A Basic Compost Tea Guide

[vonforne]

THAT I would definitely pay to read - Jeff L., CT Guy, Microbeman and Whore? Hey! Cervantes.

Hopefully they would allow Cervantes extra pages for colored drawings to attract his High Times Magazine devotees.

It could be a real hoot!

CC

Whore? Hey! Cervantes

10 pts for that one.

LOL, ya the pictures fit him along with 29.95!

 

[JuneBugJoe]

HAHA whore hey! thats funny... im new to the forums and i guess ill keep my comments to myself to not upset his fan club....

 

[3BM]

Hey Von!

Long time no see brother! Good to see this fantastic discussion still in the works.

On a more relevant note have you checked out ROOTWISE in the outdoor forum, this guy has his teas down to a science (literally). Let me get a link to his thread ...

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=123080

I think thats right. Rock on brothers, soil growers unite!

 

[JuneBugJoe]

Hey Von!

Long time no see brother! Good to see this fantastic discussion still in the works.

On a more relevant note have you checked out ROOTWISE in the outdoor forum, this guy has his teas down to a science (literally). Let me get a link to his thread ...

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=123080

I think thats right. Rock on brothers, soil growers unite!

He mentions a Study his wife did on compost tea... I would love to be able to read it

 

[grapeman]

A question for the experts. I have been making tea via a sock and also just throwing the EWC into the bucket. Can I just throw the EWC and or a bit of guano into a bucket and mix with an electric drill with a paint mixer attachment for about 30 seconds then let it brew with the air pumps for 24 hours or so?

Seems to me the resulting slurry after mixing this way would be ok. Is this a problem to mix the slurry with my drill and paddle?

 

[Microbeman]

A question for the experts. I have been making tea via a sock and also just throwing the EWC into the bucket. Can I just throw the EWC and or a bit of guano into a bucket and mix with an electric drill with a paint mixer attachment for about 30 seconds then let it brew with the air pumps for 24 hours or so?

Seems to me the resulting slurry after mixing this way would be ok. Is this a problem to mix the slurry with my drill and paddle?

Read the 'Tea Article' in the references in the Sticky area

 

[grapeman]

Don't want to appear stupid, but where is the "Sticky" area? Can't seem to find it anywhere.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

You're not stupid - it's been moved. Best to use the search featur

 

[grapeman]

You're not stupid - it's been moved. Best to use the search featur

well I must be stupid, because i cannot find 'Tea Article' in the references in the Sticky area. I can't even find the "Sticky Area".
Where the heck is it?

 

[jaykush]

go to the threads at the top of this forum. look for Organic Soil Reference Library. that will have the tea article link in there along with many other good threads.

 

[vonforne]

I wtll bring it out of the library.

V

 

[grapeman]

Well I found the reference library... it is well hidden. I had read this last year but read it again as a refresher. I remember it well ... especially the posts by bassackwards. That thread got me interested in brewing teas last year.

anyway, I know the professional brewers use a basket or mesh bags for the compost material. I have looked at several 500 gal. systems for the farm, and they all use mesh bags or baskets.

Others here for our small hobby crop just throw a handfull or 2 of compost into a bucket and brew with some success. My question above was probably not clearly set forth so I'll ask again. Why would I not, if I am just going to toss a few handfulls of ewc into a bucket to brew, not mix it as throughly as I could before turning on the air pumps? What harm would result? Any benefits to the pre-mixing at all? Just asking to better understand.

Really didn't see a clear answer to that question in the sticky.

 

[Trichgnomes]

A question for the experts. I have been making tea via a sock and also just throwing the EWC into the bucket. Can I just throw the EWC and or a bit of guano into a bucket and mix with an electric drill with a paint mixer attachment for about 30 seconds then let it brew with the air pumps for 24 hours or so?

Again, I do not by any means consider myself an expert, and even people that I myself hold in very high regard, and would consider an expert, are far to humble to admit it themselves. Either way, a lot of those folks have jobs or run companies, so don't have as much time as someone such as myself. But I will try to take a stab at it.
First off, ditch the sock immediately. Either do a free floating extraction without a bag, or get the appropriate size. This is an important factor in the sense that the micron size directly correlates with the microbes that you are trying to extract. Also, most people that use extractor bags use a second diffuser inserted directly in the mesh bag.
Here is a quote from Mm's website, I have it bookmarked, and recommend you do the same:

Extractor; The extractor bag we are using is 400 microns mesh size, 24 inches long and 7 inches in diameter. There is a stainless steel supportive ring sewn into the top and a rubberized poly cap, with an entry hole for the diffuser. The unit is hung over the PVC pipe with nylon line. Replacement bags will be around twelve bucks. I tested many sizes of mesh prior to choosing 400 microns. I tried 200, 250, 300, 400, 800, 1000 microns mesh sizes.

Think of resin extraction from cannabis. Whether it is dry sieve or ice hash, one must use specific size screens that correlate with the size of the trichomes. You wouldn't make water hash with a sock, would you? lol

Others here for our small hobby crop just throw a handfull or 2 of compost into a bucket and brew with some success. My question above was probably not clearly set forth so I'll ask again. Why would I not, if I am just going to toss a few handfulls of ewc into a bucket to brew, not mix it as throughly as I could before turning on the air pumps? What harm would result? Any benefits to the pre-mixing at all? Just asking to better understand.

As far as the drill thing goes, I don't know if there are necessarily and benefits or drawbacks, at least I haven't read of anyone doing it. I'm pretty sure that if the compost is immersed in the water, sufficiently aerated, and given the appropriate amount of food-stock, the biology will be effectively extracted. I usually give it a few stirs when I start with a long spoon, but I don't think you need extensive mixing. Although I am open to science based evidence proving otherwise.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

As far as the drill thing goes, I don't know if there are necessarily and benefits or drawbacks, at least I haven't read of anyone doing it. I'm pretty sure that if the compost is immersed in the water, sufficiently aerated, and given the appropriate amount of food-stock, the biology will be effectively extracted. I usually give it a few stirs when I start with a long spoon, but I don't think you need extensive mixing. Although I am open to science based evidence proving otherwise.

Trichgnomes

That's basically what the Super Tea and Budswell product line from The Guano Company are all about - link

Their products have been in grow stores and organic farming shops for almost 30 years.

CC

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Microbeman or CT Guy

Which specific product would you recommend between the Alaska Humus Compost (aka 'Denali Gold') or EWC from Yelm's Worm Farm from brewing AACT?

Maybe both?

Thanks!

CC

 

[CT Guy]

Well I found the reference library... it is well hidden. I had read this last year but read it again as a refresher. I remember it well ... especially the posts by bassackwards. That thread got me interested in brewing teas last year.

anyway, I know the professional brewers use a basket or mesh bags for the compost material. I have looked at several 500 gal. systems for the farm, and they all use mesh bags or baskets.

Others here for our small hobby crop just throw a handfull or 2 of compost into a bucket and brew with some success. My question above was probably not clearly set forth so I'll ask again. Why would I not, if I am just going to toss a few handfulls of ewc into a bucket to brew, not mix it as throughly as I could before turning on the air pumps? What harm would result? Any benefits to the pre-mixing at all? Just asking to better understand.

Really didn't see a clear answer to that question in the sticky.

Mixing it with a drill sounds like the equivalent of taking a rototiller to your soil. Haven't tested it, but my recommendation would be to just hand mix/stir. The only issue with free extraction is if the compost is settling to the bottom of your container, meaning you're not getting even dispersion of O2/aeration throughout your container.

 

[ocitown]

The rototiller analogy sounds right,a book I have explaines about microbes being several feet long and powering through them with a paint drill seems like a good way to reduce what were trying to do.

 

[CT Guy]

The rototiller analogy sounds right,a book I have explaines about microbes being several feet long and powering through them with a paint drill seems like a good way to reduce what were trying to do.

Nothing in your tea is going to be very large, but you do have the potential of destroying some of the fungal hyphae in my opinion.

 

[vonforne]

Listen everyone, the drill thing comes from me. It is my version of a slurry make even quicker. Jaykush uses arm power.......I learned long ago it is better to be smart than strong. I used a Dewalt drill with a paint paddle. KISS

When you do this wit the drill there is not fungal hypha to damage because you have not started the brewing process yet. It is simply to aggregate the solution to separate the bacteria from the solid particles in the castings.

V

 

[TanzanianMagic]

Hey Vonforne very nice read indeed! i was just about to ask if there was any way you could brew up a tea quik, but.. you allready answered my Q, oh.. and about warming up the tea, a aquarium heater will do the trick?

Just a thought, but aquarium heaters can get very hot. They will kill any organisms that get into contact with them. Once I innocently thought that if a heater would heat water to 23C, they would be safe enough to touch, and got burns on my thumb and finger just trying to pick it up by the glass. They get to at least 100C if not more. But you could run heated water through your solution through pvc pipes, or put the heater in a closed pipe filled with water inside the container, and heat the tea indirectly.