Tea for Roses

11 years ago

The roses have buds.
The tea brewing process is beginning.
I have only vague ideas of how to do.
So arbitrarily and capriciously :

4 gallons of rainwater
4 airlines with 4 different stones
15 LPM pump
1//2 oz each of kelp powder, fish hydrosylate & molasses. (2Tbsp)
Haven't decided how much VC yet.
The bucket has an aquarium heater: the water is 70 degrees.
It is wrapped in the thing you put on the windshield against sun or ice;
There is a compost thermometer to monitor what the heater is doing.
It will have a loose cover to keep heat in.

This is for roses.
As I recall (but don't know where the citation might be)
according to Elaine Ingham we err toward fungi for permanent plants
and toward bacteria for vegetables . . .
(If I'm wrong I'll correct this later)
She says no one recipe works all the time for everything . . .
hence I might as well be capricious.
There are about 26 plants: 16 in pots 10 in the ground.
Advice invited.
Goal is no black spot and no mildew. Ha !
Profuse blooms would be nice.

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Comments (4)

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equinoxequinox
11 years ago
I have heard that in China (?) people prefer the vegetables with signs of insect damage over the ones without. Because if the insects won't even eat it, why should we?

Perhaps a beautiful rose that shows signs of the life stressed it had to over come to be with us should be more valued than one who waltzes in next day delivery with all the privileges birth, wealth, perfect South American greenhouse environment computer monitored, or rank can buy.

Maybe a rose stem in a mason jar is more valuable than one in a vase of Waterford.

Or I could just be messin wid ya. Vermicompost tea spray away that black spot and mildew to your hearts content.

Either way, what ever you call it, somebody, somewhere, at one time, said something about it all at some point in history.

~ Your Friend, William
barbararose21101
Original Author
11 years ago
two cups VC

Here is a link that might be useful: a Tea for Roses Experiment
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barbararose21101
Original Author
11 years ago
Three weeks and the TfR is on page 3. I guess we are

At the Oars.

Third tea batch: reduced to 3 gallons so it will fit in the cooler.
Temp is 70º. Recipe is ~ 2 gallons from fish tank;
a pint or so of leachate (don't ask)
& bucket filled the rest of the way with aerated HM tea ;
ounce each of fish powder and molasses;
no kelp today;
2 cups VC-- pretty good VC --
looks like coffee grounds but not sticky as higher part castings would ( I imagine) be.

FWIW Clive Edwards uses 20% castings with no amendments . . .
both he and Elaine Ingham worry about molasses feeding e coli . . .
Don't scoff: they have to be accountable to Government Bureaucracies
and fear mongering media -- and they are advising large scale operations.
hummersteve
11 years ago
Tea should work for everything, but like you Im not convinced on the amount of vc to use . Online I have seen everywhere from 1/2 cup to 1/2 gal. Personally Ive used between 4-8 cups. Once again it could matter the quality of vc more than the quantity.

A personal experience for me two years ago. I had read you should add about 4 cups of vc to an established rose dripline. I did this and that rose shot up at least 1/3 higher than ever before. It was so noticable that my neighbor even commented to me on that fact, just sayin.