Bat Guano: Yes or No?

[Farang]

reading a grow guide from a seed company, they become apoplectic about guano, screaming: you'll never get it out of your soil!

first, I'm assuming that they are talking about blending guano into the container (or ground). and, in general, after one grow, that soil is tossed, so why would/should I care that it stays in the soil?

to date, I've NOT added guano to the soil; instead, I put it into an aerated tea, and damned little at that.

somewhere I read that guano leaves a bad taste in the smoke. I haven't noticed that but again, I'm feeding it via a tea and in small doses (typically a max of 3 Tbsp/3 gallons of water.)

so I'm interested in what the dirt is on bat poo. mostly, what are the CONS of using bat guano at any stage of the grow?

thanx

Farang Reviewed by Farang on 12-02-2012. Bat Guano: Yes or No? reading a grow guide from a seed company, they become apoplectic about guano, screaming: you'll never get it out of your soil! first, I'm assuming that they are talking about blending guano into the container (or ground). and, in general, after one grow, that soil is tossed, so why would/should I care that it stays in the soil? to date, I've NOT added guano to the soil; instead, I put it into an aerated tea, and damned little at that. somewhere I read that guano leaves a bad taste Rating: 5

[bitemybud]

I might suggest; Look up Rainbow Mix. If you are considering Guano Rainbow mix has it. Pure Guano is "Hot" and can damage plants unless you are vigilant and know how to use it. Rainbow mix has a whole bunch of excellent beneficials and is easy to use. I love the stuff. a bag lasts a long time.

[Farang]

that may be available in your area but not where I live.

thanks for the posting, though.

[bitemybud]

I buy it online. I never buy grow stuff locally; Unless for the big greenhouse. Ebay or from an online hydro store. they all have it.

[Farang]

but you're still within the US.

I'm not.

[Shovelhandle]

Grow organically and reuse the soil. Amend it properly and there is no reason to heave it out each grow, or ever, actually. If you use salt based nutrients you still could reuse if you flush it out really well, 'compost' it and amend with quality nutrients.
Soil amended properly with guano will not make smoke taste bad. Most guano tea will not make smoke taste bad. There are different kinds of guano. Some may make the pot taste the best, some does.
Earth Juice makes top shelf products, Rainbow Mix Grow and Bloom are two very good products that make great soil amendments or use as a feed according to directions. It's a dry product that ships easily and is very popular (available everywhere). It contains all you need. No need for additional guano.
But bat guano is very good for plants, when used properly.

[Farang]

thanks for that.

I have no access to name brand products here. the bat guano I use is 3-11-1 which I've never put in the soil but use in my teas, or have, during flowering. I use chemical ferts sparingly, a 15-15-15 once during veg and a 10-52-17 once early in flowering.

one time I got some horrible tasting stuff. (on line I read that water curing it would smooth it out. it didn't and that's the last time I try the water cure!) at the time I attributed that to feeding the plant guano too close to harvest, well within two weeks with minimal flushing.

I use organic stuff predominantly. the chemical stuff is given in token amounts just to cover all bases. I use chicken, fish, kelp and molasses. the bat, as I said, is for flowering. I do use Epsom salts and dolomite lime - lime in the soil and Epsom salts in their water.

the idea that bat guano never leaves the soil makes no sense. but I've also read screeds on line from growers who condemn its use while others rave about the taste of their product. if those guys are using it in their soil, how would they know it was the guano which made a difference? if they used it in their tea and saw (in a controlled environment) that it improved growth or denseness, they'd have a solid case.

but you raise an interesting wrinkle about the correct dosage. I haven't, so far, fed my plants guano more than twice in a flowering cycle. I recently got a ppm meter, but my teas are a hodgepodge and molasses alone raises the base ppm by 300. I just fed my vegetable garden what I considered a high N tea, consisting of the above ingredients plus two sulfates and a bit of guano. this is a bit stiffer than I normally feed my cannabis but the ppm reading threw me for a loop coming in at over 12K net. prior crops haven't reacted negatively to this brew before it knew the ppm; now its scared.

even so, this was a maximum twice veg feeding and twice flowering feeding. they don't even seem to scream for those feedings.

so please tell me what 'using guano properly' means in your lexicon.

thanks!

[Shovelhandle]

If you 'read' this or that on-line about growing, make sure the person is showing their wares. I look to see photos showing successful product and then read or ask questions. I'm not a commercial or medical grower but I do have a number of soil grow logs on this site and probably some photos in the album section.

As far as using guano... Yes, it can be a strong organic supplement and it could be misapplied but I don't agree with some of the opinions you've received. It's the salt nutrients that get in the soil and are harmful to the beneficial microbes, not guano.
As far as using guano, it can be added to the soil initially, it can be used as a top dressing or in a tea. Look for tea recipes from successful growers. Also, there are different types of guano with different NPK values which make one type preferred over another for a particular purpose.

[Shovelhandle]

Soma is a soil grower/cannabis breeder. Excerpt from his article from High Times with his tea recipe.


Soma 2/10/2003 High Times

People I meet and smoke with always ask me how I get my pot to taste so good. The answer is that I am an intense caretaker and lover of plants. To get medicinal cannabis, I grow organically in a soil rich in worm castings and all the other nutrients and trace minerals needed for a healthy herb plant.

Each plant has at least one stake supporting it as the buds get heavier and heavier. By the third week in flowering, I have twisted and bent my tops in the tried and true method of supercropping, giving them that added stress that makes the yield and taste better. In the fourth week, I give the plants some organic flowering food with an NPK ratio of 1.5-13-14. I give it to the plants twice in that week. From the end of the fourth week in the 12 hours on/12 hours off flowering light-cycle, I start to give the ganja my secret ingredient, guano tea.

I use a mix of bat and seabird guanos with an NPK of 2-15-2; this particular one comes from Indonesia. I like it because it has no smell. I take 100 grams of the dried guano and mix it with 2 quarts of hot water, stirring it with a plant stake until it is almost all dissolved. I then take an 8-ounce cup of the tea and add it to 10 liters of water with a pH of 6.6. I water the beds twice a week with this tea, waiting until they are dry before applying it. I keep doing this until the middle of the seventh week in 12/12. With 10-week plants like the ones Iâ??m growing now, I like to give them a good flush with water for two weeks or more before harvest.

In the 32 years I have been growing this most sacred of plants, I have tried all kinds of plant foods, from Miracle Gro to 10-52-10 with all its heavy metals. I have never found anything that beats guano for taste, yield, or potency. The taste that the cannabis acquires when using this guano is so fruity and clean that it lingers on your tongue for at least five minutes after finishing the joint.

The bud quality and yield that comes from using the beds instead of pots is incomparable. I use nothing but neem oil and ladybugs for insect control, and I only take the large fan leaves off when I first harvest the plants, waiting until the buds are dry before the final manicuring.

There are many mango farmers out there using guano fertilizers on their crops. If you want the fruit of your labor to taste like mangos, try growing with guano.

[Farang]

if this isn't the first posting I read on guano, it's so close.............

I've found two sources of bat guano locally. one is unlabeled and the other has commercial packaging. I went with the commercial stuff because I thought their NPK was going to be at least in the ball park. but I have no idea where it comes from.

that's a good article.

but as I continue to read on various posts, I began hearing more negativity about guano concluding with this one seed company vigorously inveighing against its use. I began to question its use, hence this posted query.

thanx