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tutorial Beginner's guide to AACT/Compost Tea

Proud Marine Dad said:
My knowledge of bacteria in ewc and soil. You must have living organisms to create AACT.
Can you get any fresh worm castings or good compost? They will both have lots of beneficial bacteria.
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I think these have live but dormant bacteria from worm castings. Obviously your method is much cheaper but if he has already bought the stuff I would think it should work, as on top of having similar bacteria communities as fresh worm castings it will also contain similar compounds, with obvious variation depending on factors such as food source used for the worms.
 
Give it a try. Do you have access to a microscope? Brew it for 48 hours and then look at it under a microscope and you can see if there are bacterial colonies or not.
If no microscope then use it and see if it does anything. If you brew compost tea and let it sit for several hours the bacteria do not go dormant, they die.
I am not sure how they bottle them dormant. I will ask the experts on another forum.
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
Give it a try. Do you have access to a microscope? Brew it for 48 hours and then look at it under a microscope and you can see if there are bacterial colonies or not.
If no microscope then use it and see if it does anything. If you brew compost tea and let it sit for several hours the bacteria do not go dormant, they die.
I am not sure how they bottle them dormant. I will ask the experts on another forum.
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I would guess that they may be fermenting with limited nutrients or fermenting until the nutrient source is exhausted as a nutrient shortage is what usually causes dormancy in bacteria. When a food source runs out, they can go into dormancy where they shut down their metabolic rate and therefore require very little food and oxygen and survive until a food source is available and then they kick back into life again.
 
Celtic67 said:
 
I would guess that they may be fermenting with limited nutrients or fermenting until the nutrient source is exhausted as a nutrient shortage is what usually causes dormancy in bacteria. When a food source runs out, they can go into dormancy where they shut down their metabolic rate and therefore require very little food and oxygen and survive until a food source is available and then they kick back into life again.
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True but it could also be slick marketing as well. ;)
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
Does it list other ingredients? May have some NPK values to it.
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It is listed as a fertiliser so yes there is some NPK value to it ... however I am not sure if it listed .. I have the empty bottle somewhere ... I could just bite the bullet and get his vermicast product instead ... just harder to store is all.
 
Well...I know yeast stores perfectly fine in a dormant state. I harvest my yeast cakes from my fermenter after each brew and just keep reusing the evolving strain for following brews, still ferments just as violently as the first pitch, even after a year has passed)  I do wonder about other bacteria in these "microbial" products as well. Only way to know for sure is to put your goggles on and dive in! 
 
Pepper-Guru said:
Well...I know yeast stores perfectly fine in a dormant state. I harvest my yeast cakes from my fermenter after each brew and just keep reusing the evolving strain for following brews, still ferments just as violently as the first pitch, even after a year has passed)  I do wonder about other bacteria in these "microbial" products as well. Only way to know for sure is to put your goggles on and dive in! 
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Surprisingly, yeast has the poorest survival rate when (freeze) dried (about 10% remain viable) but these remain viable for at least 15 years. The best microbe is gram positive (80%) then gram negative (50%) bacteria. I guess you don't need many viable when you are giving them all they need in a fermentation - I'd say a similar scenario occurs with an AACT. To store bacteria we usually pellet them cover in glycerol and freeze at liquid nitrogen temps.
 
I would just think that in a liquid it would be much harder to get them to remain viable, but these guys have apparently developed this technique in collaboration with a couple of Oz universities, so I would assume they are achieving a decent amount of viable dormant bacterial stocks, especially when the directions are to just add a food source and spray onto leaves (i.e. without a significant period of feeding to boost numbers such as an AACT brew.) I think this product would work better as part of an AACT brew than just following the instructions, imo. 
 
Are you guys talking about Sea Green? I've seen this product under a microscope and it's the real deal. The bacteria is kept in a bottle dormant in a humic acid solution. It is a great substitute for AACT. I've brought it up before but got tired of arguing with the "you can bottle bugs" guys. I understand they are not in an aerobic environment, but I see no reason why you couldn't could feed them and create an aerobic environment before application. Not that you really need to.
 
Why not mix a good viable living soil and you won't even have to bother with these products or AACT? ;)
I only brewed one batch this season and it was to help the soil food web get a kick start.
 
ColdSmoke said:
Why not accept that your way isn't the only way and probably not even the best way? ;)
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lol, geese...
 
I still haven't seen definitive evidence that AACT is better than anaerobic methods. However, I feel that more nasties live in anaerobic environments.
Lets not get too up in each others throats.
 
Im starting to see good results in strange places, so I don't know what to believe anymore. I'm starting to think that acclimation may be more beneficial than some of the other stuff we do.
 
So give it a dose of leaveitthehellalone, and watch it go. <-----Was the end of the comment but...
 
This has me thinking, maybe pre-building our soils should jump up in priority, this way the plant can stabilize and have less fluctuation in environment thought its live... Much like what PMD has been saying all along! :P
 
ColdSmoke said:
Why not accept that your way isn't the only way and probably not even the best way? ;)
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I have grown both ways, have you???
Cayennemist said:
 
lol, geese...
 
I still haven't seen definitive evidence that AACT is better than anaerobic methods. However, I feel that more nasties live in anaerobic environments.
Lets not get too up in each others throats.
 
Im starting to see good results in strange places, so I don't know what to believe anymore. I'm starting to think that acclimation may be more beneficial than some of the other stuff we do.
 
So give it a dose of leaveitthehellalone, and watch it go. <-----Was the end of the comment but...
 
This has me thinking, maybe pre-building our soils should jump up in priority, this way the plant can stabilize and have less fluctuation in environment thought its live... Much like what PMD has been saying all along! :P
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Come over and look at my Canna and you decide. Water only for the entire season and probably all of next season as well without adding much. Why wouldn't you want to grow that way?
 
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