tutorial Beginner's guide to AACT/Compost Tea

I'd say it's his market.  
 
AACT is apparently working well as this forum illustrates.  Apparently, AACT has enough going for it that it doesn't need any improvemnet.   Why spend when ya got the microbes in your own back yard?
 
Streamer said:
I'd say it's his market.  
 
AACT is apparently working well as this forum illustrates.  Apparently, AACT has enough going for it that it doesn't need any improvemnet.   Why spend when ya got the microbes in your own back yard?
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Not in any way discounting AACT, I think it's great and it's obvious to me that it's extremely effective. But if someone doesn't have the time or space here is a great alternative. I value my time, so spending a bit of money to free up time is well worth it to me. 
 
Tea:
Buy air pump, air stones, tubes $30
Buy castings, guano, kelp, molasses..etc $50
Wait two days to brew, then apply
 
Or:
drop 1 ml / gallon of water and apply. The bottle I bought was $10
 
http://www.beneficialbiologics.com/index.php/products/faq-s
 
Most likely synthetic, you cannot can microbes. I wonder how long is that thing good for ? 1 month ? 3 months ? a year ?
I doubt that store makes a new batch every other week.
 
lucilanga said:
Most likely synthetic, you cannot can microbes. I wonder how long is that thing good for ? 1 month ? 3 months ? a year ?
I doubt that store makes a new batch every other week.
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Then what explains all the activity under the microscope?
Pepper-Guru said:
I value my time as well. I also make my aact for free. Spending time learning how to make a good tea is like getting paid....in fruit!
I would, however, be very interested in just how they accomplish the "extract" part.
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How do you do it for free? Worm factory, bat caves, seaweed, molasses? 
 
These products were originally developed in 1981 by John Agulia.  Years ago John Agulia was a colleague and lab partner of Elaine Ingham, a well-known and respected soil biologist whose work promoting compost tea and soil biology is indisputable.  After years of perfecting his recipes and using them with phenomenal success in commercial agriculture, John unfortunately died suddenly.  When others came to reformulate his masterpieces, they found a warehouse of raw materials, an incomplete recipe list and notebooks full of cryptic scribbles.  His wife attempted to revive the products with the help of many skilled agronomists, biologists, and chemists, and no one was able to figure it out.  Along came an eccentric genius named Joseph Johnson... some say he traveled from the future or another dimension, others say he is a benevolent alien, but here at Beneficial Biologics we just consider him a friend and teacher.  With no academic training to speak of, he poured over books and notes and learned the subtle way of the microbe.  A few years of exhaustive effort later, these products reemerged to the world and were made anew!  Now for the first time in all known galaxies, these products are being put in containers of a size less than a 275 gallon tote and made available for any home gardener to celebrate.  Join the Primordial Solutions Revolution and see what the big shot farmers have known about for years!
 
Join the Revolution!
 
Superthrive style snakeoil marketing? PGR style "bloom boosters"? No dice muchachero :D
 
The farmer reference is priceless.
 
miguelovic said:
These products were originally developed in 1981 by John Agulia.  Years ago John Agulia was a colleague and lab partner of Elaine Ingham, a well-known and respected soil biologist whose work promoting compost tea and soil biology is indisputable.  After years of perfecting his recipes and using them with phenomenal success in commercial agriculture, John unfortunately died suddenly.  When others came to reformulate his masterpieces, they found a warehouse of raw materials, an incomplete recipe list and notebooks full of cryptic scribbles.  His wife attempted to revive the products with the help of many skilled agronomists, biologists, and chemists, and no one was able to figure it out.  Along came an eccentric genius named Joseph Johnson... some say he traveled from the future or another dimension, others say he is a benevolent alien, but here at Beneficial Biologics we just consider him a friend and teacher.  With no academic training to speak of, he poured over books and notes and learned the subtle way of the microbe.  A few years of exhaustive effort later, these products reemerged to the world and were made anew!  Now for the first time in all known galaxies, these products are being put in containers of a size less than a 275 gallon tote and made available for any home gardener to celebrate.  Join the Primordial Solutions Revolution and see what the big shot farmers have known about for years!
 
Join the Revolution!
 
Superthrive style snakeoil marketing? PGR style "bloom boosters"? No dice muchachero :D
 
The farmer reference is priceless.
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I'm new here, so you'd have to explain that...
 
Any time I see marketing like that my brain glazes over. I mean, they aren't exactly AN or GH, but this just looks like another company jumping on the bandwagon of organics. Everything they sell is reasonably backed up, but I'll buy a 50lb bag of kelp meal over a 1lb bag of magical kelp extract any day, especially when they're almost the same price.
 
Superthrive makes equally ridiculously sounding claims.
 
No farmer in his right mind will buy anything for those prices that can be carried out of the store in one hand. Although maybe I just don't know any big shot farmers :P
 
So what I saw under the microscope was a mirage? Or maybe they were lying about what it was? 
 
Seriously, I understand the skepticism but to mock me and them under the guise of "they are liars, there's no magical formula" is very deflating. 
 
Sea-monkeys.
ColdSmoke said:
So what I saw under the microscope was a mirage? Or maybe they were lying about what it was? 
 
Seriously, I understand the skepticism but to mock me and them under the guise of "they are liars, there's no magical formula" is very deflating. 
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I'm a skeptic, and yet, i can tell you moving primarily to a variety of tea concoctions is hand's down the best gardening decision that I ever made ... i have a suspicion that it's as much about the cessation of all the things you STOP feeding/poisoning when you start going organic, but that's purely anecdotal ...
 
I use tea, but i also have to use pyrethrin and copper sulfate or i'm not getting to the finish line ... for me, it's not organic or bust, it's just organic for the win ...
 
the visual improvement in terms of 'greenness' is visceral ... everything intrinsic to you knows they're healthier ... there's literally no wonder ...
 
ColdSmoke said:
 
Then what explains all the activity under the microscope?

 
How do you do it for free? Worm factory, bat caves, seaweed, molasses? 
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That's not AACT. AACT contains compost which you can make for nothing, molasses which is minimal cost and water.
 
ColdSmoke said:
So what I saw under the microscope was a mirage? Or maybe they were lying about what it was? 
 
Seriously, I understand the skepticism but to mock me and them under the guise of "they are liars, there's no magical formula" is very deflating. 
Click to expand...
 
Apologies, I come off as a dick sometimes, and rightly so :P I did not intend to mock you though, just them.
 
They aren't liars, but when a company feels the need to use marketing like that, I can't take them seriously. As said, there is something to the products they put forward, I would just prefer to go to the source for something more complete and cheaper.
 
I don't doubt that some of it is biologically active, there are many products like it on the market. Short of convenience (at a hefty price), I just don't see the necessity of using them.
 
Dragonfly Earth Medicine
 
A similar example but with a better approach. Apparently they're great people, really down to earth.
 
But at the end of the day, it's the same thing. Products you can source yourself, for a fraction of the price.
 
ColdSmoke said:
How do you do it for free? Worm factory, bat caves, seaweed, molasses?
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free because there are literally a million different organic substances found in my yard that contain all the ingredients I need to rapidly colonize goodies from. Let's not forget you don't have to use molasses. Any carbohydrate/protein will do. Hell you don't even have to add a carbohydrate/protein to get an initial burst of reproduction! Like I said, some of my BEST tea is grass clippings, rain water, and a little wort from a brew.
 
Pepper-Guru said:
free because there are literally a million different organic substances found in my yard that contain all the ingredients I need to rapidly colonize goodies from. Let's not forget you don't have to use molasses. Any carbohydrate/protein will do. Hell you don't even have to add a carbohydrate/protein to get an initial burst of reproduction! Like I said, some of my BEST tea is grass clippings, rain water, and a little wort from a brew.
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Gotta love the microbe diversity in nature my friend. :cool:
 
miguelovic said:
 
Apologies, I come off as a dick sometimes, and rightly so :P I did not intend to mock you though, just them.
 
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You piss me off all the time, but you put effort in to it... I like that! :rofl:
 
 
@ColdSmoke  You sir are doing good stuff and I am happy to have you in our little pseudo organic club. Dont feel like we are dissing you, Truth is we are glad to have you! But you should learn the difference between aerobic and anaerobic, and then you will understand why good tea cant be bottled and put on a shelf.
 
So, I've been doing foliar feeds with my AACT brews and I know that there is a benefit derived, but now I'm ready to take it to the next level.  By their nature, chile plant leaves are hydrophobic and I only get limited adhesive of the foliar feed because of this.  What is the "best" wetting agent or natural surfactant that I can use to make an AACT stick to the target foliage better and with more even coverage BUT also not harm the living component of of the brew?  If I was just putting herbicide on the grass in the yard I'd probably throw in a teaspoon of dish soap and call it a day, but with AACT I think that soap would end up negating the benefits of having living bacteria and fungi applied and possibly even damaging the target plants.
 
KingLeerUK said:
So, I've been doing foliar feeds with my AACT brews and I know that there is a benefit derived, but now I'm ready to take it to the next level.  By their nature, chile plant leaves are hydrophobic and I only get limited adhesive of the foliar feed because of this.  What is the "best" wetting agent or natural surfactant that I can use to make an AACT stick to the target foliage better and with more even coverage BUT also not harm the living component of of the brew?  If I was just putting herbicide on the grass in the yard I'd probably throw in a teaspoon of dish soap and call it a day, but with AACT I think that soap would end up negating the benefits of having living bacteria and fungi applied and possibly even damaging the target plants.
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I wouldn't add anything. The underside of the leaves are your real target. Where the stomata are. They do a FINE job of taking in nutrients and this is also where most pests prefer to nibble first. So, there is no "next level" of foliar feeding. The only thing you could and should do that's better than foliar feeding is soil drenching with AACT.  
 
I always spray from the underside and I also do a soil drench with whatever I'm not using in the foliar (usually 1 gallon in the foliar, remaining 4 gallons spread around in soil feeding).  It just seems that there is a fair bit of runoff and beading that could be counteracted by reducing the surface tension of the solution; letting it spread over the surface of the leaves as an even coat.  My thinking: more surface area in contact with AACT, more absorption before evaporation.
 
If its beading and falling off, then that just means more inhabitants for the soil, along with nutrients. If you want more surface contact...spray more! I seem to get plenty enough coverage and stickyness for that bio film to remain for days. Maybe try a different recipe? 
 
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