Bubble teas perpetually?

[sunnydog]

Hello. New to organics,just brewing my first tea. Just wondering, is there any harm in letting teas bubble away long term (days- weeks) replentishing as you use. I use LOTS of AIR,and I would think along brew might be benificial?

 

[quadracer]

When I make batches of tea during peak growth, I will save the bottom 20% of the tea for another batch. I've found that the teas don't loose any micro-activity, although you make have to add some more ingredients to fully replenish the tea. I usually go about 3 teas total before I dump everything out (on some plants of course) and start again.

 

[sunnydog]

Yeah. I was thinking also microbial activity would increase by aging the tea,and adding "stuff" as you go along.

 

[Relik]

I occasionally reuse the bottom of a tea to start another one, because the bacterial sample is thriving in there, or else I'll dump it onto the compost pile to give it a nice boost.

Here's a couple of links:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=62740
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=53095

Peace

 

[sunnydog]

Hmm...this is a good question. I would be slightly concerned of replenishing a tea that has already hit the anaerobic state. If your tea is smelling like ammonia I would not replenish that. I would toss that out, sediment and all. Probably fine for your outdoor garden but my indoor mary jane will never see the likes of an anaerobic tea, replenished or not. Suby or Vonforne will have a lot better information on this than me though. peace, jiggy.

Does it go anaerobic even blowing tons of air through it?

 

[Relik]

Blowing tons of air through it prevents the tea from going anaerobic, however there is a limit regarding the concentration of aerobic microbes (beneficials) in a tea, which is directly linked to oxygen and food (carbohydrates) availability. As the beneficials grow in number, they consume oxygen and food at an exponential rate, until one or the other (O2/carbs, but usually carbs are missing first because there is constant aeration while the sugars in the tea are consumed) is not present in sufficient quantities to sustain the biomass. These beneficials will then start dying (even if aerated, because there is too much of them for the DO levels to be acceptable), thus providing a breeding ground for anaerobic bacteria.

We could think the anaerobic bacteria are killed with aeration but there are different kinds of anaerobic bacteria, some of them are strictly anaerobic (oxygen will indeed kill them) while others are oxygen-tolerant anaerobic bacteria, this is why they can "appear" in your tea. Besides, the build-up known as biofilm that appears with time can be a favorable place for anaerobic bacteria to grow.

To sum it up, I would think that brewing a light tea with constant available sugars (less, more often) and oxygen would be the best way to keep it alive for a long time, any excess concentration in the microbial population could potentially induce anaerobic development. Please keep in mind that this is just my opinion and experience, the best way to figure out is to try it yourself, see how things turn out and from then adjust your methods to your conditions.

Peace good luck

 

[Suby]

Excellent post Relik, spot on, actually nice answers by all.
I say it can be done but why bother, I like to keep a 5gallon tub with fresh water bubbling 24-7, then I always have dechlorinated water to make a tea quickly.

The thing is that the balance between difference species can be messed up over time, it will create severe competition between more fragile species and upset the baance.
Your worm castings are the reference sample but on a prolonged bubble you can lose that sampling of bacteria, we are after the full range of aerobic bacteria not just the ones that can be competitive long term.

Suby

 

[vinivici]

i've bubbled my teas for over a month before, the only thing you need to watch out for is anarobic buildup along the edges of the bucket, im not using a bucket i got a rectangular 20 gal rubbermaid, and 2 air stones. i've noticed if you dont hvae equal bubble distribution the wherever is lacking anarobic beasties start growing after a little while. this usually doesnt happen for me till the 3-4th week, and i think by that time its more because of the dried tea on the tub walls that allows the bacteria to grow.

ever 3-4 days i fee em 5 tbs of molassas 3 of powdered oat meal, 1tbs of organic soy protien (protien shake i had from a while back) and a bit of fish emultion.

i've noticed you can go longer if you use less fish emultion, for some reason every time i add a splash of the stuff the bad beasties come about.

i'd say just monitor the eat every day or so and go from there if it starts smelling like anything other than dirt, you might wanna use it up and start over.

the longest i've been able to go is 6 weeks, im sure with the proper care i could have gone longer but i got lazy and didnt really have a use for 20 gals of tea at the time.

sorry if some of it doesnt make sens im pretty stoned.

-vini

 

[jaykush]

Excellent post Relik, spot on, actually nice answers by all.
I say it can be done but why bother, I like to keep a 5gallon tub with fresh water bubbling 24-7, then I always have dechlorinated water to make a tea quickly.

im with you id rather have clean oxygenated water on standby for some fresh tea full of beneficial's.

sometimes you need to brew longer brews for those microbes and beneficials that take more time to grow or multiply. usually no more than a week unless its cold.

 

[sunnydog]

Thanks Guys. Having seen the tea receipies say 24-48 hours I guess I was wondering if they had to be used in that time frame,or would it keep some what longer with good care.