Wonder Woman Grow Journal 2016

I read through your other post as well but just wanted to double check a few things..

You filtered after brewing the tea right? Did you just dump all the dry stuff directly into the brewing bucket?

Your application rate of 2-4 cups through the basket.. This was for your soil grow right? Would you still recommend the same application for my DWC?

I forgot I already had an unopened bottle of Molasses, should I wait for the Alfalfa to arrive before starting the brew?
 
Yes filter. Some people use an old sock but that is just a heck of a lot of work. It is better on the pumps and stuff not to have particles in there is all. The left alone the sludge could start to decompose in a bad way so removing as much of that as possible is great...that said the res gets drunk up like I stated and you will be fine.

I use that application for both soil and hydro. Hydro is much easier to control bro so no worries mate. If it goes south we can fix it fast but the real deal is the PPMs are under your control. In the soil it is what it is and kinda have to hold on. This tea works though for everything.


Once done brewing the sludge can be tossed.

As far as mixing goes it doesn't really matter just get it all in there. I tend to stir it in but inevitably in the first minute it all mixes up into a sludge. I find it is easier to add the dry components, then the water and stir that up. Then add the liquid as I stir. But I bet there is no wrong way.

You can make it now or later. Maybe make it now to save the girl as she looked bad. Then in 2 weeks make it again. Alfalfa is just a fertilizer. A very nice one but you are using a complete formula to begin with. Again it is basically Nirvana which you may have some laying about still...

We walked through how to use all this stuff but buying it in bottle form. Now you gonna learn how to fish!
 
I feel obligated to reiterate...

Don't believe me or trust any one source.

All of these ingredients you should research and understand before you use them. Then some questions like "can I skip this or that" will be obvious. Understanding the why is the power that makes you the master. There are even many other posts on this web site about it and even a thread area. All of this is well documented and understood and used by thousands. Many people put in a lot more ingredients. I am a minimalist. I am an engineer and I designed the most complete version I could using the least ingredients.


The alfalfa is a know bloom enhancer. It is used on farms and has been for a very long time. It is readily available at all nurseries. In fact standing on my soap box. Go to one of your real local nurseries and walk around and look at all the natural and chemical additives and ferts that are available. Many tuned for specific plants...but many are general and just good for all. Like everything basically in that tea. There are a lot of cheap things available that people pay a ton for because it came at the "grow" store. You can get just about everything you need at the nursery for cheaper.

And yes you can run indefinitely on that tea I suppose and I have in a soil... but my soil is outstanding and complex. Not what most grow in. Most people wouldn't begin to make what I use. I can grow in it without any additives. Just untreated un-pH'd tap water. Not many people are willing to make a self buffering complete compost to grow in.

Your res...it will be self-buffering when the microbes are alive. Don't worry about the pH. It will look like it is fermenting and bubbling over...that is good that means they are breeding. Let them go to town and it will die off and the res will come back and they will buffer the intake and smooth sailing. You will just keep topping off and at about 2 weeks it may get hard to hold the pH it all depends how underfeed they are. But you will be able to correct it at that point with the next dose and move on. Tea every 2 weeks and top off till light change.

:passitleft:
 
I don't want you to think I'm just blindly asking questions without doing research. My problem is I am an over analyzer so I read and read and read and since there are soo many different schools of thought and different ways to approach this it causes brain overload for me..

I actually went ahead and started a brew on Tuesday around 4pm.. That means right now it has been about 38 hours.. I don't know how I could have screwed this up but it doesn't look to be foaming like I see in every video and picture.

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Step by step..

I added two gallons of distilled room temperature water to a 5 gallon bucket.

I dropped in two large air stones.

I added 15ml of Hygrozyme directly to the water.

I added 15ml of Molasses directly to the water.

I added 15ml of AN Golden Goddess directly to the water.

I added 1/4 cup of Worm Castings inside of a brewing bag.

I added 1/4 cup of GH Ancient Forest inside of a brewing bag.

I added 1/4 cup of Maxicrop Kelp Meal inside of a brewing bag.

I dropped the brewing bag into the water.

I've been stirring it every couple hours when I'm not asleep.

After 24 hours or so it had never really started foamimg up so I dumped all the stuff that was in the tea bag directly into the water instead. Didn't seem to make any difference..

The only thing I can think of is that the tea bucket is in the grow area with the lighting, is this a no no?
 
Usually the pH from lack of stiring. If it isn't too dead you may bring it back. I have brought back very stagnate stuff before.

I have had only one other issue with this...usually it just magically happens so easily.

There is good and bad bacteria in the poo. The aerobic bacteria are good they are breeding because of the Air pump. The bad bacteria are anaerobic and growing in the middle of the sludge where there is no oxygen.

You need to stir it to get oxygen back into the sludge every so often. That is the hard part. Many people make continuous vortex brewers...look that up those are cool you can make one with a bucket.

I use a stick and my arm. Usually around every 2 hours but that is ideal. You can let the pile get real bad before you will loose it. I mean I obviously go to bed and sleep a good 8 hours or so. It can easily go 12 hours and be brought back.

The thing is you need to get in there and stir it up good to get the oxygen into the sludge every now and then. That way the bad stuff can't breed and the good stuff does.

That and the pH has to be about +- 1 so between 6-8 and thems hard limits prefer to be at 7. Use Silica to maintain pH.

But yeah you want to get the notion that you are trying to win a battle against the evil bad stuff. You have to stir to win. And the better they breed the better the tea. So it is up to you each time to decide how much effort and how great the brew will be.

But look up Vortex tea brewers and you can make continuous flow brew system that runs off an air pump like you have. I played with it once. I messed up the thing but it worked ok. After I move I am making a nice one.



You also need to be in there feeding them the sugars. You need to be about every 12 hours adding sugars. You can easily over do it and they bubble over the bucket.


Lastly this aint your problem...but I like to boil my air-stones each time before doing the next round so nothing bad left over makes it into the next one. Not a big deal and can be skipped.
 
The old way of using a tea bag is done without an air stone and really was all about leaching out the nitrogen and not about the bacteria. They would leave it in a bucket for over a week and just leach it all out and bacteria be dammed. In the mid 90's it was first documented the use in horticulture to use forced air to make it high in good bacteria. The name tea has stuck since the idea has been around for a long time just improved. If you want to bag it you need it in a loose bag that you can regularly toss and mix around. You can't have a tight ball it has to mix.

Are you inside? I try to do it in about 70F or greater.
 
I really didn't add a lot of dry stuff, only 1/4 cup each of worm castings, ancient forest, and kelp meal so there really isn't any sludge. The consistency is very liquidy and I've been stirring so I can't imagine that to be an issue. Do you think I didn't use enough of the dry stuff?

When you say sugars I assume you mean the molasses? I have not added any molasses since I started the brew, should I add a teaspoon now?

I am brewing inside the grow room, it is mid 70s.
My concern was the bucket is open to light since the light is on 24 hours.
Is that a problem?
 
The alfalfa meal and aphrodites extraction showed up today..

I went ahead and added another 1/4 cup of worm castings, ancient forest, and kelp meal in addition to 1/4 cup of the alfalfa.

I added a little more fulvic acid and hygrozyme.. then added a capful or so of the aphrodites extraction.

Things are looking better right now..

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I assume I'll want to let this go for another 12-18 hours? Is there a point when I know it's good to strain and use?
 
Yeah not enough sugars. Molasses works just takes a ton to get real progress.

AE...that stuff is expensive but high grade sugar.

I add oatmeal too... It doesn't hurt to over do it in there too just can be a waste. Everything is so cheap when you make it yourself it don't matter.

When I was brewing 5 gallons it was I think about 3/4 a cup each so 1/4 for 2 isn't too far off but I have done a lot more.

I think the last few times I upped it to maybe half a cup each but then the sludge is kinda getting deep. No big dealio though. I think I did like 1 cup each before doing a 5 gallon brew.

The thing is
1) It is buffered intake so you wont burn or nuthin
2) The plants are fine going through some stress for a bit and actually it is good for them. Like training is deemed positive stress. This is good on them and makes them stronger. The bugs die off and by then the plants drank so much you are topping off and in charge before you know it. So its all cool.


How long to brew...

I typically go 48 hours of actual activity.

So typically it takes 12 hours to get that kind of action you got there.

I say it takes 24 hours or so of high activity to really breakdown as much as possible. Some people go 48 hours or more. Just keep it going and maybe tomorrow afternoon you can strain it out and apply a dose. Technically you could scope out some and strain it and apply a few cups into the res and let the rest keep going another day...your call...it is mad scientist time.

I didn't bother you with all this before (but I did hint at it) because you are so by the numbers and meticulous and this is cooking Italian style.

This is where it turns from a chore into something fun. The plants take months to ripen. This takes hours. You have many chances to try and build a great brew and it is more fun than staring at the plants. I know we all have shit to do but this is easy and if you are just around the grow for a few days you bang it out and they are happy. You don't have to do this and can buy the stuff but here it is for dirt cheap and fun to do.

You wont realize it until it starts to fail and then you bring it back and work it hard...one of these brews it will all click and then you are in there fighting the battle and laughing at yourself!!!!
 
I just remembered a guy telling me about a flood and drain he set up with a vortex brewer in the system. So it would brew all day long and a few times fill off that. It Think maybe last spring is when I was looking into that more and there are I think lots doing it but it is for larger scale. One of the grow stores near me used to run a brewer up front and give away the tea. So now that I think about it I have talked to a few growers who use it in hydro "exclusively" but then again what does that mean. There is more to it. I think the one guy had a res with nutes and a vortex and he was cycling between...but he had rows and rows for plants hooked up to a big brewer. I never saw it he described it to me when were chatting about stuff.

Hope it is working out for you.
 
What is the res temp. Does it look like anything is happening in there? you probably have a clean res. They fix more than just bad bacteria. But if nothing at all is happening and you have more if the PPMs are good for it you could add some more it won't hurt.
 
I took the vitals and a bunch of pictures.

temperature ranges 70-81 degrees

rh ranges from 25-45 percent
I just put a humidifier in the room, trying to get it to be a bit more humid and consistent. Right now it just feels pretty dry in the room.

ppm is 920

ph is 6.3

water temperature is 74.5

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The ppm on the tea was 1200ish. I have plenty of tea to spare, you think I should add more or wait a bit to see how she progresses?
 
Wow 1200? I never hear of that.

Your call but remember this wont fix the bad leaves just make all the new growth great.

It doesn't look to active which in a way is good I would keep adding it for the next few days until you see some action or nothing happens then go back to regular food.

You had real good action in the last pic you posted of the brew...was is similar near the end when you used it?
 
I stopped brewing yesterday afternoon.

At the time I stopped the foam head was only a couple inches or so.

I stirred it up real good and got some decent bubbles before I dumped the brew into a pitcher through using a pair of pantyhose as the What should it look like when you're done brewing? Should it be bubbling over the top?

I just took a reading on the tea; it is 6.3 PH and 1350 ppm. I went ahead and added a bit more to the res and directly through the net pot. I should probably start brewing a fresh batch since my intention was to dump the res on Tuesday or Wednesday anyhow..
 
Can't hurt. I am surprised at your tea that seems a bit odd. I had many people on here come back and say 820-840. I get about 840.
 
PPM is calculated actually. Usually the meter is reading the conductivity of the fluid and if reported in PPM the value is being calculated.

Water is not conductive. What makes electricity flow through water is salts or other Ionic compounds that will polarize the water and make it conductive. Almost no water in the world is pure and all of it is conductive. With filtered water like you might use in your res you should have all that stuff taken out and the conductivity can get darn low.

So you are measuring the to dissolved ionic mass really. Some things in there, like the microorganisms, really don't impact as much as some of the other stuff in there.

Next time measure as you go. But understand the microbes and enzymes are breaking down cell walls of the ingredients like the Kelp and alfalfa and it will be increasing.

You should be starting with filtered pure H2O so all the stuff in there should be the additive. I told you ya don't need much and you have probably near 5 years of tea brew there now outside of the AE. You will buy a new bottle of that about once a year.

Ya know I think it is your Kelp. Most people buy the stuff from The Hm depot as it is convenient and cheap. I bet you could back way off on the raw kelp but I could be wrong. I bet that stuff is the BOMB though. I always planned to get some raw kelp and some other things. There is a ton to add. You can easily go overboard.
 
Unfortunately things are not turning around as we had hoped. I'm starting fresh, dumped the res and took step by step measurements for the nutrients.

Res
5 Gallons Tap Water 7.5 / 145
+ 60ml AN Sensi A 7.0 / 500
+ 60ml AN Sensi B 6.2 / 830
+ 2ml PowerSi (silicate) no change
+ 30ml CalMag 6.2 / 1020 (I'm really surprised how much more connective? the water became after adding CalMag)

after sitting for a couple hours now it is currently 6.4 / 1050

The roots are nice and clean, this shot while the res was empty.

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The plant continues to struggle. She is sagging, and every new set of leaves that grows quickly loses color and crisps up.

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Is there anything wrong with the above? I just can't seem to get this one to flourish..
 
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