Organic growing - Composts, manures, teas etc

Does anyone make their own compost mixtures? Do you use manure? Are you making actively aerated teas? How do you feed the beneficial microorganisms and fungi in your soil?

We make a number of different composts - some key ingredients include leaf matter, alfalfa hay, wood chips, comfrey, stinging nettles, biochar, maple sap, chicken and duck manure, feathers, pig manure and more. Depending on the mix they can get really hot - some are long and slow - some hot and fast.

Some will be added in the mulch layer (hotter) and some are added directly into the soil mixes (more finished).

We have tested a number of different teas and applications - aerated goat manure compost tea is nice and gentle (you can even use goat fresh on a garden - unlike pigs which need months to break down) - worm teas - willow teas can be a great cutting aid and rooting stimulant.

What are others using?

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As a heads up, I’m in the process of writing an article about teas. :wink:

It’ll be up on the growersnetwork.org main site sometime in the next week or two. We talked with a master grower from San Francisco and the makers of the Vortex Brewers.

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Maybe you could post it here as well as a reference. Looking forward to reading it!

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Yep we post an announcement for each new Growers Spotlight article, and I’ll post the link in here as well.

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Bumping this topic to see if anyone else is composting or making teas.

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I have fertilzers. that have long chained sugars backed back by long chain carbon(amino, fulvic and humic acid) . also blended with kelp and some have a little npk and a few don’t. I have worked with them all over the last ten years and chelated my materials to be so effective and efficient.
Money back if not happy

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I make my own vermicompost out of a CSPM base with crab shell meal, oyster shell meal, neem, karanja, kelp, and a few choice herbs and fruits. I also make separate compost with vegetables, fruits, and herbs.

My waterings consist entirely of teas. I make sprouted seeds teas once a week, followed by an appropriately staged, balanced [yin/yang] herbal tea. For veg, this would be something like: Alfalfa, Chamomile, Dandelion, Fennel, Hemp, Kelp, Lemon Grass, Mangosteen, Marshmallow, Moringa, Red Beet, Red Clover, Stinging Nettle, and Yarrow. I would add other stuff too, like soap nuts in each brew, but that would be my base blend.

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I haven’t heard of soap nuts before. What do they add to the brew @redbeeseeds?

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They are a natural detergent alternative, and produce saponin, which is soap-like, allowing the brew to better penetrate the media. They also increase the solubility of nutrients from herbs in various states in the water.

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surface tension of the water. that’s nice. I never thought of it . yucca is another

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@ralpht I use Yucca in a couple recipes, although not so much for the saponin. Yucca is an excellent herbal tea sweetener; containing arabinose, galactose, and glucose. I also pulverize the seed pods into a flour/powder and add this to compost/top dress/worm bins/etc.

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Look at CannabisWormTea.com

I am feeding compost/alfalfa tea alternatly with fermented bokashi cannabis leaf along with small amounts of chelated npk. I will throw some soluable phosphates and calcium in the tea every couple weeks. Plants seem to like and no burn. I like to defole so the extra sugar carbs from the tea and bokashi help offset the defole.

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I sell have a material called RKAG sea 3 coming out. I can only get in bulk but trying to bottle it down in 1 gallons . Great pricing on it. $60 per gallon something like that . let me know what anyone thinks

north atlantic sea kelp
mineral from desalinated sea water
worm tea
fish emulsion from wild salmon
humic acids
humacarb
dynasol (helps with soil colloide sodium build up)
fulvic acid leachate