Tea Advice

[Microbeman]

As rcky mentioned. chlorine & chloramines are neutralized by adding compost or molasses or other organic matter.

Sneaky; leave out the humic acid and use 0.50% molasses for a much higher microbial count. People do over complicate ACT

 

[Cool Moe]

PK, I found powdered dolomite a few years back in Lowe's lawn and garden section for under $4. Check through their garden lime products and read the labels. If you ask someone at the store for powdered dolomite lime they'll look back like you just spoke Chinese.

 

[PuReKnOwLeDgE]

Thanks everyone for the tips on the powdered doolomite lime. It has been a few days now since adding the tea and all I can say is holy sheep shit. 6 hours after the soil drench the plants were raving in there. Game changer for the soil mix that is for sure.

 

[RaNgEr RiCk]

Thanks everyone for the tips on the powdered doolomite lime. It has been a few days now since adding the tea and all I can say is holy sheep shit. 6 hours after the soil drench the plants were raving in there. Game changer for the soil mix that is for sure.

Teas are the reason I have had so much success man. I've been trying to tell you.

 

[SneakySneaky]

As rcky mentioned. chlorine & chloramines are neutralized by adding compost or molasses or other organic matter.

Sneaky; leave out the humic acid and use 0.50% molasses for a much higher microbial count. People do over complicate ACT

Dr. Ingram did a trial of 3 ways to add humic acid to influence bacterial growth. Adding at the beginning, end, and without. She got the highest bacterial concentration by adding it at the end and the lowest without. My recipe is a permutation of hers. How does molasses or compost neutralize the chloramines?

 

[Microbeman]

Dr. Ingram did a trial of 3 ways to add humic acid to influence bacterial growth. Adding at the beginning, end, and without. She got the highest bacterial concentration by adding it at the end and the lowest without. My recipe is a permutation of hers. How does molasses or compost neutralize the chloramines?

Does she post live video footage of her trials? Keep It Simple Brewers and I together and independently discovered that humic acid suppresses microbial development in a liquid.

Good luck with the recipe.

Chloramines are oxidizers; compost, dirt, molasses, ascorbic acid and old boots neutralize the amounts used to treat water.

BTW bacteria is only one aspect of ACT.

 

[SneakySneaky]

Does she post live video footage of her trials? Keep It Simple Brewers and I together and independently discovered that humic acid suppresses microbial development in a liquid.

Good luck with the recipe.

Chloramines are oxidizers; compost, dirt, molasses, ascorbic acid and old boots neutralize the amounts used to treat water.

BTW bacteria is only one aspect of ACT.

Dr. Elaine ingham has some videos on the subjects as well as her own research institute. Check her out, she's an original pioneer in the study of compost tea as we know it today. I know bacteria is only one aspect I was referencing your point about the microbes.

 

[Black Plum]

i agree that a simple compost tea is good. it won't burn your plants and will be full of beneficial microflora.

 

[Buddy Holly]

good catch b1 on the missing k in the soil mix. i was gonna ask about that. everything else looks ok for the most part. id keep the go stuff out of the tea personally but ymmv. good to see lc and bongaloid recipes still holding up all these years later. those guys among others were ahead of their time.

 

[Microbeman]

Dr. Elaine ingham has some videos on the subjects as well as her own research institute. Check her out, she's an original pioneer in the study of compost tea as we know it today. I know bacteria is only one aspect I was referencing your point about the microbes.

Rewriting this. I know Elaine and she has no microscopy video I know of. Have you seen mine and my research?

 

[gOurd^jr.]

microbeorganics.com

Have a read through and check out the images/videos

MM knows whats up. Literally an ACT professional and leading edge researcher on the subject.
READ THAT WHOLE PAGE = Compost Tea 101

Then if you wanna really up your game read the DIY for 10$ sticky and make yourself an airlift...

 

[Granger2]

Hello all,
Please tell me what you think about this recipe. Thanks. -granger

4 gal tap water, carbon filtered. pH 8.3, high alkalinity, high lime,
pH'd down with citric to 7
8t GO seaweed
1T Ful power high % fulvic
4t blue agave nectar, organic, raw
1T epsom
Spritz of Bot. Aqua Shield, 2T mas o menos
1 scoop Plant Success Soluble

In paint strainer bag
Big handfull EWC, Soil Mender brand
Big hndfl manure compost, local brand
4T yeast, inactive nutritional flakes
Big hndfl Gerbers baby oatmeal, crushed, organic
1T humate, leonardite powder, seems crude
2T Perfect Food-Best Green powder supplement I've found,
contains multiple green sources, fruits, berries, veggies
Has probiotics, but it's 3 + years old. To see ingredients
http://www.transformyourhealth.com/g...foodpoworg.htm [choose view label]

After, 12 hours of bubbling added enough Soil Mender Molasses to bring pH down to 6ish, maybe 2 t. Bubbled for 12 more hours, brought pH down to 6 with EJ Catalyst.

Plants were healing from root aphid outbreak, caught before they were critical. Three days after undiluted application [added H&G Roots Exl], they have rebounded with rapid growth, and color is perfect.

 

[Granger2]

sry

 

[BlueJayWay]

wow that's the most complicated tea recipe i've ever seen, have you used it just the once? Try that recipe a week, and then try simply a scoop of EWC and a 20ml molasses in 5gal water for a week and see if you notice a difference

I'm the same way in using a billion supps and always trying to simplify and i notice benefits of simplifying/streamlining the process.

 

[Microbeman]

Granger; I might venture that the positive results you observed resulted from the ingredients you used and their direct benefit to plant & soil and making it all into an aerated tea was perhaps a wasted effort. You may have seen the same positive results by just applying your ingredients mixed for 5 minutes in a bucket.

The idea behind ACT is to extract and multiply [vermi]compost organisms and some of the ingredients you listed can limit microbial development in ACT (liquid). (but not in soil)

 

[Granger2]

Thanks for the response/ advice, Microbeman. Which ingedients limit microbial development in ACT (liquid)? I just read that dry humates may retard growth of some. Is that true? -Granger

 

[Microbeman]

Thanks for the response/ advice, Microbeman. Which ingedients limit microbial development in ACT (liquid)? I just read that dry humates may retard growth of some. Is that true? -Granger

pH'd down with citric to 7
8t GO seaweed
1T Ful power high % fulvic
1T epsom
Spritz of Bot. Aqua Shield, 2T mas o menos
1 scoop Plant Success Soluble

4T yeast, inactive nutritional flakes

1T humate, leonardite powder, seems crude
2T Perfect Food-


If you mean humic acid - yes

 

[Granger2]

Microbeman,
I have more questions because I'm trying to learn here.

pH'd down with citric to 7 - you don't think this is a good idea? I did it to make some of the Ca, Mg, etc. in my tap more available as citrates, and to make the pH more hospitible to the herd, especially fungi.

1T epsom, 1T humate, leonardite powder, seems crude- OK I can see that.

1T Ful power high % fulvic- not used by or stifles herd?

Spritz of Bot. Aqua Shield, 2T mas o menos
1 scoop Plant Success Soluble-added these for diversity, and my strategy is to change up different innoculants for diversity. Won't usually use these.

4T yeast, inactive nutritional flakes
2T Perfect Food-
8t GO seaweed
Won't the herd feed on/digest/make these things directly available to plants or indirectly by die off?

Thanks for your help. -granger

 

[Microbeman]

From my post in the Tea Article sticky. Read through this thread and the DIY brewer sticky and my webpage.

Quote:
ACT does not work as a nutrient supply to plants. The reason you put any foodstock, like molasses in ACT is strictly to cause bacteria and archaea to divide and fungi to grow. Subsequent to that flagellates and/or naked amoebae [protozoa] begin to divide in response to the large bacterial/archaeal population. The protozoa begin eating the bacteria and archaea and that is when you apply the ACT to your soil because after eating bacteria/archaea the protozoa excrete pure ionic form nutrients which feed the plants.

Ingredients put into an ACT designed to benefit plants but do not directly benefit microbes in a liquid are a waste of time & money

*****


Quote:
This may be a good opportunity to do a minor review.

The predominant way (known so far) which (most) plants receive nutrients naturally in the soil is through the microbial nutrient cycle. This involves protozoa, nematodes or rotifers eating bacteria and/or archaea (bacteria & archaea look the same) and then expelling waste which is ionic form nutrient (predominantly N & P) which is the form uptaken by plants.

The way that ACT fits into this scenario is that when molasses or some other food source is used in the brew fungi & bacteria/archaea are fed and grow & divide respectively during the 12 to 24 hour period. During the 24 to 36 (and up to 48) hour period protozoa (flagellates; naked amoebae) begin dividing in response to the bacteria/archaea, dividing approximately every 2 hours. It does not take many because protozoa can consume 10,000 bacteria per day. Thus you can see that by brewing ACT one is creating a microbial nutrient cycling consortium which when applied to the rhyzosphere should provide an 'instant' kick of nutrients to plants.
Additionally it boosts the soil’s microbial population.

Also in the soil (& compost), aside from legume obligate nitrogen fixing bacteria, there are free living bacteria/archaea N fixers (& other nutrient) and mineralizers. There are several ways that this occurs. One way is that nutrients are made available to roots by bacteria/archaea emitting an acid like citric acid which mineralizes organic matter into available (ionic) forms of nutrients. Similarly many roots excrete these types of acids when needed to make nutrients available to themselves. These nutrients are known as dissolved organic nitrogen and phosphorous (DON & DOP)

The way that ACT fits into this is simply by containing and multiplying some of these species of bacteria & archaea.

Also in the soil there are fungal species which form hyphae (long strands) but do not form a fruiting body (mushroom). These are known as fungi imperfecti. They serve to provide pathways for other microbes and moisture, they join soil particles forming aggregates, they retain moisture and oxygen/air, they provide food to other microbes and plants indirectly by degrading organic matter or directly by being eaten by bacteria, they help prevent pathogens by displacing harmful fungi (and I hypothesize that some, as dark septate endophytes provide nutrients directly to roots)

The way that ACT fits into this is by growing out these hyphae if present in the compost used.

Also in the soil there are mycorrhizal fungal hyphae, which in the case of endomycorrhizal grow right into the plant cell in the root, drawing energy from the plant but also injecting nutrients into the cell(s) which it draws widely from the surrounding soil as it spreads.

The way that ACT fits into this is....NOT

Also in the soil are countless mysteries yet to be noticed.

In the end, just as it is for us, it is all about ATP and mitochondria.

 

[Swayze]

Microbeman,

I have a quick question about the following quote and I apologize if it's been asked before.

Would there be any benefit in applying a portion of the tea over a 36 hour period (18 hours apart) while it is still brewing? e.g. Apply half of the tea 18 hours in for the bacteria/archaea and the rest 18 hours later for a more fungi dominate application?

"The way that ACT fits into this scenario is that when molasses or some other food source is used in the brew fungi & bacteria/archaea are fed and grow & divide respectively during the 12 to 24 hour period. During the 24 to 36 (and up to 48) hour period protozoa (flagellates; naked amoebae) begin dividing in response to the bacteria/archaea, dividing approximately every 2 hours. It does not take many because protozoa can consume 10,000 bacteria per day. Thus you can see that by brewing ACT one is creating a microbial nutrient cycling consortium which when applied to the rhyzosphere should provide an 'instant' kick of nutrients to plants.
Additionally it boosts the soil’s microbial population."


I suspect like everything else in life a nice balance of the two is best, but I'd like to hear anything you have to say on this subject.


Thank you very much for all your input and all the work you do and share with us.