ello icmag, this info i found is to good not to share. I posted a portion of it on another grow site, so i will also here. The site i found goes into depth on how composting tea's work, and the bacteria necessary for the teas to work. It mainly focuses on the importance of the soil food web. hope you dont mind a cut n paste job, cause i'm going to post a portion of it, then give ya the link, as its way to long to post fully. hope you enjoy

step one to repairing the soil food web:
Bacteria must be present to perform their functions of competing with disease-causing organisms, retaining nutrients and making microaggregates to improve soil structure. The “correct” density of bacteria, or amount of bacterial activity has just begun to be established, based on observation of what these levels are in different soils, climates, conditions, disturbances and plant species. Seasonal variations and the requirements of different plants appear to be the most important relative factors. Again, the values for active bacteria and total bacteria are given for the season, plant type, soil type and climate in the row marked “desired range”.

When total bacterial biomass is too low, bacteria have to be added back to the soil, compost, compost tea or to the water, if working in hydroponics, for example. Add them back by using a healthy, aerobic compost, compost tea or commercial inoculum

When total bacterial biomass is high, most of the time this means improved ability to perform bacterial functions, but if the balance between total bacteria and total fungi becomes inappropriate for the plant species, then the balance needs to be restored. However, you don’t kill off bacteria if they are higher than the desired ratio, you improve fungal biomass instead(see ratios).

On rare occasions, total bacteria may compete with fungi for food resources, and in this case, reducing bacterial foods may be a good idea, to allow the fungi to have a chance to grow. Too high bacterial biomass, combined with too low active bacteria biomass may indicate anaerobic conditions occurred, because the bacteria grew very fast, used up the oxygen in the medium so the aerobic organisms went to sleep, but the anaerobes grew well. This can be very detrimental to the aerobic organisms, and actually kill them.

now the link: soil food web/composting tea's

[UncleBud]

Thanks for the link, excellent info!

Organics fucking rule man! I've had a cherry tomato in the grow room as kind of a guide to test overall environment. Man let me tell ya they are the best tasting tomatos I've ever had!

Peace, UncleBud

[Big Eggy]

Thanks Great stuff.. i found chenical ferts too much of a pain in the arse as im a bit heavy handed and would end up locking the plant for a week or two.. Top stuff

eggy

hey glad you guys dig this info. its pretty interesting. I find it especially interesting the parts about bacteria and fungi cleaning out the bad, and making the good. They turn unusable/harmful components of the soil into benefitial components. Its like an eco system in your grow box take er easy

[Unregistered]

glad this info was dug up too

[sunnyside]

ahh..link isn't working...i would have liked to have read that.