I have a 1000 gallon conical tank on a stand. The idea is to build it out into a brewer so I can foliar the plants once a week.
Will be using synthetic fertilizer:
Thoughts on spraying plants with tea when using synthetics?
Is it worth it to water some in once a week?
Has anyone had any experience with a brewer of this size?
Does anyone have any tips on building one?
I have built a vortex brewer out of a 55 gallon drum a 4-5 years ago - pretty sure i just need a big ass air pump and a bunch of plumbing.
only tip i have is make damned sure whatever it stands on can hold the weight. water is ~8lbs per gallon so water alone is ~4 tons and with ingredients probably more than that.
I wouldnât foliar feed with synthetic nutrients, can cause burnt leaves, etc.
The entire point of âNutrient Teaâ is multiplying the obiodiversity of the organic nutrition, which has a shelf life after being made.
Unless your talking about making a drum of organic material to sit in the drum for many months to ferment, to obtain the organic Nutrients in the first place?
Basically, if youâre making nutrient tea to feed your plants weekly, you wonât need 1000 gal (unless youâre a farm sized operation). And you wonât require synthetic nutrients at allâŚ
Yes, you can use synthetic nutrients in the type of system, BUT Iâd stay away from foliage feeding, just feed at the base of your plants if going this rought.
Give me a better understanding of what your attempting to do and Ill do my best to guide you in the right direction.
In hindsight i should have been more thoughtful before making the post - noted for future postings.
I apologize to everyone - its been awhile since Iâve used the forum format.
now that Iâve reread my post, Iâm seeing how many flaws it has lol
@sfzombie13 its a conical tank stand combo, so we should not have a problem there - Ill take a look at it and check the welds.
@anon55895499 I am thinking of spraying 500ish a week, I just already had the 1000 gallon conical tank that isnât being used. Really didnât think this thru fully before making my post lol yes my understanding is tea has a small window of when it should be used - if you wait too long before spraying it will have a negative effect
@CADMAN Thank you for the response and the video link
Context: this is for a farm, Greenhouses that are fed synthetic fertilizers in soil. I have two 1000 gallon conical tanks that have been sitting empty for a few years and this idea just kind of sparked in my head to use one to make tea for foliar.
I did a forum search here and found another thread that where most agreed that its not very beneficial to use compost at foliar. They also brought up Teaming with Microbes and mentioned there was a section of the book where this is discussed. I do have the book and am going to read thru this section now that it has been brought to my attention.
Now here is another question:
What are you thoughts of using a tea along with a synthetic fertilizer regiment
Kind of a Synganic, if you will haha
First few thoughts that come to my head - this may turn my simple 2 part synthetic fertilizer regiment more complicated in two ways. one - it just complicates things generally when switching between the two. Second - Feeding the tea thru my irrigation system will cause of a build-up of biofilm in the lines. the only way i can think of to avoid that will be to hand water the tea separately
You know when they say when you write questions down you tend to answer them yourself? lol this feels like that.
You can utilize both yes with your 1000gal tank, are they plummed already (im assuming overhead spray) in the greenhouse. Id do my best to ensure the spray water is more directed at the soil vs the foliar.
The conical tanks are not plumbed to anything - the have been sitting for 5-6 years and have never been used before.
Right now each plant is in a 25 gallon pot with 4 year old 707 soil. they each have one 20-22 gph 360* sprayer. they are plumbed to 7 2500 gallon batch tanks. This setup has been working OK, but looking into other options. preferably a slower flow rate so more plants can be watered at once and better saturation can be achieved.
Now i am wondering how much tea is too much tea - when combined with my synthetic feed.
forgive me, but 1:1000 ratio of what, 1 part tea 1000 parts water?
If that is the case these tanks are much too large.
And you are suggesting to cut my synthetic feed in half if i am to use the compost tea as an adjunctive?
Let me also add that the leaf tissue will be analyzed bi monthly by a laboratory to determine nutrient content - that being said, using one greenhouse for R&D would be the way to go. feed synthetic 50% and tea once a week in that house alone for comparison
Ive had a buncha buddies add teas as a foliar/soil drench in combo with synth nutes. Lotta bigger scale warehouse dudes. Worked great. They normally did it every 3-4 days.
Ive done decent sized teas back when, and aeration part isnt too tricky, its the application. I used to use an airless paint sprayer. But if youre doing that much, youll likely need a sump pump setup. Thats how Id use it for soil drench. 275 gallon IBC tote and 1/2 hp sump pump and regular ol hoses. Best of luck!
Good to hear some positive feedback on the âsynganicâ style.
I agree with you, have a couple IBCs laying around i can throw a brewer together with. Test out a soil drench on one greenhouse and see how it compares to the full synthetic feeding. Compost tea feedings should help the plants resilience and susceptibility to bugs, pathogens and fungi. Bonus If it increases yield, quality and flavor.
I have always dreamed of making one of these tanks into a vortex brewer like the one below.
A giant contianer like that might be good to make jadam liquid fert. Can decompose grass and weeds, any and all plant matter. Either way check out jadam. That would be to much compost tea to use in time me thinks, and you would likely be overhlemed on brew day. A vortex brewer like suggested above is already a lot!
Iâll look into jadam liquid fertilizer, thank you.
You may be right, 1000 gallons is a large amount of concentrated tea. But if watering it in at full strength, it wouldnât be enough. In peak summer months, when its very hot and the plants are well into flower we will go thru 4000+ gallons of water per day.
1 to 5 ration of dilution is good so your making 5 thousand gallons of tea. You donât need to water with it many times. Once microbes take hold they are there. You would benefit from foliars I am sure but that would be for large acreages. Could be cool if you make friends with a bunch of farmers though and share the wealth! You all would have to move fast though!
Microbes can make a big difference in a predominantly synthetic nutrient based system. They just have to be fed properly and applied regularly.
The first legal rec farm I worked at ran synthetics. We ran out of the veg solution and I informed the owner. He insisted that the micro had enough N. Within a few days the plants were yellowing. That room was on week four or five. The general manager gave me cash from the petty cash fund to get the key ingredients for the tea I had recommended. The two main ingredients for this case were alfalfa for the tryacontanyl (spelling?) to get the leaves back to a healthy green faster and a fish hydrolysate with molasses to feed the microbes in powdered inoculant as well as a mild N source to deal with the deficiency without excess N in the middle of flowering.
The employee who had been their the longest said he had never seen those strains that frosty. The owners friend who supplied the cuts and even bred some of them said basically the same thing. The owner commented on how frosty they were and took credit for how much healthier they were.
Ill give it a try on one greenhouse - keep everything else the same between the two greenhouses besides the feeding. Will go all 4 cycles for a real cost/time analysis. If it doesnât make a enough difference at the added time and expense i will stick to full synthetics. maybe sell the tanks or move them to the full season outdoor plot. Those plants are in the ground and native soil, they would benefit more then the greenhouse plants in pots and potting soil. The only thing with them is how to apply the soil drench, it will be a logistical challenge.
Just be sure to use a good carb and amino acid source along with running the brewer for a good amount of time. The warmer it is the less time necessary.
