A Basic Compost Tea Guide

[gmanwho]

Good work....

Good work....

Hi everyone, Great Info, thank you for all who contribute.

Gotta a question, Is it a good idea first, or whats a receipe to compost your old plants.

Would it be a good idea to keep your compost separate, one compost of material only vegged, and another compost of bloomed material.

Was thinking of doing something similar to experiment with my plants in coco.

would it work ok? Just trying a to find a way to reuse some of my waste.

thanks all & B-safe

 

[Manic Euphoria]

Always been organic but lately i have been getting more into it.I think i have all i need but i figured i would ask and make sure as it's not a "proven" recipe.So,,what i have is ewc,molasses(brer frog,never heard of it but it is unsulphured and all natural so.....)high P bat guano,alaska fish fert,EJ catalyst,maxicrop seaweed(liquid).my soil is EWC,fox farm ocean forest,and perlite.(30lbs ewc,whole bag FF,perlite to taste.a sprinkle of guano and lime also)Am i missing anything?also,how long should my soil sit before i plant in it?Thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

how long should my soil sit before i plant in it?

2 weeks min but a month would be better, thats the general consensus.

 

[vonforne]

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=58923&page=1
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=60751&page=1

Hey all I have been meaning to get this together but I have been soooo very busy lately. I posted these links to my old grows so you could go through and see the tea mixes and amounts that I have used. I will get around to revising them and post them up in the revised versions later.

Thanks for the interest in the teas. Talk to you all soon.

V/man

 

[golly]

Hey all ..First time poster...
A similar question was asked earlier by someone but no response so far..

What would be the downside to having a perpetual bubbling tea bucket..? If i were to add a little molasses every few days to maintain the beneficial microbe levels, do you think that the nutrients/ratios would become unbalanced, oxidized or consumed..?
It would seem a lot simpler and more efficient to run in theory...

These are excellent Forums - been reading tons....Thanx...Golly...

 

[Suby]

Some peeps are split on this, it seems there is no harm it keep it bubbling continuously.
I feel that you need to reset it sometimes, some elements build up or get lost over time.
I have no proof, it's more a notion that some fungi or bacteria feed off of others and that some can dominate over time as opposed to a short breww time where elements are freely available and there is little competition to start with.
The both work IMO.

S

 

[golly]

Thanx Suby...I'm using a tall kitchen sized trash can, filled about half way [proly about 4 gallons bubbling]...
I like this tall one as it prevents the mess from the bubble spray escaping...
So far i've been using it for just fertilizing greenhouse plants, while experimenting with stabilizing the PH - A suprisingly fun project ..heh..

Using Earth Juice primarily ..I find that as long as the consentration of nutes is kept reasonably low - it has no odour at all..
When i finally use up the 4 gallons , i plan to make a fresh mix, so there is no long term drift in ratios ect.
I would leave a couple pints from the old batch to seed the new, with the beneficial microbes..
Big fan of organic gardening but not much experience with the Ladies YET...heh....

 

[vonforne]

While keeping the tea on a continuous brew, you should use fresh water. About 1\2 I found to work. I found that adding water circulation helped also.

V

 

[CT Guy]

Continuous bubbling for long time periods will give you mono cultures, you won't have the same diversity at the end. I've looked at teas at various stages under a microscope, and after 36 hours+ you'll start losing diversity.

 

[CT Guy]

The best place to learn about compost tea is to go to Soil Food Web dot com and then click on "about us" and then "sustainable approach" Read the section on compost tea. There are many variables that need to be considered when making tea and these guys do the testing. Not to mention that it is run by Dr. Elaine Ingham who is the foremost expert on the subject in the US.

There is also a yahoo group on compost_tea that has most of the experts in the industry if you have general questions about how to make or use a brewer properly.

~Tad

 

[Suby]

Great post CT, welcome to the Organics Forum.

You'll like it here we share and exchange all kinds of odds and ends.

Peace
Suby

 

[CT Guy]

Yeah, I just sort of stumbled upon the site. Hope I can contribute!

 

[Smurf]

High CT Guy, glad to have you here,,,, there has been an on going discussion here in the IC organic threads re: how long to brew for etc. So true what you're saying about losing diversity. Please take into consideration, that most here are not using pumps or heaters, (mainly aerators) therefore optimum conditions aren't what they could be, so the brewing process is longer to compensate for the extra time required for the extraction & multiplication of microbes from the compost,,,, although a long brewing time will put the microbes to sleep, I dont think this is detrimental to the beasties,(as far as I know) so long as the tea is used to feed the plant thru the soil and not used to feed via the foliage.

 

[vonforne]

Continuous bubbling for long time periods will give you mono cultures, you won't have the same diversity at the end. I've looked at teas at various stages under a microscope, and after 36 hours+ you'll start losing diversity.

That is what I have found to be true. The water exchange along with a re newed organic and sugar source helps add diversity and keep the tea usable longer.

Another way to prolong tea brewing is lower the temps a few degrees. Say from 80 degrees to 68 or 70.

V

 

[CT Guy]

Compost tea is a wonderful product for your gardens when made correctly. Most people are now using aeration when making the tea....here's why:

Most beneficial organisms in your soil are strict aerobes and require high levels of oxygen to survive. Most pathogens are anaerobic in nature and prefer low to no oxygen conditions.

Have you ever picked up a handful of compacted soil? Typically it stinks and smells like vomit or some other form of decay. These are the gases put off by anaerobic microbes.

On the other hand, everyone knows what good soil smells like, it has very little odor or maybe a slight earthy smell. It's the same with compost tea.

You need the oxygen in the water to stay at or above 6 mg/l when brewing. If you're not adding oxygen, this becomes problematic because as the organisms consume the nutrients and begin to replicate, they will use up the oxygen supply very rapidly. Once the available oxygen is used up, now we have anaerobic conditions in our tea and have select environmental conditions for exactly the organisms we didn't want.

I've been making and selling compost tea and compost tea brewers for years now and also look at the teas under a microscope. Many people don't realize the level of science that goes into doing it correctly. Some will try it out and make poor tea and then say that compost tea doesn't work. Others will actually damage their plants. My goal is to get people making tea correctly so they can see the benefits of this wonderful technology.

 

[Suby]

I think most around here have had positive experiences with compost teas.
I know most of the regulars of this forum are aware they need to bubble their teas to keep them aerobic, we have actually been wondering what the correct level was so thank you very much for that.

At what % or feed rate have you been using when brewing with BS molasses CT?

We have been toying with varying the ingredients to encourage a more fungal tea during the flowering stage, any tips?

I'd also like to know more about the compost source used as a sampling, do you use EWC or innoculant mixes?

Suby

 

[Guest]

Good info here.

I have found that my teas are harder to maintain in the summer as the ambient hits 100F frequently. I use an insane amount of airation (same all seasons) but fall and spring are good. Winter when it is 11F outside and the garage is 40 - 45F I can set my bucket heater for 76F and everything is wonderful.

 

[vonforne]

Compost tea is a wonderful product for your gardens when made correctly. Most people are now using aeration when making the tea....here's why:

Most beneficial organisms in your soil are strict aerobes and require high levels of oxygen to survive. Most pathogens are anaerobic in nature and prefer low to no oxygen conditions.

Have you ever picked up a handful of compacted soil? Typically it stinks and smells like vomit or some other form of decay. These are the gases put off by anaerobic microbes.

On the other hand, everyone knows what good soil smells like, it has very little odor or maybe a slight earthy smell. It's the same with compost tea.

You need the oxygen in the water to stay at or above 6 mg/l when brewing. If you're not adding oxygen, this becomes problematic because as the organisms consume the nutrients and begin to replicate, they will use up the oxygen supply very rapidly. Once the available oxygen is used up, now we have anaerobic conditions in our tea and have select environmental conditions for exactly the organisms we didn't want.

I've been making and selling compost tea and compost tea brewers for years now and also look at the teas under a microscope. Many people don't realize the level of science that goes into doing it correctly. Some will try it out and make poor tea and then say that compost tea doesn't work. Others will actually damage their plants. My goal is to get people making tea correctly so they can see the benefits of this wonderful technology.

Oh we are quite aware of the activity below the surface. Most of us are students of Dr. Ingham.

She is a PHD. in the field. No disrespect but you are a salesman working for the commercial industries that we are striving to leave behind with our home brew methods.

Basically you have given us a run down of things we teach new growers coming into using teas the first time.

And the level of science you speak is only the tip of the ice berg so to speak. There is much more than just the bacteria there. They being the most basic of the soil food web but the easiest for us to produce now. Fungi being the next.......and we have been working on that for some time now.

Do you have a sales pitch for that also?

V

 

[rckymtnthuglife]

Hehehe

 

[Suby]

Vman this is why I love you, you and I have to toke a phat one and visit a bunch of hydro stores in a day, I guarantee we get in a fist fight as of the first hydro junkie store

I have to agree, you'' have to bump it up info wise because we have some very good growers and brewers, some of the best on the net from the sites I have surfed.

Take a gander at the sticky's at the top of the forum page, you'll see we research and assemble alot of material as well as test new ideas out, the peeps of this forum are the reason I still spend time at online canna sites

Good info here.

I have found that my teas are harder to maintain in the summer as the ambient hits 100F frequently. I use an insane amount of airation (same all seasons) but fall and spring are good. Winter when it is 11F outside and the garage is 40 - 45F I can set my bucket heater for 76F and everything is wonderful.

If you Google a bit you will maybe find a chart that graphs Dissolved oxygen vs. Water Temperature, as heat increases water's ability to retain Oxygen dissolved is lowered, it's why alot of closet hydro growers fail.

70-80 deg is pretty optimal, everything brews nicely in my garage and it's chilly in there, Canada gets real winters lmfao.

Peace

Suby