compost tea

[Lorri D]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Even with two air pumps, I still have problems with most types of compost, because they coat the bottom in black mud, which goes anaerobic from lack of oxygen, even though the rest of the bucket is getting plenty. Worm castings don't seem to do that, neither did my black dirt from the cow field, which was also fairly coarse with rotted hay and not muddy or mucky when wet. I have not yet experimented with different micron-sized filter bags. From what I have read, the filter bag isn't supposed to be too fine, or it doesn't allow the bacteria to flow through.

Mushroom compost didn't work well for me. It's one of the experiments that caked on the bottom in mud and smelled poopy. I have read of some people trying to grow fungal material a few days beforehand on organic grain flour, and then adding that to their tea. Most tea is predominantly bacterial, and not fungal.

I took a sample of the same cow field dirt and made tea in the winter. It was not nearly as good. But I still think it had some value. I wonder if tea is also an extraction of any water-based compounds in the compost, like humic and fulvic acids. They are both beneficial, even if the tea doesn't contain many bacteria.

I wonder if you may be using too much compost so that too much of it sinks to the bottom? I don't usually use a bag, but I have done it. The bags I used are the ones you can get from your local supermarket. I've bought these from Albertsons and Safeway. They are around the fruit islands. I also keep a stirring stick next to my bucket and I stir it up whenever I walk by...at least twice a day. My sludge is maybe 1/8 inch at most.

[Lorri D]

In my mind I see two different types of "tea".

There is the one that you use directly as a quick fertilizer. You simply mix water and compost together and the brew is a leaching of the goodness from it and is applied directly to the plant for fertilizer benefits only.

Then, there is the other "tea". Which perhaps is mislabeled as a tea. This one is actually a bacteria culture of sorts. When you add food for the microbs, water, and oxygen... you are breeding them. You are producing huge populations that you then pour out into your soil for your plants. Why do you do this? This is done when you don't have high populations naturally, you want to introduce a new kind, or your soil is starting out unhealthy in the first place. Maybe, it was too acidic and you are bringing it back into balance...etc.

Anyway, I think it is good to remember that no matter what kind of soil you have, it should already be teaming with life.

I am sure any soil will benefit from a good tea, but an unhealthy one will benefit the most and show amazing results.

Again, we do this mostly because plants can't pick up a lot of nutrients just from their roots being in the soil. For a lot of things, bacteria have to eat it first and then it becomes available to the plant after the nutrient/bacteria cycle has taken place. So,... if you have healthy soil, you have healthy populations of microbs already. And, they are already doing this with the available nutrients and water in the soil. So, pouring more bacteria over the top of them isn't really going to make a whole lot of difference.

You may consider even more outside of the box ideas such as spraying sugar water or molasses water directly onto the soil. This idea is that you provide a quick energy to the bacteria you already have and they breed fast in huge numbers, thus....creating more food for your plant. Lots of ideas out there. And, I enjoy experimenting with a lot of them.

[Salsacharley]

Aha! I make my tea by putting the ingredients into 2 old socks and submerging them into the bucket, thus keeping the muck inside the socks. That's how I get away with one small air pump. The socks are hung from the sides of the bucket so they don't go anaerobic. I would conclude that my tea is more vibrant since it has very little anaerobic matter in it. I can see how much more densely nutritious the tea would be if all the ingredients were aerobically cultivated together, but then I'd have to jack up my air supply.

I use homemade compost, molasses, Myco Grow, and sometimes I add kelp based Protogrow but that stinks it up.

I plan to use much more tea next spring because I can't rotate my planting.

[Gerardo]

When it comes to worm/compost tea, less is more. Also, the quality of the tea depends on the ingredients.

Initially I threw a lot of things in there, but my recipe has been trimmed down to:

• To 7 gallons of dechlorinated water I add a sprinkle of molasses and start my two medium airstones that come out of a dual EcoAir pump, toss in a light handful of granulated humic acid or if available in liquid form I add a few mL
• One (1) 12 oz. plastic cup's worth of Organics Alive amendment that contains four things: worm castings, vegetable compost, minerals, and kelp. ( http://organicsalivegarden.com/produ...dments-7-cbft/ )
• (Optional) A little bit of alfalfa meal occasionally and that's it.

No sock, no strainer.

What you're after is a bacterial/fungal culture, and hence, very little is needed to start it. Tea is not a fertilizer. I think of it as a supplemental way to get more nutrition into your plants via microbiology.

It's important to give them at least 24+ hrs to multiply, and in some cases up to 36 hrs. They have all the things they need (micronutrients and trace minerals, a carbohydrate source, stable temperature, oxygen, movement) so it's just a matter of waiting them out.

From my experience, after 48 hrs things start to go anaerobic and while the tea may not emanate any odor, when you get to the bottom of the container and take a whiff, that's when you realize it went too long.

I remember reading somewhere from a reputable source that above a threshold concentration, kelp becomes detrimental to the culture.

My suggestion would be to reduce the amount of everything by at least 50%, and the kelp especially to 25% of what you used. Try just about a soda can's worth of compost, same thing with the worm castings, and go light on the other things and see how that brews. You have everything in hand. I've no doubt you'll soon be a brewmaster. Good luck!