How To Get Super Bushy Ball Like Plants

[Seamaiden]

Blaze, I know it's been a while since you've been out to our place, but I've created soil where there was only bare clay simply by placing straw bales and leaving in situ, and I'm currently doing it now. If the layer is deep enough, it absolutely will suppress weeds. However, that's not the purpose for which I use mulches, it's really mostly about soil moisture.

All that said, it's been a few years since I've used a... "dead" mulch. I've been doing cover crops, this'll be the fourth year of experimentation and so far my results (in terms of water use) are in favor of the living cover crop over a dead mulch.

@Seamaiden I also don't like the fact that the hay will dampen down, and start to mold up pretty good. I don't mind my soil surface having some active mold breaking down material. However I find the hay will stay moist longer than the surface soil needs to be. Also, redwood bark is a renewable resource that is in great excess atm. No worries about stripping nature at all from me regarding redwood mulch.

Thanks for that response. You may be in a more humid, wet or coastal location than I, and those features are what makes hay or straw a better option for me since my focus is on retaining as much soil moisture as I possibly can.

I did not know that redwood is considered a renewable resource, thank you for that. :)

 

[Augestwest]

Little view of the garden and a stalk pic of the pitbull. Happy farming everyone

 

[Augestwest]

So I got all my supply's to start brewing some tea. I got ewc, bat guano, molasses, super thrive, 2 air pumps ones a double outlet and the other is a single, 3 air stones, and a 32gal trash can. Let my water sit out over right with just the air stones in it and put a tea bag in earlier today. I also got a truncheon ppm stick and a blue lab ph pen. Checked my ppm out the hose and it's under 100(don't know what because the truncheon starts at 100) and my ph is at 7.2 out the hose. Super stoked on that. Also I put my critical yumbolt in her bed finally happy farming everyone

So

 

[Seamaiden]

It's great that you're getting started with teas. That said, I feel that using that size container with those sizes air pumps may not give you very good aeration. The water column needs to be absolutely roiling. Using a smaller container will help you in that regard. :)

 

[50YardLine]

Yea, sorry bro. You need at least 40w of air pump for a 50 gallon drum. You can make 5-15 gallon brews with what you have, but an upgrade looks like it's needed.


Something like this.
http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-AAP..._sim_86_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=1K1SFF8147MB4555TCX8

You can keep the bubblers, and just use the splitter the unit comes with.

 

[Augestwest]

Ok so I have a batch brewing right now it's been about 17 hrs so should I not use this batch or is it fine

 

[Augestwest]

It doesn't smell bad it smells like earthy

 

[50YardLine]

I would say let the brew you have going finish. Let it run for 36 hours total. You shouldn't be able to smell the molasses when the tea is finished, but that earthy smell should remain. Any anaerobic smells means your tea is bad.

FYI - These are great for brewers. Once yours wear out, as all bubblers wear out. These glass ones last a bit longer and have a much better output.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LEZEKB0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

 

[Augestwest]

Ok and by anaerobic you mean like super stinky almost rotting? Yea ill def order a couple of those air stone setups and get a different pump. I only grow outdoors and only plan on making a batch of tea once a month. So not looking to spend to much more money into this but I do wanna make sure I'm making good batches. Should I ph the tea after its done brewing? It was at 6.4 befor I added everything and now its reading 5.1

 

[50YardLine]

I don't worry about ph'ing the tea's. Since you are multiplying the microbes, the microbes tend to even out once in the soil at the proper PH. Plus, adding a base or acid can crash a tea. Meaning the microbes will go into a mass die off.

I bet once you see the results from your teas you become a once a week tea brewer. BTW, if your tea goes anaerobic, you will know the smell. It becomes very offensive.

 

[Augestwest]

I don't worry about ph'ing the tea's. Since you are multiplying the microbes, the microbes tend to even out once in the soil at the proper PH. Plus, adding a base or acid can crash a tea. Meaning the microbes will go into a mass die off.

I bet once you see the results from your teas you become a once a week tea brewer. BTW, if your tea goes anaerobic, you will know the smell. It becomes very offensive.

Thanks man so I checked it this morning (about 42hrs)and no anaerobic smell more earthy alittle sweet mushroomy smell so I did a 50% tea 50% water and used it on the lady's. Figured I would do a 50/50 mix at first and next batch will be full strength. I used everything except like the bottom 10th of the tea and then poured that bottom out and rinsed everything really well. Let's see how this works

 

[derkaderk]

Your set up is looking great this year man. Subbed up.

 

[Wisher619]

I would also add about 2 hand fulls of Diatomaceos Earth to the tea.....it has a grip of minerals that the microbes break down for nutrition as well as it is about 80% silicon dioxide or silica as it is known....which will really help with root and cell structure

 

[royfree2grow]

...You shouldn't be able to smell the molasses when the tea is finished, but that earthy smell should remain...

thats a nice tip bro, why shouldn't you smell it?

 

[50YardLine]

@royfree2grow Shouldn't be able to smell the molasses as strong because the microbes eat it up as a food source. When your tea is finished, the food stock should be eaten up, and the compost smell should be the only smell remaining. A nice earthy smell. Same if you add fish, most of the fishy smell should be gone when the tea is finished.:)

Augustwest - when you dilute your tea, make sure your using un-chlorinated water. Also make sure the temps are close to the same, or else you risk crashing your tea. I like to brew as much as I can, and apply full strength, FYI. (btw, a crashed tea just means your microbes have died or gone dormant, doesn't mean you have a bad tea that will hurt the plants)

Hope your ladies liked your tea.

Edit - I should also mention a full strength tea I used for fresh cut clones. Tea's shouldn't burn, because your not adding nutrients to the soil. Your adding nutrients to your tea, so the microbes can feed on them, so the microbes can multiply. By the time you water with your tea, your nutrients should be eaten up, and your microbes should be multiplied. This is why AACT (actively aerated compost teas) just boosts what is already in the soil. You still have to feed nutrients to your plants, but the tea will make those nutrients quickly available to your plants.

 

[Augestwest]

Ok so last night I was looking at the base of my plants and noticed some red ants crawling around. Anyone have a sure way of getting rid of these little guys. I also found out I have springtails in my soil to. Gonna get some go-nats for the springtails but what about the red ants???

 

[Seamaiden]

Terro Bait, the dry granules. They're boric acid or boron. The springtails aren't a problem. Also, get some DE and one of those puffers (I need another puffer).

 

[Augestwest]

De? Sorry I'm not up to date on all these short terms

 

[derkaderk]

Diotemacious (sp?) earth= DE

Springtails are fine like seamaiden says. I feel your pain on bugs though....I just looked at the two girls I put in the back 2 days ago.....one had the top totally sheared off( cricket I assume) sow bugs (rollie pollie) everywhere, fire ants, all kinds of other nasties, was thinking of using DE myself.

 

[Augestwest]

@royfree2grow Shouldn't be able to smell the molasses as strong because the microbes eat it up as a food source. When your tea is finished, the food stock should be eaten up, and the compost smell should be the only smell remaining. A nice earthy smell. Same if you add fish, most of the fishy smell should be gone when the tea is finished.:)

Augustwest - when you dilute your tea, make sure your using un-chlorinated water. Also make sure the temps are close to the same, or else you risk crashing your tea. I like to brew as much as I can, and apply full strength, FYI. (btw, a crashed tea just means your microbes have died or gone dormant, doesn't mean you have a bad tea that will hurt the plants)

Hope your ladies liked your tea.

Edit - I should also mention a full strength tea I used for fresh cut clones. Tea's shouldn't burn, because your not adding nutrients to the soil. Your adding nutrients to your tea, so the microbes can feed on them, so the microbes can multiply. By the time you water with your tea, your nutrients should be eaten up, and your microbes should be multiplied. This is why AACT (actively aerated compost teas) just boosts what is already in the soil. You still have to feed nutrients to your plants, but the tea will make those nutrients quickly available to your plants.

So by adding the bat guano it shouldn't make it hot and be able to burn my plants. The dude at the indoor garden store said be really careful and that he didn't want me to burn my plants he was also very persistent on my buying there house brewed tea so maybe he was just trying to make a sell.