Tea Article

[CT Guy]

My understanding is that mycorrhizal spores only germinate when they come into direct contact with roots.

That being said, I agree that you should add it at the end of the brewing cycle to your tea, but only if applying to the roots of your plants or if you buy a particular product that is able to travel through the soil (I know mycorrhizal applications has a couple products that do this now).

Personally, I'd just do a separate application, unless I was dipping the roots directly in a tea with added mycorrhizae.

You also need to get the proper species for your plant. www.mycorrhizae.com has a chart to look up whatever plant you're growing.

 

[Microbeman]

My understanding is that mycorrhizal spores only germinate when they come into direct contact with roots.

That being said, I agree that you should add it at the end of the brewing cycle to your tea, but only if applying to the roots of your plants or if you buy a particular product that is able to travel through the soil (I know mycorrhizal applications has a couple products that do this now).

Personally, I'd just do a separate application, unless I was dipping the roots directly in a tea with added mycorrhizae.

You also need to get the proper species for your plant. www.mycorrhizae.com has a chart to look up whatever plant you're growing.

I agree 100% with this. The excerpt from the book pasted earlier is not correct information in that mycorrhizal spores do not germinate nor grow in compost tea (with current science). The spores need to contact your roots to be effective. Mixing it in your tea is mostly a waste of time and $. Apply the spores to your roots at planting time.

 

[rave420]

so...
i added
1tsp of worm castings
1/2tsp of blackstrap molasses
1 squirt of liquid seaweed
1/2 tsp of high P bat guano
2L r/o water

and now i am bubbling that with an aquarium pump and airstone for 24h.

My plants are just showing sex, and i plan on adding it tomorrow.

Anything wrong about that? Is this a recipe that has a chance of doing something?

 

[Microbeman]

so...
i added
1tsp of worm castings
1/2tsp of blackstrap molasses
1 squirt of liquid seaweed
1/2 tsp of high P bat guano
2L r/o water

and now i am bubbling that with an aquarium pump and airstone for 24h.

My plants are just showing sex, and i plan on adding it tomorrow.

Anything wrong about that? Is this a recipe that has a chance of doing something?

This sounds reasonable but if you are using 2 litres of water, I'd use more like 4 heaping tablespoons of worm castings and a full teaspoon to 2 teaspoons of black strap molasses. If available use some good well water or spring water. I would not use the guano as it is a manure and not a compost (I presume) but this is your choice. Are you using a mesh bag or is the stuff free floating? Free floating is good.

 

[CT Guy]

Yeah, I'd defininitely up your worm castings! Also, if you do go free floating, make sure that the compost isn't just getting stuck on the bottom of the bucket and that's actually being suspended in the water and being agitated. Otherwise you'll want to have it in a mesh bag and run a diffuser directly into the bag.

 

[Joey56789]

Hey Joey...

I'll be looking forward to your post/research on the subject.

Well Hal, I'm afraid I didn't come up with anything that great, and I've tried a few times to research this. It seems that most aquarium guys are more interested in how loud an air pump is, then how well it pushes air. It also seems that from one pump to another from the same brand, there can be big differences in noise level.

Here are a few brands mentioned as good.

Eheim - higher end
http://www.eheim.com/base/eheim/inhalte/index600d.html?key=liniendetail_27594_ehen

hailea - higher end
http://www.hailea.com/e-hailea/product1/Air pump.htm

Sera - seems to be quality and quiet
http://www.sera-usa.com (I could not even find air pumps at their site)

Rena - a lot of people said it is quality and quiet
http://www.rena.net/Products/Product.aspx?ProductID=98

Tetra Whisper - some say quiet, others not, some say they are a bit weak in output. very common
http://www.tetra-fish.com/sites/tetrafish/catalog/productcategory.aspx?id=1276&cid=66

Tetra used to make a line called deepwater, but that seems to be discontinued.

The shitty thing is a lot of them don't seem to list output, just how big of an aquarium it is supposed to be good for. It is a matter of opinion as to how much output you need for a given aquarium, so I don't think that tells you much at all.

Frankly, there weren't a lot of negative reviews. I think these are pretty simple devices, and quality is not that hard to make. Most people seem to agree that there are a lot of pretty good brands out there. I'm just going to grab a big one from one of the following brands, and I think it should be fine.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

Outdoor Organic bud grown with a proper compost tea is the best.

 

[CT Guy]

Just wanted to mention that Tim has found huge differences in output even among the same pumps from the same manufacturer. They can differ on output as well. Most of these pumps are manufactured in China and I don't think the quality control is as tight on aquarium pumps as other products.

 

[Microbeman]

Outdoor Organic bud grown with a proper compost tea is the best.

I love your signature.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

CT

For applying neem oil, I purchased some organic human food-grademp yucca extract and for that application it really keeps the neem oil from separating from the water, i.e. it keeps the neem oil product suspended.

Is there any use or reason to add yucca extract? The product I bought does NOT contain benzoate of soda that most yucca extracts contain.

Thanks for any input.

CC

 

[CT Guy]

CT

For applying neem oil, I purchased some organic human food-grademp yucca extract and for that application it really keeps the neem oil from separating from the water, i.e. it keeps the neem oil product suspended.

Is there any use or reason to add yucca extract? The product I bought does NOT contain benzoate of soda that most yucca extracts contain.

Thanks for any input.

CC

From what I understand, yucca extract is used as a surfactant or sticker, to keep the organisms on the leaf surface of the plant. What I've read on the subject is that it's not necessary because the bacteria form their own glues and will affix themselves within a matter of a couple of hours. Maybe in a heavy downpour? I really don't have much experience with yucca....let me know if you find out anything!

 

[Thundurkel]

So I just got into brewing tea's and right now I'm using Mother Mary's recipe but I can't get the powdered phosphate and was wondering if I'm ok through flowering using the following each watering since I grow in 20oz containers...

1 gallon non chlorinated water
1tsp Happy Frog All Purpose 5-5-5
1tsp Happy Frog Bat Guano 0-5-0
1tsp Moleasses 1-0-5
1cup Worm Castings

brewed for 24-36 hrs then mixed 50/50 with non chlorinated water, IMO I think I should be fine and I'm thinking I will get better results than what I was getting using Tiger Bloom and moleasses what do you guys and gals think??

 

[GDK]

This is a very kool thread. Ive been looking into this tea brewing, and i have a question. After brewing, and applying the ACT, should the remains be kept in a aerated container? From what i can gather the tea will go bad if not aerated constantly. Also...does anyone know a substitute for guano as a high p provider?

Stay Safe

 

[jaykush]

make what you need and use it fresh, try not to store some and use it later. your plant will be much happier with the fresh stuff.

 

[Calimed]

I just started bubbling my own tea (for now with Earth Juice) and since I am limited to 6 plants and they are currently small, I just use the remaining tea in my garden outside. Those plants love it just as much.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

From what I understand, yucca extract is used as a surfactant or sticker, to keep the organisms on the leaf surface of the plant. What I've read on the subject is that it's not necessary because the bacteria form their own glues and will affix themselves within a matter of a couple of hours. Maybe in a heavy downpour? I really don't have much experience with yucca....let me know if you find out anything!

CT Guy

It's used as a surfactant in the horticultural world. It's also used for its saponin content which is kind of interesting because the EM-1 product also contains saponin.

It's also used in root beer (foaming action), shampoos, et al.

But I wanted tell you about an interesting experiment I recently finished and I was lucky enough to use one of your tea brewers.

When you make the 'bokashi inoculant' with the EM-1 product, it's usually made by mixing with either rice or wheat bran, allowed to ferment and then dried. It will last for years. You'll know that the fermentation (anaerobic) is completed when it hits a PH of 3.5 or lower which takes about 2-3 weeks depending on the ambient heat where you've placed your 'bokashi bins'

So a PH of 3.5 is pretty acidic and what most organic farmers do is dump this fermented sludge into a standard compost pile and within 2 weeks you won't be able to find a trace of the fermented material and the compost bin will be moving along like you wouldn't believe.

I have 4 ea. 4' x 4' worm bins, mostly for breeding worms and a standard worm composting bin (Can-0-Worms) for making teas. I have friends in the wholesale organic produce industry so getting high-quality food isn't a problem. By controlling the heat and PH of the worm breeding bins we get fantastic growth rate of the worm colonies.

I also add rock dust and crushed oyster shell (calcium carbonate) to keep the PH levels in check and I add some of the pure humic acid product, HumoSolve from Bio.ag

I wanted to feed the bokashi fermented to the worms but the extreme PH had me concerned so I decided to try another trick with your tea brewer.

I took a large tarp and layed it out in the heated barn (about 70F for the chickens and such), I spread out about 50 gallons of used potting soil that I mix up which was dried out pretty much. I dumped the barrel of bokashi compost in the middle and then mixed it as you would any compost pile. It need more moisture so I decided to mix up an aerated tea using your machine, compost from Earth Fortification, fish enzyme, powdered seaweed extract, cottonmeal, alfalfa, rock dust and some earthworm castings and I drenched the pile and left alone.

Within 2 weeks almost all of the fermented bokashi compost was gone, the used soil was completely free of any and all roots, etc.

When it was finished I added some pumice and some of this and that and placed in newly rooted cuttings and I was VERY impressed with the growth rate as well as their overall health.

I'm going to do some more playing around with the bokashi composting process with some chicken and swine manure and see how that works out.

CC

 

[maryjohn]

aerating with a shop vac?

aerating with a shop vac?

has anyone tried it? I gave it a go in a 5 gal bucket but just wound up with tea everywhere (aerated, yes - airborne, also yes). I think a half full 10 gallon bucket would work fine though, and I will be trying it next time I brew. I just need to devise a way to keep the hose near the bottom. We are talking serious aeration here, if it works

 

[CT Guy]

has anyone tried it? I gave it a go in a 5 gal bucket but just wound up with tea everywhere (aerated, yes - airborne, also yes). I think a half full 10 gallon bucket would work fine though, and I will be trying it next time I brew. I just need to devise a way to keep the hose near the bottom. We are talking serious aeration here, if it works

2 problems spring to mind for me.....One, how are you diffusing the oxygen at the bottom of the tank? You would need an attachment to you vacuum. Secondly, I don't think any of those shop vacs would be able to run continuously for 24 hours.

But, that's all just speculation on my part....

 

[CT Guy]

CC,

Very interesting! I like that you're experimenting around with these things. Did you find you had worms back in the potting soil when it was done? It's funny to me, people spend all this money on commercial nutrients, when really it's all about the soil!

 

[Clackamas Coot]

CC,

Very interesting! I like that you're experimenting around with these things. Did you find you had worms back in the potting soil when it was done? It's funny to me, people spend all this money on commercial nutrients, when really it's all about the soil!

CT Guy

After reviewing my post, I realize that I left out the most important part.

Once you've made the 'bokashi bran' which is created anaerobically (fermented) and allowed to dry, what you now have is what is being sold for companies making bokashi composters and is also used as a livestock food (poultry especially), etc.

For bokashi composting, you simply take a bucket, through in a few handfuls of the bokashi bran and then some food items you want to compost and cover with more of the bokashi bran. Each time you add more food items you repeat the addition of more bokashi bran.

Once the container is full, you put the lid on tight (I use the standard paint buckets with lids from HomeDepot). Put this bucket out in the sun and let it sit for 3 or 4 weeks. When the fermentation is finished, the PH will be around PH 3.2 or so.

Since this was a fermentation process, the items that you put into the bucket keep their shape, i.e. if you had added a carrot or an apple, it will still retain it's shape but now it's fermented. In Japan they add this 'bokashi sludge' to the soil which is alive with 'aerobic microbes' and for reasons that I don't understand, the addition of the bokashi sludge (which is anaerobic) causes the aerobic microbes populations to explode. Within 3 weeks all of the material is completely broken down and is alive with earthworms (not composting worms).

This also works in a compost pile, i.e. adding this anaerobic sludge speeds up the composting process.

What I experimented with was using potting soil made from quality ingredients and then I just tossed the root balls into a pile. What I wanted to see was if I put this anaerobic sludge into a pile of soil, hit it with a high-quality aerobic tea, could I reproduce the same effects that one expects and sees in a garden or raised bed. This happened and I'm confused to say the least.

What I'm confused about is how the addition of a fermented anaerobic 'semi-composted' sludge would help feed aerobic microbes.

Like I said I've set up a bokashi compost bin to try out poultry and swine manures. This might be an interesting way to use these inexpensive manures without the 'burning' associated with some of them (chicken manure as an example).

CC