AACT/Compost Tea

miguelovic said:
Maybe? Definitely XD
 
 
 
I start off by saying this is just what I do, you can take it or leave it. Like I said, you can brew with a stick and a bucket, and it's very unlikely anything negative will happen.
 
Ehhh.. here's the stickler details. Math above is wrong, I add another pump to run 2 or so gallons.
 
A (my) 40 gallon tank pump produces 1.31 litre per minute. Make and model will vary, it isn't hard to track down numbers.
 
1.31 litre per minute = .046CFM, rounded to 0.05, because we're going to keep it simple.
 
So, a gallon on the low end of Wilsons recommendation. I have another pump with 2-3 times that capacity, and run 2-3 gallons at a time.
 
Do you have to do it this way? Nope. Is it really that complicated? A little math never turned me off. Complete opposite, I get a rager for long division. But it ties in to a point I've tried to make a few times in regards to AACT.
 
And now for something laced with smartass. If it wasen't, would'ya really believe it was me? XD
 
There are people that have conducted innumerable brews, varying from one to thousands of gallons, with a range of brewer styles, and quantified their experiences with fancy machines. Science-y equipment, you might say. They have thoughtfully recorded their results, and made their findings available to the everyone. If you follow their general guidelines, you will get an approximately equal result. As Celtic has correctly pointed out in the main thread, two brews with similar equipment and ingredients, are not going to give the exact same result. This isn't an exact science, but with a few simple, or so I thought, guidelines/parameters, one can achieve good result without remaking others past mistakes.
 
Enter DO2.
 
The optimum results achieved by said benevolent tea brewers, have provided some thumb rulers for other people to use. One of them is to pump an average of .05 - .08 CFM of air volume into your brewer, to achieve the "prime" of 6-10 PPM DO2.
 
Is having a little less oxygen in your brew going to kill your plants? Doubtful. Kind of a strange benchmark for whether an idea or course of action is successful or not, but that's probably just my way of thinking.
 
 
Hell, I've spent more time writing about this than I did doing the original calculations for myself. That ain't keeping it simple smartass. Gotta stop ranting one of these days XD
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so the article from the website says adding the brew to 4:1 ratio your not diluting it but spreading the bacteria out more.
so is it better to do say 5G with 180 pump over doing four 5G with four 45g pumps?
 
I don't really follow your first statement, or potentially the second, but yes, in the second case, I would prefer to run the 180 pump in a 5G.
 
Balduvian said:
so what your saying is since adding the brew to 4:1 ratio your not diluting it but spreading it more, and its better to do say 5G with 180 pump over doing four 5G with four 45g pumps
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mindblown_6413a2aef3142eab8dd789403f71008e.gif
 
I have two of the dual outlet pumps from Walmart that I put a "T" in and run a single airstone per pump I bought from Drs. Foster & Smith's aquarium catalog.
In this photo I have them aerating 30 gallons of water to get the chloramine out of it but if I make 5 gallons of AACT I put one stone in the bottom of the bucket and the other stone directly in the 400 micron bag the compost is in to help loosen the bacteria from the compost.
 
miguelovic said:
I don't really follow your first statement, or potentially the second, but yes, in the second case, I would prefer to run the 180 pump in a 5G.
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sorry, i didnt phrase it right, maybe thats better lol
Proud Marine Dad said:
I have two of the dual outlet pumps from Walmart that I put a "T" in and run a single airstone per pump I bought from Drs. Foster & Smith's aquarium catalog.
In this photo I have them aerating 30 gallons of water to get the chloramine out of it but if I make 5 gallons of AACT I put one stone in the bottom of the bucket and the other stone directly in the 400 micron bag the compost is in to help loosen the bacteria from the compost.
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whats the pumps rated at might i ask?
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
It says 1200cc per minute on their website.
Doesn't sound like much but they do a decent job.
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So 72 litres an hour?? I am currently looking at one rated at 360litres an hour and wondering if it will be enough ...
 
Balduvian said:
sorry, i didnt phrase it right, maybe thats better lol
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I claim mental brain fart, or I'm just easily confused XD
 
No problem diluting, I usually do it when spraying, though I go closer to 1:2. Just something about that lovely broth that makes me hesitant to dilute it much. Probably sentimental nonsense. One strong batch watered out is preferable.
 
As for using the ever popular dollar store special (:D), maybe the microbes find a balance with the level of oxygen supplied? Though I'm more inclined to think it would follow a boom/bust cycle, although less than you would get from say, stirring to aerate. For better or worse, I couldn't say.
 
Typically, compost tea, if not aerated, generates huge amounts of ammonia in the first 24-48 hours. It's a product of anaerobic fermentation of nitrogen-rich marerials (guano, green matter, etc.). The ammonia saturates the liquid, filling up every space between the water molecules that COULD be occupied by an oxygen molecule ("O2"). Thus, anaerobic fermentation tends to self-perpetuate.

Note that some anaerobic fermentation DOES happen, even in a well-aerated AACT culture. Ensuring that it continues to ferment aerobically isn't just a question of introducing oxygen, but of keeping the concentration of ammonia from rising too high. Heavy aeration will accomplish this, as aerobic bacteria will convert ammonia to nitrates.

Feeding high-ammonia compost teas to plants will raise the soil pH enough to damage roots. The humic acids in peat and coir can buffer this quite a bit. Several years ago, i asked myself, "Why not buffer the tea BEFORE using it? A few experiments later, the answer came to me: "Because you should buffer it WHILE it's fermenting."

My method to accomplish this requires a "filter basket" of sphagnum/coir/peat (or other humic acid source). For one 5-gallon bucket of tea, a 3-gallon potful is about right. I place a second 5-gallon bucket under it, and pour the tea through the "filter basket". This apparatus is adequate to ferment about 1/2 cup of dried chicken manure plus 1 cup of dried kelpmeal.
Performed daily, this not only prevents any surges in ammonia concentration, but also greatly reduces hydrogen sulfide production. Result: minimal odor.
To feed plants: percolate the tea thru filter basket, to freshly acidify it. Add 10 or 20% of tea to other 5gal. bucket. Flush water thru filter basket to fill this bucket - diluting the tea to a concentration suitable for feeding plants.
After feeding, pour tea thru filter basket again. This will keep the microbes in the filter media happy, so they will continue to generate humic acids.
Most of the guano and kelp particles get deposited on the top of the filter substrate, and can become infested with fungus gnats, etc. Covering the filter basket with a paint-filter bag works fine. When i have the time to perform a pour-thru twice a day, i find there's no need for aeration in the bucket.
This method will feed 5-10 planters of 5-gallon size an outdoor environment. Fast-growing, heavy-blooming plants. A couple of these plants were peppers, in previous years, and they grew nicely.

Obviously, i will have to tweak the right amounts of the right nutrients, now that i'm specializing in peppers.
 
Good GOD!
 
I never thought there were two of us.
 
If only cayennemist were here to see it... if you also have a dubious but optimistic position on the pest-control ability of AACT, I'll shit golden eggs until the next full moon.
 
Maybe later I'll reply to what sounds like an interesting idea-r. Chortling is key right now.
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
In this photo I have them aerating 30 gallons of water to get the chloramine out of it
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You do know that it's not very effective to aerate choloramine, right?
 

 
miguelovic said:
if you also have a dubious but optimistic position on the pest-control ability of AACT, I'll shit golden eggs until the next full moon.
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I want to believe... I really do. But I have seen no proof that AACT does anything at all in the way of discouraging pests. AT... ALL...

Whitefly are our main pest here. 5 different strains of the bastards. If AACT did the trick, I'd be pest free 100 times over. I finally had to cave to soapy water treatments this summer. (which is still a bitch to keep up on the pests)
 
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