tutorial Beginner's guide to AACT/Compost Tea

Nope, no need.  If it did fail you would be wasting ingredients and if it didnt fail, well then you would be wasting ingredients  :P   Ha ha.  2tbls is enough for a lot of tea.  
 
As long as it doesnt smell bad then it should still be good.  If you are worried about using it on your plants then use it on your grass or your compost or something like that. 
 
Hmm, after a little digging, I've read that humic acid can neutralize chloramine.  I think for my next batch, I'll add humic acid and then bubble the water 1 day before I start the brew process.
 
With all these recipes what is the ratio when feeding this stuff. I mean 5 gallons does not seem like it would go very far unless each plant only gets 8 to 12 oz of it. I know most of you have 50 or more plants, so I'm guessing you dilute your 5 gallon brew a lot before feeding. I think I read here 5 gallons to every 1 gallon of brew. Is that right?
What is the absolute best Ratio that the guys who have the BIG plants are using.
 
I make a 5 gal batch and walk around and pour ~cup into the trunk of each plant, and then I usually get a pair of 1/2 gal rounds to foliar feed out of the remaining brew ...
 
I never measure anything, vary my guano's, and alternate between 24 and 48 hr brews as is convenient to my work schedule and regardless of all of that slop-factor, it always helps and nothing has ever shown even a hint of burn ...
 
I'm sure moderation is the key to some extent though, and one would likely manufacture a pest problem for using tooooooo much molasses ...
 
Well, I made 30 gallons Thursday and feed/foliar sprayed sat morning. So, I have two 18 gal. Totes to make tea in. One has a small pump on it and the other I have a two port bigger pump with an air stone. The smaller one I just dropped the hose in and let it bubble. I will tell you that one came out great and the other failed miserably (no foam) (both recipes were the same) guess which one failed....lol that was me just in lazy mode.

So the one that failed had no foam and still Smelled of fish hydrolysate...and the one with the bigger pump and air stone foamed to the brim and smelled nice and sweet.

This was a great example of "knowing" it worked. Both buckets had fish hydrolysate in them and the one stunk and the other was fresh and sweet. I'm really glad the one failed because it solved the whole "did it really work?" Question that I'm sure we've all had before.

I still fed with both teas but will make adjustments for the next batches. My buddy and I are going to fix up a 55 gallon steel drum and an air compressor.....yup, it's gonna be awesome. We've got a buddy that's been dragging buckets full of carp out of the river that were going to throw in the freezer and use throughout this season and next plant out.
 
I don't understand the need some have to put guano and all these other ingredients in the tea.
Put all the amendments in the soil before you plant and then brew compost tea with just compost and some worm castings if you like.
That's all you need. Period! ;)
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
I don't understand the need some have to put guano and all these other ingredients in the tea.
Put all the amendments in the soil before you plant and then brew compost tea with just compost and some worm castings if you like.
That's all that needed. Period! ;)
Click to expand...
 
2nd year plants, and 1st year I was a brand new grower - there's literally nothing in that Fafard/ProMix except the red wigglers I added mid season and all the salts and remnants of all the poisonous crap I unloaded on the BLS last year =( ...
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
I don't understand the need some have to put guano and all these other ingredients in the tea.
Put all the amendments in the soil before you plant and then brew compost tea with just compost and some worm castings if you like.
That's all you need. Period! ;)
Click to expand...
 me thinks it has to do with the fact that sometimes you just need to water rather infrequently (like once a week) - so it does make sense to "join" different concepts (fishcorpses, guanos, nailclippings, pocketlint, etc...) into one watering ...
 
 
my personal schedule is like once a week with AACT (castings, compost, myco) ... and then the next watering is with very low dosage seabird-guano
grantmichaels said:
I make a 5 gal batch and walk around and pour ~cup into the trunk of each plant, and then I usually get a pair of 1/2 gal rounds to foliar feed out of the remaining brew ...
 
I never measure anything, vary my guano's, and alternate between 24 and 48 hr brews as is convenient to my work schedule and regardless of all of that slop-factor, it always helps and nothing has ever shown even a hint of burn ...
 
I'm sure moderation is the key to some extent though, and one would likely manufacture a pest problem for using tooooooo much molasses ...
Click to expand...
 
I read (in one of those links from this thread) that the bacteria/funghi double every 20 mins in AACT ...
 
so, you could just pour out 1/2 of the bucket, refill with rainwater, go water plants with this half bucket of aact, and when you come back after 20 min. have the same headcount in the bucket ... how great is that?!?!
 
I had a bucket going for nearly a week the last time (taking out water and adding stuff like sugars, a handfull of compost, etc...) turned out nicely 
 
cheers
al
 
I gotta say, I have stopped making AACT due to an extreme lack of time.
 
 
Last year I was unemployed and not going to school. My plant were getting AACT weekly.
 
This year I have a fulltime job that requires me to travle from San Diego to LA multiple times a week. I also am a full time student.
 
My plants look nothing like they did last year!
 
 
So I guess my point is, not only have I seen the bennifets of AACT, but I have seen the problems of not using it. It really is a night and day differnce.
 
Clarke's Three Laws are three "laws" of prediction formulated by the British writer Arthur C. Clarke. They are:
  1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
  2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
  3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
I'm at #3 with AACT right now, and I'm just accepting it as magic for the time being and executing it. There's so many moving parts, and there's very little credible information to use for any sort of validation ...
 
I *REALLY* want to analyze some slides and take some measurements and keep a log, but for the time being I'm just varying what I do to try to not violate the "moderation is key" maxim - basically I'm just riffing on mixtures and enjoying when the magic happens ...
 
Has anyone checked out the tea under a microscope?
 
grantmichaels said:
Clarke's Three Laws are three "laws" of prediction formulated by the British writer Arthur C. Clarke. They are:
  1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
  2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
  3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
I'm at #3 with AACT right now, and I'm just accepting it as magic for the time being and executing it. There's so many moving parts, and there's very little credible information to use for any sort of validation ...
 
I *REALLY* want to analyze some slides and take some measurements and keep a log, but for the time being I'm just varying what I do to try to not violate the "moderation is key" maxim - basically I'm just riffing on mixtures and enjoying when the magic happens ...
 
Has anyone checked out the tea under a microscope?
 
 

 
 
Click to expand...
Have you read this thread completely?
 
This is way past "magic"
 
The science of  AACT is pretty stupid simple if you think about it. 
 
  • Microbes create plant food "excrament and dead microbes" (as done in nature)
  • Compost has microbes in it.
  • AACT mutiplys the microbial PPM (parts per million)
Conclusion: You are breeding microbes to make food for your plants.
There are many other bennifets of AACT, but that is the basic idea.
 
I went ahead and gave the tea to my plants today.  It smelled sweet and earthy, so I assumed it at least wouldn't hurt my plants (may not help though).  I had two tidy cat litter pails full of tea.  So I gave a healthy soil drench to my peppers in pots and some to my other veggies in my two raised beds.  I did not foliar feed this time.  I will do both foliar and soil feeding next time after I have my rain barrel in place (plan to buy one this week).  I took the ingredients in the trouser socks and applied them as a top dressing around my veggies in the raised beds.  Time will tell if I've done any good for my plants.
 
Compmodder26, we have chloramine in our water supply as well and it has absolutely no effect on my plants that I have noticed.
I just found this with a Google search on a gardening website:

chloraminated water safe for plants and animals that do not live in water, like my pet dog or cat?Chloraminated water is as safe as chlorinated water for plants and animals that do not live in water. Chloramine is only dangerous for fish, reptiles, shellfish, and amphibians that take water directly into their bloodstream.
 
Cayennemist said:
Have you read this thread completely?
 
This is way past "magic"
 
The science of  AACT is pretty stupid simple if you think about it. 
 
  • Microbes create plant food "excrament and dead microbes" (as done in nature)
  • Compost has microbes in it.
  • AACT mutiplys the microbial PPM (parts per million)
Conclusion: You are breeding microbes to make food for your plants.
There are many other bennifets of AACT, but that is the basic idea.
Click to expand...
 
I actually did read the thread completely (last year) and have followed along most of the way since ...
 
I think we're really saying the same thing, though ...
 
I'm saying that I can't find any dimensional analysis - we can't reason about the PPM count in the dry ingredients, or measure it in the brew at home ...
 
We're both saying "just go with it" ... you are comfortable 'there,' I still want the metrics but am "going with it" ...
 
Magic isn't a bad word!
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
Compmodder26, we have chloramine in our water supply as well and it has absolutely no effect on my plants that I have noticed.
I just found this with a Google search on a gardening website:

chloraminated water safe for plants and animals that do not live in water, like my pet dog or cat?Chloraminated water is as safe as chlorinated water for plants and animals that do not live in water. Chloramine is only dangerous for fish, reptiles, shellfish, and amphibians that take water directly into their bloodstream.
Click to expand...
 
I'm not so much worried about the chloramine hurting my plants as I am about it rendering my tea useless since it will most likely kill off the majority of the microbes in the brew.
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
If that were true my plants wouldn't have done as well as they did last year. I fed them compost tea weekly and no fertilizers and they thrived.
Click to expand...
 
Awesome, that raises my hopes quite a bit!  Anyway, I won't have to worry about that soon, once I get my rain barrel up and filled.
 
grantmichaels said:
Clarke's Three Laws are three "laws" of prediction formulated by the British writer Arthur C. Clarke. They are:
  1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
  2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
  3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
I'm at #3 with AACT right now, and I'm just accepting it as magic for the time being and executing it. There's so many moving parts, and there's very little credible information to use for any sort of validation ...
 
I *REALLY* want to analyze some slides and take some measurements and keep a log, but for the time being I'm just varying what I do to try to not violate the "moderation is key" maxim - basically I'm just riffing on mixtures and enjoying when the magic happens ...
 
Has anyone checked out the tea under a microscope?
Click to expand...
yes and its awesome.
heres a neat vid
http://youtu.be/CnPrzhy3xhQ
 
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