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How’s your compost tea performing on your peppers?

Ghost Pepper Revolution

Ghost Pepper Revolution

So down here weve gotten a week full of rain and the first 3-4 days peppers looked happy. On day 3-4 I poured maybe a tablespoon of my compost tea on each plant figuring that if the rain is gonna wash nutes down might as well refill em. Quick background on my compost tea container, someone chucked their well water salt tank and I snagged it and cleaned it good along with a hose tap. Loaded it up with coffee grounds,various food scraps, and yard/plant clippings. Smells like a dump but all of a sudden my plants are acting like I hit em with MG and growing and flowering like a beast.

So this led me to see how everyone elses compost tea affects their plants.
 

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There shouldn't be a "performance" increase with compost tea.  That's not really what it's for.  Plants won't react even to fertilizers, unless they were deficient, previously. (and compost teas aren't fertilizer, per se) The compost tea is meant to help build your soil, first and foremost.
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There's a lot of phooey out there about compost tea.  Everything from it repels bugs to cures herpes.  In truth, it's not a miracle tonic.  It's just part of healthy soil building.  I think your results were just a coincidence.  Teas will sometimes green up a plant, but the real magic is in the root zone.
 
It is possible it was just all those factors playing together, I guess Ill have to see how they do in the future without rainy days. Do you see a difference after application then would be my question
 
Maybe, maybe not.  I will NEVER discourage anyone from making and using tea, though.  It's sort of like a wellness policy for the plants.  You are encouraging the growth of microbes and fungus, which WILL feed your plant.  
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I don't usually see an immediate benefit, but I almost always see a direct long-term benefit.  Compost teas work best with a comprehensive strategy.  Get some good mulch going on your plants - here in Florida, oak leaf litter or chopped up palm fronds is fantastic - and make sure you get the tea on the plant and in the soil. (there is anecdotal evidence that some pests find compost teas unpalatable - that hasn't been my experience, but I'm just one guy, with one set of bugs)
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Your compost tea replicates what happen when leachate runs out of detritus on the forest floor.  And as we all know, nature doesn't use commercial fertilizer. 
 
I've used compost tea as a sole source of nutrient with lettuces but never for peppers. It's a nice supplement though. My lettuce does amazing with it.
 
Edmick said:
I've used compost tea as a sole source of nutrient with lettuces but never for peppers. It's a nice supplement though. My lettuce does amazing with it.
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This is because compost teas tend to be higher in Nitrogen than any other macro.  Lettuce doesn't take much, because we pick it when it's young, and still in a "soft" state.  It will work OK for many types of vegetative growth, but it will create deficiencies in any kind of fruit bearing plant.
 
solid7 said:
There shouldn't be a "performance" increase with compost tea.  That's not really what it's for.  Plants won't react even to fertilizers, unless they were deficient, previously. (and compost teas aren't fertilizer, per se) The compost tea is meant to help build your soil, first and foremost.
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There's a lot of phooey out there about compost tea.  Everything from it repels bugs to cures herpes.  In truth, it's not a miracle tonic.  It's just part of healthy soil building.  I think your results were just a coincidence.  Teas will sometimes green up a plant, but the real magic is in the root zone.
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Actually it can increase your production and overall health of the plant and the roots.  What your saying is beyond ignorant. It's also good for foliar feeding.  I grew 200 pounds of tomatoes in a very small section at my old house in only a few month span.  
 
solid7 said:
 
This is because compost teas tend to be higher in Nitrogen than any other macro.  Lettuce doesn't take much, because we pick it when it's young, and still in a "soft" state.  It will work OK for many types of vegetative growth, but it will create deficiencies in any kind of fruit bearing plant.
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Sorry son but there are more recipes for compost tea then just high nitrogen.  
 
jedisushi06 said:
Sorry son but there are more recipes for compost tea then just high nitrogen.  
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Never said there weren't father.  I just said they "tend" to be - especially for home brew teas.
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By no means would I ever infer that.  And even "high" nitrogen is a very relative term, as compost teas tend to rate at under 1 on the N P K scale, for most, if not all numbers.
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So there's no confusion...
 
solid7 said:
 
Never said there weren't father.  I just said they "tend" to be - especially for home brew teas.
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By no means would I ever infer that.  And even "high" nitrogen is a very relative term, as compost teas tend to rate at under 1 on the N P K scale, for most, if not all numbers.
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So there's no confusion...
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so 1 is a high number for nitrogen in your tea?  Really don't get where your going with all this.  Brewing tea is a very effective way to boost your plants naturally and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.  I haven't done it a few years because of the lack of time.  I had planned on doing some batches this year to boost my plants during flower and right before they flower.  
 
jedisushi06 said:
Actually it can increase your production and overall health of the plant and the roots.  What your saying is beyond ignorant. It's also good for foliar feeding.  I grew 200 pounds of tomatoes in a very small section at my old house in only a few month span.  
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Not getting into arguments about this topic.
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I believe that you did raise that many tomatoes.  I did the same thing with tomatoes in buckets with no teas.   It's not ignorant.  It's based on actual experience.  Teas are helpful.  I just don't religiously believe in them as miracle tonics. 
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I've brewed thousands of gallons of teas - manure teas, vermicompost teas, AACT, rotted wood teas, etc, etc, etc.  Let's not think that I'm attacking the use of teas.  I'm just being realistic about their applications.
 
solid7 said:
 
Not getting into arguments about this topic.
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I believe that you did raise that many tomatoes.  I did the same thing with tomatoes in buckets with no teas.   It's not ignorant.  It's based on actual experience.  Teas are helpful.  I just don't religiously believe in them as miracle tonics. 
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I've brewed thousands of gallons of teas - manure teas, vermicompost teas, AACT, rotted wood teas, etc, etc, etc.  Let's not think that I'm attacking the use of teas.  I'm just being realistic about their applications.
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you must have been doing something wrong with your recipes then.  I know a guy here in colorado that is the second largest peach grower and a very good wine grape grower.  He brews his own then pumps into his irrigation water/ drip system.   He gets insane production from his peaches and grapes.
 
Lol didnt intend to start a debate on compost teas etc. All you more experienced growers have made good points. My setup doesnt seem to match the stuff Ive read on here, mine doesnt have air pumps or worms in it (although it does have plenty of maggots dead and alive) its had almost yr and half to ferment and I throw anything that was grown or meat products in it. Sounds like its addition to plants only seems to benefit them whether its growth, rooting or fruiting. I have been gleaning info from all you guys
 
The bottom line here is teas are not fertilizers for the plants. They enrich the biolife of the soil and make it come alive. it is the interaction of the microbes and fungi in the tea with the plants roots that allow the plant to ascend to its highest levels of production. I am right in the middle of a crash course in microbes, fungi and nutrients right now and am absolutely fascinated with the unseen world of the living soils. 
It is taking me to a new level in pepper cultivation.
 
 
 
CAPCOM said:
The bottom line here is teas are not fertilizers for the plants. They enrich the biolife of the soil and make it come alive. it is the interaction of the microbes and fungi in the tea with the plants roots that allow the plant to ascend to its highest levels of production. I am right in the middle of a crash course in microbes, fungi and nutrients right now and am absolutely fascinated with the unseen world of the living soils. 
It is taking me to a new level in pepper cultivation.
 
 
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Id have to ask if compost/tea isnt fertilizer then how have peppers flourished and grown without our fertilizers? Id imagine that as things have died whether plant or insect theyve fed back into the soil sustaining the plants generation after generation. Maybe theres an element Im not getting
 
Ghostpepperevolution said:
Lol didnt intend to start a debate on compost teas etc. All you more experienced growers have made good points. My setup doesnt seem to match the stuff Ive read on here, mine doesnt have air pumps or worms in it (although it does have plenty of maggots dead and alive) its had almost yr and half to ferment and I throw anything that was grown or meat products in it. Sounds like its addition to plants only seems to benefit them whether its growth, rooting or fruiting. I have been gleaning info from all you guys
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No worries, mate, there'll be no debates here.
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If you've got that much of a quantity, and it's been fermenting that long, you've actually got something that more closely resembles a fertilizer.
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I make fish fertilizer every few years in a very similar setup.
 
The plants root system does more then carry water and nutrients into the plant. they release They secrete exudates which are a Carbs, sugars and proteins that attract certain bacteria and fungi that feed off the exudates and attract larger predatory microbes that feed off of them.  This goes on and on and on. Not everything consumed by the microbes is readily used and is secreted. these secretions are nutrients and are readily available for uptake by the roots. It is a complex set of sequences that have to be in balance and takes a little time for the build up of microbes to become established. Again, a lot of this is new to me but I am learning and embracing it as a viable method of growing a much better crop of plants.
 
CAPCOM said:
The bottom line here is teas are not fertilizers for the plants. They enrich the biolife of the soil and make it come alive. it is the interaction of the microbes and fungi in the tea with the plants roots that allow the plant to ascend to its highest levels of production. I am right in the middle of a crash course in microbes, fungi and nutrients right now and am absolutely fascinated with the unseen world of the living soils. 
It is taking me to a new level in pepper cultivation.
 
 
Click to expand...
 
Didn't see this post before.  It's absolutely spot-on correct.
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Diverse flora and fauna in the soil makes for happy plants.  We can have all the nutrients we could ever want in pill form in our bodies, but without hormones, enzymes, proteins, etc, we don't have a full bill of health.  Enter your teas...  You are actually inoculating the soil, to build a more complete soil web - or, at the very least, to strengthen what's there.  Because nutrients alone, are not everything.  What the tea does for the soil around the plant, is similar to what exercise does for your metabolism. (which is to make it more efficient)
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We don't always grow in optimal conditions.  There were several examples given to farmers in certain places who did really well using foliar or other applications.  But every place that you grow, has unique issues - both positive and negative.  It's so hard to say that this did it, or that.  Teas surely help.  But teas alone won't make or break a grow.  There has to be other elements in place.  You couldn't just spray teas in the Sahara desert, and watch an oasis appear. (although some proponents would say just that)  I've lived in about a dozen states or countries.  Growing was different in every one of them.  Some places, you could just throw a plant in the ground, and they'd grow, with nothing added.  Others, you couldn't grow in ground to save your skin.  Others were some version of difficult in-between.  Point being - you learn what works and why, when you're used to growing in places that are more like that one described, where you can't grow to save your skin...  If you've got great soil, putting teas down are just going to make it that much better.
 
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