Total Noob using teas and I am a believer

I can use the waste at the bottom of my teas to top dress right?

Would I be better off just topping dressing with some FFOF?

(This is for plants in flowering, and the tea is bloom specific.)

I always use the leftovers as a top dressing. I really spread it around amongst a few of my favorite plants. You can top dress with FFOF. It's that simple. Pros did that with his Root's Organic and it kicked ass. People should remember that Pros ran an entire grow on Root's Organic Mix and some Ca/Mg and little else. His grow kicked ass. Much frost. It can be that simple and his gram per watt was insane. From now on I am going to grow in a container that is always larger than I need for the ability to top dress as needed. A very powerful tool.

Alright thanks. I'll just use the stuff from the tea, maybe a combo of both. The reason I ask is I grow in 2g S-Pots for longer periods of time and going into week 3 of flower after a 6-7 week veg, the soil level has dropped a 3-4 inches, just want to fill it back up, watering every 2 days now lol.

GandalfdaGreen said:

That is fantastic. Lucky you.

Click to expand...

I think I'll just have to bring my backpack with me and start picking up some things. It's about 100 miles from my home but I'm there twice a week for work so I might as well get some presents for myself and my girls. I'll have to really study and take some notes as I'm still learning the basics about the plants themselves at this point. What is the best way to keep amendments? Cool dark place?

Also I noticed the compost program at the local dump and it is insane. Huge hangers full of composting plant matter and mountains of steaming black piles. They sell it starting at $20. a yard and load it with a front end loader. I can't believe I never noticed the operation they have going there before.

Hey gang these girls trics have been turning amber for a while. Seems they go from clear to amber real quick. About half the trics on the top of the plant are amber. And half of the pistils are red. Today is day 48 of 12/12 and day 37 since showing flowers. Ak48 is said to have a sativa dominant high and that's what I'm going for. In not really sure what to do. I'm thinking I going to take a nug now and watch em closely. Sorry for the shitty pic but it's the best I can do holding my cell to the scope. What do you guys think?

Steelheader3430 said:

Hey gang these girls trics have been turning amber for a while. Seems they go from clear to amber real quick. About half the trics on the top of the plant are amber. And half of the pistils are red. Today is day 48 of 12/12 and day 37 since showing flowers. Ak48 is said to have a sativa dominant high and that's what I'm going for. In not really sure what to do. I'm thinking I going to take a nug now and watch em closely. View attachment 2851121 Sorry for the shitty pic but it's the best I can do holding my cell to the scope. What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

AK48 is ready 55 days from flip in my experience. Taken a week early I kinda preferred it to full term myself. Its pretty damn quick on the finish bro. Most people enjoyed it a lot taken to 55, incredible bag appeal. If you see amber over the top quarter with the NAKED EYE, she is done. Like a little dusting of gold, like I said pretty reliably 55 from flip and you're home free.

Mad Hamish said:

AK48 is ready 55 days from flip in my experience. Taken a week early I kinda preferred it to full term myself. Its pretty damn quick on the finish bro. Most people enjoyed it a lot taken to 55, incredible bag appeal. If you see amber over the top quarter with the NAKED EYE, she is done. Like a little dusting of gold, like I said pretty reliably 55 from flip and you're home free.

Click to expand...

Thanks Hamish! I feel better with a sound time line like that to follow. I couldn't have imagined a more perfect answer. I can't wait til I can get in on the discussions on this thread. Thanks again sir. Your awesome!

Steelheader3430 said:

Hey gang these girls trics have been turning amber for a while. Seems they go from clear to amber real quick. About half the trics on the top of the plant are amber. And half of the pistils are red. Today is day 48 of 12/12 and day 37 since showing flowers. Ak48 is said to have a sativa dominant high and that's what I'm going for. In not really sure what to do. I'm thinking I going to take a nug now and watch em closely. Sorry for the shitty pic but it's the best I can do holding my cell to the scope. What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

this comes from personal experience when a older took me to a weed farm and the way to tell is..... stand back from the plant is there a gold tinge from the tri's ? and have all your beautiful white hairs turned orange yet ?
note - as a massive smoker of herbal (not medical, not legal, total smoker joker in the UK) i will only place my hard earned cash into the hands of sticky, red haired weed.. keep that in mind

Turkilton said:

this comes from personal experience when a older took me to a weed farm and the way to tell is..... stand back from the plant is there a gold tinge from the tri's ? and have all your beautiful white hairs turned orange yet ?
note - as a massive smoker of herbal (not medical, not legal, total smoker joker in the UK) i will only place my hard earned cash into the hands of sticky, red haired weed.. keep that in mind

Click to expand...

Well the red hairs are not really the best way to tell mate. Some strains are ready when half are red, some 80 percent, some all of them. If you harvest and dry a bud with even 50 percent red hairs, odds are they will all go red in the drying process anyhow. You have to take 'em REALLY young to actually have those yellow immature stigma on a dry bud. As a matter of fact, the 'orange' hairs are usually the white ones, if they go red on the plant odds are you won't even really see them on the dry bud at all. This has been my personal experience so it is my opinion only on how it goes, but outdoors I have had a few crops forced early and left one waaay too late too, so I've got tons of grounds for comparison etc.

'Ready' with reefer is not an absolute, a lot of it boils down to preference also. Rule of thumb is, a trich turning amber is actually starting to degrade, so once the majority start heading that way (turning milky with around 10 percent amber trichs) your plant has reached asbsolute peak cannabinoid levels. That's harvesting for peak potency. Peak flavour, wait a week. More than that and it becomes over-ripe, noticeably weaker, doesn't store as well, etc...

Mad Hamish said:

Well the red hairs are not really the best way to tell mate.

Click to expand...

im going from personal experience and from what a old wise man told me, yes very true all strains are dfferent with the white hairs turning orange or red but im looking at it from what i want out of weed.... sofa locked, relaxed and deep sleep thus i will be looking more for the older bud than the peak bud.

Hey guys I have a tea question. Is adding Mycorrhizae to your soil as simple as brewing a tea using humus, ewc, and molasses? Or do you specifically have to buy products that say they contain mycorrhizae?

I only add Myco to my soil at the time of transplanting. It does not go into teas. I made that mistake once. Compost and ewcs will add tons of microlife to your soil either through top dressing or teas. The real key is to build these things into your soil from the very beginning.

GandalfdaGreen said:

I only add Myco to my soil at the time of transplanting. It does not go into teas. I made that mistake once. Compost and ewcs will add tons of microlife to your soil either through top dressing or teas. The real key is to build these things into your soil from the very beginning.

Click to expand...

With my soil mix being:
Total CU without powders and meals = 6.8 cu
PROMIX = 3.8 / 6.8 = 55.88%
Perlite = 1.0 / 6.8 = 14.71%
EWC = 1.5 / 6.8 = 22.06%
Ancient Forest = .5 / 6.8 = 7.35%

Soil Amendments Per 1 CU of base mix
½ cup 6-5-3 mineral mix per cu (Calcium Carbonate-Soft Rock Phosphate-Gypsum)
¼ cup Azomite per cu
1/3 cup kelp meal per cu
½ cup alfalfa meal per cu
1 Teaspoon BioAG TM-7(humic and fulvic acids) per cu

Should I still add mycorrhizae? Or will it naturally be in there? I know it comes in the ProMix. But will it be enough?

MayoMaster said:

With my soil mix being:
Total CU without powders and meals = 6.8 cu
PROMIX = 3.8 / 6.8 = 55.88%
Perlite = 1.0 / 6.8 = 14.71%
EWC = 1.5 / 6.8 = 22.06%
Ancient Forest = .5 / 6.8 = 7.35%

Soil Amendments Per 1 CU of base mix
½ cup 6-5-3 mineral mix per cu (Calcium Carbonate-Soft Rock Phosphate-Gypsum)
¼ cup Azomite per cu
1/3 cup kelp meal per cu
½ cup alfalfa meal per cu
1 Teaspoon BioAG TM-7(humic and fulvic acids) per cu

Should I still add mycorrhizae? Or will it naturally be in there? I know it comes in the ProMix. But will it be enough?

Click to expand...

Looks great. Mix it. Cook it. Run it. If something comes up in the grow you can tea it or topdress it. You will be fine with microlife in the mix once it is activated with and ACT and cooked right.

GandalfdaGreen said:

Looks great. Mix it. Cook it. Run it. If something comes up in the grow you can tea it or topdress it. You will be fine with microlife in the mix once it is activated with and ACT and cooked right.

Click to expand...

This is exactly what I wanted to hear. I will apply a tea consisting of 1 cup EWC, 1 cup ancient forest, and 4 tablespoons molasses, as recommended by stowandgrow. My only other questions are:

What should I dilute this tea to?
Do I keep the soil mix moist with a tea the entire month or just initially? Mixing it weekly regardless.
Lid on, or lid off?

MayoMaster said:

This is exactly what I wanted to hear. I will apply a tea consisting of 1 cup EWC, 1 cup ancient forest, and 4 tablespoons molasses, as recommended by stowandgrow. My only other questions are:

What should I dilute this tea to?
Do I keep the soil mix moist with a tea the entire month or just initially? Mixing it weekly regardless.
Lid on, or lid off?

Click to expand...

You don't have to dilute that tea. Just apply as is.

When you wet your soil down for the first time, be sure to thoroughly break up the bail of peat (pro-mix) as it really compacts in the bail. Once you have it broken up well on the tarp, you can wet it down at that point a bit or wait until you add your ewc, aeration, and organic inputs. Peat moss is fairly hydrophobic, so you will want to wet it down in small sections, being certain that everything is moist, but not *wet*. You should be able to grab a handfull of it and have it clump together when you squeeze it, but it shouldn't have water dripping out of it when you give it a squeeze. Put it in the container that you will be storing it in at this point, but be sure to leave the tarp out that you mixed it on ..... because there's a good chance you may have to dump it out in a couple days if it's too moist and you start noticing an ammonia scent. If it does start smelling funky, just dump it back out on your tarp and spread it out a bit to get some air for 24 hours ..... then back in to your bin. You will notice that the soil will feel a bit hot in the middle. This is to be expected as the microbes are busy going to work on all the goodies in your soil, and that creates some thermal action. Also be sure that you have some holes drilled in the lid of your container for some oxygen, and don't put the lid on tight. Just set it kind of loosely on top of your container.

Mayo, 1 cup ewc and 1 cup ancient forest is a lot of compost for a 4-5 gallon tea. I would go with a 1/2 cup of each.

st0wandgrow said:

Mayo, 1 cup ewc and 1 cup ancient forest is a lot of compost for a 4-5 gallon tea. I would go with a 1/2 cup of each.

Click to expand...

I always overdo this part. I will cut it back too. Thanks st0w. Go to keep remembering less is more.

GandalfdaGreen said:

I always overdo this part. I will cut it back too. Thanks st0w. Go to keep remembering less is more.

Click to expand...

I've seen microbeman mention this a few times. Unless you have a vortex brewer or something pretty heavy duty, you don't want to exceed 1 cup compost per 4 gallons of water. He has a mathematical formula on his website to figure out exact ratios of compost and molasses. http://microbeorganics.com/

I just use a 45 L/per minute air pump with two oxygen diffusers so I have to be careful not to over-do it. If you have a more sophisticated set-up then more compost is probably fine.

Gand, how much water are you brewing your ACT in? I use 3 gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket, so the math comes out to 1 heaping cup full. If you are using 5 gallons of water (with sufficient oxygen) then 2 rounded cups would be fine.