I use pelletized Dolomitic lime, which is a grey color. The liquid quickly turns very dark, almost black.

I made the brew with ag lime and distilled white vinegar and it worked wonders on my peppers and a couple of other plants I tested it on, 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. I think 2 to 3 cups of lime would be enough to make quite a bit of it. I used around a quarter cup, then used a mortar and pestle to finely grind it before adding about a half a cup of distilled white vinegar covered it with foil to reduce evaporation. The reaction was very slow especially towards the end only a few bubbles when stirring) and didn't stop for around eight hours with occasional stirring. After pouring off that liquid, you can pour in fresh vinegar to the same lime and get another batch.

Mine ended up slightly milky in color but mostly clear, I wonder, kentishman, did you use distilled white vinegar?
dj

Thank You

Yes, I used white vinegar, so the difference must be in the lime I'm using.

Hmmm.. that's very interesting. You're (kentishman) not the first person to say their brew was dark.. I may have to re visit the smokemasters witches brew... nerd post.... perhaps the dolomite has something more to offer??? I'm not sure, maybe I'm missing something, but definitely going to look into it.... Did you see results using yours?

Just revisited that post and it seems magnesium may be what the dolomite is giving??? I'm going to try it next time to see how it works.

Sending my most sincere positive and healing thoughts to smokemaster from here in the western Rockies...

Thanks

dj

This post was edited by djoy on Thu, Jul 31, 14 at 2:50

dj,

You ask if I've seen results using the Witches' Brew. I've never done a controlled experiment, so it's difficult to tell. However, I've never seen anything but good results from my plants. And I don't measure it precisely--just splash in a couple of tablespoons into a gallon of fertilizer. I use it on both peppers and tomatoes.

Smokemaster Mike seems to think the magnesium is important. Speaking of Smoke, I haven't seen anything posted by him recently, and you've sent him healing thoughts. So, do you have any news about him? He was the first person who helped me out with a lot of pepper seeds and explained the Witches' Brew to me. Very knowledgeable and generous guy.

And where in the western Rockies are you? I had the opportunity to be in Durango in April and had a good experience.

Cheers, Tom

didnt have time to post this yesterday
does this look about right ?

Yep. But as much lime that you used, you could have added about a half gallon of vinegar. When I've made it, I think I used about a half cup of lime and maybe a couple cups of vinegar.

A note about the witch's brew. If you've never had problems with BER before and your soil mix has been the same, then I personally wouldn't use it. The only people i would suggest using it is people that know that there wasn't lime in their potting mix to begin with or are fertilizing with a fert that doesn't have Calcium in it. Most commercial potting mixes already have lime added. For in-ground, most soils have plenty of Ca and there are far better ways to get it into the soil. i.e., liming early on and/or bone meal early on.

For instance, I use 5-1-1 for most of my potted plants. The recipe calls for lime, so why would i need to add more Ca? But I don't use lime because it raises ph and my municipal water is already too high in ph... so I use gypsum. Again, gypsum has Ca, so why would I need the witch's brew? Now, let's say i forgot to add the gypsum -- then I might need the witch's brew. Since I fertilize with MG all purpose, I get all of my nutes with it, but no calcium and no Magnesium.. So, I can get the Mg from epsom salts, but i may want to use the witch's brew for the Ca.

One could easily nip it all in the bud with the use of Foliage Pro(9-3-6), which has Ca and Mg. I'd use it but it seems pretty expensive and I only see it online.

Hope this helps.

Kevin

Tom, smoke master posted yesterday in the "smoke masters whitches brew revisited....nerd" thread yesterday. You should check out his post. He mentioned being in the hospital for the last few weeks and five more rounds of chemo to go... :-(

I was in Durango this spring on a fishing trip, awesome town! Currently on my way to spend a few days in the Ashley Wilderness, live outside of Park City, It.

dj