Currently, I am in the third week of flower and after running a series of soil tests today, my soil is, for the most part, still holding up I am however now in the merely adequate range for K with some 6-7 weeks of flower on this runâŠ
I am interested in hearing if anyone has had much experience producing teas that are mainly N - P - or K? I know that this is against the typical grain but my thinking is that certain things tend to be more N leaning like EWC, which also makes great component in tea so, in theory, the resulting tea could not only be bacteria and nutrient-rich but may even lean N heavy if only made from EWC and a combination of other known N leaning things?
I have read a few threads with mentions here, the KIS Compost Tea Manual, numerous blogs, articles and yawned through youtubies on how to make them and generally get the concept ( I am mostly interested in nutrient teas myself) however no one seems to talks about where these strange brews sit in terms of EC, PH, or NPK which is hard to supplement specific deficiencies as you would in other soilless growing techniques. I tend to think that in nutrient-rich soil the reaction with and the accumulation of nutrients already in the soil can easily land you in trouble. In some instances for me the Shotgun Effect isnât what I am after but still want to do so through a liquid and organic medium without the hydro mart costs of pre-packaged teas and bio-nutrients.
Does anyone have any ideas, thoughts, knowledge to bestow?!? I know I have seen some folks with some pretty serious brewers on here wondering if everyone is going the shotgun approach or can we make teas for every occasion and target our needs more?
If you are just looking for extra K, I would forget about the tea and just add Potassium silica to your water.
Not a tea but if you want to go the organic route then grapefruit skins and pith have a very high K around 25 on the ratio content, but you have to turn the grapefruit skins into charcoal, by putting it in a metal container and heating to a high temp, so it burns but doesnât catch fire, then just use the charcoal in your soil.
Edit I always forget about kelp meal being a good K provider as ell as many other things so more of a shotgun affect though. You can make a kelp meal tea.
Good ok wood ash is high in K Just donât go overboard on it sprinkle on the surface water it in if ya want or scratch and water it is very alkaline but plant will make adjustments when needed in soil or soilless media
Cocoa powder has a pretty significant ppm potassium, and most people have a ten year old container sitting in the cabinet. Same with cinnamon to a lesser extent.
Well first off thanks so much gents, thank you all for responses, it is very much appreciated.
@Shadey Thanks for the recommendations, I am going to into this more. Yes kelp has a longtime time mistress of mine being costal, we use it like hot sauce in the veggie garden, actually have harvested and turned kelp into our veggie and outdoor grows over the years. The reasoning for tea is I run AutoPots, running feed through the system is not realistic because the plants donât drink evenly so having a set level of feed in the res when running various gens hasnât been the ticket so far and finding much better results hand feeding. Because the plants donât drain per say so I have to take the plants out of situ to do soil drenches which is a PITA. I feed with foliar sprays so tea is great. I have a full run of Bio Canna on hand and have only used all of 15ml of feed to date on this run, and I am week 3 of flower. I want to sever the umbilical cord to the bottled nutes completely in time and thus teas seem to be the next step for me at least.
I agree that most compost teas are strictly for micro-org cultivation and had spoke to this as being against the grain however from what I understand the point of using specifically Nutrient Tea is to feed/foster specific biotics and provide enough excess nutrients available typically through cultivating bacteria in aerated teas. These bacteria make certain nutrients more available/digestible as they colonize and eventually get consumed within the soil by native micro-orgs. The abundance of nutrients in the brew remains in the soil to continue to feed the micros but your plant doesnât know the difference, way too much N is way too much N no matter why its there and this is what I am trying to figure out.
Making tea that is really high in N P or K could be quite bad situ even with small applications in my setup where I am already very nutrient-rich, microbiology bioactive as well as working the medium is as saturated the soil will allow through capillary action via AutoPot. Running the nutrient tea that I quoted above would send my girls into N lockout with a 200ml topwater feed at .4 EC. Yes, it fed the micro-organisms in the soil the bacteria that you cultivated by making tea âmicrobial extractionâ but I donât need the rest of whatâs in there and would be better off using molasses to feed the micros and bump them with some OMRI bloom. Unfortunately, this is what I am trying to avoid, I want to understand what I am feeding versus what is taken up. Maybe I should go back to school
Thank you @Worcestershire_Farms@Tinytuttle and everyone who took the time to respond already I really want to keep digging into this. I think that throwing all the nutrients at a soil that is only missing a few sugars to feed microbes or in hopes that something sticks that you didnât think you were low on even it has for so many in the past does not a method make. I donât fire guns blindfolded, I donât feed my plants that way either. I want to know if I am making amendments that I know need to be made via testing or combination of experience and testing that there are as few variables as possible for my own sanity
Cinnamon is excellent for those damn little sugar ants that seem to find their way into the home sprinkle it along the trial it fucks them up and they get the hell out of dodge!
You are not going to brew high levels of NPK if you are making a proper compost tea which involves a microbe source - ususally EWC or high quality compost, molasses, and water. Whereâs the NPK coming from?
The more nutrients you add to a compost tea, the less microorganisms you are going to breed. You get to choose, do you want something really high in microbial content or do you want to make more of a nutrient tea. Imho you would be far better off to make your compost tea, and add some protekt to it at the end of the brew. Kelp is also a great source of K, but not in the quantities that protekt has. For that matter, coco is also high in K, you could just topdress with some coco.
Thanks for the response again Shepard. NPK will definitely be present in Nutrient Teas as this is the goal but not as much as you said with ACT as you are merely feeding Microbes (and hopefully you didnât overfeed them and they consume the bulk of it) but to assume that piping air/water over something like EWC to not have N present in the resulting tea seems very counter-intuitive and against what I have been reading to date (likely why people see âbig changesâ when they use tea is the excess N in their brew). Have you ever tested your tea for NPK or anything else by chance? I understand the ACT peak can only be verified through a microscope and actually IDing the bacteria and amounts visually making it very hard to make clear decisions about what is and what isnât in your teas. I should also clarify once again I am not looking for a solution for my current K consumption but moreso trying not to hit the tipping point with everything else and keep feeding as nutrients are consumed in my soil, I appreciate the insight none the less.
Let me clarify as the title of the thread is Compost tea targeting specific NPK⊠Iâm not saying saying there will be no detectable NPK levels present, Iâm saying there will not be high levels present in an AACT made from EWC, molasses and water. I see KIS has 1 T of alfalfa meal in that recipe. The alfalfa is completely optional. I donât know if there is a âlaserâ targeting, but certainly you can add a little alfalfa if you want to green your plants up, or a little fish hydrol, etc for certain situations. Iâm not sure if that is answering your question?
You have answered to the calling and I appreciate it for sure! I wanted to know what people thought or have found through their own journies with teas; this you excelled at. I agree with your outlook and the knowledge you chose to share.
This is exactly what I am trying to figure out Should you be able to tune the brew as you said with things that generally align with industry and science, that we all know and can agree on tend to lean a specific way in terms of N-P or K and those considerations are already in place when brewing ACT-for certain situations; how can we be more precise other than pour it on as see how it goes type methodology? Beyond trial and error or feeling/experience, how do you know how much of what to add and what is that based on?
The whole goal of which is to start a conversation around what is working for folks, why it is working, and how it is measured. ACT seems to be so commonplace in the hobbyist organic circles yet no one as far as I can see is testing whatâs actually in the brews, how active the biology is and merely interpreting how the plants react as we all have to in our hobby but this isnât the only way forward.
Seeing immediate benefits from the targeted feeding microscopic organisms (ACT) in the soil is not seeing the benefits of microbial action IMO, they are much more likely seeing the benefits of feeding the plant albeit unintentionally. The microbial loop/cycle can take anywhere from many days to months in some cases for the protozoa to consume the desired bacteria and in high enough concentrations to excrete the ionic forms of nutrients that are immediately bioavailable back into the soil and thus your plants. We have to remember that billions on billions of microbes can be contained on the residue left on a spoon or fork nearly invisible. That bacteriaâs journey from the top of the soil to the colonization of the rhizosphere takes time and there are other variables that can reduce or lengthen this time as well but to see additional bioavailable nutrients and the effects of which in just a day after application, simply hasnât been substantiated by science as far as i am aware.
Itâs super interesting stuff, scratches that part of my brain most things donât.
I am working narrowing my approach to proactive methods, anticipating the needs of the plants and ensuring that it is provided. Somewhere in between ACT/Nutrient tea seems to provide the modality that would best align with my approach, making precise applications without offsetting others would be make or break for me and thus why I am polling the great minds of OG for inspiration and knowledge.
Thanks for listening/checking out and contributing to this process!
I am however now in the merely adequate range for K with some 6-7 weeks of flower on this runâŠ
Kelp kelp kelp 
KELP KELP KELP 
Should you be able to tune the brew as you said with things that generally align with industry and science, that we all know and can agree on tend to lean a specific way in terms of N-P or K and those considerations are already in place when brewing ACT-for certain situations; how can we be more precise other than pour it on as see how it goes type methodology? Beyond trial and error or feeling/experience, how do you know how much of what to add and what is that based on?