Organic Moms

[hopeyougotadutch]

Hello RIU, first time keeping mothers it's also my first time going completely organic. I've heard great things about organics so I want to give it a try. I'm going to use subcools super soil for normal veg/flower but do not want to use it on my mothers. My main questions are what kind of teas could I make for when they need to be fed? Does anyone know anything about cottonseed meal? NPK 6-1-1, think that was where it was rated, would it work well? Explanation of brewing the teas would be great (in 1 gallon jugs). Any and all opinions welcome.

 

[Mother's Finest]

Since mother plants stay in their soil for long periods and are usually kept as small as possible, it's not imperative to add ferts to their soil mixes. Teas can be made from Bat & Seabird Guanos; Bone, Blood & Kelp Meals; and nutritious ashes. Cottonseed meal is acidic and a good source of Nitrogen. The plants will still want sources of Phosphorus & Potassium.

There are slightly different methods of making tea. We put a pot of water on the stove and mix in the solid organic ferts. For very acidic or alkaline ferts, the correct amount of pH adjuster is also added. We turn on the burner to its lowest setting and keep an eye on the pot as it slowly heats, stirring regularly. We turn off the heat once the pot starts to steam. The pot is kept around this temperature for a few hours with occasional stirring. The pot is then allowed to cool for at least a few hours, usually overnight. At least the last hour or two there is no stirring and the solids settle to the bottom. From here, the quick way is to pour the liquid out slowly with most of the solids staying in the bottom. To get all of the nutrients out, the tea should be filtered through a few layers of damp cloth. It should be wet with water first so it doesn't soak up as much tea. Old sheets work well and higher threadcount means a finer filter. The cloth can be layed in a colander or funnel on top of a pitcher. Pour it all through the fabric, rinsing the pot with water and pouring that through as well. The cloth is then twisted up and most of the remaining liquid squeezed out into the pitcher. Any liquid or easily soluble ferts are added next. Dilution & final pH adjustment are performed, if required, and the tea is done.

 

[Wetdog]

Cottonseed meal is not recommended for growing in containers. It is very acidic and cotton is very heavily treated with pesticides and such.

Look into Alfalfa meal or Soybean meal instead. Alfalfa is great stuff anyway.

For my moms, I find the best results with a well amended mix with Dolomite Lime, Azomite, Greensand, Kelp meal and any other rock dust stuff you can find.

I fertilize with Jack's Classic Bloom Booster, 10-30-20. Just enough N for growth and the slightly higher P and K make for nice stems and good rooting of the cuts.

Been using this for years on my moms, went organic and that didn't work as well for long term growth (for the moms), and went back to the Jacks. This is just for my moms. I feed a bit over 1/2 strength every 2 weeks.

Wet

 

[hopeyougotadutch]

Thank you both for your responses. When brewing teas, I've heard of some peoples mixture foaming over, how is this controlled or what is the cause? Is the pH up/down from GH organic, or is there a more organic way to control pH? Also, can the alfalfa and soybean meals be found at feed/pet stores? If not, where? How much should teas be diluted? I'll have to find the article again, but I found some info. on the cottonseed meal which basically says that some are cleaner than others. I think there was some sort of certification applied to the more organic variety. Anyway, I'll try to find it, and again, thank you for your responses.

 

[ink the world]

I fertilize with Jack's Classic Bloom Booster, 10-30-20. Just enough N for growth and the slightly higher P and K make for nice stems and good rooting of the cuts.

I used to use Jacks and the original Peters, I dont have a container anymore but I dont believe that its organic....i might be wrong, its been a while..just thought Id mention that since the OP want to go organic.

Thank you both for your responses. When brewing teas, I've heard of some peoples mixture foaming over, how is this controlled or what is the cause? .

I just started making my own tea after buying overpriced commercial organic nutes for a while. It works great so far in my personal experience. Minedoes foam, but just leave some empty space in the container to allow for it and you'll be fine.
i got the recipe from some grow magazine, heres what Ive been doing.

1. Aerate the water for at least 24 hours BEFORE adding anything organic.
2.To 1 gallon of water add 2 TBS of Fish Emulsions and 1 TBS of each of the following: Kelp, Blackstrap Molasses, and Worm castings
3. Aerate that mixture for at least 24 hours and your all set to feed the ladies.

I actually have some brewing right now, Ill take a pic and post if for ya

 

[ink the world]

Heres the tea I have brewing right now from that recipe. I areated the straight water for 24 hours, added the organics and its been aeratig for 30 or so hours now, i'll be using it tonight when my flowering lights come on.

I stirred the water around so you could see the foam better, its all stuck to the sied so you can see the water level and amount of foam that recipe makes.

 

[Wetdog]

I used to use Jacks and the original Peters, I dont have a container anymore but I dont believe that its organic....i might be wrong, its been a while..just thought Id mention that since the OP want to go organic.

Oh ya! No way in the world Jack's could be considered anywhere NEAR organic. LOL

But, with host plants, in the same container for months on end, it was just too much of a pain to try and keep everything level with organics and if you did run short of something (usually N) it was another couple of weeks before any additions kicked in.

I'm not talking about the rest of my grow, just the host plants that are in the same container for 6 months or so. I re-do my host plants ~2x/year. The rest of the grow, the mix is pretty dialed in and teas and such take up the slack.

For the OP:

Yes to the feed stores. Soybean might be hard to track down, depending on location, but alfalfa=rabbit food or horse food. Just check the labels.

Wet

 

[hopeyougotadutch]

Thanks for the simple tip to controlling the foam, ink the world. Ok, now I know exactly what to look for, thanks wet.

As far as cloning goes, I understand the steps and all but, how many cuts can you take from her at one time?

 

[Wetdog]

As far as cloning goes, I understand the steps and all but, how many cuts can you take from her at one time?

How many growing tips do you have? That is your limit.

Wet

 

[Mother's Finest]

Thank you both for your responses. When brewing teas, I've heard of some peoples mixture foaming over, how is this controlled or what is the cause? Is the pH up/down from GH organic, or is there a more organic way to control pH? Also, can the alfalfa and soybean meals be found at feed/pet stores? If not, where? How much should teas be diluted? I'll have to find the article again, but I found some info. on the cottonseed meal which basically says that some are cleaner than others. I think there was some sort of certification applied to the more organic variety. Anyway, I'll try to find it, and again, thank you for your responses.

We've never had any foaming when making teas. We don't often use any pH raising additives because most of our fertilizers are alkaline. When we want to raise pH without adding more ferts, we add hydrated lime.

How much to dilute a tea depends on how strong it is. If you wanted to convert 1c of Guano into 1gal of tea, you could steep the Guano in 1qt of water, for example, and then when it's done, add three more quarts of water. Alternatively, you could use a bigger pot and just steep the Guano in a whole gallon of water. Both methods can create the same substance at the same concentration.

 

[hopeyougotadutch]

Thank you all very much. You've been very helpful. I will take this information in and apply it to my mothers and hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to start em'. Until then, I'll still be doing some reading so I hope you all don't mind if I come back and ask more questions, I know I'll probably need to. Thanks again all.