• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

Bad compost tea?

I put a sock filled with mushroom compost in a bucket of water and I ended up not using it because I just transplanted into new fox farm. Today I went and smelled the bucket and it smelled terrible. I watered one ornamental planted randomly in the yard. I dumped the rest out. RANCID STENCH. I am assuming compost tea should never smell like that and not using it on good plants was a good idea. How long does compost tea remain healthy for plants?
 
UMMMM  Rancid is better when fertilizing, you spread the manure and straw(I hated shoveling the shit!) over the fields after the soil thaws out, then plow it under.  I could always smell the freshly treated fields from far away, they called it "fresh air." 
 
Compost tea should smell earthy. It smells bad when anaerobic bacteria takes over. Just sitting in water will cause this as there is no oxygen being introduced into the water to make it aerobic and healthy. Good aerated compost teabis good for several hours after brewing but the longer you wait the less beneficial bacteria there will be.
 
First off, the "mushroom compost" people are buying in plastic bags, sat out in the sun in parking lots or big box stores isn't that good anyway. Its almost void of any life. But a poorly made compost tea is better than none at all...

Also, was it a clean sock :) hahaha
 
holyhotpeppers said:
I heard old socks with left over toe jam has a ton of beneficial microbes!
LOL  I tend to think this tea stuff is bunch of garbage invented to sell stuff, I've stored worm poo in 5 gallon buckets for years making "tea"  by just adding water stiring then using the water.  Ever smell a compost bin before is done?   
 
meh I call it the way I see it, making tea is for people with way to much time on their hands, and no I have not seen Rich's plants though I bet they are beautiful, if somebody wants to take time and make tea more power to em.  After reading up on it I have the opinion, its a waste of time compared to how I cook my soil which is sometimes totally submerged under water and covered. 
 I have pictures of healthy plants kicking ass all over this forum, no tea what so ever.
 
and here is a Yellow 7 Pot(seeds from Romy6/Jamie) not an ounce of tea added, yes that is a tennis ball not a green ping pong ball for size confirmation and comparison.  I took that shot 5 minutes ago it could be a record?
 

IMG_0169.jpg
 
Its all good. Grow how ya grow. This threads about tea. If you don't use it, thats ok too. Stick around, maybe you'll learn how to make tea for free and it will change your mind. As for the OP, use your tea within a few days, and within the hour if you turn the air off. :)
 
Sorry Sir was just trying tah say its not my cup of tea, I took your saying my not seeing Guru's plants and the comment about how people mock what they don't understand as digs on me that's all.
 
I have followed many posts including your debate on Atheism, agreeing with your opinion in most instances I don't really care about the tea issue all that much. I just don't think you need to make a bait bucket into a plant food processor. 
 
Sorry I offended you
 
Tea sounds reasonable. The mushroom compost I got was from my local co-op. I just transplanted some of my plants into fresh fox farm and jungle growth. Should I use compost tea? 
 
Guru I suspect you may consider this a type of tea, I take a scoop of cooked soil like the one below, put it in a 5 gallon bucket then fill it using my hose. The high pressure water aerates they mix for sure, then I water all 300+ plants about once a month, tea?
 
 
IMG_0102.jpg
 
Well, any solid organic matter suspended into water is technically a tea, yes. However you're not creating an actively aerated tea at all. Chlorinated, high pressure, hose water doesn't constitute active aeration. I am interested, however, in just what the hell you have there!? Haha, looks like something I may want to take a smell of!
 
All I can say is I cannot knock anything until I have tried it. I tried hydroponics and hated it. I read the gurus glog and the AACT thread, made some AACT (which by the way does not take but 5 min to get it going) and wow... I have healthy plants with minimal issues.

I would assume as well that to actively aerate and let the microbes do their thang ,it needs to aerate over time, thus the 24-48 hour window for different stages of tea.
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
Water and soil makes mud. Interesting.
What do you mean by "cooked soil" prehensile?
 
Its good compost/soil and plant matter.  Submerged or mixed with a lot of water, covered and baked in the sun for a couple months. 
 
Back
Top