Tips Tricks and How To's

COMPOST TEA'S

Compost Tea's are water and compost based brews that depending on the added ingredients can be made into a fungal, microbial and/or nutrient packed super juice! These are great in all stages of plant growth as a soil drench or foliar spray. Your plants will benefit from a boost of available nutrients while the soil and leaf surface (rhizosphere and phylosphere) get inoculated with beneficial fungi and microbiology to help with breakdown of Organic mater and nutrients as well as uping plant health to build natural defenses against pathogens and pest.

Below is our base recipe for a simple 5 gallon bucket brewer that can be taken to any scale of grow (just need air stones, air lift, aeromixer or other aeration mixer)

- 2 cups quality compost/ewc
- 1/4 cup Highway Dust (Green Mountain Veg or Back Road Blooms depending on plants growth stage)
-5 TBS Molasses
- 4-5 gallons of water
- let aerate in 5 gallon Brewer for 16-24 hours. Dilute as desired and feed/foliar spray! Happy Brewing!

(If diluting out to more than 30 gallons, time for a bigger brewer!!)

Topdressing is a technique of applying amendments or other organic inputs to the top layers of soil for fast and slow release of nutrients, minerals and suppliments. There many niche farming styles that utilize topdressings such as:
- No-till
- Living Soil
- No Dig
- Biodynamic
- Hugelkultur
- Natural Farming

There a several ways to go about the practice but the basic principle is the same, application of an organic feed in a way that allows for breakdown and uptake by the plants in a clean efficient manor that works with the soil food web. When applying topdressings it is best to also add a layer of compost, soil, earth worm castings, soil, green mulch (cover crop chop and drop) or straw on top to aid in faster even breakdown and keep topdressings from "washing away" during watering.

Topdressing is also a great way of re-amending soil in pots, raised beds, Hugelkultur mounds and large scale acreage. Great indoors, outdoors and in greenhouses topdressing is a very effective way of getting optimal results while saving on time and cost while also cutting excess waste.

Here is a link (copy & paste) to a short video on our intagram page where i go into some of the ways topdressings can be applied

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cc5zFoyDPDu/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

A good quality soil goes a great distance in improving plant growth AND ease of grow for you the farmer. Good drainage, nutrient retention, organic mater and aeration are all vital keys of a good growing medium. Good loose soil with proper aeration to moisture ratio makes for fast vigerous root growth. Mixing new soil or recycling soil from previous runs is a great way to cut on cost, waste and your footprint! (Let's keep this sustainable!!)

When mixing a new batch of soil a good general rule to follow is 1:1:1, compost : peat moss : aeration. Good options for aeration include pumice, perlite and rice hulls (clean quality inputs are key!). When picking peat moss bales it is important to remember compressed bales will typically double in size once loosened up! (3 cf bale = 6 cf loosened up to mix with). That means a 3 cf bale of peat moss needs 6 cf of compost and 6 cf of aeration material added for a total of 18 cf of material at the end of mixing. 1 cf of soil is roughly equal to 7 gallons of soil.

Now for nutrients and minerals to make the mix everything the plant wants to take right off for prime health and growth. If using Highway Dust to make your soil, for every 1 cf (7 gallons) of mix you will add 1/3 cup of Highway Dust Green Mountain Veg and mix in thoroughly removing any "pockets" of un-blended dust. If using your own or other amendments or mixes add them in place. Having a proper ratio of NPK nutrients and minerals sourced from the appropriate inputs like in Highway Dust are important to help improve water drainage/retention ratios, fungal and microbial foods, fast and slow release to feed the plant from the moment it goes in all at levels that won't burn or harm your plants.

After mixing your soil it is recommended to let it sit and "cook" for 7-10 days. This time period allows for composting action to take place building up the soil fungal food web and cooling back down to it is safe and ready to roll even on the most sensitive of seedlings or clones.