Emmie's Backyard Fermented Plant Extracts From Dandelions!

[Emilya Green]

Today, out of need, I processed the dandelion root extract. I will soon be transplanting all of my vegging plants into their final 7 gallon containers, and upon the initial watering, I plan on using some of this in each gallon of water given, along with a strong fish emulsion fertilizer, in order to strongly establish all of the plants in the larger containers.

Here is what the extract looks like in the bottle:

All I did was to filter/funnel all of the liquid out of the milk jug, mostly filling this little water bottle. I added about 3 tablespoons of molasses to bring it up to the top and to feed the microlife so as to keep working on the solids suspended in the liquid. The bottle has been capped lightly to allow air to escape and it will continue to be burped now and then until all the bubbling stops. I will be using 4 tablespoons per gallon of this mix any time I feel a need to enhance the root growth. We should start getting an idea after a grow or two if this stuff really works... until then, it is up to your's truly, to do this experiment for the good of all. Wouldn't it be grand to be able to get away from the need to buy all those expensive root growth formulas? We shall learn together.

Experimenter Emmie

 

[Emilya Green]

Last night I used the stuff.

Yep... no testing on the tomatoes first... I just did it.

I mixed 3 tablespoons of root extract, 3 tablespoons of Liquid Fish, and one teaspoon of General Organic calmag+ (my calphosmag mixture is not done yet) into a gallon of water, and watered the late vegging room.

The entire room is getting up-potted today when I get home from work. You will not believe what is happening... it has to be the new organics causing the amazing growth that I am seeing. I will be updating all of my grow journals today with new pictures so that you can see this. I can already see that this is going to be a good run!

 

[Emilya Green]

After seeing the amazing results of the first application of dandelion rooting extract, I up-potted all the plants to their final 7 gallon containers. Upon transplant, they all got a complete watering with another strong dose of extract, along with calmag+, fish emulsion and lactobacillus serum. This combination seems to be doing something very good to the plants... we will see. Outside, the tomatoes are going nuts. They are twice the size of my neighbor's and she now is asking me, the young girl, what it is that I am doing, and at 80 she is considering changing her ways to truly natural organics.

It has occurred to me working with this stuff that after a certain point, enough of the base nutrients have been cooked into the solution that it can be used, or you can keep the process going by adding sugar periodically, and even lactobacilli, and eventually you can cook the entire plant mass down into the fluid... but it isn't necessary to do so.

I am going to keep the jugs cooking up until the point that I need them in my grow. I have just used the rooting extract to great effect and I hope that it is doing at the root level what I see happening up top. Next, wanting to veg my plants now for the next 3 weeks or so, I will be applying growth formula, which I will be straining out and using next. Lastly will be the flowering extract, and I will start hitting them with that as soon as I make the flip.

Is this the end of the experiment? The work of the natural organic farmer never ends, and it is clear now that my task is to generate enough of this stuff in the summer months as I can, so that I can stockpile it for use over the winter. When I strain my fluids from my jugs from now on, the remaining plant matter will be left there, complete with the microbeasties that are working on them, and over time I will patiently keep adding more dandelions to the mix as I pick them. My goal over the next two months is to make a full gallon of the growth formula that will be ready for use in the winter months, as well as ample supplies of the other three formulas.

I will update this thread with more data as I see the plants respond to the various formulas. I am very pleased that I went down this road and it is clear that natural organics combined with actively aerated compost teas are a superior and completely natural way of farming that more of us need to experience. Some of these processes take time to make to be sure, most are smelly, and it is so much easier to buy something ready made, on the shelf. The thrill that you can get however, knowing that you can make these things yourself, and usually way better than that store bought product, and way way cheaper... I just can't put into words how grown up and independent this makes me feel. The next few rounds in my garden are sure to prove that combining all of these natural methods will enable anyone to grow superior pot, or vegetables, or anything else for that matter, all totally off of the grid and as economical as it can get. I mean really folks... dandelions and a bit of molasses, and what results becomes magic in the natural organic farmer's hands. It is not hard. It is just different. Most people's reaction is, "let's hope you don't kill your plants." It just takes a little faith in mother nature, a little science, and a lot of love.

Blessings from my gardens,
Emmie

 

[electro gypsy]

Brilliant! Reps for the last sentence especially.

Nature always has a way of sorting itself out and taking care of itself. The best we can do is provide it more and better opportunities for it to do what it already does.

and for grown up and independent. Self sufficient isn't really an accurate term as you move into the perma-culture. Realizing our true place is a pretty good feeling!

 

[Emilya Green]

I have news, notes, pictures and conclusions from the garden for you tonight... first, 4 pictures to show you what I am seeing this evening at sun up in the garden.

Note a couple of cases of burned leaf tips, but more than that, notice the tip clawing on several plants. It is not happening on every leaf, or even a majority of the leaves, but it is happening, across the tent.

This tells me that the rooting extract is too strong to use at 4 tablespoons per gallon. This is not normal AACT organics, you CAN burn your plants with this stuff... it is pure nutrients, in a raw form.

I will immediately change my dosage to 2 tablespoons per gallon. This may even be too much, we are of course dealing with the mighty dandelion here. I will keep you apprised.

 

[Timmo]

My leaves are bubbling away. It smells like alcohol and sauerkraut. I transferred it to a quart jar a few days ago after reading somewhere that if you leave more than a third of the container empty, the risk of mold goes up. I've been shaking it vigorously almost every day. This is right after shaking it today:

I hope your overdosage was only slight.

 

[Dreamofgreen]

nice one to add to the bag of tricks. i like the idea of making something better than you can buy.

 

[Timmo]

Some of my girls were naughty and started flowering about a month ago despite being on 18/6. I've since moved them to my greenhouse, where they continue to flower. Today, I relieved them of all potential popcorn and decided to use the trimmings to make a batch of flower-power FPE.

I used an equal weight of brown sugar (a whole 10 grams), added a teaspoon of water, and mashed it up thoroughly.

 

[Emilya Green]

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.

Our Garlic/Ginger/Cayenne extract finished fermenting today and the two separate extracts were combined into a discarded glass olive oil with a sealable lid. It has been raining here for the last couple of days and won't end until Wednesday. I plan on then using the extract on half of my tomatoes to test its efficacy.

 

[Emilya Green]

All of the growth formulas are ready for use, and in fact the dandelion flower jug has just about all turned into liquid. The amount of plant material still left floating is minimal, and I would not be surprised if it is all gone into solution by the time I need it in another 2.5 weeks.
My next watering is going to require the growth formula, after having given 2 rounds of rooting formula. I will also be giving them all a strong vegging 2 day AACT along with the growth formula, and I expect this double whammy to supercharge the plants as they settle into their final containers.
Here is the growth formula after simply straining the liquid from the jug into this water bottle. It has been capped for a couple of days now and seems fairly stable... burping only relieves a slight amount of built up pressure.
As with the roots, the leftover plant material has been left in the jug and left outside to become the seed for the next batch, and more dandelions will be added over time to fill up the jug to brew my winter supplies.
A note on the smell... I fully believe that one could drink either of these 3 brews. The smell sweet and definitely of alcohol, and it is my distinct impression that I have created dandelion wine. No wonder the plants like it... we are having a party in Emmie's gardens!

 

[electro gypsy]

 

[Timmo]

My leaf brew stopped bubbling a few days ago, so I strained off the juice, pressing the leaves with a spoon to really wring them out. I got a little over a cup of juice. I haven't added more sugar to it yet; it's just sitting in the fridge. At first I didn't think there would be enough to bother stabilizing it, but in light of the recommended dilution rates, I probably won't go through it as quickly as I initially thought, so I think I will add some sugar. I'm going to test it on some of my red-headed stepchildren (clones I took from last year's plants but didn't select for motherhood). I think I'll start with a 1:1000 dilution and work up from there.

My flower brew looked for the longest time like it wasn't going to start fermenting. I thought maybe it just didn't have enough volume to get it going, so I picked a big handful of dandelion blossoms to add to it. When I opened the jar to put them in, I detected a faint whiff of sourness and saw a few little bubbles. So, in the interest of keeping the experiment pure, I put the dandelions in their own jar and just added a little more water to the other one. Unfortunately, a couple days ago, the jar got knocked over, and since I didn't have the lid screwed on tightly, some of the precious juice (what little there was) leaked out. Sigh.

 

[Emilya Green]

My leaf brew stopped bubbling a few days ago, so I strained off the juice, pressing the leaves with a spoon to really wring them out. I got a little over a cup of juice. I haven't added more sugar to it yet; it's just sitting in the fridge. At first I didn't think there would be enough to bother stabilizing it, but in light of the recommended dilution rates, I probably won't go through it as quickly as I initially thought, so I think I will add some sugar. I'm going to test it on some of my red-headed stepchildren (clones I took from last year's plants but didn't select for motherhood). I think I'll start with a 1:1000 dilution and work up from there.

My flower brew looked for the longest time like it wasn't going to start fermenting. I thought maybe it just didn't have enough volume to get it going, so I picked a big handful of dandelion blossoms to add to it. When I opened the jar to put them in, I detected a faint whiff of sourness and saw a few little bubbles. So, in the interest of keeping the experiment pure, I put the dandelions in their own jar and just added a little more water to the other one. Unfortunately, a couple days ago, the jar got knocked over, and since I didn't have the lid screwed on tightly, some of the precious juice (what little there was) leaked out. Sigh.

I added a little more water than you, but I am certainly not at a 1000:1 dilution! I was musing just this morning as I added more molasses to my flowering and growth mixes that had stopped bubbling, that especially later on down the road when I filter off some of this to use, and let the rest sit cooking as I add more and more dandelions all the time to the jug, that we really have absolutely no idea what the strength of this stuff is. We have a good idea what is in it, but at what rates do we apply it to our plants?

This is where seat of your pants gardening comes in, with its prerequisite skill of being good at reading your plants. I found that after diluting what I had 50/50, it was still too hot (produced slight clawing and burning) at 4 tbl / gal along with 2 tbl / gal of fish emulsion. When I dropped to 2 tbl / gal of extract in the mix, the plants all gave me a dreamy look and got all dark green and healthy looking. It's not rocket science. Get close, and the plants will figure out what to do with it.

So far I have used my rooting extract and my growth extract to great effect. My biggest fear is that I may run out of growth extract and have really stepped up production, even to the point of bribing a neighborhood kid to bring me a couple of buckets of dandelions. I just watered the other night with more of this, and let's just say that I see no reason to stop. The extracts appear to be doing exactly what they were designed to do. Next in my garden will be the flowering extract, and it is still cooking away out on the back porch and I am not going to filter out any to dilute and use until the next watering in about 5 days. I used to use FoxFarm's open sesame to enhance bud site development at this point in my grows, and I am familiar with its effect on the plants. I am very curious to see if the dandelion flowering extract has the same effect.

So, I would dilute what you have there in the fridge, and add a little more molasses to it. Molasses is a good thing anyway, and if nothing else, just add it for the magnesium and sulfur. Then put it in a plastic bottle of some kind, and every few days, come along and shake it, and release the gas. I have a whole row of them in the windowsill right now, fermenting away. It turns out that the natural organic farmer needs to be good at putting labels on bottles and keeping various strengths of various brews within reach.

 

[Emilya Green]

I am over the moon at the results that I am getting right now with the extracts. Growth is incredible, color is amazing... I am convinced that this stuff works better than anything I have used so far.

I am getting ready to water tonight, and I am have finally prepared my flowering extract to add to the water, fish emulsion, and cal-mag-phos that they are going to get on this watering. We are now about 2 weeks from the flip, and I am attempting to build as many bud sites as possible. Now we will see if the flowering extract does its thing.

Here is the tent... Emmie is very happy.

 

[JBUptown]

Looking great Emmie, nice color and leaf shape! Let me share one thing I did wrong ...
I used a fish emulsion too late during flower, and the buds tasted like nasty fish. It was a total loss for that round of organics, live and learn!

Great job Emilya, reps to you.

Best Of Buds

JB

 

[Emilya Green]

Looking great Emmie, nice color and leaf shape! Let me share one thing I did wrong ...
I used a fish emulsion too late during flower, and the buds tasted like nasty fish. It was a total loss for that round of organics, live and learn!

Great job Emilya, reps to you.

Best Of Buds

JB

or taste harsh like magnesium... or synthetics... yep, I have done all of those at the end, thinking the plants needed it. After seeing it work a few times however, I am now a big fan of nothing but water for that last 2 weeks.

Thanks for the reps and the compliments! I haven't spotted a 9 pointer yet, but I know one is coming... lots of 7 fingered leaves though. What I am liking right now is the lack of any kind of burning, and yet the nice deep, but not too deep, green. Things seem to be working, finally.

 

[UIHuigh]

So dandelion root wine with brown sugar and molasses to feed the airborne natural yeast? this Is root growth extract? Is this a continuous ferment? I dont have much to contribute but this: gerber baby food feeds yeast Very Very well. Molasses just adds sugar for yeast to ferment and it leaves nonfermentable solids??? Doesn't the alc content kill off other bacteria? And a supercharge of 100% o2 from a pure source at yeast pitch with gerber make very very clean spirits! would the same be true for this ?? and avoid alcohol in plastic containers it leaches non organics even from food grade containers.

 

[Emilya Green]

So dandelion root wine with brown sugar and molasses to feed the airborne natural yeast? this Is root growth extract? Is this a continuous ferment? I dont have much to contribute but this: gerber baby food feeds yeast Very Very well. Molasses just adds sugar for yeast to ferment and it leaves nonfermentable solids??? Doesn't the alc content kill off other bacteria? And a supercharge of 100% o2 from a pure source at yeast pitch with gerber make very very clean spirits! would the same be true for this ?? and avoid alcohol in plastic containers it leaches non organics even from food grade containers.

Hi Dep... lot's there... let's go one at a time.

First, if you want all the chemicals, microlife, amino acids, auxins and everything else that is specialized to the rooting process... break down a root. If you want to induce flowering, it makes sense to liquify flowers and seeds. And, to induce growth, what better place to find all the things that promote rapid growth than in the green leaves of a rapidly growing weed?

Continuous Ferment sounds like a name that actually denotes a specific process, but if by that you mean that I allow it to continue fermenting while I strain the fluid out periodically to use in my gardens, then yes... that is what I am doing.

I am not just stopping with airborne natural yeast however, I have also added lactobacillus serum to the mix, which allows for a rapid breakdown of the organic matter. So, it is not just a wine making process going on here, although the end product does smell like wine. This is a total fermentation, completely breaking down the solids over time. The lactobacilli feed on the ammonia products that are created as a byproduct, making the entire process more efficient.
Not sure that I want to experiment with baby food however interesting that sounds... molasses is the perfect sugar to feed the process, and I suspect that the baby food might be also adding the lacto that I am adding, although I am leary of its other byproducts.

As far as supercharging with o2 and all that... not necessary to go to all that trouble... this stuff works very well in its simple and messy form.

Regarding the warning about alcohol in plastic, I will take that under advisement. I am using plastic milk jugs sitting outside, so if it could leach i am sure it will. I have also heard this warning about using some plastics in the grow tent under hot lights, so you might be onto something there. Further research is definitely needed, thank you.

 

[UIHuigh]

I definitely get the hormones and amino acids from roots would feed roots well as the building blocks are all there. not sure what a backyard brew pulls from this material? we know compost tea works. but if alc strips thc from plant matter yet leaves most other plant mater behind how would fermenting roots remove anything but the sugars required to ferment? is this a byproduct of your bacteria additive? lactobacillus is a probiotic ?


Yes removing and replacing liquides and source sugars to a batch repeatedly. so how do you measure concentrations do you add x amount / volume or use a specific gravity then let it ferment to finish each time then replenish?

the o2 just sets fire to the ferment like how your one flower mash took longer to start. in 20 minutes from yeast pitch a bubbler would be rocking out the co2.

the baby food is pablum dry baby cereal just vitamins and organics there is a whole pile of info on it used for feeding healthy yeast producing les esters and ethyl acetates and so on. For neutral spirits like vodka or gin base just add botanicals very very pure no off tastes it works very well and cleanly. google gerber moonshine recipe almost as good as uncle jesses super sour corn mash ...

As for more study about plastics and alcohol storage or brewing. The results are and have been in for some time. The facts are alc leaches petro chems from all plastics. most brewers don't even use plastic funnels etc.

Regards

 

[Emilya Green]

AACT can only release the water soluble elements from any organic material... fermentation however breaks down the organic material into its base elements, doing quite a bit of the job that the microlife does in a living soil. Fermentation frees up the elements that are available in a ready to use form, some directly by the plants, some directly feeding the microlife. Look up what minerals are freed up in a dandelion plant when compared to many other organic materials, and you will start to see why this works.

You seem surprised that by adding just sugar to the active microbes already living on the plant, that they can eventually break the organic material down. Lacto however is the workhorse of the micro world and it is used to supercharge the process. Lacto will break almost anything down, and eat its byproducts as it does so. It really speeds up the process.

For instance, I use lacto to process liquid fish. Grind up the fish with a bit of distilled water, add 1/3 the weight in sugar, and add 2 tblspoons of lacto serum per liter of fish material. Given the sugar to feed on, the lactobacilli will ferment that fish in about 3 weeks. My liquid fish doesn't smell, and it has tons more beneficials in it than that smelly stuff you buy at the store... the only problem is its hard to bottle... the stuff is very active.

As far as all the other stuff, except for the plastic thing which I will work on fixing with some glass containers, you are overthinking this. The goal of my backyard fermentation project was to make this easy, and reproducible for pennies on the dollar when compared to the commercial stuff. I don't measure and I have no idea of the concentrations of what I am producing, this is seat of the pants gardening at its rawest form.