Well said. I think some of the other "teas" are just as beneficial as well. Kelp aerated for 24 hours and then watered into the soil is a great amendment. There are many others as you know.miguelovic said:
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tutorial Beginner's guide to AACT/Compost Tea
- Thread starter bigbodybussey
- Start date
I just started my first brew. I am probably a bit underpowered with a 400l/h pump so I thought I would make a small 2 gallon test batch. All the recipes were contradictory so I used the simplest one I could:
1 teaspoon unsulphered molasses
3/4 cup fresh worm castings
It will be interesting to see what shakes out... fingers crossed, we will know in 12 hours I guess.
1 teaspoon unsulphered molasses
3/4 cup fresh worm castings
It will be interesting to see what shakes out... fingers crossed, we will know in 12 hours I guess.
Robisburning said:
Way to take that first step! I bet your plants are excited.
Your recipe sounds fine. All the essentials for a good bacterial brew. What are your plans for it when it's done? Foliar spray? Soil drench?
edit: If you want to start making larger batches, look into one of these: http://www.amazon.com/EcoPlus-Commercial-Air-Single-Outlet/dp/B002JLJC0W/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1420812048&sr=8-10&keywords=air+pump
I started with a small aquarium pump that didn't move enough air. Upgrading to this ^ one made a HUGE difference.
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Thank you for the encouragement Hybrid Mode. It is something I have been meaning to do for a long time and it was so easy once I began; I am kicking myself for not getting started 6 months ago.
I was thinking about spraying in the first instance as no doubt some will end up on the soil anyway. I was going to do use it undiluted and just spray sparingly.
That pump does about 2200l/h or about 5x more than my current unit so would be a significant improvement. I did look locally for a linear pump but they are about 10x the price of that one. This upgrade is something I will do in the near future.
I was thinking about spraying in the first instance as no doubt some will end up on the soil anyway. I was going to do use it undiluted and just spray sparingly.
That pump does about 2200l/h or about 5x more than my current unit so would be a significant improvement. I did look locally for a linear pump but they are about 10x the price of that one. This upgrade is something I will do in the near future.
I know the feeling of regret for having not started brewing earlier very well. I had a pretty serious outbreak of BLS last spring and that was the firecracker under my feet to start making tea. Luckily I got going in time and the BLS problem was virtually eliminated. I still had a few spots pop up occasionally all summer, but things never got out of control again and I only lost a couple of leaves from there on out. C'est la vie with organics. It's all about harmony and reducing disease to an acceptable level.
That's what I started out doing, too. Mostly because of the BLS. But I don't think it matters much. Just keep brewing and applying. It's all about inoculating your garden with good microbes - leaf surface, soil, mulch layer, compost pile, leaf mold… Put that stuff everywhere!
edit: You'll be happy with that pump. It's a real badass. I bet it could aerate a 20 gallon batch, no problem. I have to turn mine way down so I don't "inoculate" my basement walls with tea!
Robisburning said:
That's what I started out doing, too. Mostly because of the BLS. But I don't think it matters much. Just keep brewing and applying. It's all about inoculating your garden with good microbes - leaf surface, soil, mulch layer, compost pile, leaf mold… Put that stuff everywhere!
edit: You'll be happy with that pump. It's a real badass. I bet it could aerate a 20 gallon batch, no problem. I have to turn mine way down so I don't "inoculate" my basement walls with tea!
So there was no foaming after 24 hours. I had read that tap water could be de-chlorinated by putting the air through it for an hour which is exactly what I did before introducing castings. I suspect that perhaps my pump was underpowered so there was some residual chloride. Any chlorine should be well and truly gone now so I have inoculated it again.
Will a simple mixture like molasses, water and vermicast foam?
Will a simple mixture like molasses, water and vermicast foam?
Robisburning said:
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I don't think I've ever had a batch foam in less than 24 hrs. I think as long as you're using good ingredients, dechlorinating your water thoroughly, maintaining the proper temp and pushing enough air through it, you're best off just going by time - not appearance.
I'm not familiar with your pump, though. So too little air could be the problem. Also, what temp are you running and how fresh are your worm castings? I let my water bubble for at least a day just to be sure. I don't know if that's necessary, but I do it...
The worm castings are fresh from my worm farm - I literally just grabbed a good handful and picked the worms out of it. In terms of temp it is about 68f, The pump is 5.4w and provides about 100gal/hour or 1..666 gallons per min. It is a dual output pump and both are going through airstones. It looks like a moderate boil above both the airstones and there is movement throughout the whole bucket.
I am tempted to just spray it out.
I am tempted to just spray it out.
I don't get a foam on a plain tea of BSM/EWC. It's more an indicator of what you put in, than what is happening microbially.
Any organic matter will neutralize trace chlorine, as well as molasses (through action of "reducing sugars"). The amount of organic matter or BSM used is many magnitudes greater than the sanitizing effect of chlorine. If I haven't had time to aerate, I just add the BSM first and let it muddle around for 10 minutes.
If you're worried about chloramine, it can be filtered out with activated carbon or neutralized with ascorbic acid.
Any organic matter will neutralize trace chlorine, as well as molasses (through action of "reducing sugars"). The amount of organic matter or BSM used is many magnitudes greater than the sanitizing effect of chlorine. If I haven't had time to aerate, I just add the BSM first and let it muddle around for 10 minutes.
If you're worried about chloramine, it can be filtered out with activated carbon or neutralized with ascorbic acid.
miguelovic said:
Thank you for the information Migualovic. I was thinking it might need something proteiny in the mix for foam retention. Regarding chlorine removal I was thinking of boiling water but the greeny in me thought that was a bit wasteful; your post will save me a bit of mucking around. Should I be worried about chloramine? The tap water where I am have a ph of 8 so any excuse to add some ascorbic acid would probably be a good idea.
I sprayed up out this morning on all but 3 hot peppers and gave the soil a fair misting too. Here is an image of the batch just before it want out. No sock as I dumped the castings in a bucket and then filtered them with a 400 micron filter just before spraying out.
) not to worry about every bit and bob. I'm not sure on concentration if you do use it, it's probably fairly googleable or just prod PMD, I believe he uses it.TLDR: Neutralise chloramine with Ascorbic acid addition at a rate of 25mg per gallon or 6mg per L. Marginally more accurate than guessing, results depend on the chloramine conc. of your water and the size of your bath tub.
From wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine
Ascorbic acid
Ascorbic acid and sodium ascorbate completely neutralizes both chlorine and chloramines but degrades in a day or two, which make it usable only for short-term applications; SFPUC determined that 1000 mg of Vitamin C (tablets purchased in a grocery store, crushed and mixed in with the bath water) remove chloramine completely in a medium-size bathtub without significantly depressing pH.[16]
Looking at the numbers quickly a bathtub is about 160L or 40 gallons. Per gallon is would be about 25mg of Ascorbic acid or 6mg per L. I can't emphasize enough how back of the envelope these numbers are. Firstly the "bathtub of water" is not really a standardized volume and the amount of chloramines being neutralized are not disclosed although the reference was from the San Fransisco Water Power Sewer people:
http://www.sfwater.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=4125
Interestingly they mention "Adding fruit to a waterpitcher (e.g., slicing peeled orange into a 1gal water pitcher) will neutralize chloramine within 30 minutes. Although they don't mention it specifically by fruit I am guessing they want citrus which will bring ascorbic acid to the party. An apple only has about 1/10 the vitamin c of an orange for example.
From wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine
Ascorbic acid
Ascorbic acid and sodium ascorbate completely neutralizes both chlorine and chloramines but degrades in a day or two, which make it usable only for short-term applications; SFPUC determined that 1000 mg of Vitamin C (tablets purchased in a grocery store, crushed and mixed in with the bath water) remove chloramine completely in a medium-size bathtub without significantly depressing pH.[16]
Looking at the numbers quickly a bathtub is about 160L or 40 gallons. Per gallon is would be about 25mg of Ascorbic acid or 6mg per L. I can't emphasize enough how back of the envelope these numbers are. Firstly the "bathtub of water" is not really a standardized volume and the amount of chloramines being neutralized are not disclosed although the reference was from the San Fransisco Water Power Sewer people:
http://www.sfwater.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=4125
Interestingly they mention "Adding fruit to a waterpitcher (e.g., slicing peeled orange into a 1gal water pitcher) will neutralize chloramine within 30 minutes. Although they don't mention it specifically by fruit I am guessing they want citrus which will bring ascorbic acid to the party. An apple only has about 1/10 the vitamin c of an orange for example.
Robisburning - have you checked your water departments stance on chlorine / chloramine? They dont always use both I believe. For example, the Water Corporation where I live only uses chlorine for Perth metro areas. Chloramine gets used more in the country areas.
We use a Vitamin C filter on our shower to remove the chlorine as otherwise it smells like a swimming pool!
I'm still renting, otherwise I would have added a reverse osmosis filter at the mains entry as we have pH 8.0-8.5, 400 ppm water that reeks of chlorine. Unfortunately our landlady is a tight ass and wont add anything to the house
Edit - as a side note, can any of the more experienced guys advise what would happen if you just left the worms in the EWC when it went into the tea?
We use a Vitamin C filter on our shower to remove the chlorine as otherwise it smells like a swimming pool!
I'm still renting, otherwise I would have added a reverse osmosis filter at the mains entry as we have pH 8.0-8.5, 400 ppm water that reeks of chlorine. Unfortunately our landlady is a tight ass and wont add anything to the house
Robisburning said:
Edit - as a side note, can any of the more experienced guys advise what would happen if you just left the worms in the EWC when it went into the tea?
Just had an odd experience. I started a second AACT batch today. 2 gallons tap water bubbled for 6 hours in full sun. Dissolved 1sp of BSM in 1 cup of boiling water and added it to the 2 gallons still bubbling. It seemed to have more persistent bubbles immediately. Only differences between 1st and 2nd batch were first batch had only been bubbled for 1 hour AND BSM was pitched straight into the barrel and left to dissolve through bubbler action which took about 5 mins. These differences were prior to inoculation.
My suspicion is that dissolving the BSM in the hot water is the important change here as opposed to the bubbler time/chlorine removal.
Same ingredients as the above image, same amount of time but this batch features bubbles that persist.
My suspicion is that dissolving the BSM in the hot water is the important change here as opposed to the bubbler time/chlorine removal.
Same ingredients as the above image, same amount of time but this batch features bubbles that persist.
So I am guessing my teas with worm castings and BSM only are almost exclusively bacterial teas. I am after a good recipe for some more fungal teas. I have a few ingredients at hand I hope to use:
a large mulch pile which is literally chipped up trees. it is quite fresh having been sitting steaming for about 2 months from fresh
Seasol which is processed King Island Bull Kelp (Durvillaea potatorum) and Knotted Kelp (Ascophyllum nodosum) from the North Atlantic Ocean
a pile of lawn clippings which is a few days old. It got quite warm and is covered in a white powder which I am hoping is fungal, shown below
It also seems BSM is excluded from the fungal teas so I am not sure what they are using as fuel to bred.
I might just go 2 cups of glass clippings, 2 cups mulch, 20ml Seasol and 2tsps BSM in 2 gallons and aerate for 24 hours.at 25c. Appreciate any comments, corrections to this recipe.
a large mulch pile which is literally chipped up trees. it is quite fresh having been sitting steaming for about 2 months from fresh
Seasol which is processed King Island Bull Kelp (Durvillaea potatorum) and Knotted Kelp (Ascophyllum nodosum) from the North Atlantic Ocean
a pile of lawn clippings which is a few days old. It got quite warm and is covered in a white powder which I am hoping is fungal, shown below
It also seems BSM is excluded from the fungal teas so I am not sure what they are using as fuel to bred.
I might just go 2 cups of glass clippings, 2 cups mulch, 20ml Seasol and 2tsps BSM in 2 gallons and aerate for 24 hours.at 25c. Appreciate any comments, corrections to this recipe.
Fungi feed just fine off BSM. You can increase presence by mixing in a direct food to your humus source a few days before using for tea. Any type of grain meal (not corn), oat meal is the most common. Produces the same fuzzy fungal growth I believe you've pictured above.
Check out microbeorganics.com, if you haven't already. Tim debunks a number of myths and has verified (through microscopy) concentrations for ingredients, and their effect on microorganisms.
Unsure on the Seasol, otherwise your recipe looks good. In general, kelp products dampen microbial growth during the first 24 hours, but this is very dependent on concentration and the product used. Many "funky" tea brewers have fixed their problem by dropping the addition of kelp products, or cutting down on concentration. Not so much a "this is going to fail" warning as a caution on the product.
Check out microbeorganics.com, if you haven't already. Tim debunks a number of myths and has verified (through microscopy) concentrations for ingredients, and their effect on microorganisms.
Unsure on the Seasol, otherwise your recipe looks good. In general, kelp products dampen microbial growth during the first 24 hours, but this is very dependent on concentration and the product used. Many "funky" tea brewers have fixed their problem by dropping the addition of kelp products, or cutting down on concentration. Not so much a "this is going to fail" warning as a caution on the product.
Thank you for your considered response miguelovic. It was exactly the sort of information I was hoping for. I will skip the Seasol as it sounds like a bit of an unknown.
I will try using oatmeal as a food source. I am off to explore microbeorganics.com,
I will try using oatmeal as a food source. I am off to explore microbeorganics.com,