Yea that makes sense. My time is something I really value right now (main reason I'm looking to the tea). I had a little brew of it going overnight and it just didn't see to be as active as described on here. So I scrapped that and now have what I think should be the proper ingrediants: AquaShield, EWC liquid form, Great White, and a little molasses. Should be good, just wanted to make sure though. Thanks for the help bond.Hi TCM,
Although the Great White should help you out with it's varying mycorrhizae, bacteria, and trichoderma, I question the use of the Mighty Crobes instead of the Ancient Forest EWC. Although it is a diverse ingredient containing thousands of bennies (according to their website), the Mighty Crobes doesn't say anything about including any beneficial fungi. It also states that... "Mighty Crobes adds not only organic material to the soil but it adds macro, micro and trace nutrients as well." Adding nutrients might mess with your grow a bit. If I recall correctly, organic material can cause the slime problem to escalate quickly. It says it works with hydro, but I feel this is really more of a soil additive. You could always try to make a tea with these ingredients and give it a run, the worst that could happen is you'll get some nute burn, a slime explosion, and be mixing up a fresh rez again right?How valuable is your time? If you want to save yourself some potential hassle... just get some Ancient Forest. It's only like $12... (and get some Aquashield while you're at it too, another $12! thats it!)
Cheers!
Mr. Bond
The EWC is optional especially for a slime free system. Once the slime takes hold, it is extremely tenacious, and therefore we hit it with blunt force by making a very concentrated and diverse tea. One the problem is eliminated, you can approach the tea treatments with more finesse, and tailor it to your liking. Some people have figured out that a certain strain of beneficial fungi may compete with other strains, and attempt to use the ones with the most benefits, or create a more symbiotic community. For our context we do not care which beneficials take over, as long as the diversity ensures that no one organism grows out of control. Without the slime, the bennies will regulate themselves. So in short, yes you can drop the EWC and brewing the other products tea style will make them last longer. You could just use aquashield by itself without brewing if you wish, and if the slime manages to take hold again, you know a quick and easy cure.
mycomadness is good stuff, you should see some def improvement. Let us know.
Slime in the tea is actually a thick biofilm that comes from the intense concentration of microbes and because there is organic material (molasses) being fed on. You wont see this in your buckets, in fact you can safely move this airstone to a live bucket to provide bennies.
Remember the smell is the biggest clue. Earthy, mossy and even swampy are all okay smells. Smells of decay, gym socks, or feces is not okay. The tea often starts out with no smell, or rather it smells like sweet water, then it develops into earthy, and by 48hrs it gets a little swampy. After 10 days the fecal smell develops, and it's time to start over.
Hi Medicine21,
) so ad like to make my own nutes and a few people have told me to go with composted (not compost) teas and there is some of that brewing right now and others have told me to mix chem ferts which are abundant here to get the right mix that is safe and soluble. so ad like to see what you guys think about home made nutes, the setup is not gonna be not to big al start with a simple DWC bucket growing a tomato (basically a bubbler) and see which nutes work, the bubble pump al be getting from an aquarium shop far from where i am so that will be like next week so i got time.
Everything sounds good except the superthrive. Leave it out until your roots are well established, or scrap it all together and save it for your soil/house plants.
I am confused. You say nutes are not available, yet chem nutes are abundant? What is preventing you from placing an order online? I can recommend cheap nutes and pump/equipment if you have online access.ok so i am loving the DWC but i liv in a place where every thing is really not readily available, in this case the missing component is hydro nute, so i have been reading around and asking ques,(that eventually lead me here
Hey BendBrewer,
Thanks, Bond! I will try the tea and report my results next week.