I added a scoop of my EW bin bedding to an ACT and wow

[Bennyweed1]

So I started a worm bin about 2-3 months ago and slowly been adding veggies, card board, dead/dry MMJ leafs, azomite and rock powders to it. Everything gets eaten.

I finally tried putting a small scoop (maybe 1cup) into my ACT. I usually brew with store bought EWC, Kelp, alflafa, and molasses and get really nice foaming. Nothing to question whether or not it is alive.

When I added the scoop of EW bin bedding, the foam exploded like a volcano. lol. I came back like 12 hours to check things after mixing and I could clearly see it bubbled over. Made a big mess! It was still foaming like mad.

I kept all ingredients the same and only added the EW bedding material.

I can not wait to use this ACT! In another 24 hrs ill give it a try.

 

[Bennyweed1]

I gave it a last night stir to mix the bottom sediment all around.

The smell is noticeably different. It is extremely more earthy/pound like smelling. Really fresh, thats for sure.

This is perfect because one of my plants in flower is starting to yellow. I want to see if the ACT helps and improves it.


Store bought castings for sure are not nearly as active as fresh material from the bin itself! I know for some people that own a home or have land that is a no brainer. But people like myself whom dont have the option of making a outdoor compost pile ext, a small indoor bin pays off huge. And works really well.

I didnt think this bin would equate to much. Kind of like one of those throw it together projects and hope for the best. Well it is really taking off and decomposing at a pretty nice and steady rate.

In the 2-3 months since starting it, I probably have added 2 plastic grocery bags full of chopped used up veggies.

I've noticed my worms love broccoli, banana peals, and spinach. As I poke around in there, I see a ton of tiny new worms along with big ones which sometimes scare the shit outta me when they catch me off guard! They move kinda quick.

I tossed in the top part of a pineapple in there about 45-50 days ago and it is now just starting to really break down. As I turn stuff over I can clearly see different type of molds. I have no idea what kind but I assume they are real good....haha.. Really white/grey and fuzzy.

I didnt think this bin was going thrive so I didnt really make a bottom to all catch the liquid by product stuff. I only drilled holes in the bottom of the bin. Well I noticed my concrete floor starting to collect water and for the longest time I didnt really have much concern. It was a real tiny amount until it started to increase and increase in size (I have an old basement that has a leaky foundation so when it rains a few moisture spots are normal, but they evaporate quickly).....then it came to me! The shit was coming from the worm bin I half assed! hahaha sure enough I go trace it back and low and behold, its the bin. I need to buy another tote and simply double stack them to catch that liquid.

I think sometime this week Im going to do another azomite, rock mineral dusting....and probably some kelp too? You think dry molasses would be a good or bad idea?

Anyway, im super stoked about this bin! If anything I want to increase the size of it now!

 

[OrganicBuds]

Love it! Fresh casting is the shit!

 

[h.h.]

Good use of limited space.
I throw about everything in the bin including some dried out molasses I had.
I've divided the bin into 2.
One gets all the good stuff, kelp, the molasses, trimmings.... The other mostly yard waste. One's for quality, the other for quantity.
Picking up a couple loads of horse manure today. Everybody is growing pot, few are making castings.
Castings make for good karma. Give somebody a bucket of castings and they're back in a short while saying "here, try this" A little more karma and I can quit growing...not.

 

[Buddah Watcha]

Worm bins kick ass!

Started with 1, not much later had 3 setup. If you are using the rubbermaid as one, you can stack them up and save some space. The lid cover from the bottom one act as a tray catcher

Also, if your bin is getting to wet, you can mix things up a bit and add some dry cardboard to soak up the moisture! You don't want things to go anaerobic, so give a good mix every 2 weeks or so!

After 3 months the population should increase significantly! That's a good time to start a new one by transferring a bunch of worms to a new one!

They give you one of the best organic nutrients for free, can't beat it! Try mixing a tablespoon or 2 to a gallon of water and some molasses and shaking it up if you are lazy to brew a tea! Works wonders!

Peace!

 

[supermanlives]

my bin is next to my act brewer for convienence

 

[Bennyweed1]

I just soaked all four plants in the ACT until I had a small bit of run off coming out.

My ceramic stone in this tea seems to like it has became a colonization ground. I is for sure not pumping out as many bubbles as it was yesterday and the diaphragm in my air pump is noticeably loaded today. I assume it means its working harder to send the air through the stone. Thats a good thing in my eyes and a strong indication of heavy life multiplication.

My best advice to ceramic stone users is to let the stones completely dry out between uses. I use the sun sometimes to bake all the crud off the stones.

Works like a champ 20% of the time everytime....

 

[heady blunts]

congrats on harvesting your own castings. that's always exciting.

i have to clear up some myths that popped up:

first of all, foaming is not an indicator of biological activity, although that is a common misconception. it is an indicator of saponin levels (no effect positive or negative on your brew). to cut down on the foam, use fish hydrolysate, the oils will help tame it. in a pinch you can use a little vegetable oil.

next up, don't expect act to reverse "premature" yellowing. you could try top dressing your castings, as they have some nitrogen content. however, if you trust your soil, there's a good chance your yellowing is right on time with the plant's natural life cycle. trying to force feed the plant when it is choosing to reduce its nutrient uptake is impractical.

in general, acidic fruits are to be avoided in the bin, especially citrus. this is why your pineapple is taking a long time to break down.

air stones are generally ill-suited for ACT, and only the high end bonded glass ones will provide any long-term usefulness in your brewer (and even then only with lots of scrubbing after every brew). i'm not sure leaving your ceramic stone in the sun is doing much to unclog it.

last thing is regarding the liquid that runs out of your worm bin. this is called compost leachate, and it does not contain the biology or nutrients of the castings. it is best used by pouring it down drain.

if you use animal manure to boost your castings, the leachate may be a vector for pathogens, and using on consumable crops should definitely be avoided.

check out the ACT brewer sticky and microbeorganics.com for lots more useful information.

keep it brewin'!

 

[Bennyweed1]

congrats on harvesting your own castings. that's always exciting.

i have to clear up some myths that popped up:

first of all, foaming is not an indicator of biological activity, although that is a common misconception. it is an indicator of saponin levels (no effect positive or negative on your brew). to cut down on the foam, use fish hydrolysate, the oils will help tame it. in a pinch you can use a little vegetable oil.

next up, don't expect act to reverse "premature" yellowing. you could try top dressing your castings, as they have some nitrogen content. however, if you trust your soil, there's a good chance your yellowing is right on time with the plant's natural life cycle. trying to force feed the plant when it is choosing to reduce its nutrient uptake is impractical.

in general, acidic fruits are to be avoided in the bin, especially citrus. this is why your pineapple is taking a long time to break down.

air stones are generally ill-suited for ACT, and only the high end bonded glass ones will provide any long-term usefulness in your brewer (and even then only with lots of scrubbing after every brew). i'm not sure leaving your ceramic stone in the sun is doing much to unclog it.

last thing is regarding the liquid that runs out of your worm bin. this is called compost leachate, and it does not contain the biology or nutrients of the castings. it is best used by pouring it down drain.

if you use animal manure to boost your castings, the leachate may be a vector for pathogens, and using on consumable crops should definitely be avoided.

check out the ACT brewer sticky and microbeorganics.com for lots more useful information.

keep it brewin'!

Thats a good chuck in info right there ^^^ I kinda feel like a newb now. lol Thanks heady for all the good info!

That liquid 'compost leachate'...I always thought it was awesome. My grandma has been using it since I can remember on her tomatoes and sunflowers. Thats why I always assumed. haha damn.

As far as the ceramic stones go, I spent a ridiculous amount of money on these things (ignorance). They are high end but I probably could have built an elite brewer for the same price. Ya gotta start somewhere right?? When I have my own house I want to do all that.

Thanks again for the solid information +rep man!

 

[Bennyweed1]

I wanted to show this simple little project I whipped together that is proving to be worth its weight in gold.

I made a homemade spaghetti sauce and used portabella mushrooms. I had a good amount left over so I decided to let my friends downstairs have a bite.

Also chopped up the last bits of older veggies in my fridge.

yummy!

spoiled worms.......

a little mix of veggies to blend with me second application of azomite, kelp, green sand, rock phosphates, and molasses

The worm lounge

Worm bins are like a saving account IMO. The longer you invest into them, the higher percent return you get back. Peace.

 

[heady blunts]

hmm well i'm not super familiar with high end ceramic stones, because after experimenting with a few diff air stones, i decided it was either use new disposable air stones for every brew, or look for a diff aeration method.

you probably got better ones than i had, but based on your comment that your air pump sounds like it's workin pretty hard at the end of a brew, it sounds like they're still getting clogged.

i haven't tried the bonded glass ones, but i hear they are durable and easier to clean.

i'd encourage you to make an air lift when your'e ready to upgrade. according to microbeman, airlifts are extremely efficient at increasing dissolved oxygen levels in your brews.

while we're on the subject, what pump are you using and in how much water?

 

[Bennyweed1]

hmm well i'm not super familiar with high end ceramic stones, because after experimenting with a few diff air stones, i decided it was either use new disposable air stones for every brew, or look for a diff aeration method.

you probably got better ones than i had, but based on your comment that your air pump sounds like it's workin pretty hard at the end of a brew, it sounds like they're still getting clogged.

i haven't tried the bonded glass ones, but i hear they are durable and easier to clean.

i'd encourage you to make an air lift when your'e ready to upgrade. according to microbeman, airlifts are extremely efficient at increasing dissolved oxygen levels in your brews.

while we're on the subject, what pump are you using and in how much water?

These ceramic stones I bought were like $35 bucks a piece. I know now I paid way to much lol but they do their job well. Only down side is I have to clean them a little every brew and that mainly consist of letting them completely dry out then using a brillo pad under steaming hot water for about 60secs each.

My air pump is nothing fancy at all but she does her job. I can tell I will be needing a new one soon and I want to get something really nice but I want it to be quiet. The little piece I have now sounds like a small weed whacker..haha. I think she is on her last days.

Its a 7.8L/m, dual output pump.

I use two 5g buckets and one ceramic stone in each. So 3.9L/m o2 for each 5g bucket. I only use 4g of water though so I have enough space to contain everything.

 

[h.h.]

Saponins, depending on source, IMO, can have an effect on your brew. At the very least, they help it to cling in foliar. They cling to the dirt better. Many have steroidal, antibacterial, and antifuhgal qualities.
Not necessarily a bad thing as there are bacteria and fungus we don't want. In my unscientific, nonmicroscopic world, I find teas don't turn as easily while still being effective. They've been shown to decrease certain bacteria when feed to farm animals, thus reducing the smell of the manure. It's soap. True the research is on animals and I can only guess at my anecdotal evidence.
It can be a bitch to get through a sprayer. Some who use yucca, add it at the end to keep the foam down. I do the opposite and deal with it.
I've used yucca and agave together and had shaving cream floating over the tea. Thick foam.
You do get more bubbles from decomposed material. Not as much a direct result of CO2 from the microlife, but more as a result of of a good active compost where they're more easily released. While they're not what we think they are they can be a good sign. On the other hand, the lack of bubbles can simply mean there are few saponins in the source.
Be happy if you see them, don't worry if you don't.
I always suggest yucca as a saponin source. I've found it most effective, though I have a good free source. Apparently you have a good source going to your worms.Perhaps you can explore that a bit and help shine a light on this under studied subject.
Let's put the question out there...Do bubbly teas preform better as a whole?
As far as a diffuser, for small amounts, I just put the end of the air hose in a piece of PVC and fill it full of fibrous stuff using all my hoses in the same bucket.

 

[Microbeman]

On foam, it can be an indicator of proteins being generated in the water from bacterial division and this is how the whole concept that a brew is finished when there is foam got started. I and others, therefore checked this out carefully via microscopy and found that there could just as easily be microbial life, with or without foam.

Bennyweed; if you wish to make a higher quality ACT, that is maintaining the correct rate of dissolved oxygen, I suggest you get a higher output pump or brew smaller amounts

7.8 liter/minute = 0.275 454 396 46 cubic foot/minute [min requirements to maintain dissolved O2 at 6 PPM = 0.05 CFM per gallon and 0.08 CFM per gallon for optimum results]
[there are exceptions if using an airlift]

Therefore 0.275 ~ 0.05 = 5.5 gal maximum and 0.275 ~ 0.08 = 3.4 gal optimum

You are within a good range when you use one 4 gallon container. I don't know if you are using a mesh bag or not but I recommend building a PVC diffuser as described here;

4/ Bubble Blowers; There are 2 basic styles of commercial bubble blower CT brewers. What I mean by bubble blowers, is that their function depends on just that; blowing bubbles into the water, into a mesh extractor or both. They do not actively move the water, aside from the effect of the bubbles. Because of this, I find it a paradox that they refer to their units as AACT (actively aerated compost tea) brewers to separate themselves from only, aerated compost tea (ACT) brewers, which supposedly just blow air into water. This remains a mystery unto me. I won’t name these brewers because they include almost every commercial brewer available, except mine of course, which should be separated from those by being called an AAACT brewer (giggle). No offense; just kidding around.

Anyway, back to business. A very simple method you can use to make an aerated CT brewer is to use some rigid PVC thin walled pipe (not schedule 40 because it is difficult to make tiny holes in) of approximately ½ inch to ¾ inch size. Rigid pipe is better than flex pipe because it holds its shape, can be cleaned more easily and is easier to drill and saw. Use a straight piece which is approximately as long as your proposed tank is high, joined to a 90* elbow, then following the dimensional circumference of the bottom of your tank build a roughly round hexagon or octagon or whateveragon alternating with PVC fittings (45* or 11*, 22* to 30* if you can find them http://pvcfittings.com ) and short lengths of pipe, terminating just before you hit the elbow which the long pipe slides into. Over the end of this last piece of pipe in your whateveragon slide a cap. None of this needs to be glued (usually) because we are not dealing with high pressure and the whole thing can be taken apart for easy cleaning. We now need three more things. An air supply, an air input interface with the pipe and diffusers. A diffuser is an interface between air and water which ‘diffuses’ of course, air into the water. No matter what name people give it, like orifice or air stone, hole, slit or slot, it is still a diffuser. The smaller the diffuser opening within the capacity of the air pump to push air through easily, the greater the efficiency at raising and maintaining the dissolved oxygen. Therefore you want to put the smallest holes or slits possible at intervals in the short pieces of pipe you used to construct your whateveragon. If you have an electric drill you can drill 1/16th inch holes. You can try cutting slits with a razor knife or very fine hack saw or other blade. A hacksaw cuts around 1000 microns width. I get machined slots which are 254 microns. Make your openings so they are coming out the bottom angled towards the center to begin with. (The pipe is not glued so you can rotate them). For your first trial only put a few air openings in each length of pipe (e.g. 2” spaces). We want the air traveling all the way to the end of the whateveragon. Now to try it out, I guess we better get some air happening.

First of all, for your air input you need to match air tubing with your air pump and get a threaded barbed fitting that the tubing fits over and a slip X female threaded coupling to go over your long straight piece of PVC pipe which goes down and joins to your whateveragon. This, you may need to glue.
I have provided a rudimentary representative sketch to help illustrate the basic construction >click here

http://www.microbeorganics.com/#So_You_Wanna_Build_A_Compost_Tea_Brewer

On the leachate, I believe that Von uses it in his ACT and has not encountered negatives and there is probably nothing wrong with topdressing it [preferably on outdoor gardens]. You can also dump it back into the bin if it needs any moisture but in all cases use it while it is fresh.

 

[supermanlives]

i use an airstone and an air lift

 

[h.h.]

i use an airstone and an air lift

So you don't really fly?

 

[Bennyweed1]

Damn guys...I've been reading up on the air lifts in my free time.

Air lifts look superb and it looks as though they may help keep the damn foam down! I then can use my ceramics just to aerate my resv of RO/DI.

Im going to continue brewing in a 5g bucket because it is all I need. I still end up with extra tea at the end and dont know what to do with it ever. I cant let it sit because it'll go anaerobe.

So I need to figure out what size pump I should use so I dont have a fire hydrant effect. Im thinking a 20w 35LPM output pump but want to double check with some of you professional brewers.

Thanks again everyone. Im so damn glad ICmag exists. Im lucky too have grown up in a area that has had bountiful resources online. I think about you guys that started in the 60s-70s-even 80s; how you shared information, how you learned new techniques, how you discovered new gear and growing methods.

Its pretty awesome IMO where we came from and where we are now.

ICmag is literally a technical information repository.

 

[Sean Price]

I think worms that make castings commercially are fed simple crap like peat moss and newspaper...Kinda like people who eat Ramen all the time..unhealthy at best.

 

[heady blunts]

i use two 5w pumps to do 4 gal at a time. it's the bare minimum. 20w for 5 gal should work real nice

@SP- you're right about the commercial worm food. also lots of horse crap. another issue is that in some of the bigger brands you get a pretty large percentage of bedding material, and only a small percentage of finished castings.

there's a small worm-casting farm in my town and i get 0.75 cubic feet for $10. not cheap, but at least they're 100% finished castings made from mostly vegetable scraps. awesome texture, and so far it performs well when i need more than my little worm farm can produce.

 

[supermanlives]

my airstone has like a 10 gal walmart air pump. the airlift has the biggest dual outlet pump for up to 60 gal i think. my old hydrofarm pump for waterfarms needs a new diaphram or 2. might just buy a new pump.low on funds now. the veggie garden has raped me LOL red mulch is pricey. next time regular mulch a pump sprayer and dye or maybe a big trashcan at a time.