BAD tea, what to do?

dank smoker420

dank smoker420

Well-Known Member
Endur0xX said:
The only way to know whether your tea is good or not is to look at it under the microscope. The foam doesnt mean you have a successful herd of microbes.

One way to know your tea is good without a microscope is to know enough about compost tea to simply trust yourself. Using activated EM (effective microorganism) is a good way to start. If you are in Canada I would recommend gardenerspantry.ca
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do you add the EM directly to the compost tea or do you mix it into your compost before using it?
 
dank smoker420

dank smoker420

Well-Known Member
i also just noticed that my tea i started the other day is not smelling to good. it still smells sweet but also a little fermented smelling. is it safe to use or is the fermented smell the no no indicator? its been brewing for about 36 hours. i used some of it at around 24 hours and it was smelling alot better
 
elduece

elduece

Active Member
A proper compost tea shouldn't shouldn't burn tips. A proper tea has no guano, bone meal, blood meal and other fertilizers that people impulsively throw in the bucket.
 
polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
elduece said:
A proper compost tea shouldn't shouldn't burn tips. A proper tea has no guano, bone meal, blood meal and other fertilizers that people impulsively throw in the bucket.
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not true but say what you want. this is more an opinion. guano and bone meal and all that other shit are perfectly fine ingredients.
 
polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
dank smoker420 said:
i also just noticed that my tea i started the other day is not smelling to good. it still smells sweet but also a little fermented smelling. is it safe to use or is the fermented smell the no no indicator? its been brewing for about 36 hours. i used some of it at around 24 hours and it was smelling alot better
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fermented smell is a bad, sign so long as it is not too strong i would use it all up before it goes sour.
 
elduece

elduece

Active Member
polyarcturus said:
not true but say what you want. this is more an opinion. guano and bone meal and all that other shit are perfectly fine ingredients.
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Sometimes it's hard to tell what people want. Do they want the inoculants and/or tea to do the work or just fertigate with organic solubles? They're both fine for organic gardening and all but doing both on the same garden is not really optimal growing...
 
Growop101

Growop101

Well-Known Member
elduece said:
Sometimes it's hard to tell what people want. Do they want the inoculants and/or tea to do the work or just fertigate with organic solubles? They're both fine for organic gardening and all but doing both on the same garden is not really optimal growing...
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So your saying.

If you are growing in organic soil and compost thats full and rich with bacteria/microbes , then using a tea wont really do anything because the soil is already harbouring enough microbes and micro organisms to do the job. so you may not see a difference in growth. ??
 
Growop101

Growop101

Well-Known Member
I started a tea today, with 2 handfulls compost , 2 bannana peelz, a bit of brown sugar, and a hand full or 2 of nettle leaves. Also added some powdered (pellets) organic veg nutes. Its got stuff like, kelp meal, calcium, baked egg shells, stuff like that.

I started it like mid day today , when i added the organic fertaliser powder shit, it got so bubbly and frothy right away. smells real sweet.

Should i use it the next day? thats what i was planning. 1 day of breewing. ?


sorry for jackin the thread but im jus curious , cuz mine is kinda smelling like yours now.
 
polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
elduece said:
Sometimes it's hard to tell what people want. Do they want the inoculants and/or tea to do the work or just fertigate with organic solubles? They're both fine for organic gardening and all but doing both on the same garden is not really optimal growing...
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really depends on the solution but you are right in a sense a lot of time using these microbes cause most of your plants "food" to be converted to thier usable forms but you are still inoculating perhaps not in full strength but i find this "fertigating" as you put to be the best way to get diversity of microbes, inoculating or even making teas for specifically that purpose often means one dominant species of microbe coming through rather than a variety, more ingredients more variety less time needed to cook.

to get all the benefits from tea you really got to know your shit. otherwise i kinda agree with you.
 
polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
Growop101 said:
I started a tea today, with 2 handfulls compost , 2 bannana peelz, a bit of brown sugar, and a hand full or 2 of nettle leaves. Also added some powdered (pellets) organic veg nutes. Its got stuff like, kelp meal, calcium, baked egg shells, stuff like that.

I started it like mid day today , when i added the organic fertaliser powder shit, it got so bubbly and frothy right away. smells real sweet.

Should i use it the next day? thats what i was planning. 1 day of breewing. ?


sorry for jackin the thread but im jus curious , cuz mine is kinda smelling like yours now.
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sounds good a tea is a tea, yours is more a feed and while mostly contain nutrients i would use yours as soon as possible. 12-24 hours if its frothy after 12, use it, its good to go.
 
elduece

elduece

Active Member
polyarcturus said:
really depends on the solution but you are right in a sense a lot of time using these microbes cause most of your plants "food" to be converted to thier usable forms but you are still inoculating perhaps not in full strength but i find this "fertigating" as you put to be the best way to get diversity of microbes, inoculating or even making teas for specifically that purpose often means one dominant species of microbe coming through rather than a variety, more ingredients more variety less time needed to cook.

to get all the benefits from tea you really got to know your shit. otherwise i kinda agree with you.
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Let's take one popular example what people do is inoculate with mychorrizae thinking it'll enhance P uptake. More usable P for the plant equates bigger buds right?! On top of that they additional soluble P into drenches that includes ferts like bone meal/guano etc. Chance are there's already enough P amended into the soil and more P is being applied to the medium with their version of "tea". Now there's sufficient P on tap for the plant and the plant is happy as pigs in mud. No need for concern! The plant looks GREAT! YAY for organics!

But plant stops feeding the symbiotic community that it once depended on for P uptake and they die off. The same thing happens with symbiotic bacteria responsible for N fixation and their community downsized into ineffectiveness. All in all, money and time has been rendered waste with inoculating in the first place. I wonder how organic growers still have bottom leaves fall off during flowering.

now I'm not in business of trolling opinions but from REAL experience. It's been about 2 years since I've bought any more soil/amendments/ferts except for frass and compost since recycling soil for cannabis growing. I had a hernia op, couldn't do shit for awhile into stirring up new soil mixes etc. Subtracted alot of old ways like making teas so I can keep the harvests going while stitched up. So I relied heavily on inoculants(mycoGrow FTW! btw), re amending with "expensive enough" compost, inspiration from 3LB and a fucking HS grade microscope to make it work. To this very day, I still surprise myself.
 
Growop101

Growop101

Well-Known Member
If you are growing in very rich organic material, then using a tea wont do much?

But dosnt using a tea in rich medium keep feeding the bacteria and such?
 
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