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A Basic Compost Tea Guide

V

vonforne

Well my fellow Organic growers, here is another small essay I have put together. This is another of my favorite subjects and one of the most important and useful means for nutrient delivery to the plants we grow whether it is MJ or your normal garden out the back door of your home.

What is a Compost Tea?

A Compost tea is an aerobically-brewed liquid extract made from quality microbial foods. When a tea is brewed correctly, it contains only beneficial organisms and nutrients that are essential for the soil and plants well being. Since MJ is normally a nutrient hog this is one of the most effective delivery systems available to us. It can be applied in several ways. I will address this later in the article.

Stand by for update

Until the next time.

Your friendly neighborhood grower, V
















 
Suby

Suby

**AWD** Aficianado
Veteran
Great thread Vman as always.

Teas are the best thing you can do for your soil especially with a rich soil mix.
Follow these steps to unlocking your soil peeps.
A note on molasses, using too much can lead to bacteria outcompeting fungus within the tea so follow the amounts and don't go overboard with it.

Suby
 
S

screwdriver

vonforne said:
You can expect different microbial population levels in your tea based on weather, climate, temperature, seasons, etc. In the summertime you can expect your teas to brew faster and get to your optimal microbial levels faster than in cooler fall weather. Also tea odors, color, and foaminess on top of the tea, will vary based on temperatures too.
Click to expand...

I think the temperature is often overlooked as part of the overall environmental conditions for the propagation of microbes. Should we not heat the tea in the winter (or summer). The microbes have more activity in proper conditions. I add a fish tank heater to my gallon jug just to raise the temp. I suppose if I sat the jug in direct sunlight it would do the same, but in a basement theres no sun.
 
muddy waters

muddy waters

Active member
nice one vonforme, except that outside north america/oz/europe you can't find any of the froo froo shit included in the recipes above--liquid kelp, peruvian guano, high p guano, bat guano, liquid karma, blackstrap molasses...

so since i'm about to brew up a batch i will share my third world recipe, dig it:

in approx 10 L of water--this will be delivered directly to plants in different stages of growth, from early veg to early flower, some with and most without dilution:

dry ingredients:

4 tbsp homemade worm castings
2 tbsp shredded dried green kelp (culinary)
1 tbsp dried comfrey
1 tbsp dried chamomile
1 tbsp wood ash
1 tsp grated tangerine rind
1 tsp crushed dried egg shells
1 tsp dolomite lime
1 tsp bone meal

(all of this will go in a cloth coffee filter that hangs on the rim of the bucket)

liquid additives:

1 cup aquarium water
1 cup starch water from rice soak
2 tbsp soy sauce (for fungal tea) or molasses (for bacterial-dominant tea)
1 tbsp old lemon juice

this is bubbled with a submerged aquarium pump with venturi valve attached for oxygenation, ready to use after 48-72 hours.

if anyone has any other homemade recipes or suggestions, i would love to hear them.
 
V

vonforne

Thanks for all the prop people. Please feel free to post up your versions of the tea brewing process you each use.


Sweet Brunette,
nice cut and paste,,,good read
Click to expand...

It is not a cut and paste. I wrote this myself using reference material from different sources and experience.

Subs, thanks man. I thought I'd do my version of the "tea thing" for everyone. And it is a good idea, like subs said to keep the sugar products to a minimum. Add just a little each time. I like to pour it onto the sock as not to let it just settle to the bottom.

Screwdriver, I like to brew the tea at about 78* with a Walmart fish tank heater. I use it mostly in the winter. but if I am not going to use the tea or I don't know when I will use it I will let it brew at room temp and take a little longer until I need it. It seems to prolong the brewing process.

Sweet brunette, I actually like to use raw sugar cane but most people cannot get it. raw sugar products are the best. I just smash the hell out of it with a 5 lb. hammer and add it to the sock.

Muddy, glad you could stop by. I read a lot of you posts on organic freebies and just love them. I put the above as an example because most people use this more than the more extreme things. I am currently brewing a tea of bananas, papayas and mango's for a test run on a flowering tea.

I also use mushroom compost, cow manure, rabbit manure or just about anything that will contain a varied type of microbs for the soil. I like to use them at different times for the varied microbial population.

I have been working on using bone meal and dolomite with hot water to start the process before adding it to the tea bucket. Or I let it steep for a couple of weeks prior to use.

I like your make up. I have read somewhere recently that soy sauce is a great fungal source but have not used it yet.

V
 
R

Relik

Sweet Brunette said:
nice cut and paste,,,good read

sweet brunette
Click to expand...

I find it amazing how some people can be hypocrites. You come over here acting like you know it all and you're the solution to all our organic needs, when you're the one who cuts and pastes to answer questions! Sincerely, that shitload of info you posted regarding aquarium pumps had already been posted at the OFC, and I'm pretty sure I have a few of these pages bookmarked already.
I bet you're just starting to grow organics, because it sounds fashionable or something?

You sound like you're in need of recognition, and jealous because our mate vonforne wrote a good thread on compost teas? To be honest, to me, it seems that you would have loved to be the writer of this article...


This being said, I'd now like to apologize for the threadjack.

V-man, thanks for taking the time to throw this together. Clearly typed, with pictures, real nice!

Like muddy waters, I live in a place where not all ingredients are available, and have to find alternatives to them. I have recently started a small fish pond to try something with the used water, but they're still too growing, I'll have to wait a bit.

I have a batch of tea brewing at the moment, and since it is a mid-flowering tea, I included a ripe banana in the mix. Not ripe as in "I wouldn't eat it" but as in "tomorrow we'll have to discard it", get my point? When adding my sugar source I usually dilute it in dechlorinated hot water before adding it to the tea, prevents it from setting down, as you said.

Regarding temperatures, in my tropical climate, the quickest a tea was ready was 36-48h, when it was hotter. Right now it's winter and they can take up to 4 days to show the foam.

Keep it green folks! :joint:
 
V

vonforne

Hey Relik, good to see you around again. How things with you on the islands? I have been working on some teas in my sub-tropical area also. I have fruit stands everywhere and as I advance in my pursuit of cheapness...hahahahaha I find that I like it better each day. Some things do not work out as planned but like they say "live and learn"

Have a good one man.

V
 
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Suby

Suby

**AWD** Aficianado
Veteran
That's the beauty of microbial teas, you can brew them according to what's on hand.

MuddyWaters I always appreciate your posts, they always reflect simplicity combined with great organic know-how.
2 things jump out at me, the first is the rice water, great idea haven't tried that one yet and the secons is soy sauce, I would have though it too salty for organics but you seem to have found success with it.

I have acces to kelp meal but haver you guys found the nutritional value of culinary seaweed to have similar results?

Peace All
Suby
 
V

vonforne

I have been working on Noir from the grocery section of the sushi store. It seems to work OK. No ill effects but then again no outstanding effects either.

rice water is kind of like Lacto bactilla (spelling)

good idea Muddy.

V
 
muddy waters

muddy waters

Active member
thanks vonforne and suby, you guys are great contributors here as well, i love the spirit of sharing info that organics brings out, in the case of folks like you. keep it bubblin.

vonforne, i am not talking about noir btw in case that wasn't clear, but a species of clumpier, meatier green (not green black) algae that is sold i believe for including in soups and marinades. i have had good results with steeping this one as a drench and foliar, and as an ingredient in aerated teas.

water used for soaking rice or beans makes for an excellent addition too, just be very careful that your significant other doesn't add salt without telling you. salt should be added later anyway after boiling, but sometimes people do stupid things and don't say anything and you end up drenching your early flowering plants in a drainless tub with the salty starch water and watching as your plant turn crispy brown over the next 4 weeks leaving you with the fugliest plants, a pitiful harvest, and a spouse who thinks you should just 'get over it' because it's not like it was the last 4 months of effort or anything... (but i am definitely not bitter or anything...)
 
muddy waters

muddy waters

Active member
I included a ripe banana in the mix. Not ripe as in "I wouldn't eat it" but as in "tomorrow we'll have to discard it", get my point?
Click to expand...
hi Relik, fyi if you've ever had really good fried bananas the recipe requires bananas slightly past the "I wouldn't eat it" point actually, skins 50/50 yellow/black. the reason is the bananas are as sweet as candy at that point. the fructose content must be almost double what it is when the bananas are still green. how you integrate this into your organic regimen is up to you, just passing on this observation that was prompted by your comment above.
 
R

Relik

Hello muddy waters, I agree that bananas are at their sweetest point when half black, what I am trying to avoid is the stage when fermentation has really started and the smell of alcohol is coming out, meaning that sugars are being consumed.

Cheers
 
Suby

Suby

**AWD** Aficianado
Veteran
be very careful that your significant other doesn't add salt without telling you. salt should be added later anyway after boiling, but sometimes people do stupid things and don't say anything and you end up drenching your early flowering plants in a drainless tub with the salty starch water and watching as your plant turn crispy brown over the next 4 weeks leaving you with the fugliest plants, a pitiful harvest, and a spouse who thinks you should just 'get over it' because it's not like it was the last 4 months of effort or anything... (but i am definitely not bitter or anything...)
Click to expand...

laughed my ass off!
S
 
V

vonforne

Quickie tea time.

Here is a way to aerate a tea for that on the spot watering.

Have you ever found yourself with out a fresh brewed tea.....it happens some times and here is a quick way to fix that problem.

Take an old pillow case, add castings or what ever you want.....compost of different sorts or what ever.







Now I like to soak the pillow case in tepid water for a while and then squeeze it over a container to make sure I'm getting out what I want





I will do this several times.

Then take a 5 gallon bucket of tepid water with the ingredients you want to add.....

for this one I added:

4 capfuls of Liquid Seaweed
45 ml of fulvic acid
3 TSP of Yucca extract

I then added the squeezed off ingredients into the bucket......


Now comes the fun part......you get to whip the shit out of it to add lots of air to the solution.

I use a portable screw gun for this with a paint mixing paddle.











You keep this up for a short time and Walla:

Fresh aerated tea for the kids.





I keep the paddle on hand and repeat a little during watering so things don't settle to the bottom.

And there you have it

Vonfornes quick whipped aerated tea.

:) I hope this helps some people out who cannot brew a tea or do not have the time and need an aerated tea on the spot.

Until the next time........

V

Until the next time.
 
G

Guest

Hey Vonforne very nice read indeed! i was just about to ask if there was any way you could brew up a tea quik, but.. you allready answered my Q, oh.. and about warming up the tea, a aquarium heater will do the trick?
 
V

vonforne

a aquarium heater will do the trick?
Click to expand...

Ya, the old fish tank heater will do it set to about 68* to 72 degrees. If you want to raise it it will just brew the tea up faster. If you are long on time just let it brew at room temps that are low and it will take longer for the bacteria to multiply.

V
 
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Deft

Deft

Get two birds stoned at once
Veteran
Mines not foaming, its been over two days now and dosent seem any different :(

I'm going to add more compost tomorrow in case it was chlorine, I used filtred water though which is suposed to take out the chlorine... could it be the bucket?? its brand new and kinda stinks like new plastic so it must still be outgassing.
 
Deft

Deft

Get two birds stoned at once
Veteran
Half full of filtered water
~2 tsp unsulphured blackstrap
handfull black compost
airstone always on
 
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