but I think you'd have to stick with synthetics if you're going to continue with an ebb and flow system.

For what it's worth, I used to grow using an ebb and flow set up for a couple years. You will love the switch over to organics once you get your soil dialed in (if you go that route). The growth maybe isn't quite as vigorous in soil compared to hydro, but the plants are much happier and the end product is second to none imo.

Best of luck

Thanks Guys, your support and enthusiasm is getting me SUPER amped now

Myco, I've been meaning to ask, your name, you are a bit of a Mycophile right? Into fungi and all of that. A good friend of mine is a mycologist, he's been doing very very interesting stuff, like using his Blue Oyster substrate cakes in his soil mixes. It's kinda an extension on mycorrhizal gardening I guess. He is getting absolutely PHENOMENAL results. I haven't had the opportunity to speak to him about it much, he's a one-man business supplying gourmet mushies to a lot of places so getting him in some free time is damn near impossible.

What I find interesting is you hardly ever get fruiting bodies when they are introduced to the garden, but you can see the thin strands of mycelium in the soil. He uses ZERO additional feed on top of his prepared soil mix, and plants stay deep green all the way through. If you've got a head for that kind of stuff you might be able to explain how that works.

I scored some of his finished Reishi and Blue Oyster cakes from him, where I used them it is lush, rich, beautiful smelling black soil. Around it, it's still red clay. Seems to help getting the composted stuff INTO the soil. Crazy beautiful stuff.

Mad Hamish said:

What I find interesting is you hardly ever get fruiting bodies when they are introduced to the garden, but you can see the thin strands of mycelium in the soil. He uses ZERO additional feed on top of his prepared soil mix, and plants stay deep green all the way through. If you've got a head for that kind of stuff you might be able to explain how that works.

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That's really cool. He's using it as mushroom compost, which really livens up all the rest of the mycos in your soil. I forgot to add mushroom compost to my last batch of soil, and I think I'm gonna hit it up with some now as it doesn't have to really break down very much to become effective. The reason you're not getting fruiting bodies is because 1. there's not a top dress of substrate for the mycelium to grow into, and fruit from, plus 2. there's no real food for them to do so either. A mushroom needs an abundant amount of readily available food to fruit, most of the time a grain material works wonders. I've grown mushrooms on everything from cow turds to rice. A very interesting hobby to have, I've loved mycology for a long time, and fine it very interesting how one thing dies for another to live, but life goes on, you know. It's also been immensely beneficial in understanding how organic soils work and function. Alot of symbiosis between plants and fungi! Cool stuff. Whenever I would have old cakes i would put them into my compost, and my compost was the best around for miles i would say. I had an old farmer that would come pick some up every year for his sisters garden. All the mycelium was from psilocybin mushrooms, but it doesn't matter what it's from it's all just compost in the end. Thanks for reminding me of that I can't believe i left it out, I knew right when I read that I had though. Good lookin out. Peace out.
.

right on! how is the oil coming? check messages btw. i pm'd ya!

mycomaster said:

That's really cool. He's using it as mushroom compost, which really livens up all the rest of the mycos in your soil. I forgot to add mushroom compost to my last batch of soil, and I think I'm gonna hit it up with some now as it doesn't have to really break down very much to become effective. The reason you're not getting fruiting bodies is because 1. there's not a top dress of substrate for the mycelium to grow into, and fruit from, plus 2. there's no real food for them to do so either. A mushroom needs an abundant amount of readily available food to fruit, most of the time a grain material works wonders. I've grown mushrooms on everything from cow turds to rice. A very interesting hobby to have, I've loved mycology for a long time, and fine it very interesting how one thing dies for another to live, but life goes on, you know. It's also been immensely beneficial in understanding how organic soils work and function. Alot of symbiosis between plants and fungi! Cool stuff. Whenever I would have old cakes i would put them into my compost, and my compost was the best around for miles i would say. I had an old farmer that would come pick some up every year for his sisters garden. All the mycelium was from psilocybin mushrooms, but it doesn't matter what it's from it's all just compost in the end. Thanks for reminding me of that I can't believe i left it out, I knew right when I read that I had though. Good lookin out. Peace out.
.

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Apologies for derailing your thread a bit Gandalf but this is fascinating stuff. Is there a thread around on soil cultures I can look into here on RIU? The search function has been letting me down, it's not returning any results so I'm asking where I'd normally just go search.
Far as I understand so far, the nutrients going into the soil are one thing, but it's the mycorrhiza etc that make it readily available in it's most useful forms. Outside I follow basic permaculture guidelines so I know it's all there, but now for indoors I am most interested in how to develop a thriving and beneficial sub-soil ecology. And protect it, of course. I know it's an essential link in the chain for perfect and sustained health so I want to take it very seriously.

Mad Hamish said:

Apologies for derailing your thread a bit Gandalf but this is fascinating stuff. Is there a thread around on soil cultures I can look into here on RIU? The search function has been letting me down, it's not returning any results so I'm asking where I'd normally just go search.
Far as I understand so far, the nutrients going into the soil are one thing, but it's the mycorrhiza etc that make it readily available in it's most useful forms. Outside I follow basic permaculture guidelines so I know it's all there, but now for indoors I am most interested in how to develop a thriving and beneficial sub-soil ecology. And protect it, of course. I know it's an essential link in the chain for perfect and sustained health so I want to take it very seriously.

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This guy (microbeman) really knows his shit. Way above my pay grade. I make it a habit to read his posts. It's on a different forum (hope I don't get pee-pee whacked for posting it).

http://forum.seeddepot.nl/showthread.php?5339-Living-Soil-from-my-perspective

Bookmarked, thank you very much mate, I gave the first two posts a quick scan and it's exactly what I am looking for. I'm even going to join the forums, can't hurt getting to know more good herbalists....

This is his site, btw.

http://microbeorganics.com/

No. Please go on. I just took care of a project I needed to do. I just did something I have not done in years. I needed to run a test on the oil plant. I am apologizing for this next bit of disclosure. I used the food dehumidifier for 1.5 hours off and on for 12 hours. I am very happy to report that it works pretty well. I am feeling pretty clear and up. It is very motivating. I am more than surprised. The taste is tolerable. Not a bit of good to it. Not as harsh as I was thinking. Pretty smooth actually. The time it was not drying for 15 min bursts I put it in a mason jar in the dark. I think that helped. I am only willing to smoke this in a blunt wrap. No bong hits. Nope. I need the flavor from the wrap to mask the chlorophyll. It smells like a Hay flower if there ever was one. Still it works pretty good. Proves the package does not mean everything.

I have 20 of 24 Gage Testers up and out of the FFLW. I took them for a walk onto the deck today to bask them in some great sun. They loved it. I am putting them under the Tek 2s tonight. I think I mentioned somewhere I am playing these pretty carefully. I didn't want to burn them by putting them under intense light until today. They are on their own. 10,000 lumens of 6400 K an inch or two off of them. I am making a new tea for the veg crew.

Veg crew compost tea:

Fresh Lobster compost
EWC
Humus
Decomposed wood chips
Kelp Power (Ascophyllum Nodosum)
Alfalfa Flour
Amaranth Flour
Oat Flour
Quinoa Flour
Spelt Flour
Insect Frass

Let the microbial troops go to work. I love to think about the ecosystem I am creating. My soil is alive. I am growing plants and creating a world of life in there. There is a synergistic balance going on amongst the microbes in total. There is synergy between the plant and the soil. There are proteins, complex carbs, chitinous materials in there. Anyone notice anything different about this tea?

This is an anytime tea. Any stage of growth will love this tea. It can be used as a folliar spray if you like that option. I am going to begin to use this in veg and early transition to bloom as a folliar spray. Not only can these incredible microbes exist in the root ecosystem they are very beneficial when used as a folliar spray to create another ecosystem on the leaf surfaces. I was given this tea from the company that made my new brewer. Disclosure: I plagiarized most of this info from their description. I use RO water. I am posting up a few pictures of the brewer.

You can't make this tea too strong they said and they recommended 5 ozs total ingredients of their mix. I am brewing for their recommended 24 hours. The darker the tea the stronger the tea. You can use any ppm between 250-1400 if you choose to dilute the tea. I will keep it low for now. They call to use the tea within 3-4 days. I was surprised at that. I am used to using the tea within an hour. Again I recommend using the post tea compost as a top dressing on your favorite plant. Good stuff.

Someone on the organic forum somewhere, maybe even on this thread, asked about using organic teas in hydro applications. They said you can if you get a pump bag and you filter the brew very well with 400 micron mesh. This will not clog your distribution nozzles apparently.



I am thankful that you guys are here. I am going back and reread the posts from today. I love the passing of info that's going on. I hope a bunch of people learn from this thread. I know I want to learn from honest people who are speaking with accumulated knowledge. I love new ways to do thing too. I am going to dig into the link that St0wandgro posted. St0wandgrow knows his shit. You all know a ton of amazing information. I want to get to a very high level of dankness. I am excited as I can be about having you guys walk along with me on this. I really appreciate it.

Hamish.....I am running an ebb and flow experiment for my first time ever. I have admitted to using AN's ph perfect line up and all the bells and whistles. I have to admit that I have payed absolutely no attention to it at all. Zero and I mean it. They are the nicest looking plants I have been a part of in awhile. I am blown away. Period. I am thinking of the organic potential in hydro using this as a medium. I have posted these before awhile ago on RIU somewhere. Here is the link to the company and the medium info. It is beyond my words. I will devote 5 mins to them tonight and take pictures. I think benes may like the medium a bunch. It is different and so easy I can do it.

http://www.suretogrow.com/

I am all over the links you posted Hamish. I am looking forward to watching someone with your skills grow in all mediums and ways. I can't wait to see. I would love to watch you run some ebb and flow with organics. I am thinking about killing the VISC in the hyrdo right now and replacing it with Kali Mist and friends in Hydrorganic style. I know I am a heathen Myco. This is science and for the betterment of plantkind. I am all in for the Tahoe too. I always wanted that and the Larry OG. I have Larry in my Alexander OG right now. Bonus.

I would love to hear some more about using the mushroom compost. I have always been wanting to bone up on that. I am psyched to learn from you Myco. Again I want to thank you all. There is never a derailment in here from you guys. I would love to see this thread take off and pass some great things along the way. I want people learn and for everyone to smoke the best meds possible. Take it easy.

Sorry if some of the info is repeated by myself. I posted the majority of this before reading your posts well. I won't be so rude again.

This thread is EPIC. Very exciting to see so much pure STOKE for reefer in one place. I hope it is not out of place for me to comment that I notice a huge difference in attitude and general 'giving' spirit with the Organic crew as opposed tot he hardcore hydro heads. Those threads are like the Wild West. This is real, well, IRIE. Best word to describe it.
Also cool to see people continuously experimenting and tweaking, loving the process as much as the 'product'. My brain is bubbling with all the new info, sleep is not going to come easily tonight at all LOL... A good many bookmarks on my browser added and I don't know which one looks the most interesting.

My wife might be a tad unhappy when she gets back. The DWC buckets are going to move into the shower tomorrow LOL...

Just a heads up on the "sure to grow" products. I have read some reports on here and other sites of people using this product and finding their plants laying all over the place when the lights come on. I believe it was due to the very light weight of the sure to grow product .... when the table floods the containers become buoyant because there is nothing with any weight to it in the bucket to hold them down so they topple over. I would imagine a grid system (scrog) would have to be used in conjunction with this to hold the plants upright and avoid all of them falling over.

GandalfdaGreen said:

Here are some great Rev teas.

1. Use this tea from the very beginning of flowering up to 4-5 weeks.

1 tbsp of organic molasses
20 drops of General Organics CalMag+
1 tbsp of all organic all purpose fertilizer 5-5-5 or close to that as possible
1 tbsp of Kelp Meal
1 tsp of High N bat guano 12-8-2 ish
1 tsp of High P bat guano 0-5-0 or 1-10-0
1 tsp of liquid fish fertilizer 5-1-1 or 3-3-.3 or close
1/4 cup of FF Big Bloom

Bubble 24 hours then add 1/2-1 cup of fresh compost of EWC. Bubble for another 24 hours. This is for a one gallon jug. Pure water. You can bubble this as long as you want. I would not go over a week. This is taken from the Revs TLO book. Dilute 1:4 or 1:3.

2. Here is a finishing tea:

1 cup EWC or fresh compost
1/4 cup FF Big Bloom
1 tsp of kelp meal
1 tsp of organic molasses

Bubble for 24-48 hours. The Rev suggest diluting the teas. I dilute mine anywhere from 1 part tea to 4 parts pure water. If they are big enough and can handle max nutes then I go 1:3.

3. Here is a great high power vegetative growth tea:

1 tbsp of organic molasses
1 tbsp of kelp meal
1 tbsp of alfalfa meal
1 tbsp of dry all purpose organic fertilizer
2 tsp of liquid fish fertilizer
2 tsp of high N bat guano
1 tsp of dry soluable kelp or seaweed

Bubble for 24 hours. Add 1 cup of EWC or fresh compost. 1/4 cup of steer/cow manure or compost. Bubble for another 24 hours. Dilute 1:4.

4. Seedling freshly or freshly rooted clone tea:

2 tsp of organic molasses
1 tps of kelp meal
1 tps of liquid fish fertilizer
1 tsp of alfalfa meal
1/2 -1 cup of EWC or compost
1 tsn of dry soluble kelp or liquid seaweed
10 drops of General Organics CaMag+

Bubble for 24 hours. Dilute 1:4

There you have it. All your tea needs. Ask any questions you would like. Enjoy. BTW....spread the mix out as a top dressing on your plants. Use a 1 gallon paint strainer as a holder.

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Thank's again for the recipe Making up a batch of tea right now looking foamy

Hamish I agree with you. This is a good group of guys to roll with. I have been crazy busy tonight. I tore down two tents and moved rooms around. total chaos. I won't be done until tomorrow night. It will all be worth it. I am getting ready for August and the heat to come and stay for a month. I can't wait to get it done so I can get back to working on the plants. Entire change overs are a pain in the ass. I won't be doing this again for years. I am almost set up just right.

About the STG. I was just thinking how stable the plants are in the ebb and flow with the STG. Honest. I pulled on them each for the first time and they are set in there. I'll post up some pictures soon when I can. My plants are short and bushy in there. I did think that it may be a problem though in the beginning. So far I love that medium. It is the cleanest past of my room.

dlftmyers...enjoy the tea. I love that part the best. Mixing it up knowing it is so good for both the soil and the plant at the same time. I feel like I am really doing something constructive rather than pouring chemicals all over the place.

Take it easy guys. I appreciate the input.

If you want to see the test over on the Gage forum here is the link:

https://gagegreen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=2076&p=29893#p29893

Great group of guys over there who are really friendly and family like. Look around the site. You will enjoy it I bet.

CoreyATX420 said:

right on! how is the oil coming? check messages btw. i pm'd ya!

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Hey Corey. Could you resend that PM? Things on RIU sometimes do not come through. I have had it happen at least a dozen times or more. Thanks bro. Have a good day.

The guano, kelp meal, alfalfa meal and pretty much the whole vegan tea list is VERY hard to find over here in South Africa... Especially since I live in an outlying area lol... On the bright side I did find a good supplier of mycorrhizae.
I'm going to be looking up some teas also, I'm sure I'll find recipes that I can pull off easily with what's around here. Really want to try it out.

Mad Hamish said:

The guano, kelp meal, alfalfa meal and pretty much the whole vegan tea list is VERY hard to find over here in South Africa... Especially since I live in an outlying area lol... On the bright side I did find a good supplier of mycorrhizae.
I'm going to be looking up some teas also, I'm sure I'll find recipes that I can pull off easily with what's around here. Really want to try it out.

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I am checking a site I use for you right now. I'll get back to you on this one.