Tea Article

[mad librettist]

hh, if you take that as truth, how do you figure the earth went from not having vegetation to having vegetation? all we are talking about is rearranging carbon, not defying the law of conservation of mass and energy.

not to mention, rhizobia aren't the only N fixers around.

 

[Bullfrog44]

Hey guys, anybody ever use bountea tea's? I just used them for the first time today and mixed up a 10 gallon brew. After further reading the instructions the brew is suppose to be cut down by 8:1. Well, 6 hours and 80 gallons later my garden is looking amazing.

 

[h.h.]

If I sell corn to the city, I'm transferring energy from my land to their sewer system which may in turn feed the algae in the ocean. It doesn't go back to my property. We don't work in a natural system. We rearrange nutrients creating an earthly imbalance. If we grew nothing but native vegetation, returned everything to the soil it came from, only then would I believe we could work in a closed loop.

 

[jaykush]

lol no one is disputing that when you sell product you sell fertility. and no where did i say closed loop either. that train of thought is pointless and stupid imo. if you think closed loop you need to think the whole planet, and even still we get "material" from space on a daily basis. so with that mindset you have to think on an even bigger scale, the whole universe. in which material is moved around in various ways forever.

like i said, in a natural system/farm, not a conventional monocrap farm. the natural inputs outweigh the product sold. it can come in more than one form, be it come from a animal source or environmental source. and under each of those there are hundreds of potential inputs.

im also talking outside, if you have a growbox, you have to bring in inputs yourself.

 

[Microbeman]

Hey guys, anybody ever use bountea tea's? I just used them for the first time today and mixed up a 10 gallon brew. After further reading the instructions the brew is suppose to be cut down by 8:1. Well, 6 hours and 80 gallons later my garden is looking amazing.

Rather cryptic. In 6 hours a miraculous transformation? Care to expand?

 

[Bullfrog44]

I was more commenting on the fact that it took me 6 hours to cut gallon after gallon down with pure water. I should have said, "6 hours and 80 gallons later I finally finished applying my tea." Sorry for the confusion. I do have to say that there was a lot of foam and looked really active by eye. No scope here.

Seriously though, anybody use Bountea?

 

[h.h.]

lol no one is disputing that when you sell product you sell fertility. and no where did i say closed loop either. that train of thought is pointless and stupid imo. if you think closed loop you need to think the whole planet, and even still we get "material" from space on a daily basis. so with that mindset you have to think on an even bigger scale, the whole universe. in which material is moved around in various ways forever.

like i said, in a natural system/farm, not a conventional monocrap farm. the natural inputs outweigh the product sold. it can come in more than one form, be it come from a animal source or environmental source. and under each of those there are hundreds of potential inputs.

im also talking outside, if you have a growbox, you have to bring in inputs yourself.

Still you can't take out more than you take in. I said closed loop meaning if nothing goes out, nothing needs to come in. While monocropping is the greater culprit with just about everything going out it's not exclusive.
My definition of "fertilizer" includes anything that directly adds nutes, such as manure.
I guess I could include the whole universe in my concept except we have left relatively little in space while truckload after truckload of nutrition is removed daily from the soil and shipped to the infertile cities. We maintain the balance with chemical ferts. Only when we stop exporting off our land and balance out the nutrition load will we start to entertain the thought of easing our dependence.
Only when the cities have turned to compost.

 

[mad librettist]

Still you can't take out more than you take in. I said closed loop meaning if nothing goes out, nothing needs to come in. While monocropping is the greater culprit with just about everything going out it's not exclusive.
My definition of "fertilizer" includes anything that directly adds nutes, such as manure.
I guess I could include the whole universe in my concept except we have left relatively little in space while truckload after truckload of nutrition is removed daily from the soil and shipped to the infertile cities. We maintain the balance with chemical ferts. Only when we stop exporting off our land and balance out the nutrition load will we start to entertain the thought of easing our dependence.
Only when the cities have turned to compost.

hh, you are confused. just because you don't add does not mean nothing is added. you are confusing nature and fertilizing. in nature farming, fertilizer is at an absolute minimum, for instance fukuoka throwing chicken poop here and there in his rice field.

it used to be that farming improved land year by year. There is enough fertility to support "infertile cities".

 

[cmdo0bie]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading up on compost tea here and elsewhere and am finally posting here. I am a biology student with a particular interest in microbiology and symbiosis so AACT is of interest to me for many reasons. I have a couple questions -- about my own brewer on a budget, and about a tea ingredient.

Being a student, I'm on a very tight budget, and my initial build consists of the Petsmart Topfin 8000 aquarium pump, and 4 airstones). I haven't used a bag, so it is a pain to clean out each time, and biofilm seems to develop on the tubing and airstones which is also a pain to clean off -- I basically have to bleach the thing and rinse it extremely thoroughly each time.

I'm very interested in a air pump lift design for this reason; however, can my measly pump support one? I see most here are supporting the use of real air pumps, but with my budget constraints, I can't get one, but want to continue to brew tea for my garden. I have a 5 gallon paint bucket that I've been using as the container. Any thoughts as to whether or not l the basic $10 design in the other sticky work with this bucket/pump?

My second question is, has anyone used Seaggri Sea90 in their compost tea? http://www.seaagri.com/compost_tea_applications.htm

I've tried it, but haven't had a chance to compare it under a microscope to a batch without it (I work in a lab and have access to the equipment). Once I have a better brewer I think this will be a worthwhile experiment. From what I've read, if it doesn't help increase the biology in the tea itself, the micronutrients should help at different levels of the food web once in the soil. It contains many of the same minerals as azomite but is completely water soluble. I stumbled across this stuff in the organic hydro thread but was more interested it in for remineralization of soil and compost tea.

Best,

cmdo0bie

 

[mapinguari]

Hey cmdo0bie, I can't answer your questions about design, but I hope to learn from your contributions to the thread, what with your science background and lab access. Welcome!

 

[mad librettist]

lose the airstones and make .5-1 gallon brews

 

[jaykush]

cmdo0bie like mad said, scale down and you wont have any problems. you can always dilute the tea for application if you need it. sounds like you just want it to learn from. small batches are perfect for that.

 

[rrog]

So many of the brewers are 15 gallon tanks and larger. I have a small grow and can't imagine I need such a huge tank. Even a 5 gallon tank seems huge. If I'm growing just 3-4 plants, could I rig up a 2 gallon deal? The problem is I have a small army of small air pumps and two big 950GPH Sunleaves. I gather that there is a pump size specific to container size, so I may need a 5 gallon system just to match up to my pump.

 

[jaykush]

you can brew 1 gallon and dilute it to 5. that will be enough for 3-4 medium sized plants. a small pump will be sufficient for 1 gallon brews.

 

[rrog]

Man! I like that answer. Thank you. I have room for a 2 gallon pail or a 5 gallon if someone said I really should, if that's easier. Maybe I'll just rig up the $10 P-Trap per the famous thread. Keep the pipe and Tea level down low around the two gallon mark. Maybe that would keep things tidy.

EDIT: I'll copy Heady's 2 gallon rig, and hope that my 950 GPH pump is not too much.

Thanks

 

[cmdo0bie]

Yep... I scaled down to a gallon at a time, and diluted 1:1 with distilled water. Though I still used my airstones.

mad librettist: If i ditched them, what would you do instead?

 

[Microbeman]

I was more commenting on the fact that it took me 6 hours to cut gallon after gallon down with pure water. I should have said, "6 hours and 80 gallons later I finally finished applying my tea." Sorry for the confusion. I do have to say that there was a lot of foam and looked really active by eye. No scope here.

Seriously though, anybody use Bountea?

Oh okay. I wonder what their big deal is with dilution. Does it list the ingredients?

 

[CT Guy]

Oh okay. I wonder what their big deal is with dilution. Does it list the ingredients?

You shouldn't have to dilute it. "dilution" is just a way to get an even application of the tea over a given surface area. If you can do it with less water, there should be no issues if it's really an aerated compost tea. I apply the stuff straight to my container plants all the time, just did it today in fact both as a soil drench and foliar.

 

[Microbeman]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading up on compost tea here and elsewhere and am finally posting here. I am a biology student with a particular interest in microbiology and symbiosis so AACT is of interest to me for many reasons. I have a couple questions -- about my own brewer on a budget, and about a tea ingredient.

Being a student, I'm on a very tight budget, and my initial build consists of the Petsmart Topfin 8000 aquarium pump, and 4 airstones). I haven't used a bag, so it is a pain to clean out each time, and biofilm seems to develop on the tubing and airstones which is also a pain to clean off -- I basically have to bleach the thing and rinse it extremely thoroughly each time.

I'm very interested in a air pump lift design for this reason; however, can my measly pump support one? I see most here are supporting the use of real air pumps, but with my budget constraints, I can't get one, but want to continue to brew tea for my garden. I have a 5 gallon paint bucket that I've been using as the container. Any thoughts as to whether or not l the basic $10 design in the other sticky work with this bucket/pump?

My second question is, has anyone used Seaggri Sea90 in their compost tea? http://www.seaagri.com/compost_tea_applications.htm

I've tried it, but haven't had a chance to compare it under a microscope to a batch without it (I work in a lab and have access to the equipment). Once I have a better brewer I think this will be a worthwhile experiment. From what I've read, if it doesn't help increase the biology in the tea itself, the micronutrients should help at different levels of the food web once in the soil. It contains many of the same minerals as azomite but is completely water soluble. I stumbled across this stuff in the organic hydro thread but was more interested it in for remineralization of soil and compost tea.

Best,

cmdo0bie

What organisms have you observed in your batches you have brewed with your setup? Have you checked the dissolved oxygen levels? I'd be interested to hear the effects using the Sea 90 stuff. Please let us know.

Eveybody; Can someone tell me really, what is the difference between AACT & ACT?

 

[CT Guy]

Eveybody; Can someone tell me really, what is the difference between AACT & ACT?

The name is the only difference as far as I'm concerned. You can all it what you want, ACT, AACT, Microbe Tea, VermiT (poor example), etc....

I just think people get confused between "nutrient" teas and ACT. One is to add nutrients to feed existing biological populations in the soil, the latter is to add additional beneficial biology to your soil or leaf surface.