This guide is made up from my posts made in Felix's thread [ Fun with Fungi ] (pg19 onwards) to make it easier to find as requested by Arnie

start with what you need

A=airstones
B= 2litre jugs
C=molasses
D=Essence
E=Wetting agent.

all sitting in the heated prop i use to keep the brew warm for 12 hrs,its a non thermostated one that can be bought at a good garden center. Just plug it in untill your finished brewing.

I use a yukka extract as the wetting agent but im not sure how available that is so need a replacement wetting agent, maybe horticultural soap but i would need to find out

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The air pump is one that you can buy in your local aquarium shop and the maxicrop i use,


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ok first step is to get the 2 litre jugs and fill them with water

x1 with 1 litre of water in
x1 with 2 litres of water in

then i bring the temp of the water up by adding a little hot water from the kettle to get them both warm, about 31C ,this is just to help the temp while its bubbling for the next hr.,but now is to time to add the molasses/treacle while it bubbles for 1 hr to get any chlorine in the water to bubble off and disperse.

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ok now add the molasses/Treacle to the 1 litre jug of water and mix in well then leave to stand and bubble for 1 hr ( i hope i get these pics in the right order )


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mix well and leave to bubble for 1 hr, dont add any essence yet .

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ok now its been 1 hr its time to take the molasses 1liter mix to the kitchen and warm it back upto between 30c and 35c NOT above .

35C is max temp otherwise it will kill the essence


as you can see the temp has droped to 24.8C in the last hr

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bringing the temp up to stable at 32.2C ready to add the essence

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Weigh out your essence to what your needs dictate. For instance im useing it as a preventative treatment on pretty clean plants so i only need 2 grams but i use 3 grams for luck every 7/14 days .

If you were using it to stop an outbreak you would use 5 grams every 5/10 days

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ok normally this would be it for the next 12 hrs ,

Then you would add the 2 litres of normal water that has been bubbling all night to a spray bottle then add the molasses/essence brew to the spray bottle aswell giving you 3 litres of spray to use.

You would then add 1ml/per litre of wetting agent( so 3ml in all) i use the yukka extract .

then you add 5 ml/per litre of the maxicrop so 15ml in total to the mix and mix well then you are ready to go


BUT

i differ a little ,at the stage of adding the essence i also add 3ml of maxicrop to the essence brew aswell.

then when it come to adding more before spraying i add 10ml so use a total of 13ml Maxicrop rather than the 15ml but its up to you which you do.

and after a few mins you will see it starting to bubble........ then it go crazy

if you want to not worry about lsf again then this is the way to do it ,and anyone who has been attacked by lsf will understand how bad it can be but you wont belive your eyes on how good this stuff is when used to stop and prevent lsf ,ill be useing this on my "normal" garden outdoors aswell this yr.


ill put more pics up tomorrow morning when its finished brewing and show pics of adding the yukka and maxicrop and also the rules on what NOT to do when useing a pump spray bottle,while spraying the brew.

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ok so this is how the brew looks 12hrs after brewing ,note the mess on the wall it can be cleaned up very easily with soapy damp cloth advice is to put down a fair bit of newspaper if you not useing a propagator ,even with the prop it gets everywhere

i was supposed to treat the carpet, right ???

and the spray bottle i just ran out and bought because my other one was crap and broke turns out it works sooooo much better than the last one aswell .........higly recommend it.

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ok now to add the water and the brew to the spray bottle

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ok now that all in the spray bottle its time to add the 10ml of maxicrop but you can add 15ml if you haven't added any before brewing ....in total i have added 3ml before the brew and 10 ml after giving me 13ml total per treatment.

this is where you could finish and then screw the top on the spray bottle and shake well before using straight away

BUT

I have included a pic of me adding 3ml of yukka extract(wetting agent) so at a ration of 1ml/per litre

its very good stuff and allows the spray to wash over the leaves instead of beading off ,just in case anyone didn't know

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ready to go

But the rules now are don't pump up the spray alot ...for me it took about 5 full pumps to get the pressure i needed and make sure the nossle of the spray is set on as course a spray as you can otherwise ,

too much pressure will kill the trichoderma etc like a human in a pressure cooker and if the spray is too fine then you are likely to kill them by shredding them up before they even hit the plant which you dont want to do ....................................if you want to see the magic that is this brew work, that is

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and then spray everything in veg and i go upto 2 weeks into flower but you could go more ,as far as i know all the way up to harvest if needed but i have never done that myself so don't take my word for it.

Ispray leaves top to bottom and make sure the stems of each plant are also drenched .


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and finally

once complete i leave the lights off,or spray just as lights are going off,then leave them off till its time for lights on and you will be done

if you have an attack then i would recommend you repeat this 5/7 days later or if like me your useing it as a preventative then 10/14 days time

Me i will treat again in 14 days now unless i see any slight damage in which case ill do it in 7 days but more likely 14 by the looks of mine im happy that they should be ok till then.



Is it worth it ...............................just ask the people who have used it

Hi,

What is Essence??

Thanks

Hiya Graeto

'Essence' is a mixture of several beneficia bacterial and fungal species. It promotes general plant health and is very effective against fungal infections, such as 'leaf spot fungus'

It's discussed more fully in the pinned thread above this one 'Fun with Fungi'

It can be ordered by pm-ing webby, one of the site mods

Hope that helps

A

I have put in a link to felix's thread in the first post ,for describing "essence" for anyone else who doesnt know

I used some earlier this week and I'm nearly 4 weeks in to 12/12 now. AFAIK you can use it right up to the last week of flower.

I've used it at 4 and 6 weeks into flower due to my staggered crop, no problems whatsoever although I tried to avoid hitting the buds too much,plus I have very low humidity in my grow room.

Hope this helps Baldy

Same here, used it 5 weeks into flower last week, no problems

Excellent work Pro, this will save me trawling thro' fun with fungi everytime I forget how to do the brew

Well thanks Pro.L,for a brilliant guide im brewing now again just as a preventitive and just had to come back to see how to do it again, typical stoner hey ,,,,regards ,,,,Oss.

..me too old skool..

Great thread Pro Lib mate.

I was very impressed by the pic showing your mums and the amazing recovery once innoculated.

I'll have to get some essence in and I've got an air pump and a similar sprayer already.

That's a handy guide Pro-Lib thanks.

Am I right in thinking that the brewed essence can also be used as a root drench to inocculate the rootzone with those trichoderma and beneficial bacteria?

Cheers,

SBP.

Yes, any surplus can be used to water through the tops of the pots This will aid with the re-population of soil life, better rooting and improves soil structure and oxygen availability.

Top thread pro

excellent info!!

Probably a stupid question but if you leave it brewing to long and it stops foaming, does that mean it's dead and therefor useless?

Does anyone know if you can use SB plant invigorator in combination with Essence? I want to use the leaf lattice that's in it instead of yucca extract or similar, but will the other ingredients kill the beneficial fungi?

The contents read as:

Foliar Lattice, Linear Sulphanate, Iron Chelate, Nitrogen, natural products.

Any thoughts?

I asked a similar question a while ago mate
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I came to this thread to ask a question and you've already asked it Danklord, so I'll bump it

When I brew some essence up, it's always frothing like mad after 6 or 7 hours and died down again by the time the 12 hours are up. So, is it useable when it's frothing, or is the full 12 hours necessary, and is it starting to lose some of its usefullness once the frothing stops?

Cheers for the link MH, i bought some of that compost lattice stuff OT1 was on about instead.

Anyone please?

The idea is to activate the spores, when frothing they are activated and multiplying rapidly, thats the best time to use it.

Thanks ot1 I can start brewing 8 hours before I need it then instead of 12

The way I see it there's too much food in the mix, ie molasses and seaweed extract. The essence or the microbes go on a feeding frenzy rapidly multiply and use up the food then when it runs out they slow. Bigger vessel would be better, heating up the water gets them going more quickly but also takes away oxygen, the intense bubbling of the water is going to inhibit fungal growth and benefit bacterial growth which for foliar aplication is a good thing. I expect the majority of the froth is the molasses.
I would say use a bigger vessel, 5ltr min with just 10ml seaweed and the same amount of molasses (for 5ltr).
I've never used the essense but the brew guide seems very intense to me not to mention messy! Haha just slow it down a bit and you'll get more from it... Slowly slowly catchy monkey

The way I had it explained to me was the foam is caused by protien breakdown products from the bacteria's metabolism. So it's a good guide to when you have the most bacterial activity. You can perk them back up with another shot of molasses but it's best to make it up and use the solution quickly. The reason being you want to use it as the Trichoderma spores are germinating but before they have grown by any significant amount.

As I Zimbra points out the rapid agitation from aeration is not beneficial to fungal species as their hyphea are quite delicate and easily broken. The bacteria in Essence are great for out competing fungal infections but to really noble them you need a live population of Trichoderma to attack invading fungi.

In short use it up quickly

When you first start brewing the Essence the culture multiplies very quickly, you have a huge surge of activity going on in the mix, they are all multiplying and feeding at a vast rate.

A heaped teaspoon of mollases per litre of mix is adequate, this is ample to feed the culture and sustain it. When the bubbling calms down, this isn't a bad thing. Some people use a drop or two of vegetable oil to actually stop the frothing in the first place. The frothing reduces as the culture has expanded to adequate numbers, almost as if they are nudging each other out of the way. To put into perspective, with each batch (the powder) that is made tests are done and an analysis is sent back from the laboratory. The results are vital to know what is going on and to ensure the numbers are their and in most instances you might see the culture multiply by 10 or 12 times, but you will also recieve a count called "TMT", this is "Too Much To count" i.e. they are by the millions. The TMT reading is when there is no more frothing so in other words one might deem this the best time to apply the mix

Thanks guys. Every day's a school day on this site

whelp. I hate to be a spoil sport (no I don't) but.................

I have found that just by having molasses and water with an air stone going, produces a lot of instantaneous foam. But not always. So...... whats going on?

Heya , on the time to brew , its really dependent on the what you intend the brew for fungi , bacteria or bit of both dom brew , earlier the better for fungal as the hyphae is extracted first , longer for a bacto one .
Personally Randalizer i wouldn't brew any longer than 50 hrs any brew , flagellates and amoebae move in when the bacto have finished ur sugar once there gone ull need to reapply fungi/bacto plus ur food sources etc , good luck .

who was that stranger?

thanks sherrif! What I do is bubble in cold water my hi P bat poo and green sand for a very long time. This is to help break down the potassium (K, in green sand) and phosphorus (P in the bat poo) in those items. Both are sandy and take a long time to break down, and in an indoor grow I want them to be relatively readily accessible. I call this mix my BMC (Bloom Mix Concentrate). It's not so much a brew as a nutrient solution.

The BMC gets added to my normal teas which bubble for 24-48 hours.

This Essence looks the business, I'm going to have to get some

what can i use as a wetting agent guys? anything id have around the house or summat i can pick up down at B&Q?

Heya , i use maxicrop , seems Vitax organic seweed is more readily available , yukka extract would be the one to source .

so really i dont have to add anything to the esscence then, coz were already adding maxicrop to it anyways?

cheers Sherrif

Google around for Westlands Compost Wetter, although it might have been called Spreader, i forget, OT1 mentioned it. I got a bottle for a few quid only off the net and the amount you need to use it will last a life time.

hi,sorry if iv missed guys but when the essence is brewed r eady,once in the spray bottle just how long can it be kept in there active so to speak??...a couple days,a week maybe??

and would it need to be kept at like room temp22 to 28ish degree c kinda to keep 'GOOD'..or what ever??...thankyou..

e2a. sorry just seen it...SORRY!!...

hey Bizz, you have to use it pretty much straight away dude, ya cant leave it lying around or owt what do you use as a wetting agent mate?

O'reet plant?...cheers for that bro. ...i got this stuff from the hydro shop for wetting agent but its shit to be honest,some kinda soap solution that fuckin bubbled like a twat when ya mix it in!!..

if that horticulture soap , i think it also has fungicide properties !
so if im correct then you shouldnt be using it with essence

hey bart,thanks a million bro,iv not heard that but all info can be usefull info right?

this stuff iv got is 'essential hydroponics,non ionic wetting agent'..not sure if its what you mention??

anyone else know anything about this??

ok guys ive cocked up i was brewing some esscence up and to try and keep it warm i sat the jug in a bowl of hot water, i left it unatended for about 30 mins and when i came back the temperature had risen to 44c AARRRGGGHHHHHHJHH so in doing so ive killed all the good guys

can i just add more esscence to it once its cooled to 32c and just leave that bubbling, or do i start over

.....fuckin ell plant r you brewin up today as well????...hows that for wierd?!!...


dude i did exactly the same thing as you but i did it TWICE. ...yeh i added more essence at the right temp and re brewed it,all was well man,plants loved it.

hopeyou get it sorted.thats what i did anyway and it worked.