Molded FPE

Howdy RUI! I mixed up a Kelp/Alfalfa FPE for my vegging ladies on 1/19, used EM-1 in addition to my own homemade lactos bacillus and for the first time ever, I've got a layer of mold, some green (Trichoderma?) and some white fuzz. Could this be the first time I've made a proper FPE or the first time fucking it up? I look forward to hearing everyones opinions

I dunno. I'm less enthused about FPE for the plants. While you can extract some nice beneficial materials, you lose secondary metabolites and possibly hormones and plant enzymes. Instead, if you took the same plants and did a 48 hour soak with a little bubbler, you could use that liquid immediately and toss the plant material into the worm bin or compost pile. This short extraction will contain these extremely valuable metabolites, hormones and enzymes.

i've made fpe's that smelled real bad, but i've never had mold on one yet...and it took close to a month to break down with homemade em-1, how did you do it in 5 days?

kelp and alfalfa meal? i think you made a compost tea minus the bubbles. so it's anaerobic, and with additional em cultures, you have mold. I think you basically just provided a new environment and food to extend the em culture further. if you add bubbles, it would probably turn back to aerobic microbes, but it's probably safe either way, imo, judgement call

rrog - elaborate on this please. I have a handful of dandelion greens soaking in a few gallons of h20, theyve been there for about 24 hrs. should I throw an airstone in the mix? i want dem enzymes

Cann,

I've been making tea with dried herbs like Chamomile, yarrow, Kelp meal, Alfalfa etc and I make it just like I would any act tea. Water, carbs, ewc/compost and handful of those herbs in a 5 gal bucket. I bubble 24-48 hours. I guess you would consider this more a nutrient solution with all the herbs added?

hmm yeah I would question whether or not you are getting the full potential out of the herbs when there is so much else going on (EWC + kelp + alfalfa + carbs = alot of activity). Seems like more of a nutrient solution than what we are going for, which is an enzyme tea of sorts (or at least it seems as though that is what rrog is saying). Maybe try splitting it into two teas, one that is EWC+carbs+kelp+alfalfa, and another that is just chamomile and yarrow with an airstone. One of those will give you a ton of microbes and a good diversity of nutrients, whilst the other will give you the secondary metabolites, enzymes, and hormones that we are looking for. just a thought...and again rrog is the one who really understands what is at play here, I'm just a dude who listens to him and tries to figure it out

Dried herbs are great. Fresh plants give you the opportunity to extract secondary metabolites, hormones and plant enzymes, exactly as Cann stated.

The bubbler just keeps it aerobic. The water will extract the molecules regardless. Makes a great foliar also.

I get my insights from the three dudes in my sig below. I'm just a messenger in this life.

and a great messenger at that. do you use this as a foliar full strength or diluted? also, for fresh plants what is your water/biomass ratio in the bucket? I assume it's different for dried due to water weight within the biomass, but for the sake of the enzymes (lol) lets just talk about fresh because thats whats relevant

btw most of the time it is way easier to ask you something than sort through 300+ pages of GC, cootz, and MM. not that reading the threads in full isn't worth it (i'm grinding away at it ), but you have already done the work and synthesized the knowledge making it that much easier for us. eternal thanks to you, and of course to those who spoke the knowledge before you

Without these guys and several other significant contributors I'd be... bummed. I'm checking on the concentration recommendation. Stand by...

If i remember right from my notes its something like 1cup of tea to 15cups h2o to make 1gal of solution...but my notes are all over the place so who knows. and of course to this 1 gal add 1tsp pro-tekt and 1/4 cup aloe...or something along those lines no exact measurements required

I get all my info from ICMAG too. Yeah CC and MM are great. Been lurking that thread for awhile now. I use aloe 2ml per gal Cann. I've been making mung bean enzymes and seedlings are doing great. Fresh Coconut 1:15

That's great that you've been finding the teas beneficial, headtreep. Thanks for bring some real world testimonial!

so rrog, did you ever find the recommended dilution?

Haven't heard back. I imagine it's a reasonable looking ratio of plant to water. And as headtreep pointed out, a 15:1 dilution is cool for similar items.

Basically I read it was something like 1 part coconut water and 15 parts water drench. Don't think foliar was recommended buy I could have that wrong. I bought an aloe plant but before I used George's aloe 2ml per gal that is available in most health food stores. The bean enzymes I've been doing around the same as coconut. I drench and foliar aloe. The teas I make I always pour a big pitcher in and chase it with water basically. Prob 1:4 ratio. My plants are pretty damn healthy and my seedlings are doing very well.

Regarding herbal teas please check out the link below:

http://www.biodynamics.in/BD502.htm


They have lots of bad ass info on this site

Cool link! They're hitting all the great plants: Yarrow, Nettle, dandelion, etc!

So I figured out the mold; it's trichoderma from the EM-1 breaking down kelp that had floated to the top, lol, I plan to use it when its ready. While we're throwin out recipes; here's my rooting hormone (and you can foliar with it as well).

Mix 1/4 Cup Aloe Juice (Lily of the Desert Brand, preservative free) to 1 gallon H2O. Add 1/2 tsp. of protek silica. Soak cuttings for at least 30 minutes.

Aloe is great for cuttings I've been told. Surprised to see so many doin this!

I also use willow, beats a $150 bottle of 'Roots Excellurator'

Rrog said:

Cool link! They're hitting all the great plants: Yarrow, Nettle, dandelion, etc!

Click to expand...

They spearheaded the use of these plants in agriculture as a whole. Without Biodynamics and Steiner, much of the peasent wisdom would be lost, along with the use of these special herbs in very specific ways and times.