Is THIS how botanical tea should look?

[lalstalls]

Having just run out of a fine dandelion tea from fall, I'm down to some neglected botanical brews from summer - I believe burdock and borage. I stopped shaking/aerating them by September. (Maybe they're dead/gone?)

Anyway, is this how they're supposed to look after soaking for some extra months? If I strain the top gunk, will my plants be happy? Or might it poison them at this point? (It's just water + botanical material + whatever bugs got in.)



Thanks!

 

[Microbeman]

I'm not the biggest expert with botanical teas but the ones I make go no longer than 48 hours and are exposed to air and stirred often or run with an aerator or airlift.

If you are just looking for nutrients, I believe this is your best option.

Before ever getting into ACT I made many fermented plant solutions. These are different than botanical teas. IMO and experience they should be fermented excluding air until finished. I kept them warm (93 to 104 F) to prevent alcohol formation and tested the pH to evaluate when they stabilize. e.g. <3.5

It can take 7 days to 60 days or more depending on the plant etc. You can always just go a minimum 10 days and use your nose to sniff for alcohol (which is not good for plants)

 

[lalstalls]

Thank you for the response!

I could just dump the 20 gals of questionable tea and start a new brew from dried material using an airlift (based on yours). If I do this in my ~60° F basement, do you recommend that I run it closer to 48 hours or 10 days?

But let me probe a little.

The pH of the dandelion tea I've been using for some waterings and daily foliar sprayings (just before lights-on) is about 7.

The pH levels of the half-year-old borage and burdock teas I have not been using are about 6.75 and a little above 7. Unlike yours, mine aren't warm - they're at about 55° - 60° F (which may have allowed alcohol formation?). They do stink.

I appreciate your thoughts! And more, thanks for all you've brought to the community!

 

[Microbeman]

Thank you for the response!

I could just dump the 20 gals of questionable tea and start a new brew from dried material using an airlift (based on yours). If I do this in my ~60° F basement, do you recommend that I run it closer to 48 hours or 10 days?

But let me probe a little.

The pH of the dandelion tea I've been using for some waterings and daily foliar sprayings (just before lights-on) is about 7.

The pH levels of the half-year-old borage and burdock teas I have not been using are about 6.75 and a little above 7. Unlike yours, mine aren't warm - they're at about 55° - 60° F (which may have allowed alcohol formation?). They do stink.

I appreciate your thoughts! And more, thanks for all you've brought to the community!

For a straight aerated or stirred nutrient botanical tea just go 24 to 48 hours.

The only time I worry about pH is when doing the fermentations. Also bear in mind that other people could have varying hypotheses on this. This is just the way I developed doing fermentations. In the food industry I believe the marker for pathogen free preservations is under 4 pH.

I'm no expert at alcohol formation but I believe it likes room temperature. Ask a beer maker.

I noticed you asked about the optimum time to harvest a plant for its attributes. This likely varies for purpose and by species but I harvested many types of plants for the herb industry and cut hay for our livestock for years and my rule of thumb was when the flowers were fresh and before seeds were produced.

 

[lalstalls]

Good. I plan to start an aeration of nettle and comfrey for 48 hours.

But I am still curious whether anyone might hypothesize about my aged teas: My nose detects no alcohol; but it could be hidden by the stink...

Is old, stinky tea with a pH around 7 good for ROLS?

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Thanks very much for sharing how you time harvest of plants for teas. It makes sense as an "other things being equal" policy. (Given what I don't know, other things are equal for me.)