A Basic Compost Tea Guide

[jcj77d]

jcj77d,

Longer answer would be that it may not be terribly beneficial to grow out the fungi, but it's not going to hurt anything. I see yeast cells in my compost tea all the time. Would I intentionally add baker's yeast to my recipe? Probably not...

thanks

 

[simonh]

Does anyone know how long I can keep a compost / Guano Tea Brewing (with Airstone)

My Grow is at different stages as are the plants watering needs so ideally I'd like to make a Tea, start using it after 2 days, keep it brewing and use the rest over the course of one week

Are there any issues with this (ie leaving it for up to a week) I should be aware of / any negative side effects etc ??

Thanks

 

[santasapimp]

im brewing a teaspoon of ewc and a teaspoon of molasses in about a 1L (half a 2L pop bottle) with my airstone

do i need to dilute for seedlings?

 

[fadahigh]

seedlings dont really need ferts and you could dilute it to about 2 parts of water to one part tea but it sounds fine as is.(molases encourages males in seedlings though)

 

[fadahigh]

simonh , the tea can be kept indefinately as long as it is aerated mechanicaly be it by water fall, air pump or shaking. A good test is to smell the tea, any foul oder is a sign that it has gone bad but the guano and compost should have it smelling sweet. You can also add molases to increase the aeration and sweet smell

 

[mrred]

i wouldnt go no more than 3 days, i started using my teas right after mixing up to 3 days now. , i'd suggest making them in smaller batches

 

[CT Guy]

simonh , the tea can be kept indefinately as long as it is aerated mechanicaly be it by water fall, air pump or shaking. A good test is to smell the tea, any foul oder is a sign that it has gone bad but the guano and compost should have it smelling sweet. You can also add molases to increase the aeration and sweet smell

My experience with brewing for longer than 40 hours is that you will see monocultures in you tea. That means, you'll see the same morphology of flagellates and bacteria, the fungi will most likely go away as it gets parasitized by the bacteria. In my opinion, the whole point of aerated teas is to add a good quantity and diversity of micro-organisms. If you're brewing too long, you no longer will have the diversity present in your tea.

 

[CT Guy]

im brewing a teaspoon of ewc and a teaspoon of molasses in about a 1L (half a 2L pop bottle) with my airstone

do i need to dilute for seedlings?

I'd halve the amount of molasses and increase the EWC to 2-3 tablespoons. Haven't tested it, but it seems like a better amount to me.

 

[simonh]

My experience with brewing for longer than 40 hours is that you will see monocultures in you tea. That means, you'll see the same morphology of flagellates and bacteria, the fungi will most likely go away as it gets parasitized by the bacteria. In my opinion, the whole point of aerated teas is to add a good quantity and diversity of micro-organisms. If you're brewing too long, you no longer will have the diversity present in your tea.

Thanks !

 

[TommyTwoTokes]

Hey guys, I just mix up a batch of tea. Id like some input to see how this will work.
I mixed roughly 3 litres of rain water with 4 heaping table spoons of EWC (no nylon/sock) 1 teaspoon corn syrup ( no blackstrap in sight ) 1 teaspoon kelp meal and a pinch of jersey greensand.
Anyone see any problems with this?
GREAT thread V.
thanks guys

 

[TommyTwoTokes]

A quick question: I switched to a different brand of EWC this time around. I brewed a tea which smelled like it should yet had no foam. I didnt use molasses as I didnt have any, so corn syrup was all I had.
Temps during brewing were around 66-68 degrees.
Is this an indication the EWC being dormant or unusable?
I watered it in 2:1 water to tea tonight. I also used a small piece of 3/8" pipe bent in a u to hold the air stone on the bottom. Could this be a reason for no foam?
Sorry this is my first ACT attempt, so im a little unsure.

 

[Trichgnomes]

Foam is not necessarily an indication of microbial activity. My last tea I used fresh vermicast from my bin, using a tried and true recipe, and there was little to no foam when I deemed it done. You should be using a high quality air pump (unless you are doing 1 gallon or less batches)
My brewer

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Definitely check out Trichgnomes link to the brewer that he built. Pretty amazing piece of work.

CC

 

[TommyTwoTokes]

Thanks Trichgnome and CC.
I brewed 3 litres with a decent aquarium pump that has two outlets bridged into one airstone. Good amount of air being pumped in.
Very nice build by the way Trichgnome.

I have a duel outlet pump which puts out 1.5 litres per minute at 1.75 psi
So 3 litres per minute (180 per hour) at 3.5 psi if I bridge two outlets into one line.
Is this sufficient for 1 gallon (max) batches?
This is the pump I used yesterday and had no foam at all when it was finished.

 

[Microbeman]

Thanks Trichgnome and CC.
I brewed 3 litres with a decent aquarium pump that has two outlets bridged into one airstone. Good amount of air being pumped in.
Very nice build by the way Trichgnome.

I have a duel outlet pump which puts out 1.5 litres per minute at 1.75 psi
So 3 litres per minute (180 per hour) at 3.5 psi if I bridge two outlets into one line.
Is this sufficient for 1 gallon (max) batches?
This is the pump I used yesterday and had no foam at all when it was finished.

According to tests I ran 0.05 CFM/gal is the minimum air flow needed to generate 6PPM dissolved O2 in compost tea and 0.08 and higher is optimum. Using your figures;

1.5 LPM = 0.053 CFM

0.05 cfm/gal minimum
0.053/0.05 = 1.06 gal is the minimum size container you'd want to use
AND
0.08+ cfm/gal optimum
0.053/0.08 = .66 gal is the optimum amout of water to use when brewing aerated compost tea
BUT
because your figures include PSI resistance and I use open flow, you may get optimum efficiency at 1 gallon

ALSO
If you are sure that ganging the two outlets doubles the air flow then you may be able to go over a gallon. With pumps I've taken apart and measured the flow this has not been the case. The combined flow was still equal to the rated flow.

Have fun

 

[TommyTwoTokes]

Thanks Microbeman. Excellent information.
last time I used 3 litres (approx)
As you said Im not exactly sure if ganging the two outlets into one will exactly double the flow rate, but I can tell you seeing the before and after there is a very noticeable increase in bubbles from the airstone. There is an increase but no way to measure exactly.

On the Hagen website the Elite 802 specs say 1500cc/min x2 (outlets) 1.75psi x2 etc...
Then again what do I know? Im a new guy. lol.
I had basically zero foam at around 68 degrees @ 24 hours brew time.
bad castings?

Thanks again mucho helpo!

 

[simonh]

hi,

I just made my normal flowering tea:

2L distilled water
20g Compost
20g Worm C
10g Sea Bird Guano
10g Bat Guano

Brewed for two days with two airstones

Then I gave two plants 1 litre each (more or less) and noticed when feeding a slight 'poo' smell that I never noticed before

Not really thinking I went ahead and fed the plants and now a few hours later then smell in the grow room smells a bit like diarrhea

Never had this before and now thinking......

WHAT HAVE I JUST DONE

is it possible for a batch of tea to be 'bad' ??

plants look ok at the moment

do I need to flush ?
what went wrong ?

Thanks

 

[guest2012y]

This may be difficult to explain from my POV because I know when it smells "good" after about 24 hours,to some it may smell bad if you are not used to the smell,when actually it may be good.
When it goes anerobic(sp?) usually because I didn't use it in time,the smell is of death.
Get rid of it...not worth the trouble. Start over.

 

[simonh]

thanks but I already used it - what problems may I have just given myself ?????

 

[guest2012y]

thanks but I already used it - what problems may I have just given myself ?????

I'm not a tea pro,but I'm sure it's not good. Wouldn't freak out yet,ask someone who is a tea pro.