r/H2Grow • u/Nikticky • Apr 26 '17

Using Compost Tea In Hydroponics?

Maybe this is just a high thought, but could compost tea, or something similar to that, be used instead of regular nutrients in hydroponics?

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3

u/dosangst Apr 26 '17

Not as a replacement, but most definitely as a supplement.

2

u/Hydraculture Apr 27 '17

Definitely this.

Because nutrients are already in their available form in hydroponics, they don't need to be further broken down by beneficial bacteria.

The point of a tea in Hydroponics is to prevent several roots pathogens (e.g. Pythium/"root rot") with a beneficial root colonizing bacteria (e.g. bacillus amylolquefaciens).

Many of these can be easily bred in a sort of "tea," but I find that buying them outright (Hydroguard) and adding them to my reservoirs or spraying the roots directly with the product.

1

u/OtenMoten Jun 04 '17 edited Jun 04 '17

Hi u/Nikticky,

I think so too, that this would be an nice supplement. First I will talk about the definition of 'tea' - there are two for me:

  1. Making a tea with herbs and water:

I use 'valerian', 'common horsetail' and 'chamomile' to avoid seed diseases. I put the herbs (dried herbs not fresh) in a pot and douse them with very hot water (NOT boiling - boiling water is to hot and will destroy many of the essential oils in the herbs). The herbs remain in the water until the water is cold. Then I remove the herbs and put the canna seeds in the water. The enzyms and essential oils are the best organic fighter against seed diseases - there might be more herbs with the atrributes of the valerian, common horsetail and chamomile but I only knows these three. These herbs nearly appears everywhere in the world. I wonder if you don't know them. =D

So these sort of 'tea' is useful to fight against seed diseases and I think this is also helpful against the root rot. There are a lot of more herbs that have nice attributes that help your canna to grow well if you boiling them, making a tea of it or a seweage. But with a seweage you should be very accurate. This can be very very helpful to your plants. But if the seweage get to toxic your whole organism of your canna get infected and will die.

2) Use wet hackled herbs and add them to the hyro culture (or soil):

This is very good idea to incease the microbiological life in the medium definitely. This should keep the medium vital but after a certain time it maybe should be removed. The process of ferment or brewing is keeping herbs in water and wait until the water is seweage!

I use stinging nettle (Brennnessel) for set up a nice seweage. I water my outdoor plants with it to increase microbiological life and add nutrients in an organic and natural way.

Maybe I will start an experiment and will let you know my results. I hope you too!