I was planning on making a new batch of tea starting tomorrow morning to feed Sunday morning.
I’d love a critique of my baseline recipe:
20 gallons water
8 cups Colorado Worm Company EWC
1.6 cups Molasses OR 0.8 cups Sucunat
0.4 cups GEM Fish Hydrolysate
0.4 cups Age Old Kelp Extract
–BREW 23.5 Hours–
Add 1 tbsp Rootwise Mycrobe Complete or Mykos I’ll alternate
–BREW 0.5 Hours–
–APPLY–
*Note this is mostly based on Tim Wilson’s excellent write up @Dirt_Wizard linked somewhere in a post I was reading. http://microbeorganics.com/ but the site seems broken today
I intend to experiment with humic acid at the beginning of the brew and potentially fulvic right before application. It’d also be nice to do more of a nutrient tea thing adding ammendments. This is about the consensus for the best “base” microbe tea of limited nutritional value - all about the microbes.
Something I dealt with last season using more ammendments, especially the micronized stuff like Roots Organics Terp Teas (which I liked, they are easy) was the sludge that would build up at the bottom of the tank. I’d use a drill with paint mixer head to stir things as I poured so I could transfer those things to the soil. Anyway, I’d prefer to create a better mixing/agitation solution. Additionally, my airstones are clogging, and that’s just not the best way to start a season in my book.
I decided to add a pump intaking in one direction and splashing to create a pseudo-spiral flow. I got a 50’ dripper hose that I cut into thirds so I’m using about 16’ of it, coiled up to maximize bubble production. Seemed like a way better idea when I was browsing the hardware store than the prospect of drilling hundreds of holes.
In case anyone here is as neurotic as I am, yes, I am aware that this directionality is the opposite of what would be aided by the coriolis effect. That’s the way the hose was pointed with the adapter tightened into the pump, and I wanted to get water dechlorinating. Maybe next round I’ll flip it around for clockwise (northern hemisphere) proper operation.
Here’s what my prototype looks like - if all goes well I’ll mount things with suction cups inside so it’s still easy to take apart to clean. You’ll notice it’s super ghetto with wire holding things in place until serious suction cups arrive to make things more betterer.
Damn, does it ever bubble:
Feeling a little artistic, went for a long exposure hopefully @MissinBissin is proud
Any thoughts? Have I lost my mind on something that should only be thought about once during transplant and before flower starts? I know there will be a split crowd there. In any case, I think I’ll make some nutrient teas throughout the season so it’s not wasted effort IME. It’s actually pretty ghetto fabulous and inexpensive to duplicate. The soaker hose was only $15 plus scraps around the house and a $20 water pump. The air pump is a 70l/m one I used last year.
Back to the weed pictures that are the reason for the season and overthought of so much minutia.
The autos are popping up. These are the Fastbudz Original Bubblegum that I intend to partially reverse and use to pollinate a branch of my IBG - Fast Feminized Indiana Bubblegum seeds if all goes to plan.
It does appear my soil is living. I plucked a few of the cover crops around the seedlings to give them some light. Beatiful roots on them! Good signs for my cannabis! Very exciting.
Here’s the Panalawis (green pinch clamps) putting on seemingly inches a day. @noknees your concern/fear may have been waranted. It’s really a shocking growth rate compared to the IBGs/907s.
Then the IBGs (pink pinch clamps), really taking to their topping a throwing some sturdy shoots. I swear the one in the bottom right already has a stem rub scent leaning bubblegum. The other two smell like basil/oregano stem rub. Really hoping I get a rockin’ “Bazooka Joe” pheno, my excitement is increasing there.
907s (blue pinch clamps) are going a little slower, I think I need to move them out of their afternoon shade. That tree got way bigger than it was this time last year and is shading this spot more than planned. Nothing “blueberry” yet on the stem rubs there, but they smell like weed for sure. Even if I don’t get a true blueberry syrup pheno like I’ve read about I’m sure I’ll be happy with it - love those fat leaves and stout growth. Especially that one on the right here.
In conclusion, things seem to be going well here. I’m almost surprised the plants seem happy in the soil I was so worried about. It’s the same relief I get at work from seeing something that takes months of math/analysis to design and optimize, months to machine, fabricate and assemble - and at the end of it all - it WORKS. Fucking magic. I’m getting the same thing here, appreciating all the biology and sophisticated natural processes that I can’t engineer the same way as those things at work. At it’s roots, physics is the same sort of magic. This is just new, and therefore, more novel “magic” I guess.
Thank you all for helping me out and offering supportive comments when I’ve been confused or down. Tonight, I’m happy as a clover in one of the 50 gallon pots.