chief bigsmoke
Active member
Thats a stand up offer right there ^^^ CT guy to the rescue
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I have a real noob question here. Please don't get technical and scare me off lol. I started a worm bin in the spring and have castings finally.
Also have good compost that's been cooking for a couple years.
My well water has an EC of 1.0. Heavy iron and calcium. Would I be better off using RO water?
Edit: Well, after a little thought, I went with the well water. I dumped 4 cups of ECW and a cup of "Just Right" potting mix in ten gallons of water and have been bubbling since last night.
Not sure if this tea will help but I doubt it will hurt.
Also have good compost that's been cooking for a couple years.
My well water has an EC of 1.0. Heavy iron and calcium. Would I be better off using RO water?
Edit: Well, after a little thought, I went with the well water. I dumped 4 cups of ECW and a cup of "Just Right" potting mix in ten gallons of water and have been bubbling since last night.
Not sure if this tea will help but I doubt it will hurt.
Last edited:
Here's one to remember about bottled nutes - 'Inert Ingredients' = water
Sounds better I suppose......
Sounds better I suppose......
Ok, I keep reading about if you want to brew longer than 24 hours you should have a microscope. I have a microscope and can identify beneficials, but what specific anerobes/pathogens should I be looking out for? Ive seen all the videos on MM's website, and have scoured the net looking for anerobic identification in composts and brews and havent found much to speak of. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks
I have not said that one needs a microscope if brewing longer than 24 hours. Generally I have said it is a good idea if brewing longer than 48 hours.
If you have a lot of anaerobic bacteria you will smell them so if your CT smells sour, rank then it has gone anaerobic. An indicator species for when your CT is heading downhill is an over-population of ciliates. I believe I have a post in this thread mentioning this. It's somewhere in the forum.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=5003725#post5003725
The real advantage in having a microscope is to view your CT and use it when it contains the microorganisms which you are striving for. EG. If you want a nutrient cycling CT then you will want to see lots of bacteria and some flagellates (and/or naked amoebae) It is more the ratio one is looking for. Of course density is nice but does not always occur. A flagellate or amoeba can consume up to 10,000 bacteria in a day. If you see 2 or more flagellates in a field of view on average with 10,000 to 50,000 bacteria you are good to go. Fungal hyphae will be a bonus.
You may wish to have only fungi and bacteria in your brew so the scope is the way to evaluate this.
Has anyone experience with the use of Vermicrop???
Keep on growing
Keep on growing
Thanks MM, that cleared up any questions I had. Was a bit worried at first because of the reduction in hyphae from 20 hours to 48, now I understand. Still need to learn how to use my microscope a bit better. Need to learn the 100x oil immersion, any suggestions? Im using a binocular Nikon Eclipse E200.
Thanks in advance
I do not use the 100X in any of my video or photos. It is of little practical use for viewing soil microbes. I get most use out of my
20X objective.
When using the 100x I lower it very slowly into the oil watching from the side until a flash of light goes up indicating contact with the oil.
What is microbe catalyst? You mean the fancy names some brewer sellers use for their concoctions?
Molasses?
Its from KIS
S
schwagg
it's 1/2 cup microbe catalyst per five gallons so that would be 2 and a half cups for your 25 gallon brew.
MM, it's a product carried from simplici-tea.
I am trying out a new brew from Vital Earth. I had all the fixins for a 55 gal brew. I was wondering though, where is the molasses? What feeds the microbes?
http://www.vitallandscaping.com/compost-tea-recipes
http://www.vitallandscaping.com/compost-tea-recipes
I thought it was just called food.
C
CT Guy
Yes, KIS changed the name on the product to make it sound more trendy than just "foods." It's WSDA certified organic now too. One thing I know is that the ratios they use are not linear so for a 30 gallon brewer it's 3 cups of microbe catalyst, 1 gallon of compost and 1/2 c. organic alfalfa meal (optional).
Hope that helps! I would just send an email to the company in the future for recommendations.
C
CT Guy
Not enough compost in my opinion. I also don't know why companies insist on adding mycorrhiza to their tea recipes. The only thing I can think is that they are not doing biological testing and are looking to make more money cause mycorrhiza is so expensive. You would probably get a better tea just using their mega worm castings and some unsulfured molasses from the store.
