Pasteurize Manure before Making Tea?

[bower]

Just don't let her catch you chewin that stuff!

[Worth1]

Here she is now with another load.
My grandmother dressed like that.

[Cole_Robbie]

To update this thread, the manure tea showed a lot of promise. I watered one tray of Fox Farm seed starting mix with the tea, and another with water. Both trays had 100% germination, but the one watered with tea germinated and grew faster. It was on its second set of leaves when the other seedlings still had just two. The difference was very noticeable.

The bucket of tea is still bubbling away in my kitchen. I now have a rooted cutting in it, a house plant called Wandering Jew. It's doing fine, but considering its previous home all summer has been one of my cat's outdoor water dishes, I don't think it's that picky.

It seems to be a consensus view that the tea is best only after a short brewing. You're supposed to make frequent new batches. I don't really understand that, though. I wonder if I could keep a constant brew going if I grew a live plant in it. That would live the bacterial/fungal organisms a constant source of food and a place to live.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

It seems to be a consensus view that the tea is best only after a short brewing. You're supposed to make frequent new batches. I don't really understand that, though. I wonder if I could keep a constant brew going if I grew a live plant in it. That would live the bacterial/fungal organisms a constant source of food and a place to live.

I have a microscope that I use just to keep an eye on things while brewing!
The maximum time I've allowed the brew to go is 48 hours. After that higher life forms appear and eat the smaller stuff. I assume that means it's not as active and beneficial, also it can run out of food (sugars)very quickly.
I would suggest 36 hours as being optimum, but a lot can depend on the original recipe.

[Cole_Robbie]

I'm sure I'll do it that way when I use the tea on greenhouse plants in the spring. www.kelp4less.com has a lot of neat stuff to tinker with a tea recipe. I'm thinking I will try fulvic and humic acids, kelp, and maybe a pinch of bat guano to go along with the molasses and manure.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

I'm sure I'll do it that way when I use the tea on greenhouse plants in the spring. www.kelp4less.com has a lot of neat stuff to tinker with a tea recipe. I'm thinking I will try fulvic and humic acids, kelp, and maybe a pinch of bat guano to go along with the molasses and manure.

Might I suggest you visit here https://logicalgardener.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=41
this is a forum of Compost tea brewing. The article does not advise the use of humic acids!
At the bottom of the page is a link to "Suppressive effect of non-aerated compost teas on foliar fungal pathogens of tomato" using a variety of manures, which I think you'll find interesting. I certainly will be looking seriously at the Gray mould preventative for next year.

[RayR]

A good compost will have enough humic acids in it for bacteria and fungi to use so adding a commercial humic acid preparation is not necessary or may even have a negative effect as was mentioned.
One issue with humic acid products is the extraction method that is used. If the extraction uses a strong acid or base the humic acids are denatured and cannot be used immediately by bacteria and fungi. Dr. Elaine Ingham wrote about this a few months ago in the Compost Teas, The Soil Food Web & Soils Yahoo Group. It can take many months for any denatured humic acids to become bioactive again.
You can ask Kelp4Less for more information on extraction methods that are used in humic acid products they sell but from my experience they are not very forthcoming with technical details.
I would suggest going over to bioag.com and read about their products. They have a lot of good information on humic and fulvic acids and their extraction methods which do not include chemical extraction with strong acids or bases. Their Ful-Humix soluble powder would be a good choice if you want quality humic/fulvic acid product to experiment with.

[Cole_Robbie]

Thanks for the link. A simple manure & molasses recipe might be best.

I haven't seen anything yet on starting the tea with fish tank water. I just bought a reverse osmosis filter, so I can start with pure water. But I wonder if RO water that a tank of goldfish have lived in for a while would be even better. Fish tank water seems to be great for plants; I wonder if it would make good tea.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Thanks for the link. A simple manure & molasses recipe might be best.

I haven't seen anything yet on starting the tea with fish tank water. I just bought a reverse osmosis filter, so I can start with pure water. But I wonder if RO water that a tank of goldfish have lived in for a while would be even better. Fish tank water seems to be great for plants; I wonder if it would make good tea.

I used tank water, (turtle not fish) 2 years ago. It worked fantastic in making my tea. There really was a noticeable difference between that and the other tea I made with just tap water. But now keep in mind I don't foliar spray compost tea. I use it when transplanting seedlings and that's it. So your results may vary.

[Cole_Robbie]

A grower of giant pumpkins shares his tea recipes:
http://www.starrfarms.net/composttea.htm

[Cole_Robbie]

I heated two pans in the oven at 200 for an hour, one of the manure compost and the other of some old rotted hay from the outside of the bale. I repotted a house plant in a mix of the two...and now I have weed seeds sprouting up.

Maybe I'll try 225 for two hours? 200 should have been hot enough to kill everything. I don't know if the oven dial isn't accurate or if the middle of the pan is not reaching a high enough temperature.

[Zenbaas]

So how much molasses for a 6 gallon container..? One table spoon..? Also should two aquarium pumps be enough for the aeration?

[Gerardo]

Originally Posted by Zenbaas

So how much molasses for a 6 gallon container..? One table spoon..? Also should two aquarium pumps be enough for the aeration?

The logical gardener (#36 above has link) recommends 0.5 to 0.75 % for molasses, so for your 6 gallon container, roughly 22,700 mL, by his reqs you add over 100 mL, so that's over 6 tbsp. At most I do 2-3 tbsp per 7 gallon brew, otherwise they don't go through it in the 36 hours and the molasses smell is still somewhat strong at the end. But by the same token, I've been using some products that contain molasses and kelp and once they're diluted and ready for use, they smell about the same as the strong-molasses tea. So I guess what I'm saying is extra molasses doesn't seem to hurt the plants or the brew.

My little dual outlet pump does 128 GPH and it diffuses plenty of oxygen. I use a medium air stone on each tube. I've placed both airstones in one bucket (no difference) and an airstone each for two buckets and it brews just fine.

Just remember in the case of compost/worm teas, less is more.

A sprinkle of alfalfa meal and peat moss (for extra variety of critters) rounds things out nicely.

[Zenbaas]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

About a tablespoon for a 5-gallon bucket. One dual-output air pump will work. Two might be better, but not required.

Originally Posted by Gerardo

The logical gardener (#36 above has link) recommends 0.5 to 0.75 % for molasses, so for your 6 gallon container, roughly 22,700 mL, by his reqs you add over 100 mL, so that's over 6 tbsp. At most I do 2-3 tbsp per 7 gallon brew, otherwise they don't go through it in the 36 hours and the molasses smell is still somewhat strong at the end. But by the same token, I've been using some products that contain molasses and kelp and once they're diluted and ready for use, they smell about the same as the strong-molasses tea. So I guess what I'm saying is extra molasses doesn't seem to hurt the plants or the brew.

My little dual outlet pump does 128 GPH and it diffuses plenty of oxygen. I use a medium air stone on each tube. I've placed both airstones in one bucket (no difference) and an airstone each for two buckets and it brews just fine.

Just remember in the case of compost/worm teas, less is more.

A sprinkle of alfalfa meal and peat moss (for extra variety of critters) rounds things out nicely.

Thanks...! I have some sphagnum peat moss that I've had for about 2 years so I'm not so sure if that will still have any life left in it. I only have single outlet pumps so I'll just connect two up at once. Looking forward to trying this out.

[Gerardo]

Originally Posted by Zenbaas

I have some sphagnum peat moss that I've had for about 2 years so I'm not so sure if that will still have any life left in it..

The little guys are real hardy.