Hi Samuel!

I add fish emulsion too sometimes if I have it. I try to do it twice a year but get lazy sometimes. Lol. Your bubbler looks cool. I try to stir mine a few times a day since I'm usually outside wondering around anyway.

Im sorry you had a bad experience on the organic forum. You'd think no one would think bad of alfalfa.

Thanks, Judy

I have all the alfalfa tea stuff, just haven't had a chance to make it yet. People from my club mentioned to let it sit for 2 weeks before using, and stir it once a day. Does it really smell bad? How bad??

I've heard it smells pretty bad! : ) Could I use alfalfa hay to make a tea?

Worse than vomit if you let it sit that long. Honestly 2 days is fine even without a bubbler. You not want to add that fish emulsion until you are ready to apply.

If you leave the sludge on the bottom it can be brewed a second time. However the stink will be horrid and use a can with a locking lid. The richer the tea the high the lid will blow.

I agree it does smell bad the longer you let it sit. I don't add the fish emulsion until I get ready to use the tea. It's been so mild I'm trying to get ahead of the game with it so I can mulch and sit back and wait for all the blooms!!

Thanks y'all!!

There's an old thread about the trials and stench of alfalfa tea. It's absolutely hilarious. I'll try to find it, because you need to read it. You reallllly do, lol.

John

OK, I SORT of found it. The original has fallen off the Gardenweb archives long ago, but if you go to this thread, scroll down past the poem (which is pretty funny itself) posted by wren_garden. The NEXT post, by msjam, is a re-post of the original by pappu (we miss you, pappu!). It's lonnnnnnnnnnnnng, but you have. to. read. this. Apologies in advance for hijacking the thread!

Pappu's BIG STINKING MESS

Thanks so much John for posting that. It's beyond hilarious. I read part of it and think I remember when it was posted. I will read more when my grandson goes home.

Dont we miss pappu and the gorgeous gorgeous roses he'd grow. Mercy I've never seen so many blooms on practically every rose he would post!!

Thanks for the chuckle!!

Pappu had amazing roses

What happened to Pappu? He is not here anymore......

Pappu did have the most gorgeous roses, even BEFORE alfalfa tea, lol. Bushes that were lush, full, and weighed down with blooms. His roses were heart-filling eye candy and soul food .

Summersrhythm, I haven't seen pappu post for several years, probably going on 8 or 9 years ago. I was just a lurker at that point, so I didn't have any kind of relationship with him. Maybe some of the other members from back then will know something.

It's a shame when any truly talented gardener with their wealth of knowledge stops posting, for whatever reason. I could name more names, but I'll be discreet, lol.

Still love it. I am moving next door to PAPPU ! ! ! ! ! !

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rosesgal/msg060222566823.html

Dang it Patty, now I miss pappu even more. He had possibly the best rose hedges of any kind ever grown by mortal man, lol

Vaporvac I'm not sure about alfalfa hay used for tea. Maybe someone will chime in that has used it before. I'm glad to know I can use it after a few days so I can get started tomorrow!! It's nice to get started with all this warmer weather we're having!!!

Somehow we should get Pappu back here........I use alfalfa hay pellets, I buy it from Tractor Supply. A farmer (a shopper) told me to soak alfalfa pellets with hot water, after it cools down, just spread it around roses.

This is what Pappu says about fertilizing,

an excerpt from one of his posting in Aug 2006

-

Lots of fish meal, lots and lots of alfalfa meal, kelp meal, cottonseed meal and milorganite. Never burns the roses and with organics there is no such thing as over fertilizing

I sure hope I remember this in Spring ..in about TWO months LOL..we just got lotsa snow today no spring in sight

Patty, Thank you for the link to I am moving next door to Pappu !

I didn't have the honor of knowing him, but all these years later his pictures and knowledge are still inspiring. Seems like a nice fellow too. I hope nothing happened to him and he finds his way back here.

We've had one round of snow, about three inches rose_crazy but I'm ready for spring now.

Im guessing as long as it gets dissolved I'm good. I was just curious if it's better to let it sit for a few days or just the same as soon as it gets dissolved!!

Thanks everybody!!!

I have only used the pellets, about a cup. I put them in knee high stocking in a 5 gal paint pail. I let it sit for a week. It does smell but after applying, I rinse. The smell is gone in an hour or so. I have tried shorter periods and it hasn't worked as well for me. I may be wrong but I think the fermenting makes it better. After the first batch I reuse the alfalfa in another 5 gal pail of water. When that has sat for a week I empty the alfalfa on the compost heap. It makes it heat up nicely. So it still has some umph even after that. I love that stuff. I too miss Pappu. I'm not even sure where to get those ingredients of his mix. I've looked for fish and kelp meal and couldn't find them.

Heh. I use it religously on all my plants. I literally never stop. I always have a bucket of it brewing.

I use the left over plastic containers that my Tidy Cat litter comes in to brew it. Works perfectly, for about 5 gallons at a time.as others have mentioned it smells awful. Honestly none of the words here or descriptions can really do it justice on how badly it smells. But my gosh, the results are INSANE.

My tropical plants love Milorganite..greens them right up and they flower and grow like crazy. I don't use it often but when I do, they just go nuts. Milorganite reeks in a chemical kinda way and gives me a headache but the plants don't seem to mind.

The Alaska Fish fertilizer from Home Depo is really good. The raccoons and possums around here love to dig in my plants after I use it lol

I mostly use bunny manure and vermicompost that I make under a rabbit hutch from plans I found online. The bunnies eat alfalfa pellets and timothy hay and I get it second hand lol.

I use composted chicken and also cow/horse manure when I can get it. You can make a tea from anything just use a big tub and let it sit a week in the sun and stir it every day or so.

Thanks y'all! It's so neat seeing what others use and do for their plants. i could really keep a tote around full of brewing alfalfa bc I have so many plants and I know they'd love it. I've used milorganite before and the fish fertilizer before too. Thanks again y'all!!!

What a shame that the prices of the fertilizers that we love to use have skyrocketed in price. Not simply increased in priced but thru the roof in cost. My bags of milorganite went from $3.95 to a little under ten dollars in 2 years.

I was always able to buy 50lb. bags of Alfalfa meal, cotton seed meal, fish meal and the rest for around twenty five dollars each. Some have tripled in a year.

I also agree that pappu was a sweet heart and miss many of those who are no longer here. Have to say thou, Pappu were those photos really for real?

I bought 50lb Alfalfa pellets at Tractor Supply for $14.99 last year. I think that's a good price.

brytanica1, you have a lot of land, you can grow more than 2000 roses there!! :-)

Teka, I'm definitely going to have to try your method w the stocking. I've always just worked the pellets into the surrounding soil.

But after you mentioned fermentation, it all came together and made sense to me. Thank you!

I get my pellets from the feed store too. It's cost efficient. For kelp, enzymes, etc I order from Kelp for less, cheapest, quality, and free shipping on any order!

Sarah I just put the pellets straight in the water in a 20 gallon tote then let it ferment for several days. That was really what my whole question was whether you got more benefit from it by letting it sit several days versus a day. I stir it up when distributing it so I can get the residue around on the soil too for added benefit. I get my pellets at tractor supply too for a good price I think.

I’ve read through this but don’t see a definitive answer to whether or not you are supposed to let the tea sit for a while.

I poured pellets and boiling water into a trash can yesterday and now it’s just sitting. Is today too early to use it?

I'm sure it would provide something as is, but I do let mine ferment for a few days. you can look in on it and see it actively bubbling. I don't remember all the details but the gist was that fermentation allows the release of certain things. I do dilute mine a fair amount. I think you will be amazed at the difference this treatment makes to the Roses.

Thanks, vaporvac!

Mine isn’t near diluted enough. I’m shocked at how dense the pellets ended up being.

I’ll probably wait until next weekend just because I don’t have time anymore.

JC, I've never used boiling water. I'm not sure how well that would work. It needs to sit for 5-7 days. It will get good and stinky.

I hope I didn’t just make up the boiling water thing on my own because it was a huge pain!

It looks like green porridge this morning.

Does putting a cup of alfalfa pellets under your roses, without making a tea, and letting water break them down, do any good for your roses? Is going through this tea effort required to get fertilizer benefit from alfalfa?

Karen R.(SF Bay Area, 9b) yes, it's fine, you don't need the tea. Wet the pellets and break them down. They will decompose and release tricantinol just fine.

I have a perennial and hosta nursery that’s not to far from me. They carry a bagged fertilizer. The main ingredients are alfalfa meal, cotton seed meal, fish meal and few other things. I used to make my own. Got fifty pounds bags from the mills mix place on line. Shipping is free but wow what a messy job. Eventually I just started buying the bags from Hornbakers Nursery as it was the same stuff,

Folks are telling the truth when they say you need not make the stinky tea.

Oh JC, you do not need to boil the water. But when brewing your own tea be sure to use a can with locking lid.

If your mix turned out to thick just place a cup of it in a pail of water.

Tomorrow is the day I revisit the tea.

Is there any reason to be precise with amounts? I have more than enough for all my plants to get a triple helping.

Not really sure but I think it can be overused. The consequence being too much growth at the expense of bloom. I would not feed but may be once a month as you would any fertilizer.

I'm not sure if I overdid it or not.

My "tea" was more of a sludge/oatmeal looking gloop. I just poured liberal amounts of that into piles at the base of the roses. The water all got absorbed but after a couple of days the remaining alfalfa dried out and it just sitting there, waiting to decompose.

My HTs are still blooming in flushes, but Crepuscule is not setting many buds and The Fairy plants aren't setting any at all.

However, all 7 of these plants are growing like crazy.

Patty, do you think I overdid it and got growth instead of blooms?

I am OK with that since these are all smaller first year plants.

That’s always possible if they get to much nitrogen. I did it one year with miracle grow for roses. I had never used anything but organically. They grew like crazy. Cane had no time to harden up. They were long, lean and flying everywhere. The roots did not have time to catch up so they can’t feed all that new growth. So lots of powdery mildew.

Are some of you roses new year? Could be that they really don’t that much of any fertilizer yet. But then I don’t have many fancy roses and the ones I do have look like heck right now. Good luck

Oops I don’t pay attention well enough. I see that they are first year plants. Generally speaking alfalfa tea is considered to strong for first year plants. Could you maybe remove the sludge from around the roses and scatter it elsewhere.

Yep, ALL my roses except for some knockouts in a foundation plants were planted in late March 2018 or even more recently.

I can move the sludge no problem. It's so dried out its like picking up a small brick of hay.

Thanks for walking me through the process. I'm still learning the basics!

I use very dilute tea on all my plants except for small bands and find it really helps with root development. I use hay and put some in the planting hole and as a mulch on top that can trickle down with watering. How long ago did you apply this? Perhaps your roses are just in between flushes.

VV I did it maybe 3 weeks to a month ago?

Time seems to escape me.

It has been extremely hot too, so maybe they are between flushes?

I’m ok with it because I like the more established bushes.

I'm going to try to make some more this week/end. I'll definitely use a lot less pellets this time around.

Do I definitely need a trashcan with a lid?

I use a 5 gal paint pails that have good secure lids

I started some more on Saturday. I used WAY less pellets so it looks more like water with grass clippings in it than the oatmeal I ended up with last time.