tutorial Beginner's guide to AACT/Compost Tea

I would like to better understand what the foam indicates.  Most recent batch had a more fungal innoculation and foamed like mad.  It was foaming from 1 hour after starting and just got more and more accumulating - this image was taken after 14 hours, for reference the bucket it is in is half full of tea and the rest is foam.
 
 
Foam can be formed by proteins in the water created by microbial activity, however this is not a reliable indicator. Foam can also be created by saponins (aloe vera, alfalfa, yucca) or just by adding molasses or by worms which might have made it in there.
 
Tim Wilson
 
 
 
I would like to say it's the protein from the grass, but I'm doubting whether it would break down that fast.
 
miguelovic said:
Foam can be formed by proteins in the water created by microbial activity, however this is not a reliable indicator. Foam can also be created by saponins (aloe vera, alfalfa, yucca) or just by adding molasses or by worms which might have made it in there.
 
Tim Wilson
 
 
 
I would like to say it's the protein from the grass, but I'm doubting whether it would break down that fast.
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I read most of Tims website, I must have missed that bit. 
 
I borrowed a microscope today to have a look at the brew.  The microscope only did 200x and used reflected light.  I didn't have any stain and had little experience with a microscope.  I made up wet and dry slides with and without cover slips. After a bit of fiddling I did get it focused but when moving the sample (no linear stages) it would go out of focus again.  I did see some fungal hyphae just.  I had some linear polarizers which I mucked about with but they didn't help much. Anyway, it was not a very satisfying experience so I went digging in my spare room and found a monotone scientific camera and some lenses.  I will set it up tomorrow and should be able to get some images in the next day or so of the slides I saved.  The brew itself is on the garden now.
 
Just did a worm castings tea. No foam after 24 hrs, just brown water.  I suspect my air pump wasn't powerful enough, but there wasn't a really bad odor, so I've used it anyway.
 
We have a 39C day coming up, so I got the soil nicely moist with the tea in hope any goodies will readily get taken up by the plant.  
 
Congrats on your tea. Do you know how many L/min the pump was doing?  From my understanding, you can use less molasses, something like 0.5tsp per gallon, as if the microbe population gets to dense the air pump will struggle much more to just the dissolve oxygen up. 
 
Rainman said:
Just did a worm castings tea. No foam after 24 hrs, just brown water.  I suspect my air pump wasn't powerful enough, but there wasn't a really bad odor, so I've used it anyway.
 
 
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Most likely, not enough carbs/sapotins for a head. Not necessarily a bad thing. Smell is a good indicator.
 
Not sure about the pump tbh, but the plants look good still and didn't die so one can only hope there were some goodies in there for them.  I will try more carbs next time and will try to remember to look at the pump specs too
 
Cayennemist said:
 
Most likely, not enough carbs/sapotins for a head. Not necessarily a bad thing. Smell is a good indicator.
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Could you provide more info on the smell to look for?  My second batch smelled like molasses at the end slightly.  I wondered it the meant all the available molasses wasn't used?
 
My pump does 400L per hour.  I am basically limited to 2 gallon brews and start by dosing the water with air for 24 hours before hand so it is starting o2 saturated rather than having to saturate the water AND feed the rapidly expanding microbe population.  I also limit molasses to 1/2tsp per L. To avoid so much mucking about I bought a much larger pump sililar to what Hybrid-mode suggested but for 230v country.
 
A bad smell would be sulfur like a fart, or like a old rotton fish tank. Avoid water that resembles sewer smells.
A good smell would be earthy, like dirt. I add my sugars in during the aeration stage for extra time desolve.

Sorry for a short answer, I'm on my phone posting.
 
Cayennemist said:
 
Most likely, not enough carbs/sapotins for a head. Not necessarily a bad thing. Smell is a good indicator.
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Did you mean Saponins? ;)
I stopped using compost teas myself as I see no need for them.
Now FPE is another story altogether but I am not sure how many have experimented with this on peppers.
 
SpraysOnTheWayOut said:
PMD stopped using compost teas because there is no need for them?  Wow, I haven't been here in a while and missed some things.
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If you have a good living soil then yes there is little need for them.
I top dress with homemade compost/vermicompost and some chopped comfrey and use a kelp/alfalfa tea occasionally and that's it.
 
SpraysOnTheWayOut said:
Whats FPE - another concept I'll spend hours trying to wrap my head around?
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FPE = Fermented Plant Extracts.
Botanical teas basically.
Stinging nettle, dandelion and many other plants contain substances that plants love with Kelp and Alfalfa being two of the best.
 
I use an FPE on my peppers, have been since last year. I have a bottle fermented liquid kelp that I use regularly, and during the fall of last year I used a bottle of fermented comfrey leaves.
 
If you want to read more about them, google "plants to the rescue of plants".
 
As for the necessity of teas in general, I tend to agree with PMD that they are unnecessary in well established and maintained organic soils. The idea with teas is that you are growing microbes to add to your soil.
 
filmost said:
I use an FPE on my peppers, have been since last year. I have a bottle fermented liquid kelp that I use regularly, and during the fall of last year I used a bottle of fermented comfrey leaves.
 
If you want to read more about them, google "plants to the rescue of plants".
 
As for the necessity of teas in general, I tend to agree with PMD that they are unnecessary in well established and maintained organic soils. The idea with teas is that you are growing microbes to add to your soil.
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Well said my friend. Speaking of Comfrey, I just ordered six more from Horizon Herbs in Oregon. I will have 19 when they arrive. Now if we just had some damn rain.
 
filmost said:
 
 
As for the necessity of teas in general, I tend to agree with PMD that they are unnecessary in well established and maintained organic soils. The idea with teas is that you are growing microbes to add to your soil.
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     I completely agree about the limitations in using AACT for inoculating soil. But I think you and PMD might be overlooking the benefits of using it to inoculate foliage to prevent or treat BLS and other foliar diseases.
 
Rainman said:
Just did a worm castings tea. No foam after 24 hrs, just brown water.  I suspect my air pump wasn't powerful enough, but there wasn't a really bad odor, so I've used it anyway.
 
We have a 39C day coming up, so I got the soil nicely moist with the tea in hope any goodies will readily get taken up by the plant.  
Click to expand...
 
I just did my first batch and had the exact same result.   I put it on half my plants today as a test.  
 
Plants are still in 5" pots.
 
Hybrid Mode 01 said:
 
     I completely agree about the limitations in using AACT for inoculating soil. But I think you and PMD might be overlooking the benefits of using it to inoculate foliage to prevent or treat BLS and other foliar diseases.
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I seriously don't think it helps much in that regard either HM01 but you are free to disagree my friend.
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
I seriously don't think it helps much in that regard either HM01 but you are free to disagree my friend.
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     I had a huge BLS outbreak last spring. Over 3/4 of my plants had infected leaves and about a third were covered in it and losing leaves daily. After I sprayed them all new growth was clean and it stopped spreading to other plants. Even though the cool, wet weather that led to it continued, and actually got worse for a while.
     Maybe you don't encounter BLS in your climate?
     You are free to disregard my evidence.  ;)
 
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