Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerardo
Hello Everyone:
I’ve been trekking to the gardening store to get worm tea, but have since decided to scrounge a few things together and make my own juice. Last year I had some trouble with EB, and pretty much all the other players included in the differential diagnosis of foliar diseases made an appearance as well. I've improved my cultural practices but have also decided to attack the problem in a three pronged approach. 1) copper, 2) as little daconil as possible, and 3) worm tea as a foliar spray.
Full disclosure: I’ve worked in a biotech lab, so putting together aerobic conditions and the proper amounts of sugars, micronutrients, ions, et al, needed for optimal growth isn’t that big a deal for me. Most of the ingredients I already had in hand, and only had to invest in a small batch of Oregonism XL for the proper makeup of endo/ecto micos, and the trichoderma. In short, I think I can get a pretty decent culture going with a balanced microbiological profile.
I plan on filtering it (in reality just pushing it through cheesecloth), and then dousing my peppers and tomatoes on a twice weekly basis with a fine mist.
I’m posting to consult tomatovilleians’ experience with vermiculture worm tea as a foliar spray to prevent/reduce/better manage things like Early B, spotty mildew, etc. Has anyone tried this? My first batch of tea went a full 26 hrs and turned out great--plants perked up in less than an hour at a 1:2 dilution directly into the soil.
The next batch will be used as a foliar spray.
Any wisdom is much appreciated. Thanks!!!
PS. Witches brew ingredients: Worm Castings, Humic Acids, Alfalfa Meal, Indonesian Bat Guano, Happy Frog Fruit & Flower, Sugars (muscovado, high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, whatever’s around really), oregonism xl, a little VermaPlex Soil Innoculant (got a couple of free samples!!!), small shot of Fish Emulsion.
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Compost tea is the route I follow as well, started last year. I think investing in microscope and actually seeing what is being brewed is most recommended route. I have mostly done already researched established ingredients so have little experience on making your own fix, I do have vermicompost factory so will be adding that to works.
I have found that adding fish emulsion after the brewing does better job for me.
It is helpful to prevent diseases coming but is only small part of bigger picture- what is in your soil, what is avail to the plants, how healthy crops to begin with... fun road to follow
Also would be very careful with trichoderma- many unfavorable reports about adding it to the mix. For veggies you mostly need endo part of it. Also adding it prior to the brewing process will probably destroy mycorrhizae.