When And How Often To Use Teas?

[NickDanger3rdEye]

I’m finishing up my second organic autoflower grow. My first grow was a disaster as I wound up yanking and trashing her at week 9 of the grow. Deficiencies and/or lockout about 2 weeks in flower. With my current grow I ran into the same issues at about the same time but threw a bunch of stuff at her and managed to make it through. Indoors with 3 gal fabric pots, HF soil with NLS mixed for a living soil mix and a little extra perlite. LED lights, temp running about 81 with RH at about 32%. Watering with bottled spring water ph’d to 6.2 when pot feels light. Makes it through veg with no issues but about week 2 in flower things start to go south.Yellowing leaves and some brown spots showing up. I threw top dressngs, Mammoth P, Recharge, molasses with NLS teas, cal/mag at it to keep her going. Anywaaayyyyyyyy... on future grows I want to try and stay with teas. My questions are when should I start using teas and with what frequency, i.e., every other watering or just once or twice in veg and in flower?

I would like to use molasses, NLS Girl Flower Power for the tea. I have Mammoth P, Recharge, all of the NLS blends as well as Cavern Culture and organic CalMag on hand if needed. Trying to keep it simple.

PS: I posted my previous grows earlier today:

https://www.autoflower.org/ubs/blog/my-1st-try-at-organic-grow-six-shooter-not-good.339/

https://www.autoflower.org/ubs/my-2nd-try-at-organic-auto-grow.720/

 

[Proph]

Honestly.. All that is over kill.. It's also not how you grow organically. We've dealt with NLS in the infirmary more often lately. All seem to have the same issue.. Caused by over doing several things from the beginning. NLS is supposed to be an amendment that makes a basic soil a water only super soil.. But no one seems to use water only. You didnt add NLS to a basic soil.. You added it to a heavily amended soil.. Along with all the other things you listed. Veg for an auto is like 3-4 weeks. That's barely enough time for a plant to show issues. If you have issues in veg, then things are usually really bad. Once the plant is in flower its full speed ahead. But to answer your question. You use teas as they are needed. Most common in a photo period grow is once a month or so.. For an auto?maybe once total.

 

[NickDanger3rdEye]

Thanks for the reply. I added NLS to HF. HF doesn’t have that much amendments. Enough to get through veg for sure. Both my grows made it through veg with no issues and I was using only water. Things started going south about two weeks into flower...on both grows. Even though I changed a few things on the second grow I still had the same problems. I threw everything at it. I want to be more proactive to prevent the problems before they show up. Thus my questions.

 

[sickzone]

Thanks for the reply. I added NLS to HF. HF doesn’t have that much amendments. Enough to get through veg for sure. Both my grows made it through veg with no issues and I was using only water. Things started going south about two weeks into flower...on both grows. Even though I changed a few things on the second grow I still had the same problems. I threw everything at it. I want to be more proactive to prevent the problems before they show up. Thus my questions.

The most proactive thing you could do is not use nls again.
Go check out build a soil
I am doing my second grow with nls,but this is more a test for my grow room in a storage room.so I can see temps and humidity levels.
I can't grow when it is too hot,so I need to find out what are best conditions for me.

My first grow I only used molasses twice and the rust spots showed up.

I expect I will see issues in the next 2 weeks.

From everything I have read,build a soil looks like everything all of us users of nls hoped it would be.
Also build a soil are doing some videos on youtube that are really good for us beginners.

 

[Proph]

The most proactive thing you could do is not use nls again.
Go check out build a soil
I am doing my second grow with nls,but this is more a test for my grow room in a storage room.so I can see temps and humidity levels.
I can't grow when it is too hot,so I need to find out what are best conditions for me.

My first grow I only used molasses twice and the rust spots showed up.

I expect I will see issues in the next 2 weeks.

From everything I have read,build a soil looks like everything all of us users of nls hoped it would be.
Also build a soil are doing some videos on youtube that are really good for us beginners.

I agree... Nls is not yet a proven product. It doesn't list the npk values or take into consideration the soil it's added to.. Then it has a top dress that doesn't list it's npk either.. I've been following Jeremy from build a soil for 3 yrs now.. His IG page has tons more vids and info.. He just recently started using YouTube.. I've been growing with their Malibu mix soil ever since with no issues at all. In fact, I've been re using the same soil over and over and I think it's now the best it's been yet. It just keeps getting better.

But their soils, like most, are only as good as the user.. The build a soil 3.0 mix is a water only type mix. If people start adding teas and recharge etc, things will go south pretty quick. Just like the NLS mix is supposed to be water only and have yet to see anyone use water only.

 

[NickDanger3rdEye]

Great! Thanks for the feedback. At this point in the game I'm not impressed with NLS even though it's only been two grows. It's enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth. I have this last girl drying as of today. I have some soil cooking for my next shot and I do have a "little" bit of NLS Autoflower in the mix, i.e., 2 Tbls. I'm going to use Strawberry Fields soil (more for flowering) at the bottom and the rest mixed 50/50 with Happy Frog. Got the idea from a guy on YT. Anyways, I think I'll shelve the NLS and see how these next two grows go. I will definitely check out the BuildASoil. I just want a somewhat simple grow with minimal issues. Thanks again for your inputs. Greatly appreciated.

 

[Bill.de.Cat]

Just my thoughts, but they ran ok up till week or 2 into flower on the HF. Could you possibly do a top dress with it? Just to see if it halts the decline or even helps fix it? And deffinatly read the label on water bottles, had a yellowing start and read the label only to find the spring water was purified by RO filtration.

 

[NickDanger3rdEye]

Bill.de.Cat: I did a bunch of stuff to her when I saw the first leaf yellowing. I top dressed with Cavern Culture ( high in P & K) and yellowing continued along with some brown spots. I fed a tea with molasses and NLS Girl Flower Power in week 7 but I think it was too late. On my next grow I’m going to use tap water and use Seachem Prime to condition it.

 

[WildBill]

I agree... Nls is not yet a proven product. It doesn't list the npk values or take into consideration the soil it's added to.. Then it has a top dress that doesn't list it's npk either.. I've been following Jeremy from build a soil for 3 yrs now.. His IG page has tons more vids and info.. He just recently started using YouTube.. I've been growing with their Malibu mix soil ever since with no issues at all. In fact, I've been re using the same soil over and over and I think it's now the best it's been yet. It just keeps getting better.

But their soils, like most, are only as good as the user.. The build a soil 3.0 mix is a water only type mix. If people start adding teas and recharge etc, things will go south pretty quick. Just like the NLS mix is supposed to be water only and have yet to see anyone use water only.

Yeah, Jeremy's new series on YT is very informative. I'm especially interested in his upcoming setting up of an Earthbox. He does read the comments too. I asked him if he was going to make a vid of setting one up and he commented on the next vid that he was.

Yeah, it's to help sell product, but he is genuinely trying to help and teach people.

I'd suggest that NickDanger3rdEye take a look at the series.

https://www.youtube.com/c/BuildASoil/videos

 

[Tom Bombadil]

buildasoil.com > NLS