A Basic Compost Tea Guide

[melvin2]

To clear up any further confusion...

I was just bubbling the earth juice before using it. Foamed up nicely and this thread was where I saw fit to ask about foam. After I used it I added stuff at intervals to see what the effects were on the solution itself. No real plans to use it on anything afterwards, just seeing what happens. So please don't over that.

Nevermind about the guano questions, I'm just going to order what I need. Less hassle.

Please, accept my gratitude for trying to help.

 

[K.J]

Water quality is pretty interesting and important. There was a huge 10,000 plant grow in gold country that would use water from the river close by. This river has high lead levels, so high that you (shouldn't) eat the fish. I wonder what kind of lead levels would be present in the marijuana...it's probably minimal, but still.

Actually, the cannabis species is VERY good at sucking heavy metals out of the ground (hemp was used to decontaminate the Chernobyl site). So I would imagine those plants were heavily contaminated.

 

[marali]

it comes to the question if you would really like to smoke those buds, you know, but yea, i know what you are talking about... interesting for farmers who are interested in soil building, fixing, crop rotations etc.

have no experiences with brewing only fpe's and stuff. How would one go with fresh plant material in compost teas? Cuz comfrey is a wonderful source of P and if possible someone could use it for brewing flower tea.

 

[arne564]

I am getting foam as soon as I put my maxicrop liquid seaweed in. Is this normal? I don't use nylons because I don't get any foam that way. I put in 2 tbs ewc/peruvian seabird guano/jamaican bat guano/1 capfull of liquid seaweed per gallon. I use hose water that I bubble for 24 hours before adding anything.

 

[johnipedestran]

thanks to the thread starter and all contributors

i have recently been making teas using various ingredients, maple syrup, fresh squeezed grapefruite juice, fish emulsion, dried kelp, some earth juice products you name it I am trying it now

these are my buckets i have not noticed any marked increase in anything yet, but I know having oxygen in the waterr can't hurt...




peace
jip

 

[CT Guy]

Is that the buckets with the air bubbling in them? What's your recipe? What's your compost source? I'm guessing you're probably adding too many food resources and not enough aeration based on that photo.

 

[CT Guy]

Check out this link and skip to about 3:30 into the video to see what I'm talking about for proper aeration.

http://blog.douggreensgarden.com/2008/07/27/how-to-make-compost-tea/

 

[MrFista]

Allright. I'm trying to simplify my compost teas right down. I don't have much resources, and can't ship things here of a biological nature anyways.

I struggled a long time trying to get decent compost in the end I have opted for worm castings of my own making I wanted a good source of protozoa and nematodes I'm not paying for.

So, here's the recipe, hoping CT guy and microbeman can suggest tweaks for it.

I make my teas in 10 litre lots (approx 2 1/2 gallons).

Bacterial tea

5 litres aquaponic water (250-300 ppm)
5 litres dechlorinated tap (150 ppm)
1/2 cup worm castings
5 mls blackstrap unsulfured molasses
Drop of honey
Drop of golden syrup
8 mls humic acid.

Bacterial tea only gets 12 hours brewing at 72.

Fungal tea

10 litres of dechlorinated tap water
1/2 cup worm castings
1/2 cup mycelium and substrate (heavy white growth in pine bark bed)
5 mls kelp
8 mls humic acid
1/2 teaspoon mortar and pestled oats (flour freshly made)
1/2 teaspoon mortar and pestled rice.

24 hours brewing at 72.

Both are brewed in a Deuleys Own bucket system. I keep the brew times minimal so as to avoid anaerobic onset. This fungal tea has transformed a clay patch of soil so i can dig in it. This took 2 months and was heavily compacted. however, when i do the soil test for fungi (two containers, one with oats one without in the hot water cupboard) I find very little fungi. in both samples with food and without the mycelium is thin and patchy.

more applications? Maybe give it some lacto b then another application? Food source with it ie some leaf litter/and or kelp?

 

[CT Guy]

I don't have time to write a long response right now (and I'll have to go back and convert everything from metrics, I know, I know, they make way more sense).

Really quickly though, why 2 different teas? Why not one tea that is high in both bacteria and fungi? After all, the point of the teas is to get the entire soil food web of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, so as to increase nutrient cycling and retention.

Lastly for now, with those brewing times, you're not going to get a lot of protozoa (flagellate, amobae, etc..) growth.

Has Deuley tested his system to work with less water? I thought it was for a 5 gal. bucket but I may be mistaken.

~tad

 

[MrFista]

ok - I only had the smaller bucket so added the same aeration (two in bag 2 in bucket) to the smaller system. This additional aeration I figured was a good move in a DIY bucket. Yes - Deuleys was 5 gallon.

I'm trying to concentrate on fungal teas as my fungal soil test shows a distinct lack of myco's in my veggie patch. Though it is growing well down there, it is also selecting weeds, and some black mould is persistently staying, and spreading, on some peppers.

My short brew times are to do with a healthy fear of anaerobic conditions. If I'm lacking protozoa then obviously I have to rethink this part of things.

I'm going to bite the bullet and get some mycogrow products from Paul and put them in my compost, and worms, and start a grass innoculant bed. Just saving pennies I want all 5 of his books too. 2 weeks (plus postage) I'll have them and then drive all and sundry mad with fungal posts.

Hoping the mycos don't get stopped at the border. Might look bad with the book on psilocybes in the package too!

 

[C21H30O2]

what is the min. amount of time needed to bubble water. lets say for example you come home after a long weekend and your plants need some water quick and you have no other option than tap. is say, 15 min enough time to get rid of enough chlorine enough that it won't adversely effect your microherd?

 

[Smurf]

When I have to use tap water I only degas for 20 - 30mins... but that's @ 32L/min,
and I also throw in a bit of activated charcoal or a tiny handful of compost to activate the chloramine (sp),,, they seem to be using it as a disinfectant more & more lately. If I didn't activate the chloramine in the bucket it will do what its intended to do in my soil,, disinfect! I haven't had any probs doing it like this. Don't forget to check your water pH too if using for container plants.

 

[CT Guy]

ok - I only had the smaller bucket so added the same aeration (two in bag 2 in bucket) to the smaller system. This additional aeration I figured was a good move in a DIY bucket. Yes - Deuleys was 5 gallon.

I'm trying to concentrate on fungal teas as my fungal soil test shows a distinct lack of myco's in my veggie patch. Though it is growing well down there, it is also selecting weeds, and some black mould is persistently staying, and spreading, on some peppers.

My short brew times are to do with a healthy fear of anaerobic conditions. If I'm lacking protozoa then obviously I have to rethink this part of things.

I'm going to bite the bullet and get some mycogrow products from Paul and put them in my compost, and worms, and start a grass innoculant bed. Just saving pennies I want all 5 of his books too. 2 weeks (plus postage) I'll have them and then drive all and sundry mad with fungal posts.

Hoping the mycos don't get stopped at the border. Might look bad with the book on psilocybes in the package too!

Can't wait to see the posts! As for the compost tea, I'd shoot for around 24 hours at 70 degrees F for a fungal tea. This isn't exact though, as you'd need a microscope to know for sure when the fungal growth in your brewer has been optimized. I'd also add some alfalfa meal, baby oatmeal, or possibly a good fish hydrolysate to the compost as an fungal activator prior to brewing.

 

[MrFista]

Hey thanks!

That's clarified things. What's your opinion of the list serve member saying he can see the mycelium in his teas with a 10x?

I soo want a good microscope, damn stock markets killed my cashflow. Guess it's my fault for having my money in it...

Bloody exchange rate too! OMG, how is the us dollar holding water?

Nearly got the books last night on a loan but the exchange rate was 58 cents!

 

[CT Guy]

well, mycelium can be seen with the naked eye, they're really hundreds of fungal strands wrapped together. Individual fungal hyphae would require higher magnification, and that's really what we're looking for. Fungal hyphae with diameters greater than 3 micrometers.

 

[Organic Rooster]

Great thread, gotta remember this one.

 

[sophisto]

I found this link. I t may already be something that is in this thread, if so fell free to delete.. If not it is alot of really good info on compost teas and such...

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/compost-tea-notes.html

 

[Dr Psycho]

Great forum, lots of great info,I'd like to add my 2 cents and say "Comfrey, Comfrey comfrey. Compost tea made from comfrey adds trace minerals ,amino acids and potash in a bio-available form, I've also found that feeding my plant's comfrey tea with added liquid kelp gives a couple degrees of frost resisance, especially in the spring. Keeo up the good work!

 

[CT Guy]

Just wanted to clarify.....comfrey tea is NOT compost tea. It could provide all the benefits that Dr. Psycho lists (I really haven't worked with it myself, but have seen many articles that tout its benefits). However, the main point of compost tea is to add beneficial biology to the soil or leaf surface (not something you get from comfrey tea).

Not criticizing comfrey tea in the least bit, just wanted to accentuate the differences between the two.

 

[Suby]

Agreed CT, one has to make the difference between fertilizers and activated micobial teas.

One feed the microbes while the other reintroduces a cultutre of microbes to the rootzone.