Nice test. Did I you post your tea recipe?
I brew an alfalfa tea one gallon at a time for four days between watering and continue to harvest.
One little fish tank bubbler, inoculated with caps, and fed molasses.
This is what I posted, but it looks a little thin, what with a result like this.
There was an active tea thread not long ago that I used to devise my method.
It's in line with my stacking worm bin into which I put kitchen scraps, and tea solids.
The worms swarm fresh additions.
Fluid runoff from the worm bin is mixed with tea just before application.
The tea itself is a fist full of alfalfa, pinch of kelp, big pinch of neem meal, and a small spoon of Caps (alternate formulations).
Fill to one gallon and drop in bubbler stone.
Prep cup of sugar water with large dollop of molasses.
Make one addition (small glug) of Alaska Morbloom.
Make daily additions of molasses from dilution cup.
Make additions of Alaska Fish Fertilizer as needed to suppress foam on the theory that foam consists of chemicals I wish to have in the bodies of my tea microbes or at least suspended in the fluid.
All of my tea efforts have focused on building a richly populated microbial soup.
Molasses additions are guided by my wish to avoid causing a yeast bloom.
I have a microscope, and have spent many hours exploring the world of microbial tea.
I enjoy many of the creatures I have come to recognize.
I like my bacteria motile, more fun to watch.
The snake is very thin, and tremendously long.(and agile)
Flounder (or flying leaf) are thought to be anaerobic and thus less desirable.
The strange thing is that after years of brewing tea, and countless hours at the microscope, I feel constantly presented with changing populations.
And they don't seem to follow a predictable sequence.
So I strive for maximum bio density and maximum diversity.
Then I let them fight it out with the soil ecosystem.
This result has revitalized my interest in tea. I now need to learn how and when to use it.
"All the time" is the default I landed on.
Lots of logic behind tapering off late in flower to promote senescence.
The solids.
The inoculates. (Gnatrol {BTi} in the jar is added before use as needed)
Worm world & tea factory.
(note feed grade molasses)
The lab.
