Tea Article

[Scrappy4]

Thanks, MM. I guess that is another reason why diversity is so important.

When i add alfalfa meal to my compost pile it heats up pretty fast. Is this from an abundant microbe in alfalfa or from high N feeding what is already there?

My best guess is both, but would love to hear your views.......scrappy

 

[mapinguari]

Thanks, dudes. I also included soil from my current garden, well composted horse manure, and some forest duff shot through with fungal strands.

My main concern was killing everything else with the BIM!

Seems there's hope for a nice, balanced tea to invite the Micro Beasties to the table for a feast.

 

[supuradam]

Good compost and good vermicompost.

Question.

How does someone such as myself test the viability of their compost/vermicompost? Brew up an AACT and put it under a scope? See what's wigglin?

 

[mad librettist]

Question.

How does someone such as myself test the viability of their compost/vermicompost? Brew up an AACT and put it under a scope? See what's wigglin?

yes that's one part.

You also observe it directly on a slide without a coverslip.


as MM describes it, it becomes as natural as looking out the window and seeing what season it is, what birds are out, etc...

 

[Microbeman]

Thanks, MM. I guess that is another reason why diversity is so important.

When i add alfalfa meal to my compost pile it heats up pretty fast. Is this from an abundant microbe in alfalfa or from high N feeding what is already there?

My best guess is both, but would love to hear your views.......scrappy

Yes, mostly the nitrates.

 

[catcherintheye]

been a whilee. I got some "bountea" to try out anyone ever use it?

http://www.bountea.com/

he holds world record for like 9 of the largest veggies. Checkout the pic on the mainpage with the cabbage crop, theres some opium poppies blooming in the background lol.

Cant wait to try the stuff out, the amounts he says to use are ridiculously large, A quart of compost and 1/4 cup of his "food activator" after brewing you add the bloom agent which dried fish, rock phosphate yucca kelp and some other stuff in the last two hours of brewing and all of that is added to one gallon of water. sounds ridiculous. That should dilute a very long way.

 

[Bullfrog44]

Finally finished the thread. Great read. I will soon be benefiting from AACT. Thanks everybody.

 

[heady blunts]

i powdered some oatmeal and put it in my castings, and a few days later i have some pretty awesome fuzziness going on. thanks teaming with microbes!

i want to make some fungal dominant tea to improve the soil structure in some of the compacted areas in my veggie garden.

i also am going to use it as a foliar spray to try and establish a beneficial colony of fungi in the phyllosphere to preempt any dominance of PM during flower.

should i also water it into my pots? i thought maybe increasing the fungal population in my pots at this point (3 weeks into flower) might be pleasing to the plant as it matures.

 

[Microbeman]

i powdered some oatmeal and put it in my castings, and a few days later i have some pretty awesome fuzziness going on. thanks teaming with microbes!

i want to make some fungal dominant tea to improve the soil structure in some of the compacted areas in my veggie garden.

i also am going to use it as a foliar spray to try and establish a beneficial colony of fungi in the phyllosphere to preempt any dominance of PM during flower.

should i also water it into my pots? i thought maybe increasing the fungal population in my pots at this point (3 weeks into flower) might be pleasing to the plant as it matures.

Heady; Be sure you are looking at strands and not fuzz. If it is fuzz, turn it inder and wait. Jeff Lowenfels sometimes kicks himself for using the Santa's beard analogy, because he mean hair-like strands. Be also aware that it is the microscopic hyphae which is extracted and grows in ACT. It takes up to hundreds of these hyphae to join together to create one strand (mycelium). I'm unsure if fungal species (besides thrichoderma) that grow in compost survive on leaf surfaces. I know there are those who say this but I've yet to prove this to myself. It would be great to water this into your soil or just topdress. Jay has some great photos of what the fungal hairs should look like. I meant to copy one he posted some time ago for my webpage and I zoned out and now forget where it is....Jay?

 

[jaykush]

heres a few good examples of what your looking for.

 

[Microbeman]

Thanks Jay.....Yur the Man!

Saved them this time

 

[mad librettist]

and here is what you are not looking for:

 

[self]

i powdered some oatmeal and put it in my castings, and a few days later i have some pretty awesome fuzziness going on. thanks teaming with microbes!

tell me more? The book is on my wish list...

 

[heady blunts]

tell me more? The book is on my wish list...

basically the book suggests giving the fungi a head start by using oats or other fungi foods to "activate" your compost's fungi colonies prior to brewing to achieve a fungally dominated tea.

here's what i'm getting:

 

[jaykush]

ive actually had better results with hardwood sawdust soaked in water first, then like 5% added to some EWC. and left to sit until the fungi start to grow.

that or you can just build a fungal compost pit and forget about all of the above. which is what i do now. far better fungal compost in the end.

 

[heady blunts]

that or you can just build a fungal compost pit and forget about all of the above. which is what i do now. far better fungal compost in the end.

i would love to have a buried fungal compost pit. but i rent at an apartment. at the very least i'm going to collect a lot of leaves this fall, keep them in contractor bags or totes, and try to encourage some decomposition.

 

[mapinguari]

just build a fungal compost pit and forget about all of the above. which is what i do now. far better fungal compost in the end.

hey jk, could you give us the quick-and-dirty on how to make such a pit? Would be a good use for all that forest duff we've got...and what else? What do you feed it to keep it fungal?

Probably you have explained this all in detail somewhere else...link?

Thanks dude.

 

[jaykush]

i would love to have a buried fungal compost pit. but i rent at an apartment. at the very least i'm going to collect a lot of leaves this fall, keep them in contractor bags or totes, and try to encourage some decomposition.

well decomposed leaf mold is the next best thing imo.

hey jk, could you give us the quick-and-dirty on how to make such a pit? Would be a good use for all that forest duff we've got...and what else? What do you feed it to keep it fungal?

in dry climates its a pit, in wet climates in in a mesh bin above ground.

simply use wood chips (preferably things that are not pine, cedar, spruce) but a little of those is ok. stick them in the pit/bin. and keep wet. in a year your can dig in and get your fungal compost. do not turn the pile. 2 year aged piles are better, but you need to set up a perpetual system for that.

the sifted forest duff is different. best used in the medium in small amounts or top dressed every now and then into the mulch.

 

[mad librettist]

Jay can you give an ideal size?

 

[Microbeman]

Heady; What you have in your photo is the fuzz, kinda like Mad's but you know if you turn it under you'll likely get what you need. The other aspect is that if you don't have spores or hyphae already in your compost, all you are going to get is some air borne stuff, like the fuzz(?).

What we are doing when we activate compost to use in the garden or in ACT, is taking compost which is already fungal, similar to what Jay is growing in his pits (not arm pits btw ;>) and getting spores existent to germinate by providing a food source like oat flour or wheat bran, fish hydrolysate, etc. just so that it is more active going in. There is no way to make non-fungal compost, fungal except to return it to the compost pile or introduce spores. With Jays pits he is using the soil borne (and air) spores to infect his pile.

BTW a great side effect to using oat flour or wheat bran in compost is that if left for 8 to 10 to 14 days there is usually an explosion of bacteria followed by bacterial feeding nematodes....great nutrient cyclers.