I haven’t used it since that happened 
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i still havnt stopped using kelp! ive been feeding it almost every watering from seed to harvest and im not missing any quality or yield. and the soil is like 6 years old!
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Man I’m stoked I found this thread. Definitely going to have to try this sludge out, i always keep kelp meal, crustacean meal, and alfalfa meal on hand for top dressing and teas, never played around with foliars or non aerated kelp extractions like that, just gotta find a cheap blender now! Could this approach be taken with other organic dry amendments like the crustacean/alfalfa meal to any benefit? More immediately available calcium supplement comes to mind for with the crustacean meal specifically
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Alfalfa meal for sure. I’ve added a pinch of alfalfa to my neem/kelp teas before. I also read a post from Coot, years ago, where you can soak alfalfa in water for 24-48 hours and store that “tea” in the fridge for a few months, adding it to the water you use for your plants. I actually did that, years ago, and it worked great. I can’t remember the ratio of alfalfa to water for the initial tea, but alfalfa’s pretty powerful stuff, so I’d imagine it’s probably a quarter cup of alfalfa in five gallons of water. Somewhere around there, anyway. And then you’d wanna add the resulting “tea” at a ratio of probably a quarter cup to five gallons of water. But I may be wrong on those ratios. I’ve tried to find that post from Coot again, but I can’t. It was somewhere on grasscity, though, I think, if you wanna try. I’ll see if I can find it, because I’d really like to get back to using that. It worked great.
I dunno about crustacean meal, never heard of anybody doing that. Probably has something to do with the rate of release? Or something? Haha. I dunno, but I’ve never heard of anybody making a crustacean tea.
Btw, if you find that post from Coot, could you please post the link here? I’ve looked multiple times and can’t find it, but I know it exists haha, because I read it and did it.
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gonna have to try that alfalfa tea out, sounds awesome. Especially being able to store for up to a month. half of the issue i have with a lot of organic preparations has to do with the minimum volume you need to make them in and the shelf life of them vs. how much i actually go through before shit goes bad in my small garden. As far as the crustacean meal is concerned ive used it as a top dress and soil additive to good effect i think, ive also thrown it into the teabag when making ACTs and certainly never saw any negative impact. i need to spend a good amount of time online just reading anything that coot has written online so if i come across that article ill for sure post it here.
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You can store that alfalfa mix for longer than a month. Probably more like two months. Just keep whatever you’re storing it in in the back corner of the fridge, where it’s coldest. When I made it, I only did half the amount, so maybe it was a quarter-cup soaked in 2.5 gallons of water, not a quarter-cup in five gallons. In any event, whatever the ratios, it was really good shit.
Why would you add crustacean meal to a compost tea? Just curious. I’ve never heard of anything like that and I’m not sure what the benefit would be. Have you been to this site: microbeorganics.com
I would read that before adding anything to your compost teas. You’re just trying to increase bacterial/fungal/etc populations with an AACT; they’re not “nutrient teas” or whatever.
You definitely wanna use crustacean in your soil, but I wouldn’t add it to a compost tea. For my teas, I just use 1/3 cup molasses and 1.5 cups of EWC/compost, brewed for between 24-36 hours (depending on what stage of life the plants are in) in four gallon of water.
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honestly there was no strategy in it, i just kinda threw it in there and rolled, probably won’t continue if im just wasting an amendment
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Well, you may be doing more than just wasting an amendment. If you read that link I posted, Tim noticed that the addition of certain things (humic acid, I think, along with other things) actually delayed the process of… whatever haha, I haven’t read that site in a long time, but he noticed that the addition of certain things would delay the process of, like, multiplication or whatever. Or that certain amendments would increase bacteria strands but not fungal strands. Hang on, lemme find the quote.
Here: “ By testing some ingredients independently in a liquid I observed;
1/ that humic acid in varying dilutions does not feed any sort of microscopically visible microbe. I observed that it actually suppresses microbial division and growth. This was confirmed by joint testing with Keep It Simple Inc. (KIS) in the Seattle area. We tested two of the most effective and popular brands. I cannot say definitively that all brands of humic acid will have similar suppressive effects in a liquid (ACT) but it is enough for me to discontinue using it or recommending it as an ACT foodstock. Please note that this does not mean that it is not good to use on/in soil….just not ACT.
2/ that kelp meal initially delays all microbial development in a liquid but does feed fungi and bacteria/archaea following 24 hours. If too much is used the effects are suppressive. From this I garnered that it should be used very sparingly and one must be prepared to brew a little longer if using this foodstock. Again, this does not mean that kelp meal is not a good thing to use in/on soil. It definitely is!
3/ black strap molasses (BSM) feeds both bacteria/archaea and fungi equally well contrary to what the A(A)CT aficionados were saying. The story was that BSM feeds only bacteria. This led to all sorts of misconceptions, even including ones made by USDA and Canada Agriculture scientists who declared that using molasses in ACT could lead to e-coli contamination. It is utter nonsense. Besides the testing I have done and ratifying assays carried out by KIS, it is common knowledge amongst many mycologists like Paul Stamets that BSM grows out fungal hyphae just fine.
4/ fish hydrolysate feeds both fungi and bacteria/archaea again contrary to the story at the time that it is mainly a fungal food. (I’m glad to see that story has now changed)
5/ alfalfa meal is also a decent all round foodstock which sometimes introduces protozoa cysts to the ACT. KIS has done more testing on this than I have.
The result of all this is that my attitude towards recipes for ACT has really evolved over the years with a trend towards the more simple. I know that there are a lot of people who place importance on creating a bacterial or fungal dominant ACT. At one time I myself was so influenced, however, the more I’ve learned and unlearned about living soil and a functioning microbial population interacting with plants, the more I’ve been led to allow the soil and plants to decide which microbes are actively needed by the rhizosphere team. What this means is that 9 times out of 10 I’m trying to create a balanced ACT with a decent ratio of the three basic microbial groups. When this hits the soil, some will go dormant to wake up later and some will be immediately put into action at the direction of the needs of the soil and plants.
The exceptions to this may be if I am attempting to battle a particular pathogen and want to attack it with a heavy fungal or bacterial (or a combo) ACT. In these situations some tweaking of recipes and timing can be helpful. If attempting these variations, a microscope is really the only way to confirm the desired microbial population. I have outlined some recipes which may trend towards a certain microbial group (or combo) or may assist with certain pathogens.”
I’d check out the whole thing, though. It’s really probably only like a ten-minute read, if that.
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ill definitely check this out, thanks for sharing, was looking now to see if theres any info anywhere else on adding the CM to teas, havent found anything, so im probably gonna stop haha.
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Dude, your posts are helping me tremendously transition to natural farming! Seems like as soon as I search something that I’ve only read about (or heard on podcasts) — here you are!
Thanks man @lotus710
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The easiest way of improving your living soil is harvesting only half every harvest and letting the rest go back to the soil. Definitely something I’ll be doing once I have more space to work with.
I can’t imagine any better fertilizer than the same plants we’re growing but decomposed.
That’s basically what they do in Afghanistan, only harvesting the best and leaving the rest.
And look what fire comes from over yonder.
SIMPLIFY.
The lazier you are, the more effective and easy the solutions you’ll find.
Instead of effort and worry, work from a mindset of abundance and ease.
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I’ve made this kelp sludge and used a bunch of times now and the plants really seem to love it. If anyones thinking about it give it a shot, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed 
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I don’t go as far as half my harvest, but I use dried fan leaves and excess trim as a regular soil amendment between runs.
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Same here, I recycle my roots, all the trim from thinning through flower, and any non-sugar trim from harvest. Everything but stalks goes back in the soil bins, and I think my soil gets better every time I cook it down again.
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Does anyone have any good ideas on what you could do with fresh seaweed? I live on the Atlantic and the cold water kelp just washed up on the beach here😁
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I haven’t done it but I’ve read to rinse the crap out if it to get rid of the salt and then dry and smash it.
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Does it need to be dried? I wonder if you rised the crap out of it and then blender it up fresh? Would that give you a concentrated kelp juice? Maybe 1:500 ratio with water?
I’m just spitballing here 
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Yes perhaps. I really don’t know just being a parrot.
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You can also ferment fresh seaweed a-la KNF practices. I won’t claim to know the process but a homie like @BeagleZ can probably point you in the right direction
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I’m pretty sure a bunch of the Maine folks do that sort of thing, maybe @mainerJ ?
There’s a post from a Maine breeder here about that, he gets it from fishermen in late winter, spreads it on the snow to desalinate, then dries and pulverizes it in a food processor:
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