Compost-castings-guano-alfalfa teas also play a role in container growing. I find it helps the plants get through the tough spots--heat, disease, deficiencies--and is relatively cheap.
You need:
- A carbohydrate source (molasses, brown-white sugar, corn syrup, agave, any source) ($5)
- Water, dechlorinated
- High quality compost ($0-17)
- Aerator ($10 pump + $2 airstone)
Brew takes place in a 5 and 7 gallon buckets, then after 24-36 hrs I add both to a 200 L tank waiting with about 150 L of dechlorinated water. Everyone gets drenched: 5-6 liters for small containers in the 4-5 gallon range, and about 10-14 L for large grow bags in the 20 gallon range.
You can use the tea straight, however, I've found it can stress plants with low media volumes.
My garden $ ran out so I haven't procured my Haifa and/or Yara bag.
In the meantime I bought a used coffee grinder and ground up three bottles of Osmocote (14-14-14) I obtained at a deep discount. This powder gets rehydrated and added as a drench on a weekly basis to grow bags, along with Cal Nitrate and Magnesium Salts.
I've used the powder in my RGGS tubes and so far no BER from competing nutrients.
Foliar treatments (phosphate and potassium heavy) with a frequency of
whenever it's convenient round out the regimen.
Decent results thus far with this ying-yang-organic-inorganic combo.