I’ve never tried to ferment seaweed into a FPJ but I hear it’s difficult due to the moisture content.
Might be better to make a JLF out of it or like the others said, dry and pulverize.
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You guys should try Malted two row barley and ECW top dresses.I mix it in my soil when I cook it for 2 weeks then top dress as needed.They devour it and you should see the night crawlers in this stuff it’s nuclear.The new growth you get off it will blow your minds
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Interesting. It makes me think of brewing. I expect the straight barley is starchy.
But, if you put it through the mashing process and convert it to sugar and then wash it to collect the sugar it would…
I dunno. Any thoughts on the subject?
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The sugar is the secret sauce in that barley mix it turns into Amalase I’ve only ever used 2 row I imagine it has one of the highest Brix counts in those different batches.
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Yeah for sure. And I expect mashing it to activate the amylase might convert it to sugar too fast to be beneficial but I’m just spitballing.
I used to throw all my spent barley into the compost and it worked pretty good.
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Spent mash is different than raw malt because the cooking does a lot more of the amylase reaction releasing the starches to convert into sugars. Lots of people seem to say that the best way to use brewing malt is to crack the whole malted grains fresh, I use powder because I’m lazy and have it for baking from a local mill and malthouse, but I wanna try that for topdressing and soil amending, I mix the powder into waterings currently when I use it.
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Yeah for sure and throwing a syrupy mess in your garden bed is maybe not the best idea.
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Lots of breweries and also bakeries seem to feed that stuff to pigs
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By that point the sugar has been mostly washed away and it’s just roughage I’d think.
I used to love brewing beer. Much better than what you can get in the shops. Wanna use an amount of hops that is commercially cost prohibitive? You can do that.
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Put it straight out the bag right into the ECW you want that sugar in there
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I wonder if there are natural starches in dirt that would be converted with a dose of enzymes.
I really don’t know…
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the malted barley is a controlled sprouting/ germination. not sure of all the science involved but basically they allow it to sprout releasing the growth hormones and enzymes and then halt the processes. that way when you add it to the soil and it brakes down the plant uses the good stuff hormones and enzymes promoting plant growth. and another side benefit as the barley brakes down is that the microbes have an abundant food source [sugars] so they can better do their job braking things down so the plant has plenty to eat.
i buy mine from a brew house and use a blender to turn it to powder then apply.
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Creates Chitonase as well Eats them bugs right up
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i have thought of doing that, but am an hour or so from the coast so by the time i burn the gas and do the work to wash dry grind i believe it is easier to just buy the big bag of down to earth kelp meal and top dress and also mix it into the soil. the kelp really makes them grow strong.
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I also have to put this out there according to Coots Barley helps finish your plants 25% faster and I can attest for it.I can grow 70 plus day finishers here in western ny now could never do that before
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I use Hygrozyme regularly throughout growth, that’s four enzymes that break down root and plant matter faster, I wouldn’t grow in dirt without it now
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How is that working with your nutrient levels?Are you burning through more feed with it?Id imagine with all that available feed in the soil from being broken down the plants would have an open buffet and Chow down like little piggies 
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I’m going to go ahead and try this method… I can fill up a 5 gallon bucket of this stuff in 5 minutes southeast Alaska.
Anyone around that has actually tried this and not killed their plants?
Growing in FFOF soil
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I’ve never personally tried it, but I’ve read about other growers online who’ve had success with that method. Just be sure to really, really, really rinse it.
Are you planning on using it as a soil amendment? Or were you thinking teas? I’d probably feel more comfortable using it in a tea first, myself, otherwise you may have to toss a bunch of soil. It sounds like a great plan, though. If I had easy access to fresh kelp, I’d probably try it.
To be honest man, I dont really know. Grow medium / nutrients is the last thing on my list to do a deep-dive on. I’ve only grown once in the past and i used soil with a shitload of different types of nutes, sorta just winging it- turned out OK in the end, considering.
I’m really not trying to complicate things- its just yeah, that stuff is sitting everywhere right outside the house so it’s sorta begging me to try it out. I would hose rinse, hard and then soak in water probably for multiple days, changing out the water pretty constantly until I can’t taste salt… then from there dry it out, grind it up, etc.
But if buying some prepackaged nutes is the way to go, thats also fine with me. Just soorta learning as I go here with this part of it.
The guy at the grow store told me to start my seedlings straight in the FFOF I bought from him and I don’t like the sound of that … gonna go with a seedling starter from a local compost company. everyone has a different take.
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