(Part 1 of 3)
So anyway after some thought, and few people nudging me on to give it up… I’ve decided to post my Dog Hair tea recipe. I’ve only given it to a friend from Sacramento. It’s been a Dog Pound secret since we started growing the “hair”. I don’t know if anyone else has done this or is doing it. I have not seen or heard of this tea technique. I have never had a lab do the microbial numbers on it but. This tea technique, without a doubt, will increase the bacteria and fungi count of the any brew. Which is what organic teas are all about, Right! Creating huge micro herds of billions of diverse microbial soil homesteaders.
I should have titled it “How to make the Dog Hair portion of Dog Hair Tea”. My tea recipe is a 2 part process, Part 1 being, the making a organic soil biscuit, that has frosted, and crusted, with bacteria/fungi to supercharge my “Dog Hair Tea” recipe, or your tea recipe, for that matter. Part two will be my actual tea mixes and brew. So whether you stick around for Part 2 and my recipes or just use the dog hair biscuit for your own tea recipe. I hope you enjoy what this bacterial/ fungi enhancing process will do for your grow.
Most of the techniques that I use on my grow, I have developed or been taught, over 30 of my 56 years. Every technique is backed by a science, as is, my “Dog Hair” Tea. I wish I could claim, I developed the technique, but It was given to me, some time ago by my good friend, Kenny-Ken, the Elevator Man, who I have mentioned in my blog, and who just happened to have been a graduate student of Marine Biology at UCSC Santa Cruz, before he become the Elevator Man. As I remember it anyway, He, like myself, has big love for growing cannabis. So during one night in the marine biology lab, slaving over Petri dishes, he realized that he could increase the fungi and bacterial count, of organic marine matter with the use of just common oatmeal. Soooooooo…Why wouldn't it work for common organic matter, like compost?
Check it out.. I still have his notes
Now, what I will claim is, that I named it, “Dog Hair Tea”, you can see it right…. FuzzDog = Dog Hair…. yeah??? All I can SAY is YOU’LL SEE WHY I decided on the name “Dog Hair”.
Off I went to try it out..Well it just wasn’t that easy, some composts were better than others, some wouldn't work at all, than we finally came upon what worked and worked like we wanted. That's Alaskan Humus ….
So lets get some more photos up, and get this going. Before I really get deep into this, let me just a moment to touch on organic compost teas. We could be here forever on that subject. for that reason I will be having a tea reference page on the , mixing theory of, and application of teas, as well as why and why not to use certain ingredients. Although i will be discussing a tea recipe, am really more concerned that you, focus on, learning the most important part of my tea brewing formula, making the “Dog Hair” Biscuit
Lets start getting the materials together… beginning with the key ingredient, which is 100%, pure, living Alaskan Humus.
Hard to find.. but it can be found. I have found that the Organic Bountea Product, “Humisoil” is the schitt!!! Which “the Dog Pound” highly recommends. Some organic composts will work, they have to be organic, and living (very high bacterial/fungal counts).
Just check the fungi/bacteria count, coming out the bag.. if u can see it, or the vendor even displays it on the bag, heck!! that may be the way to to tell if it’s the kind-kind… if the people are proud enough to post that type info on the sack…..)
There may be some other type soil available that may work but I have yet to locate them, and I have tried numerous types of soils, with Alaskan Humus… working far above the rest, and Organic Bountea’s “Humisoil” being the best of those that I have worked with. If you discover or have discovered, others that work, please let us know..
so -the NEXT MOST IMPORTANT THING NEEDED……
OATMEAL.. any kind will work, I always get Safeway’s regular 5 min long cooking type. Quaker oats works well also. Next item needed is..
the mesh bag, this one is a “Hydro Hotel”, cost is around $25 at Santa Cruz Hydro. We have and still do at times use swimming pool filter bags. They are long, slender, and have a metal ring sewn in the top opening edge.
That's pretty much all we need to get us up and running today. It’ll be two or three days or so before we need the rest of the ingredients.
So lets begin with adding 4-16oz. cups (2 quarts) of Alaskan Humus into a 2 gal bucket, or a container that's similar.
Now 2 quarts of soil (32 0z) is what I use for brewing up 5 gallons of tea which can be cut into roughly 20 to 25 gals, Wouldn’t cut it any more than that, that's if you even care to. For younger plants in early Veg (under 3 weeks old) you may want to.
So now go ahead an throw 2 cups (1 quart) of oatmeal in with the Humus.
A little note here on oatmeal….. They say if you grind it up fine, like in a coffee grinder it helps to kick it off faster. I personally don’t go the grinder route, I just rub it between my hands and it breaks up pretty good
That's the ground up stuff on the right, like I said though I’ve also just thrown it in with out grinding.
Once it’s all in there just give it a good toss like your making a salad.
while your tossing stop every now and then spray it lightly with RO water or distilled bottled water. I spray approximately 6 to 8 oz of RO water on it usually
DO NOT USE TAP WATER, any chorine water will stop any bacterial/fungi growth from happening. this is very important for success.
If you really want to kick off the hair… add 5 to 10 ml of Humboldt Nutes Mayan Microzyme to your spray water
Note on misting the soil….. do not drench it !!! Only dampen.. reach in and grab a hand full… squeeze into a ball, should hold together loosely. just don't over water. if you do add a handful of soil.
then cover with a towel, which will allow it to breathe.
It’s now pretty much all over… but the waiting…. I want to get it up in temp as fast as possible, so I sit the bucket on top of my room heater on low, for 15 or 20 minutes. I want that heat to wake up all those fungi so they can start multiplying……..
Any heat, has to be very low, I would say 10 degree above ambient.. would be good. Setting it on one of those heat mats for cloning, also works, but I have found that sitting it on top of one of our T-5’s in the Veg room, is the hook up.
In 2 or 3 days we should be ready, also you may have to spray your bucket if needed, it has to stay moist. This is really… very easy process..
For the sake of photos, I am mixing in the 2 gal bucket, which is perfectly okay. A little tip here for ya…. you may find this to be easier, I just load the soil/oatmeal mix in my mesh bag now, saves you doing it later, and may be less messy.
So it’s been around 12 hours…. lets check the bucket….
Yeah man, check the end of that bamboo stick. that little ball of white fur there.. is what were after. Now that’s the growth we’ve gotten in 12 hours, it’s starting to smell real yeasty, bottom of bucket is warm to the touch.. yeah were on our way to whipping up a nice bucket of Dog Hair…..
Ok now, it’s been 24 hours lets look again..
Whoa Now!!!! that's what were looking for…. what you think??? do we have few hundred million or so bacteria/ fungi in there, alive and multiplying. Now If you just have to….. you could put in your mesh bag and get to bubbling it, right now. but I usually go until the yeasty smell has subsided, and the hair is covering the total top and the soil has kinda pulled together in a biscuit, has firmed up, and pulling away from the side of the bucket. You should be able to lift it out in one big biscuit. Once you drop the “Dog Hair” biscuit in your bag I crumble it up good. See now if you would have started with it in the bag now all you would have to do is, drop it in our bucket…
This is at somewhere around 60 hours, and it’s ready to go check that dark mold, isn't that a thing of beauty. Dog Hair at it’s finest. You could just throw in a couple spoons of molasses and water to make some of the best organic tea you ever seen.. real ……..
Anyway what I do now is flip it up on it’s edge in the bucket like flipping a pancake.
then just grab hold of that big ole bacteria/ fungi biscuit of “Dog Hair”
Check out the crust on that biscuit. Nice ..Yeah!
Be sure to wash your hands with soap after handling the biscuit.
So it’s time to get together the rest of the ingredients, So I'm gonna 
bounce here…. I’ll be back with Part 2 here in a few, with my various tea recipes, and when we use them here at the Dog Pound.
So until again……
