Radogast 2 - Return of the Clones

airstones arent that loud.. compared to fans anyhow. i leave my pump sitting on a computer mouse pad (any soft surface) it sucks most the vibration sound out. ive noticed also that as long as you have a tank full of water, and a lid on top, its quiet. great to hear about another going to the Tea's !!

I&i
 
Excited about your switch to the local soil! That will do wonders I think.

Also, the tea is gonna be awesome. You'll only notice the air machine for the first 10minutes you have it on and then it will just become background noise you only hear if you think about it!

I love my tea. It's very cheap to make and quite effective! I think the new soil and some tea and you'll be set!

I think your plants know you want the best for them and that's why they too are fighting so hard. You'll get it brother!
 
Microbe Organics

I am looking at this unit. The whole page is worth a read.
Dude is gonzo series about his microbe tea brewer.

GF Collective - A bit noisier than air stones

I have a couple of months to decide, I won't brew tea until after I have a worm farm up and running.

One step at a time, with a road map to the future.
Next step, research running a worm farm.



P.S. My hydro store charges $5 /gallon for their tea. $5 /bucket of they like you.
Brewing a simple worm poop and black strap molasses mix had to be cheaper :)
 
your using one of those tea machines they try and get u to buy at the hydro shops?

its a 5 gallon bucket, a air pump, 1/4 inch tubing, 1 airstone per 5 gallon bucket, feeling frogy leap for two airstones. my tea bucket is a airstone and very quiet and effective. ive got two clones i did a test on if youd like to see my results.

they wanted like 60 or 100 for their tea machine (came with tea) ... ha

i built mine for around 25$ and thats cause the bucket i bought was food grade

I&i
 
Gfcollective said:
your using one of those tea machines they try and get u to buy at the hydro shops?

its a 5 gallon bucket, a air pump, 1/4 inch tubing, 1 airstone per 5 gallon bucket, feeling frogy leap for two airstones. my tea bucket is a airstone and very quiet and effective. ive got two clones i did a test on if youd like to see my results.

they wanted like 60 or 100 for their tea machine (came with tea) ... ha

i built mine for around 25$ and thats cause the bucket i bought was food grade

I&i
Click to expand...

How big is your air pump?
This unit is 50 watts, 60 liters/min, 2.12 CFM. - that's at least 10x the size of most aquarium pumps and airstones.
I'm considering spending $126 delivered, which is pretty close to the price of the air pump alone.
 
Radogast said:
Microbe Organics

I am looking at this unit. The whole page is worth a read.
Dude is gonzo series about his microbe tea brewer.

GF Collective - A bit noisier than air stones

I have a couple of months to decide, I won't brew tea until after I have a worm farm up and running.

One step at a time, with a road map to the future.
Next step, research running a worm farm.



P.S. My hydro store charges $5 /gallon for their tea. $5 /bucket of they like you.
Brewing a simple worm poop and black strap molasses mix had to be cheaper :)
Click to expand...


My son and his wife have had a worm farm for quite some time. [ for tea for hydro peppers ]. If he can run a worm farm then it has to be fairly easy. Just sayin' :peace:
 
Worm farms are eAsy to run, they run themselves, left alone for the most part. Where a lot of folks are missing the boat is on inputs to the worm farm.

I am happy to help you with this, Rado.

Check your pm's when u can.
 
I use a 5 gallon food container I acquired from work. A two port air machine from the aquarium shop and two air stones. My tea is banging right now and it really quiet. In fact I'll show you in just a moment.
 
As you can see I've got good foam-age and the water has a nice gentle churn. We're at about 30 hours brewing now. That's a $12 pump. and you can only hear my fan! Grab two of those badboys and you will have a raging brewer. Sometime's I add a third airstone, but it's in the cloner at the moment.

You don't need anything huge or crazy to get really good results.

 
Today's entry in the slowest growing clones on :420:


I took a couple of pictures in the dark with flash to look at the color in "normal" as opposed to HPS sodium light !

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20141209_215536-1.jpg
 
Rado, watch my video on making tea. Its simple, and you probably already have everything lying around already. Its basically the same as the methods everyone mentioned above.. ingredients and water in a bucket with an airstone.. dont bother with some gimmick at the local hydro shop!
 
hey radogast, im not possitive on the brand or size of pump i use for my tea.. i know its a small pump that can be used for aquariums.. it looks almost like the one in the video above with the two air prongs on it. i do also have a pond sub pump and that boy, yes is loud. sounds like what your talking about you have.. i wouldnt say there is a need for a 15G pump to brew tea unless your on a bigger scale then me. i have around 24 plants between 2 license, i have 2 5g buckets that i brew my teas in. one is for veg room, i brew that tea for around 24 hrs. the other is for flower room, i brew that for around 48 hrs.

i can get the brand name and pump size for u tonight. i believe it was 10-12$ like the other member mentioned above. it was alot cheaper then their fancy blue tea brew machine ha

i even asked the guy at the hydro shop when he showed me the brewer, "a guy can make this really easy right? or am i missing something fancy this thing is doing that a airstone doesnt do?"

he simply replied, yea you can make one for around 30$

I&i
 
Okay folks, I believe I have a handle on this... and a plan.

Tim over at microbe organics sells a machine that I believe makes kick ass tea, based on massive oxygenation.

Folks here make damn fine tea with air stones and decent, but not massive, oxygen levels.

So what is the purpose of compost tea, and later vermiculture tea?
It is to multiply the heck out the bacteria, microbes, nematodes, etc to inoculate your soil with more than you need of these helpful little buggers so your soil can be alive with critters that will fetch nutrients for your roots.

The "more than the soil needs" part is the key to the answer.

Both approaches are more than adequate, so I should choose the inexpensive and quiet option.

_ _ _

The analogy that made it clear (to me) was my rain guage. My rain guage holds 5 inches of water.
If option 1 is two feet of snow, and option 2 is one foot of snow, it doesn't matter... they both fill the rain guage to overflowing :)

I will go the aquarium pump and air stones route, trying to get something large enough and maybe a tee or gang switch that will help me create a stirring, roiling or swirling motion so that the air bubbles spread around and fill up any low o2 backwaters that might breed anaerobic bacterium and flagelates and stuff.

Thanks so much for your valuable contributions to my decision.
 
this was a small test i did with the teas. using the homemade tea brewer as described above.

same soil, same light, same strain

RO water and happy frogs soil
20140908_140200.jpg

Extremegardeners Tea and Happy frog soil
20140908_000308.jpg


since this ive been using teas in every other watering. its great.

I&i
 
Tonight I will start my journey of experimental zymology.

I bought a 3.7 watt aquarium pump rated for 80 gallons and a pair of air stones.
The little aquarium store on my way home was out of air line. The dude was livid at the owner for taking all his air line to the new store and leaving him with nothing to sell. He gave me a beat up 4-way valve, some used tubing, and a promise to have air line tonight.

Today I stopped at a grocery store and picked up a pint of Grandma's molasses. I have one house plant that is ready to be watered so tonight I'll start a gallon of composted soil and molasses tea.
 
You have a source of mycorrhizae in your tea right? cause a tea isn't a tea without added mycorrhizae. The molasses is to feed the microbes as they multiply. I also highly recommend adding aquashield to your tea, cause basically what you have done, is taken dirt, put it in a bucket with water and molasses. This is a recipe for anaerobic bacteria and disaster within your root zone as you are adding zero beneficial bacteria to root zone. you're just adding super soggy soil water to your containers.
 
It also looks like you are using soil thats too "hot" for seedlings. May i suggest starting plants in rockwool? You will most likely eliminate your yellowing leaves and ridiculously slow growth rates by using rockwool
 
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