Tea Article

[Microbeman]

PS' His name isn't Ted is it?

 

[someotherguy]

thanks for the reply Microbeman and i guess i'll do as you suggest and try the lady bugs, hopefully, they will still be available on-line this time of year.

and thanks also for the advice on the tea, ...truth is, i know my 'formula' is off, i foolishly bought that 'Super Tea' stuff without fully reading the package so didn't realize that it is really just a blend of quano's so pretty useless in the tea.

anyway, i plan on picking up a few things from your site soon, particularly the new edition of Dr Ingham's book as well as some humic acid, ...just have to wait until the 1st as i live on a pretty tight fixed income now.

thanks again, SOG

 

[Microbeman]

thanks for the reply Microbeman and i guess i'll do as you suggest and try the lady bugs, hopefully, they will still be available on-line this time of year.

and thanks also for the advice on the tea, ...truth is, i know my 'formula' is off, i foolishly bought that 'Super Tea' stuff without fully reading the package so didn't realize that it is really just a blend of quano's so pretty useless in the tea.

anyway, i plan on picking up a few things from your site soon, particularly the new edition of Dr Ingham's book as well as some humic acid, ...just have to wait until the 1st as i live on a pretty tight fixed income now.

thanks again, SOG

You must have Ct Guys site confused with mine. In a pinch I'd wipe my butt with that publication you mentioned but the humic acid CT Guy has is good quality. If you use it in tea go real small amounts. My site; I'm not really supposed to post my address but if you google 'microbe Tim' you'll find it. (comment by Jeff Lowenfels author of Teaming With Microbes)

Get persimillis if you can't get lady bugs...I wasn't thinking of the time of year.

 

[someotherguy]

You must have Ct Guys site confused with mine. In a pinch I'd wipe my butt with that publication you mentioned but the humic acid CT Guy has is good quality. If you use it in tea go real small amounts. My site; I'm not really supposed to post my address but if you google 'microbe Tim' you'll find it. (comment by Jeff Lowenfels author of Teaming With Microbes)

Get persimillis if you can't get lady bugs...I wasn't thinking of the time of year.

i guess you're right about me mixing up the sites as i have both his and yours bookmarked already, i know for sure you're the guy with the microscopes, lol, and i'd like one of those in the future too.

anyway, thanks for saving me the $39.00 i would have spent on that book and would you mind recommending something in it's stead, i am a reader at heart and love books, plus, having the hard-copy gives me a place to take notes and such and for future reference so any book you might recommend that could help me learn to more fully understand the whole process would be greatly appreciated.

thanks, SOG

 

[Microbeman]

Teaming With Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis (two of my friends) is a great overview - it has a few errors (eg. composting method) but is one of the best intros to microbial/organic growing. CT Guy or Amazon carries it.

 

[B.C.]

hmmm...

hmmm...

JayKush and BudBoy,

IME adding EJB to your soil without bubbling up the Ph could have negative effects on your garden. I think if your mix of EJB is too strong in relation to the biology in the soil, it will over power the ability of the soil to self regulate Ph. The EJB is very acidic.

It seems as though as the quality and efficency of the soil biology increases, it can suck up "hot" nutes into the plant and burn it.

I had been brewing everything in 1 bucket, EWC, Vermiblend, and EJ products, until recently. I struggle with defiecncies, and burns...I manage to swing back and forth.

Examples



My plan is to better pre-amend the soil, leave the EJ behind, and use ACT and guano's to feed. I grow in 5g buckets and veg for a while so the girls can get pretty big. Then they rely even more on my getting the feeding right.

Oh yeah, I also switch in some Neptune's Harvest Fish/Seaweed @ about 10mil per gal. Could this be hot enough to burn?

Thoughts, input, and advice are welcome.

Thank You, Much Respect,

EJB is readily availible to the plant, it doesn't need ta be broke down by the microherd for uptake. This is why yer gettin burns. Bubble it ( 24 hours ) and use it on it's own, then the AACT on it's own.

Better pre-amending, topdressing, some AACT, and yer set! Making changes slow, one thing at a time, will help ya sort things out and better dail things in.

Best of luck! BC

 

[someotherguy]

sorry man, i should have mentioned that i've already bought and read that one following your earlier advice to someone else.

i guess what i would like if such a book exists is a kind of cookbook with different recipes for different stages of life, so that i might take a more targeted approach using different teas for my flowers and moms.

or am i being wrong-headed in my thinking and just over-complicating things for myself?

anyway, thanks again for all you've shared here, i've learned a lot from you and CT Guy and Clackamas Coot, all of you have challenged me and shown me how much i didn't know.

peace, SOG

 

[grapeman]

He is 100% full of sxxxt! I have checked pH on many many many finished brews and the pH can vary widely. A CT which finishes between 5 and 7 pH is desirable as there is more liklihood of a diversity of live microbes. Under 4 pH bacteria begin going dormant or die which is why food testers use it as a guideline for safety for consumption. (naturally acid trends to fungal; alkali trends to bacterial) What kind of scientist is he??? It sounds like he is talking about EM fermentations. Feel free to refer him to me via my webpage.

If he is really talking aerated compost tea he has not a clue (unless fermenting) and should not be spreading this misinformation.

Thanks MM. I'll stick with my home made tea. He was looking to sell me a product, probably something like you referenced such as a fermented product. I tried one once and it burned my plants so I'm not interested in that again. These EWC farmers are always looking for a way to further sell their products, but since the expiration date of these teas, as I understand it are a few hours, I guess they need to ferment the product so they can bottle and sell them. Are they any good? Maybe for a large scale farm or something?

I was more interested in his mycos and stuff anyway. I'll see them all next week.

Thanks for the facts.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

PS' His name isn't Ted is it?

Oh God that's funny!

CC

 

[Clackamas Coot]

RE: Seaweed Extract

The seaweed extract that is sold at KIS is around $14.00 per 1 lb. The recommended rate of application is 1.5 tsp. to 1 gallon of water (foliar) and/or 1 tbsp. per gallon (soil irrigation).

So I measured out 1.5 teaspoons and it comes out to be 4.5 grams meaning that a pound of this product will give you at least 98 gallons - allowing for sloppy measuring, spillage and it makes the math easier) so the price would be just over $.14 per gallon (foliar) and $.28 per gallon if applied to soil at 2x the amount used.

That's pretty cheap for the benefit returned, IMHO

CC

 

[CT Guy]

sorry man, i should have mentioned that i've already bought and read that one following your earlier advice to someone else.

i guess what i would like if such a book exists is a kind of cookbook with different recipes for different stages of life, so that i might take a more targeted approach using different teas for my flowers and moms.

or am i being wrong-headed in my thinking and just over-complicating things for myself?

anyway, thanks again for all you've shared here, i've learned a lot from you and CT Guy and Clackamas Coot, all of you have challenged me and shown me how much i didn't know.

peace, SOG

SOG,

I think you're over-thinking things. Make the same tea for all stages of plant life. Keep in mind at all times that in an organic system the plant is in charge. Make the soil right and let the plant do it's thing! I think people get caught in a chemical mindset, where they think they're directly feeding the plant and need to make changes in their nutrients to reflect the plants growth stage. Yes, a plant uses more N in veg and more P in flower, but if all the nutrients are there in the soil and locked up in cellular walls of the microbes, then they will become plant-available when the plant needs them (based on the exudates they're putting out).

In regards to compost tea (gosh, we need a new name for it!), you're using a shotgun approach and putting out all the beneficial aerobic organisms you can. The plant will decide what it needs in the rhizosphere and is going to be much better at it than you or I would, so no need to change your recipe.

Hope that helps!

~CT

PS- If you want a good portion of what the manual by Dr. E has in it, go to http://www.soilfoodweb.com/sfi_approach3.html

microbeorganics.com has good info which it sounds like you've read.

gardeningwithmicrobes has some info as well and articles

and the KIS site has humic and seaweed and brewers.

Best price on Jeff's book is on amazon.com

Only Earth Fort has Dr. E's manual, but like MM said, you really don't need it. (I own it and have read it, along with anything else she's ever published).

Check out the reading list sticky if you want to do some more research on all this stuff!

Oh, and MM, that was a funny joke, I chuckled when I read it!

 

[someotherguy]

thanks man and yeah, you helped, and i was afraid of that, lol.

everything i do is made more difficult because i am forced to do everything on a micro-scale. ...i'm a disabled Vet who lives alone on a small fixed income in a small 3rd flr apartment so composting is problematic.

also, i re-use my soil and i'm only just learning how to re-charge it, as it were, so learning to do things organically in such cramped quarters has been fun, to say the least, lol.

anyway, heres some pics of my brewer set-up, just a 5 gallon DWC bucket i already had and some pumps i had from when i toyed with hydro a couple years ago.

here you can see the pumps i'm using and at first i was only using the bigger one on the left, now, i have that bigger one going to 2 big airstones alone, the pump in the middle feeds a coil at the bottom and the small one on the right feeds another airstone that is buried in a mesh bag filled with EWC.

and here is the bucket which sits on an open tray above a small lamp whose bulb generates enough heat to raise the temps in the bucket to about 68degrees.

and here is a shot of the mesh bag i made from some nylon screening i had left over from a window repair, i figured the nylon wouldn't be toxic to the microbes plus the hole size would be plenty big enough for the microbial and fungal life to escape into the solution while still being small enough to contain most of the material.

btw, this bag is big enough to hold about 4 cups of EWC and a 2 inch airstone with some room to spare.

anyway, thanks again for all you have shared here as you have helped me begin the process of taking my game to another level, a more natural level that already is producing superior results.

peace, and stay safe, SOG

 

[Microbeman]

Good job SOG. I'm disabled as well. I recommend you get a small plastic bin with lid and get some composting worms going. They will provide you with all the (vermi)compost you need. There are instructions in many places including my webpage.

 

[someotherguy]

Good job SOG. I'm disabled as well. I recommend you get a small plastic bin with lid and get some composting worms going. They will provide you with all the (vermi)compost you need. There are instructions in many places including my webpage.

thanks man and it's funny you should say that as i have been planning on doing just that, lol, ...actually, a young friend of mine tried it already and failed at it as it began to stink up the house and his wife said 'get them out of here', lol.

...so i've been dragging my feet a little, putting it on the back burner until i can get my brewer and brewing technique in order, there is so much to learn and to buy, lol, i guess i should just be grateful i still CAN learn considering how i spent my youth, lol.

i've also been considering one of those kitchen composters that use fermented bokahasi and EM-1 as that sounds like it would work well for someone working on such a small scale.

anyway, thanks again for all the time and knowledge you have shared, i know you don't get paid for this in any way except karma so really, thanks!

peace, SOG

 

[CT Guy]

Good job SOG. I'm disabled as well. I recommend you get a small plastic bin with lid and get some composting worms going. They will provide you with all the (vermi)compost you need. There are instructions in many places including my webpage.

I agree! Great job!

Just to clarify though, you're not putting in 4 cups of EWC in the 5 gal. brewer.

 

[mad librettist]

if you combine bokashi with a worm bin bag you will do well and won't have to sort your compost, as it is a flow-thru design.

you can buy the "worm bin bag" as seen on instructables.com, for 30 bucks without the frame. The frame is very simple to build from 1x2 lumber. all you need is tape measure, hand saw, glue, screws, a drill, and a bit for pilot holes.

Your friend made the same mistake many first time wormers make - overfeeding. For the first couple seasons, you will have too much bokashi, so you'll need a place to put it, or maybe get someone with a garden to pick it up.

 

[someotherguy]

I agree! Great job!

Just to clarify though, you're not putting in 4 cups of EWC in the 5 gal. brewer.

thanks man, and no, lol, i'm actually using 2 cups per 5 gallon brew, i haven't gotten any foods yet really other than blackstrap molasses and that FoxFarms all-purpose 5-5-5 so i may have over did it with the EWC.

i've also been brewing my teas for approx. 48 hours at about 68degrees and, because i haven't got a microscope yet, i'm mostly trusting my nose to tell me if a brew is good or bad and so far at least (i've only brewed 3 times) they have all smelled of good earth, not in the least offensive.

anyway, my thanks to you too man, you guys help a lot of people here and i know it isn't so you guys can promote your websites, i can feel it as it were that you are all simply sharing the love and for that you all deserve kudos!

peace, SOG

btw, thanks to you both for the words of encouragement as well, lol, it's nice to hear i'm on the right track.

 

[CT Guy]

I'd go 1.5 cups and 24 hours at that temp....good luck with everything!

 

[Microbeman]

As Mad mentioned a stinky worm bin is usually from overfeeding and usually from putting in too much stuff they cannot break down rapidly, like citrus peels, alfalfa meal, grass cuttings or other high nitrates. A safe bet is Canadian sphagnum peat moss (if available), used coffee grounds, banana peals, carrot trimmings, cardboard (toilet paper rolls), used paper towels {without soap/chemical residue), bread crusts/crumbs. Sometimes I can get over ripe bananas and mushrooms free from the grocery store. These mixed with peat, coffee grounds, cardboard or(and) paper is a totally killer diet for producing maximum quality worm humus. It is amazing when you open the lid a week after feeding and see dark worm earth where there once was bananas.

 

[Thomkal Vwalaa]

As Mad mentioned a stinky worm bin is usually from overfeeding and usually from putting in too much stuff they cannot break down rapidly, like citrus peels, alfalfa meal, grass cuttings or other high nitrates. A safe bet is Canadian sphagnum peat moss (if available), used coffee grounds, banana peals, carrot trimmings, cardboard (toilet paper rolls), used paper towels {without soap/chemical residue), bread crusts/crumbs. Sometimes I can get over ripe bananas and mushrooms free from the grocery store. These mixed with peat, coffee grounds, cardboard or(and) paper is a totally killer diet for producing maximum quality worm humus. It is amazing when you open the lid a week after feeding and see dark worm earth where there once was bananas.

Question about mushrooms. I've been mushroom hunting a lot this year. Sometimes the mushrooms I thought were shrimp mushroom are actually poisonous, just an example from this past week. Are those poisonous mushrooms okay for the compost bin?