Thanks for that! I knew someone would have the answer but guy at local hydro shop told me if I get leaf compost ($21 for huge bag) and add it with regular compost while making teas it’ll make natural humic acid! The bottle I posted from Nectar is contracted thru and made using Ful Power! Has whole story how he dropped his leonardite version and contracts to use theirs since best around but don’t wanna add if not needed! What about amino acids cuz some teas ask for them?? Nectar has a .5-0-0 Athenas animas that is amino acids the owner said I could use in place where tea asks for it! Is that something needed in my brews? Thanks for advice amigos
I never I thought I would utter this sentence but, the guy at the hydro shop is right and honest. Leaf mold aka leaf compost or regular compost is all you need and provides way more than just a catalyst (Fulvic acid).
You can great aminos using soybean meal or fish meal in the teas. I have no idea what Athenas animas is.
I know it feels right to feed teas to your plants, cause that's what the synthetic guys do. What you should really do is just add a variety of dry meals and good 'humus' sources like compost, leaf mold, vermicompost to your soil, or top dress them and call it good.
Here is my vibe- You start with a decent soil mix that has microbial life. The plant will send out exudates and build pathways with the "established life" in the soil. The microbial life comes from the "humus" and feeds on the humus itself and meals (like kelp meal or alfalfa meal etc) and minerals added to the soil. The plant thru exudates will tell the microbe life what meals to focus on, the microbial life will process them and thru established pathways tranport them to the correct part of the plant through the best route. The plant and soil together regulate everything, and only need water added to the soil.
When you start adding teas, you throw the balance of things off. For example AACT or actively aerated compost teas, are intended to add a jump start of microbial life to your soil. In theory that works, but your plant and soil have already established the proper microbial life and most importantly in the right proportions and populations.
When you add teas made from say, meals and compost you are essentially changing what's happening in the soil, almost always in a detrimental way. Often times you change the pH of the soil, even if its just for a short time, making the plant work to try and get the pH right. That's work it could have used to grow instead. Another thing that happens when you add Phosphorus to the soil is it interrupts the mycorhizial fungi from searching out P, and they just quit working and the relationship between the plant and the microbe life is severed. The plant gets the Phosphorous in the direct form during this tea watering, a time of plenty so to speak. Once that immediate P is gone from the short time of plenty, the plant has to start from scratch and restablish its microbial network.
Part of the above reasoning on Phosphorus is why so many people have good luck with teas. It does get to plant. But then you have to keep making that available. To be honest, about the worst thing to d in my opinion, is to give an occasional tea when growing in living soil. None or all the time. No in between. I used every good tea recipe out there for years. And I grew awesome plants. Then I just went to relying on what's in the soil, and what's in a top dress, and switched to water only. I found it works even better, and it 1/10 th of the work. And its real cheap.
The ticket instead of a tea, is to just have all the same stuff/ingredients available to the microbes in the soil in raw form so to speak, and let the microbes follow orders from the plant.
That's a small part of how I think about this stuff.
That said, I will be more than happy to help dial ya in on any tea you want to make. I am super good at it, and have made tons and tons. Just tell me what you want to do, and we can make it happen. Just start thinking about working towards water only and top dress.
hth and wasn't too long winded
cheers
os
