calling all organic heads for the ultimate tea

[Zealious]

Hey.

The mission is to have a light compost tea brewing 24/7

Basicly I have a small closet grow and I just use a 25gal or so trash can in my room to store water... I keep it aerated and I would love to turn it into a 24 7 compost tea.. if its even possible..

Ive tried brewing teas for a long time and it usualy go anarobic on me and stinky..

is there any way to do this?

 

[vonforne]

There is a good tea article that CTguy wrote in he organic reference library. Check it out. it is a good read. And it is best to use your tea fresh. a 24\7 brew will not work.

And you could visit the Soil Food Web Inc. http://www.soilfoodweb.com/sfi_approach1.html

V

 

[Metatron]

just because its ultimate doesn't mean its got secret ingredients. because of the different nute regimens for different life cycles there is no ONE tea, the basic catch all in my notes is ewc, molasses, and whatever else you need depending on the life cycle.

as in 24/7 tea, all around consensus is once you make it use, you can't store it. don't hold me to it but a professional brew kit states you can refrigerate their tea and use it indefinitely, new experiment possibly?

 

[CT Guy]

It's best to have a set brewing cycle and not try for a continuous brew. However, you could do a continuous brew if you had the knowledge and the microscope, but it would involve adding compost and additional food resources and constantly checking the tea to make sure you're maintaining diversity and O2 levels. There's no real advantage to it in my opinion, as you'll have the greatest diversity and microbial activity somewhere between 20-36 hours, depending on your brewer and recipe.

I have yet to see an aerated compost tea that can be refrigerated. How can these aerobic microbes maintain activity without using up all the O2 in the water? Certain microbes are going to be more successful at consuming resources/other microbes and will soon come to dominate the tea, leading to monocultures/limited species of microbes.

The companies that I've found that claim you can refrigerate your tea or use it over a period of time haven't done any real testing or microscopy. Maybe there is someone out there that's discovered a way to force these organisms into dormancy and then bring them back into an active state without significant loss, but I have yet to see it. Keep in mind that organics is like any other field and there's always people making claims that they can't support, just to sell their product.

I've tested "instant compost teas" where all you do is add water, and have yet to find one that had any real microbial activity, yet people will still buy them and claim they are making a good compost tea.

 

[Microbeman]

What CT guy said

 

[big ballin 88]

I used to culture and isolate mushrooms under sterile conditions and this has just made me think of something. However this is not something i know much about.

I still have some isolations in a solution of cornsyrup/water, but it was sterilized which is in my freezer that is still alive and kicking. It has been around 8 months and i just pulled it out to check it and the colony still looks good.

Is there any reason that i can't try and culture AM under my flowhood? I know its gonna be a lot of work since the others we consider beneficial to soil can be nasty(trichoderma and bacillus) for isolation and fungi cultures. Anyone? I'm thinking about taking some of the hyphae from the top of the soil that i see poking through.

 

[Zealious]

yea this is on the highly unlikely list.. i guess if some 1 had a lab and developed a tea kit in various sizes that used time release molases and time release ewc to make a tea last longer than 1 day..

hmm.

 

[JWP]

I would keep it simple.
Just use organic compost & hummus. Add some manure if you dont think its strong enough

 

[CT Guy]

I would keep it simple.
Just use organic compost & hummus. Add some manure if you dont think its strong enough

Please don't add manure. Keep in mind that a compost tea is for providing active biology to your soil, with the nutrients being primarily locked up in the bodies of the microbes. Manure is not a good option in this regard, as it contains pathogens that could potentially be cultured or grown out in the tea. It's better avoided in the use of compost teas. (though once composted, it's fine to use)

 

[Organi-class]

guano... itty bitty titty bit here and there has done magic in teas

 

[Microbeman]

guano... itty bitty titty bit here and there has done magic in teas

When making a statement like this it would be nice to see some base of substantiation and some qualification. Otherwise it is similar to someone saying horse, pig or chicken shit.

 

[Montana]

IMO there is no way around this, just make a batch, use it up, and put another batch on.....just use a smaller container beside your trash can of water for tea.

I've smelled what happens when tea is more than a few days old

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Kudos to CT Guy and Microbeman - I use some EWC, organic compost and old forest humus for my teas along with some kelp meal, humic acid and some rock phosphate.

It works far better than bottled 'nutrients' from Blow-Me and Suck-Me-Off and the other 'indoor garden store' line of products.

YMMV

CC