Emmie's Backyard Fermented Plant Extracts From Dandelions!

[Emilya Green]

In this thread we are going to make 3 important extracts for our gardens, a rooting formula, a growth enhancer, and a flowering inducing supplement. We are going to do it for next to no money investment and from the most common weed in our yards. Since this is free to the savvy organic farmer, creating these supplements should save hundreds of dollars a year on commercial products that serve the same purpose in our gardens. The plant extracts will provide the growth hormones along with essential macro and micro nutrients that we just can't get with AACT alone.

The rules when looking for plants to use as sources for your extracts are few. You want a fast growing green plant, and one as similar to the plant you are trying to grow as you can. If you want the very best extract for tomatoes for example, your best source for exactly the right nutrients for your plants, would be other tomato plants! Well, we don't have to go that far and sow valuable cannabis seeds to come close to what we are growing, because we have one of the most prolific and fast growing weeds growing in a yard near you, the mighty dandelion!

Dandelions are so prolific as a matter of fact, that we are going to be able to use them to create 3 different extracts from a simple processing of the plants into separate fermentation areas specific to what we are trying to produce. For the rooting compound we are going to ferment the roots, for the flowering supplement we will ferment the flowers and stems, and for rapid growth we will ferment the fast growing leaves.

So, the first part of this project is going out to the yard with a bucket and harvesting a bunch of these yellow storehouses of goodness. If you have a hand trowel or one of those dandelion picker devices, that is perfect... just dig in about an inch below the plant and snap that big root.

Once you have collected a bucketful, it is time to separate them into 3 piles. I have found the easiest way to do this is to use your kitchen scissors to cut the root off right above where the white roots merge into green plant stems. If you do this right, the root will fall into it's pile and then all of the flowers are also loose at this point. With your free hand pick out the flowers and put them in their own pile, and end up by chopping the remaining leaf matter into another pile or a pitcher as I did. You may also want to wash any soil that is clinging to the roots, but try to avoid washing the leaves... there are microbes on there that you want to try to preserve.

 

[Emilya Green]

The next step in creating these FPEs is to lightly chop our plant parts up and put them in a clay or plastic container along with half their weight in brown sugar. Brown sugar is simply refined sugar with some molasses added back in, and it will work just fine in the fermentation process.

Again, using my kitchen scissors, I made 3 piles and chopped up the plant parts. I then weighed each pile and stuffed each pile down into its own gallon sized plastic jug and added half the weight of brown sugar.

You can add some DISTILLED water at this point if you want to, but it is not necessary. The beauty of the plastic water jugs is that you can put the lid on and shake vigorously to mix the sugar on every leaf. This will be enough to get the fermentation process going, and soon there will be liquid being generated as the plant matter begins to break down. Also, the milk jugs will diffuse direct sunlight, and if you set these jugs out of the direct sunlight they will work quite well.

To cover these jugs, I will take an old pair of nylons and using a rubber band I will attach a bug seal at the top, that will still allow a free exchange of air. This will work fine for this first step. To see the process get started, I have partially crushed each jug and put the lid on for now... and when I see the pressure build to bring them back to the normal shape, I will replace the plastic lid with the nylon screen.

Now we wait 7-10 days for nature to release her goodness from this very beneficial weed.

 

[Emilya Green]

Tonight we are going to start making an effective bug repellent from the kitchen. I have problems with tomato worms here in the midwest, and usually fight them with a bit of Neem oil spray. This year, I am going even more natural with a fermented extract of garlic and cayenne pepper, mixed with a fermented extract of ginger. This combination should not only repel the evil green worms, but it will also be a good antibiotic/preventative medicine, and the sulphur in the garlic will be a good fungicide.

Garlic and Ginger are both very hard to get started fermenting, but we can jump start the process by first processing them in beer or wine. I like the idea of using the Boulevard unfiltered beer, because there are still chunks of yeast in there to keep the fermentation process going in the bottle. We are going to use the beer to jump start the fermentation process, and after 24 hours of sitting in the beer, we will add sugar to really get things going.

This is going to take a while, but what harm is a little more shelf space being used for a good purpose?

Ginger and garlic were chopped and formed into equal piles, and then put into my little jars. Beer was added to the top and both bottles were stirred. We are fermenting these two separately because we don't know what the interaction of them would be together. Once they are fermented and stabilized we can combine the two into a very effective dual action foliar spray, but for now, we keep the processes separate.

After we add the sugar tomorrow, things should bubble for about a week. I will take pictures at any stage that things change enough to notice.

 

[Emilya Green]

One thing I am learning about fermentation is that it happens in its own time frame. The ginger and garlic experiment is still bubbling away, but we may give that one a while... it is nowhere near being done yet.

I finding the same thing outside with the dandelion extract experiments. Remember when I said it was not necessary to add water? Well, if one has the patience of Job that is certainly an option, but sometime during the weekend I was tempted to use my spray bottle filled with distilled water to send plant parts sticking to the side of the containers down into the slew. I do believe that eventually more and more of the plant material will be broken down into a fluid, but I think with smaller batches like this, it is going to be desirable to add a bit of water to hurry things up a bit.

So far, only the jug containing leaf parts has begun to ferment strongly enough to expand the container back out, the rest still are duds so far. I have faith that they will soon begin to ferment... just don't count on it taking only a week... that is on someone else's perfect world... here in my world, where things move more slowly, it may take 3.

 

[Timmo]

You want a fast growing green plant

Could it be that I've finally found a use for all that infernal Canada thistle growing in my veggie garden (and everywhere else)?

My wife has been on a fermented food kick for the last few months, making all kinds of great kimchee and other stuff. She's also really caught the veggie gardening bug this year, so I'm hoping I can talk her into trying to make plant food too.

You've no doubt seen it already, but there's a spreadsheet that shows what nutrients you can get out of various common plants and weeds--including dandelions (sadly, not thistle). https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0...c_Accumulators_and_Nutrient_Contents.xlsx?723

 

[Emilya Green]

Could it be that I've finally found a use for all that infernal Canada thistle growing in my veggie garden (and everywhere else)?

My wife has been on a fermented food kick for the last few months, making all kinds of great kimchee and other stuff. She's also really caught the veggie gardening bug this year, so I'm hoping I can talk her into trying to make plant food too.

You've no doubt seen it already, but there's a spreadsheet that shows what nutrients you can get out of various common plants and weeds--including dandelions (sadly, not thistle). https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0...c_Accumulators_and_Nutrient_Contents.xlsx?723

Isn't the dandelion a distant cousin of the thistle? I would think that they are very similar, and I would certainly try it. Who knows, maybe you can find someone like I did with dandelions, who picks the thistles from their lawn regularly and can provide you with a bucket of them.

Another note:
Adding the additional water yesterday really did the trick. Today finds all 3 jugs bubbling away... I now feel confident that fermentation has begun in earnest.

 

[Prepper420]

This is a great thread topic! I have been using chopped dandelions in my soil mixes for about a year now, it really helps I think, being a Dynamic Accumulator. I also vermicompost the dandelions and feed them to my chickens!! You can eat the leaves in a salad and make tea out of the roots that is a liver detox!

Question about your seperating the parts of the plants for different purposes, is this based off something or just experimenting?? Subbed up!!

 

[Emilya Green]

This is a great thread topic! I have been using chopped dandelions in my soil mixes for about a year now, it really helps I think, being a Dynamic Accumulator. I also vermicompost the dandelions and feed them to my chickens!! You can eat the leaves in a salad and make tea out of the roots that is a liver detox!

Question about your seperating the parts of the plants for different purposes, is this based off something or just experimenting?? Subbed up!!

Plants specialize all the time, especially weeds. Look at our root systems as an example. The lower roots adapt into the role they take on in a container grow, and they become taproots and the main pipeline for water in the system, while the upper roots adapt to a role of nutrient gathering and develop the fine web of roots at the top and middle of the rootball. When we place nutrient spikes or layers in our containers, we can again see the roots adapt to be suited for the environment that they find themselves in.

It also makes sense that the specific microorganisms, amino acids, and specific nutrients needed for developing the roots, will be found in the roots of a healthy plant. If you want instead the specific micronutrient triggers that induce flowering, look to the flowers for this special set of nutrients. And lastly, if you want a fast growth nutrient, look to the fast growing green leaves for this set of special components that makes the leaves so prolific on a fast growing plant.

A lot of the nutrients will be found in common among these various plant parts, but there are enough differences in makeup to make not only the fluids different colors and consistencies, but I believe that I am producing specific nutrients for specific times of the growing cycle, and I will be using them accordingly. Early vegging plants will get the rooting formula, late veg and 5th week will get the growth formula and of course, weeks 1-2 of flower will get the flowering compound. Time will tell if I am onto something here, but my gut feeling is that this will be exactly what the plants need at the times they need it.

 

[electro gypsy]

If I may make a suggestion for your flowering formula. Try and find some raw bees wax. You can add it to your ferment for a strong natural source of Triacontanol.

 

[Timmo]

I just chopped a bunch of males. I'm gonna do this!

 

[Timmo]

Emilya, you recommend half the plants' weight in brown sugar. The folks at buildasoil recommend an equal amount or up to 2/3 more. Why do you suggest the amount that you do?

 

[Emilya Green]

Emilya, you recommend half the plants' weight in brown sugar. The folks at buildasoil recommend an equal amount or up to 2/3 more. Why do you suggest the amount that you do?

1/2 was simply the recommendation that I got from the source that I used. I have also seen it recommended to use equal the weight, and I don't think it is going to hurt anything to do so, it might even speed things up. At the end of this first process, to stabilize it we are going to add an equal weight of molasses to it again, so the amount of sugar seems to be excessive in either case, and fermentation is never going to stop until all the components are broken down. I get the impression that this is less than an exact science.

 

[Timmo]

I guess if it might speed things up, I'll try an equal amount. We'll see what happens.

 

[Timmo]

Here's what I did: I cut off all the leaves (and the tiny bit of boy-flowers that were there), snipped them all up, stuffed them into a milk jug, added an equal amount by weight of brown sugar, capped it, shook the hell out of it, uncapped it, and then mashed the leaves and sugar with the handle of a wooden spoon. Then recapped it, smooshing the jug a bit. I waited a few days to see how much juice the sugar would pull out of the leaves. Not enough to merit a picture. I added about 1/2 cup of water today and recapped, again smooshing.

Note that the vigor with which one mashes the leaves should be roughly commensurate with the vigor with which I gripped the spoon in that not-at-all-posed picture.

I only made one batch because I could only find one milk jug, which, given how many balls I have the air right now, was enough of an excuse to limit it to only one batch. I left the roots and a bit of the main stem in the pot. The rest of the stem will return to the earth in the compost pile. I know the "rules" say to use only the fast growing tips, but my plants were all pretty young, so I figured that pretty much the whole thing is fast growing. We'll see what happens.

 

[Emilya Green]

That should work well Timmo...

My root compound seems to be mostly broken down now, but there are still a few chunks in there. There was much more water to solid ratio in this one, and that might have something to do with this. The bloom and growth formulas are slowly fermenting too, but there is just a lot more plant material in there to break down. It seemed this week that the process is slowing a bit, although a definite alcohol smell can be detected by smelling the top of the jug, so I know it is fermenting. I added a couple more tablespoons of dark brown sugar to each jug this morning before I left and shook it vigorously. We will see if this increases the bubbling.

I guess what we are seeing here is that this is not a fast process, at least not in small batches. I will be curious to learn if yours breaks down any faster Timmo?

 

[Emilya Green]

I just got done shaking my three milk jugs and I would like to document a few observations.

The process works better when the jugs are out of the direct sunlight, shaded daylight seems to be perfect.

3 weeks in and it looks like we are starting to see the end of this process. If I pick up the jug and don't see bubbling, it is time to add more sugar. This seems to be about an every 5 day thing.

Shaking helps. Shaking at least once a day seems to break up the big stuff and accelerate the process of breaking things down.

This is becoming a very heavy liquid, I would estimate 2x - 3x the weight of normal water. When this is finished it is obvious that there will be a whole lot of raw goodness in this stuff, and it is clear why they advise us to dilute it 20:1 for normal use, 40:1 for foliar feeding. It is strongly advised that you CAN burn your plants with these compounds, so be careful!

For now, I am shaking at least once a day and watching the plant debris becoming part of the fluid.

 

[Emilya Green]

Tonight we are going to start making an effective bug repellent from the kitchen. I have problems with tomato worms here in the midwest, and usually fight them with a bit of Neem oil spray. This year, I am going even more natural with a fermented extract of garlic and cayenne pepper, mixed with a fermented extract of ginger. This combination should not only repel the evil green worms, but it will also be a good antibiotic/preventative medicine, and the sulphur in the garlic will be a good fungicide.

Garlic and Ginger are both very hard to get started fermenting, but we can jump start the process by first processing them in beer or wine. I like the idea of using the Boulevard unfiltered beer, because there are still chunks of yeast in there to keep the fermentation process going in the bottle. We are going to use the beer to jump start the fermentation process, and after 24 hours of sitting in the beer, we will add sugar to really get things going.

This is going to take a while, but what harm is a little more shelf space being used for a good purpose?

Ginger and garlic were chopped and formed into equal piles, and then put into my little jars. Beer was added to the top and both bottles were stirred. We are fermenting these two separately because we don't know what the interaction of them would be together. Once they are fermented and stabilized we can combine the two into a very effective dual action foliar spray, but for now, we keep the processes separate.

After we add the sugar tomorrow, things should bubble for about a week. I will take pictures at any stage that things change enough to notice.

Getting back to the bug repellent experiment, the garlic and the ginger concoctions have been fermenting for about 2 weeks, so today we moved this to the next step.

Today I got bigger containers and added an equal amount of 80% alcohol to the mix to stop the fermentation process. The two concoctions are still separate and we will let them set now for 7-10 days so that all the beneficial elements can be infused into the alcohol.

After 10 days we will drain the liquid from these containers and combine them to make our garlic-ginger extract. We will use this extract at a rate of 1 tablespoon per gallon, so this one project should supply enough spray for me to use all summer in the garden to drive away those evil tomato worms.

 

[Emilya Green]

And, an update on the dandelion extract experiments. It is clear that if the organic farmer has months to wait on the process, eventually by adding sugar and shaking, the plant matter will eventually be broken down and become part of the very nutritious liquid that results.

I don't have months to wait however, so today I have jump started the process. Today I added 1 tablespoon of 20:1 Lactobacillus serum that we created in another thread. This workhorse of the organic world will aid in the decomposition of the organic matter in our mixes, and we should see the remaining plant matter break down quickly from today forward. I will keep you apprised as to what happens.

While I was at it, I mixed up a 40:1 Lacto foliar spray and I hit all of my tomato plants with it to see what happens. So far, they appear to have not died.

 

[Timmo]

Hooray for doing things just to see what happens. And hooray for things not dying as a result.

 

[Emilya Green]

Hooray for doing things just to see what happens. And hooray for things not dying as a result.

I am pleased to report that the tomato plants that got sprayed yesterday had an obvious and crazy growth spurt in the last 24 hours... the ones that didn't get sprayed look jealous. I would say that they loved it.

I WILL be spraying this on my indoor plants, very soon.