HappyTrailz
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Ok.. when i read up on teas a few years back. I remember something about if you don't provide enough air you're wasting your time? Just want to make sure i'm doing this the correct way.
LittleDabbie
Supporter
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Which is very true, however unless your plan on brewing up 60 gallons at once that pump is overkill for your needs imho :D Just drop by wally world or petsmart and pick up a cpl 10-30 gallon pumps they work really good, I highly recommend the ones from walmart my self they seem to be working really well with any airstone ive picked out and push a good amount of water around :D
Capulator
likes to smell trees.
Supporter
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@HappyTrailz You only need to brew a gallon at a time and you will still have extra. it's roughly 1 gallon tea per 100 gallons res in a recirculating system. Use a 2 liter bottle with the top cut off. use a small air pump and drop an airstone in. Cut the ingredients down.
Use 2 teaspoons each root and foliar, 1/4 cup EWC, and about 5mL unsulphured black strap molasses from the grocery store. Make sure you mix it up really good when you put it in the bottle to break up all the talc powder chunks. After 24 hours of bubbling, let the solution settle for about 5 minutes. Put a cheap womens stocking over the top and pour the solution out in to your res. Pour slowly. You want to leave the talc carrier sticking to the bottom of the bottle where it has settled.
Use 2 teaspoons each root and foliar, 1/4 cup EWC, and about 5mL unsulphured black strap molasses from the grocery store. Make sure you mix it up really good when you put it in the bottle to break up all the talc powder chunks. After 24 hours of bubbling, let the solution settle for about 5 minutes. Put a cheap womens stocking over the top and pour the solution out in to your res. Pour slowly. You want to leave the talc carrier sticking to the bottom of the bottle where it has settled.
Slowitdown
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Who cares if its loud use it! That is a bad ass pump and it brews beautifully!
HappyTrailz
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That's what i'm talking about! Thanks brotha!
HappyTrailz
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lol the wifey!:D
Frostynugman
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She obviously doesn't smoke weed....
HappyTrailz
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She does, but still funny style when it comes to growing
F
FarmerPaw
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Anyone using products like great white,power-c, sea green, cascade minerals,nitrozime..?
Thanks in advanced
Thanks in advanced
oxanaca
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Nitrozime is just kinetin at like 1ppm its a hormone, in the cytokininin group
click80
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If you want to read a great deal of information on brewing, not specifically ingredients, but the function of getting air into water, which means it has to dissolve into the water, not just pump through it, go to www.microbeorganics.com and sift through the information on there. Depending on the setup aquarium type pumps for smaller fish tanks would probably not be enough. There are formulas for converting your pump output to CFM. For a ten gallon brewer I made with a airlift setup, which is very efficient for raising and maintaining a DO (dissolved oxygen) to about 8.0 even after 48 hours I have to run an ECO pump which has an output of 110/liters per minute.
The guy that runs the site, although he does sell some products, you can tell he's not there for the bucks. He has made many contributions to the knowledge base of Compost teas, identification of compost tea brewer design, recipes, and equipment that produces an optimal tea. He verifies teas by microscope and in my opinion his knowledge and contributions equal or exceed Dr. Ingham the alleged top researcher in the field of soil science and compost teas. I have found several points of which this fellow has made findings that refuted hers and a year later she adopts a "new outlook" or has "new findings".
Anyway, I'm definitely a fan of this guy and I think you might find the information about air incorporation into a tea worth looking at. Oxygen content is critical in the final product. Not to say you can't just take a five gallon bucket of water, dump some worm castings, Caps stuff, and molasses together, leave it for a day and still have a very decent tea. But tweaking out the oxygen will result in a tea that has many millions/billions more with the right amount of air. He has a video on YouTube right now. Google Mini Microbulator and you can see for yourself how to build an airlift brewer and the $40-$60 air pump is the most expensive part. The rest of the equipment is a five gallon bucket, about $2 worth of PVC and some air tubing. The results are outstanding and rival that of the KIS brewer.
He also has some awesome videos of all the little "do gooders" in a finished tea that he made with a camera attached to his microscope.
He's a great guy and responds to emails also and is very polite. As most Canadians seem to be :)
mojavegreen
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The Compost Tea
Brewing Manual
Fifth Edition
By
Elaine R. Ingham, PhD
Soil Foodweb Incorporated
728 SW Wake Robin Ave
Corvallis, Oregon 97333
ii
When grown in healthy soil, roots extend much deeper than the height of the
shoots aboveground. Work by the Hendrikus Group (www.hendrikus.com) shows
that lawn grass grown in their EssentialSoil with compost tea applications has
roots extending at least 4 feet deep into the soil within 3.5 months after planting
lawn grass seed.
Root Photo courtesy of Hendrikus Schraven of the Hendrikus Group.
2000, 2001, 2002 Soil Foodweb Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without prior written permission from the copyright holder except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Soil
Foodweb Incorporated, 728 SW Wake Robin Ave, Corvallis, Oregon 97333.
First Edition
Printings November 2000, February 2001
Second Edition (US and Australia)
US Printings August 2001, September 2001 (2.1), October 2001, October 2001 (2.2)
Third Edition (US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa)
First US Printing March 2002
Fourth Edition, March, 2003 (US and Australia)
Fifth Edition, April 2005
This publication is part of the educational outreach program of the Sustainable Studies Institute
(SSI). A portion of all proceeds from sales of this publication goes to support SSI’s activities. For
more information about the Sustainable Studies Institute visit their website at
www.sustainablestudies.org
Acknowledgements
The following people contributed time, information and/or thoughts to developing my
understanding of compost tea. I would like to thank them for their help:
Karl Rubenberger, the first to build a commercially viable compost tea-brewing machine, the
guiding light behind the Microb-Brewer, and who continues to be a compatriot in the
world of compost tea.
Merline Olson has been a true friend for many years. Currently is the President of SFI Australia. Remember
taking samples every two hours from the Microb-Brewer for an entire week? Right-o mate!
Bruce Elliott, who currently manufactures the Earth Tea Brewer,
Leon Hussey, inventor and manufacturer of the Keep It Simple brewer, who is the first person to use
aeration alone to extract the organisms from compost,
And for everyone who is making compost tea in any form, and has communicated with me about
their results.
Keep sharing your ideas!
Elaine R. Ingham
President, Worldwide, Soil Foodweb Inc. [email protected]
President, Sustainable Studies Institute, www.sustainablestudies.org
Affiliate Faculty, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia
Board of Advisors, Sustainable Studies Institute
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contributed by Leon Hussey:
“This is a time when forces of a very different nature too often prevail - forces careless of life or
deliberately destructive of it and the essential web of living relationships.
My particular concern, as you know, is with the reckless use of chemicals so unselective in their
action that they should be more appropriately be called biocides rather than pesticides. Not even
the most partisan defenders can claim that their toxic effect is limited to insects or rodents or
weeds or whatever the target may be.
These are large problems and there is no easy solution. But the problem must be faced. As you
listen to the present controversy about pesticides, I recommend that you ask yourself
- Who speaks?
- And Why?"
Rachael Carson, 1963 address to The Garden Club of America
"Her speeches during the last year of her life reflect her moral conviction that 'no civilization can
wage relentless war on life without destroying itself, and without losing the rights to be called
civilized."
LOST WOODS - Linda Lear
iii
Table of Contents
Introduction to the Fifth Edition
What Is Compost Tea? .................................................................................................................1
Aerated Compost Tea (ACT).....................................................................................................2
Not-Aerated Compost Tea .........................................................................................................2
Anaerobic Compost Tea ............................................................................................................3
Manure Tea ................................................................................................................................3
Compost Extract.........................................................................................................................3
Compost Leachate......................................................................................................................3
Plant (or Fermented) Tea ..........................................................................................................3
Bacterial Soups ..........................................................................................................................3
Organisms and Food Resources.................................................................................................3
Compost Quality ........................................................................................................................4
Aerobic Conditions ....................................................................................................................4
Machine Testing.........................................................................................................................4
Anaerobic Conditions ................................................................................................................4
Human Pathogens ......................................................................................................................5
What Growers Need to Know....................................................................................................5
Qualitative Assessment of Compost Tea ...................................................................................6
The Habitat Must Select for Beneficials....................................................................................6
Figure 1. The Soil Foodweb......................................................................................................7
Is Compost Tea A fertilizer........................................................................................................7
Nutrient Pools in Compost.........................................................................................................8
Figure 2. The Three Pools of Nutrients ....................................................................................9
Compost Quality Is Critical ........................................................................................................11
Figure 3. The Compost Foodweb............................................................................................11
Organisms ................................................................................................................................11
Disturbance ..............................................................................................................................11
Compost Tea Organisms .............................................................................................................12
The “Good Guys” ....................................................................................................................12
Bacteria ....................................................................................................................................12
Figure 4. Fungi (strands), bacteria (tiny dots and rafts of dots), ciliate cysts (large
iv
circles) in a compost tea.....................................................................................................13
How to Measure Bacteria and Fungi .......................................................................................13
Direct Methods...................................................................................................................13
Plate Methods.....................................................................................................................13
Why Are Bacteria Needed in Tea? ..........................................................................................14
Fungi ........................................................................................................................................14
Why Are Fungi Needed in Tea? ..............................................................................................15
Figure 5. Basidiomycete fungi (dark brown) with clamp connections growing in
brown amorphous soil organism matter............................................................................16
Protozoa ...................................................................................................................................16
Nematodes................................................................................................................................17
Mycorrhizal Fungi ...................................................................................................................17
Species Composition of Bacteria, Fungi, Protozoa and Nematodes........................................17
Pathogens in Tea ......................................................................................................................18
E. coli and aerobic conditions..................................................................................................19
Table 1. Can Brewing Tea Remove E. coli?............................................................................20
Fungal Pathogens.....................................................................................................................21
Worm Compost........................................................................................................................21
Maintaining Aerobic Conditions in Tea ..................................................................................21
How to Use Compost Tea .......................................................................................................... 23
Potential Benefits of Compost Tea ..........................................................................................23
Application of Compost Tea....................................................................................................24
Foliar Applications.................................................................................................................. 24
Figure 6. Compost tea application to vineyard .......................................................................25
Soil Applications..................................................................................................................... 26
Generalized Approach for Using Compost Tea.......................................................................26
Figure 7. Asparagus ..........................................................................................................27
Potato .................................................................................................................................27
Figure 8. Applying compost tea........................................................................................28
Table 2. Data from Jolly Farmer 2003 Compost Tea Potato Trial ...................................29
Row Crops/ Broadacre Crops ............................................................................................29
Figure 9. Melons in Australia ...........................................................................................30
Figure 10. Radish..............................................................................................................30
Turf ....................................................................................................................................31
Figure 11. Rugby Club in southern England ....................................................................31
v
Orchards and Vineyards.....................................................................................................31
Landscape Trees.................................................................................................................32
Greenhouse ........................................................................................................................32
Nurseries ............................................................................................................................32
Ponds and Lagoons ............................................................................................................32
Factors Affecting Compost Tea Quality .................................................................................. 34
Added Materials.......................................................................................................................34
Aeration ...................................................................................................................................34
Table 3. Relationship between Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide and Aerobic, Facultative
Anaerobic and Anaerobic Organisms ................................................................................ 34
Figure 12. Compost Tea Oxygen Levels ..........................................................................36
Brewing Time ..........................................................................................................................36
Compost Source and Quality ...................................................................................................37
Extraction and Mixing .............................................................................................................38
Foam ........................................................................................................................................38
Maintaining Compost Activity ................................................................................................39
Mesh size of the tea bag or final filtration material .................................................................39
Microbes in Tea .......................................................................................................................39
Ratio of Compost to Water ......................................................................................................39
Temperature .............................................................................................................................40
Water........................................................................................................................................40
Compost Tea Standards .............................................................................................................41
Table 4 The desired minimum ranges for different organisms
in compost or compost tea .................................................................................................41
Comparison of a Not-Suppressive Tea with a Suppressive Tea ..............................................42
Protocol..............................................................................................................................42
Results................................................................................................................................42
Table 5. How to tell that tea will be suppressive ...............................................................43
Brewing Methods and Machines ................................................................................................44
Evaluation Criteria ...................................................................................................................44
Early Methods of Compost Tea Production.............................................................................44
Bucket Method.........................................................................................................................44
Bucket-Bubbler Method...........................................................................................................45
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Trough Method ........................................................................................................................45
Table 6. Comparison of Microbial Numbers Using Bucket Bubblers and Trough
Brewing Methods...............................................................................................................46
Microb-Brewer Results, 1998 to 2000.....................................................................................46
Table 7. Microb-Brewer Tea Results, 1999 versus 2000...................................................46
Comparison of Different Commercial Brewers: ....................................................................46
The Sustainable Studies Institute Tea Grant, 2002............................................................46
Results..........................................................................................................................47
Table 8. Tea quality Assessed by the SSI Tea Grant Study.........................................48
Fig 13. Ciliates.............................................................................................................49
Application Methods ...................................................................................................................50
How Long Can Tea Be Held?..................................................................................................50
Put-To-Sleep Tea .....................................................................................................................51
Foliar Applications...................................................................................................................51
Control of Existing Disease Conditions...................................................................................51
Soil Applications......................................................................................................................52
Compost Tea Appropriate to the Plant .....................................................................................52
The Right Compost ..................................................................................................................53
The Right Foods.......................................................................................................................53
Table 9. Examples of Food Resources for Different Organism Groups..................................54
Recipes .........................................................................................................................................55
Table 10. The Kind of Tea Needed for Different Plants and Soil Types.................................55
Water versus Compost Volumes and Extraction Efficiency....................................................56
Brewing Time ..........................................................................................................................56
When to Add Materials............................................................................................................56
Commercial versus Indigenous Organisms .............................................................................56
Fine-Tuning Your Recipes.......................................................................................................56
The Basic, Starting-point, Bacterial Tea............................................................................57
Equal Fungi-to-Bacterial Tea.............................................................................................57
Fungal Tea .........................................................................................................................57
Mycorrhizal Inoculum .......................................................................................................57
Grower Experiences ......................................................................................................................58
vii
Scientific Papers or Abstracts.....................................................................................................58
Experimental Results ..................................................................................................................63
SARE Grant 2001 ....................................................................................................................63
SARE Grant 2002 ....................................................................................................................64
Table 11. Soil microorganism biomass and numbers from Wren and Broadly vineyards.......... 65
Microb-Brewer Experiment #1 ................................................................................................66
Grape Foliar Experiment..........................................................................................................67
Table 12. Relation between leaf coverage and prevention
of Botrytis on wine grapes ............................................................................................67
Territorial Seed Experiment, Summer 2000 ............................................................................67
Using Good Compost is Critical........................................................................................67
Seasonal Variation in Organism Activity on Leaves.........................................................67
Potato Trials at Oregon State University .................................................................................68
Tea from Different Composts versus % Disease Suppression...........................................68
Glossary .......................................................................................................................................69
Recent Literature and Resources ..............................................................................................71
The History of Compost Tea.......................................................................................................75
Additional References .................................................................................................................79
viii
Introduction to the Fifth Edition
We’ve come a long way since I started working on liquid extracts of compost in graduate school. At that
time, variability was too great, so we went on to other projects. In the last 10 years, however, methods for
making aerated compost teas have been determined, but the methods for producing not-aerated teas are
lacking. We need to know exactly how to produce consistent and reproducible teas of each kind. Exactly
what do the teas produced by not-aerated, anaerobic or fermented methods do to plants? How can we
consistently produce each kind, so the effects are predictable?
Aerated compost teas contain all the species of organisms that were in the compost. Thus the compost has
to be “tea-quality”. Those organisms selected by the temperature, foods present, nutrient composition,
oxygen content in the tea brew grow during the brewing process. When oxygen drops below a certain
level, nutrients can be lost and disease-causing organisms may grow. Oxygen content is critical, but so is
the diversity of aerobic organisms. The competitive set of organisms must be present to prevent pathogen
growth. The amount of food added must be limited to enough to attain maximum growth of desired
organisms but not so much that oxygen concentration drops below the aerobic level. Balance is critical –
maximize growth, but maintain aerobic conditions. Machine cleanliness is important too. Anaerobic
biofilms growing in the machine can result in poor quality tea. Documenting that a consistent, plantbeneficial
product is always made is paramount.
Anaerobic teas require that low oxygen levels are reached, and this needs to be documented in order to
make the claim that this kind of product was made. Certain organisms make specific toxins which combat
disease- and pest-organisms. These toxins, like antibiotics, are only made in certain conditions. Machine,
recipe, oxygen management and compost used must be documented and understood. The biology in an
anaerobic tea is limited to basically anaerobic bacteria and yeasts. Since the set of organisms is so
significantly altered from what occurs in aerobic compost, anaerobically brewed teas should not be called
compost tea, but designated specifically as anaerobic tea.
Fermented, or plant, teas are typically produced by placing specific kinds or mixes of un-decomposed
plant materials in water. Compost is typically not even a part of the recipe, and thus should not be
confused with compost tea. Oxygen typically reaches low levels for several days to weeks, but not for the
full two to three week production period. The full food web of organisms is not present in fermented tea,
although typically some aerobic organisms return to activity as oxygen returns to the ferment.
Not-aerated compost teas typically do not have additional food resources added to the brew. The
likelihood that the tea will reach low oxygen levels or be anaerobic is minimal. The full food web may be
present if oxygen levels do not drop below aerobic levels. If the compost used was immature, enough
soluble foods may be released, organisms will grow rapidly, and the tea will drop into anaerobic oxygen
conditions. If the food web is lost, leaving only anaerobic bacteria, then the product should not be called a
compost tea. The potential variance in this product is significant, and much more work is needed.
There are many aerobic tea machine companies in the market, and many people are having great success in
improving plant production as a result. Soil Foodweb Inc has worked with most machine makers and
helped them to be successful. Bruce Elliot, Leon Hussey, Carole Ann Rollins, George Hahn, Shepard
Smith, Ray Gore, Steve Diver, Kirk Leonard and many others were important in improving our
understanding of compost tea machines and how they work. But other advancements in the area of notaerated
and purposefully anaerobic teas have yet to be explored.
Aerated compost tea can have amazing benefits for plant production, regardless of any negativity some
might have about this industry. To have consistently beneficial tea requires knowing what you are doing,
and that means being able to test and determine exactly what biology is present in the tea.
Compost tea “works” only because of the biology in them. Management is not possible if you can’t
measure that biology.
ix
What Is Compost Tea?
The simplest definition of compost tea is: A brewed, water extract of compost.
Properly made compost must be used, so that the compost tea needs no further pathogen reduction.
Compost tea production is therefore, a “cold brewing” process, allowing growth of the organisms extracted
from the compost.
Only if the process remains aerobic will the complex set of organisms extracted from the compost remain
in the tea. The complex set of organisms is needed to establish all of the benefits of a healthy soil food web
in soil, potting mix, or on the surfaces of plants. Plant growth is typically improved, although the correct
mixes of beneficial organisms need to be matched to the type of plant (see Ingham et al. 1985, other papers
by Ingham, and the Soil Biology Primer, 1999).
Compost is the main ingredient in compost tea, but in order to increase organism biomass and activity,
other foods are added at the beginning of the brewing period. These ingredients and their effects are
discussed later in this book. Many growers have special ingredients they add. New recipes are always
being tested with the goal of achieving higher microbial biomass, better plant production, better soil
structure, better nutrient cycling and less disease.
As the processes involved in producing compost tea are better defined, the important parameters that result
in the growth of certain organisms will be better understood. Different kinds of aerated and non-aerated
compost tea will provide the proper biology for different situations and will be ever-more integral parts of
sustainable agriculture.
Sustainable farming is possible, if year after year, the soil is improved and productivity increases. While
any one plant species is limited by its genetics, matching the plant to the biology in the soil solves
production problems. Natural processes improve soil productivity, and in the natural world, plant species
change with time. Plant communities shift from bare soil, to weeds, to grasses, shrubs, trees and then old
growth forest. The mythology of modern agriculture is that soil productivity is set, and once a field is put
into agriculture, productivity has no choice but to go downhill.
Fertilizer sales people have been heard to say that agriculture depletes soil health and results in loss of tilth.
Nutrients are mined out of the soil, ultimately leaving a field devoid of life, plants and nutrients, unless
fertilizers are added back into the soil, in plant-available forms. Instead of solving the problem, however,
addition of high levels of strictly inorganic, soluble, plant-available nutrients has resulted in an enormous
problem with water quality. The nutrients added are no longer held in the soil. As a result, excess amounts
of inorganic nutrients have to be added. This is so different from a healthy soil, where the soil holds
nutrients, thereby “cleaning up” the nutrients from the water moving through the soil.
Clean water comes out of healthy soil. Why is water coming from “conventional” agricultural fields laden
with excess inorganic N, P, S and other minerals? Or if leaching is not occurring, why are the nutrients lost
through gaseous emissions? This is not what happens in natural systems.
Change will occur when sustainable agriculture, not extractive, destructive agriculture, is practiced.
Pesticides and inorganic fertilizers are not needed, if soil health is maintained. Tillage needs to be reduced
to the minimum possible. Disease and pests are not significant in healthy, sustainable systems. Weeds are
really just an indication that the system is not healthy. Nature gives growers clues with respect to what is
wrong, if the information is read properly. We just need to learn how to read the information being given
to us. We reserve the use of pesticides and other toxic materials to the rare situation when some unusual
event occurs that harms the biology that should be present..
Only if soil lacks the biology required to convert nutrients from plant-not-available forms to plant available
forms would addition of inorganic nutrients result in improved plant growth. If the proper biology is not
1
present, then the soil is sick. Extractive agriculture uses tillage and addition of excessive inorganic
nutrients which harm the proper biology. When there was plenty of land for “slash and burn” approaches
to farming, and farming was done on small scale areas, the land and the biology could recover between
extractive agricultural disturbance events.
But in today’s world, land is not allowed to recover between farming events, and therefore the organisms
and the foods to feed them have to be added back into the system without the luxury of “downtime” to
recover. The lack of proper biology must be dealt with immediately, for without that set of organisms, soil
structure, nutrient retention and nutrient cycling cannot happen or are severely restricted, and disease
suppression and protection are practically non-existent. Returning the organisms needed to build soil
health is required.
People who don’t understand soil biology will say that bacteria are always present, at more or less the same
numbers. But this is an error based on the methods that have been used. The classical medical way of
looking at disease-causing organisms was applied to soil, and inappropriate conclusions made. “Plate
count” methods assess mainly spores, which are dormant stages of some, but not all, organisms. Spores
aren’t affected as much as active organisms are by toxic chemicals or tillage. Plate media miss 99.99% or
more of the actual species growing and being active in soil. As a result, people relying on plate methods
have lead others to extremely mis-informed decisions.
Direct observation methods, especially of active biomass, show that soil biology activity is significantly
harmed by pesticides, inorganic fertilizers, tillage and herbicides. The precise impact depends on
conditions in the soil. For example, when soil is very dry, and most organisms are inactive, the impacts are
limited. But if toxic chemicals are applied when the organisms are actively growing, impacts can be
detected.
How rapidly can organisms colonize from another place? Something has to carry bacteria, fungi, protozoa
or nematodes from one place to another, and if transportation agents, such as birds, snakes, and spiders, are
also dead, how can microbes reach a distant place? Not that many organisms in soil survive a dry, windblown
transfer. Where, in the chemically impacted agricultural valleys of modern technology, is there even
a source of healthy soil for colonization to spread from? The necessary diversity of organisms was killed
long ago. The wind can’t carry what isn’t there.
Therefore, we need to put back the full diversity of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes and if possible,
microarthropods that were killed by toxic chemicals, tillage and lack of foods (organic matter) in the soil
need to be put back. Until that happens, people will be forced to use toxic chemicals to attempt to grow
plants. Proper nutrition for the plants will be lacking until the organisms that retain nutrients in their
biomass are returned to the soil. How do we put back what has been harmed?
It’s called compost. Or compost tea, if the source of compost is distant, and transportation costs are too
high. Since compost tea extracts the full diversity, and then grows selected beneficials to high numbers, a
small amount of good compost can be extended dramatically.
But we need to know how to make compost tea that will contain the full set of organisms needed, at high
biomass and activity levels. Depending on what you want to do, choose the method of supplying the
organisms your soil needs to become healthy (from the point of view of the plant you want to grow) once
again.
Aerated Compost Tea (ACT)
ACT is a water extract of compost, brewed without use of heat, which allows beneficial organisms to grow
to high numbers. Foods may or may not be added. If no additional foods are used, organisms are not
typically active, and thus less likely to survive transfer to soil or to plant surfaces.
Not-Aerated Compost Tea
A water extract, brewed, with or without added foods, but aeration is not provided. If a highly mature
compost with few active organisms is used, the organisms will not be highly active and thus not use up
2
oxygen during the brewing. The tea will likely not become anaerobic, but neither will the organisms stick
to leaf surfaces, since they are not highly active. More work on production conditions is needed.
Anaerobic Tea
A brewed water-extract but foods are added (or from the compost) to result in organisms multiplying
rapidly, such that oxygen use is greater than oxygen diffusion into the water. The oxygen concentration
will drop, and if it drops below the threshold of 6 ppm, aerobic fungi, protozoa and nematodes will be lost,
replaced by strictly anaerobic bacteria and yeasts.
Manure Tea
Manure is added to water. If no mixing or stirring is used, only soluble nutrients will be extracted and the
tea will typically be high in nitrates, salts, phosphorus, and/or potassium. Antibiotics used in the animal
feed are soluble and so normally extracted into the water and can cause significant problems for
microorganisms in the liquid extract. If the manure tea is mixed or stirred, high numbers of anaerobic
bacteria will be extracted, since anaerobic bacteria are not as good at sticking to surfaces as aerobic
organisms. Manure tea contains high numbers of ciliates, extremely low fungal biomass, and can have high
numbers of nematodes. Human and animal pathogens can abound as well. At the very least, manure tea
cannot provide all the benefits possible from compost tea. Once manure is composted, then it should be
called compost.
Compost Extract
By running water at significant pressure through compost, the organisms and soluble nutrients can be
extracted from the solids, depending on the extraction force applied.
Compost Leachate
Passive movement of water through good compost removes soluble nutrients and a few organisms.
Leachate is not necessarily anaerobic, but can be if organisms in the compost are growing rapidly.
Phytotoxic compounds can be present and nutrients can be lost if the leachate becomes anaerobic. Soluble
nutrients, enzymes and hormones can benefit plant growth, of course, but care is also needed to make sure
salts (e.g., nitrates) are not present in the compost, as high levels can “burn” plant surfaces.
Plant (or Fermented) Tea
Fresh plant materials (e.g., nettles, chamomile, marigolds, and horsetail) can be added to water to remove
plant juices. Organisms on the surface of the plant material grow on the dead plant tissues and often go
anaerobic for a period of time. As the plant material is used up, organisms stop growing, allowing oxygen
to diffuse back into the tea. Usually high numbers of ciliates, extremely low fungal biomass, and many
bacteria are observed. Plant teas usually do not contain all the organisms in compost tea, nor provide all
the benefits possible from compost tea. Anti-microbial agents can be produced, and quite interesting
effects have been produced. More work is needed to achieve consistent production.
Bacterial Soups
As with plant tea, mixes of bacterial species can have specific beneficial impacts. Single species of
bacteria can produce bio-control effects, except the conditions in which a single species works is quite
limited. Addition of these cultures to compost tea can add functions to the tea, however.
Organisms and Food Resources
Bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, soluble foods and other nutrients need to be extracted from compost
during tea brewing. The higher the quality of the compost, the greater will be the number of beneficial
species of each group of organisms. Diversity of food resources and nutrients will improve as more kinds
of plant materials are used in the composting process.
Additional foods are typically added in compost tea, some to grow the organisms in the tea brew, but others
are added to the finished tea, just before application, to enhance the activity of the organisms so they will
glue and bind themselves to foliage, for example. Foliar applications require maximum coverage of the
leaf surfaces, as well as maximum activity of the beneficial species.
3
Compost Quality
Compost quality is critical. Making certain that the compost has the organisms is extremely important.
Aerobic compost means a habitat has been maintained that allows the beneficial organisms to out-compete
the less or not-beneficial organisms that grow more rapidly in reduced oxygen conditions. The soluble
nutrients and foods in aerobic compost help make certain the organisms will grow in the tea brewing
process.
Additives of organisms, different kinds of foods, or nutrients can be used to improve conditions for
beneficial bacterial and fungal growth in compost, or even in compost tea. These additives need to be
checked for pathogens. Care needs to be taken to not add too much food resource. If excess is added,
bacterial and fungal growth will result in oxygen consumption to a detrimental level.
Aerobic Conditions
Aerobic conditions maintain the presence and growth of beneficial organisms. If aerobic conditions are
lost, and the tea becomes anaerobic or low oxygen concentrations, the aerobic organisms will be lost. If
there are few aerobic organisms, then the resulting brew cannot actually be compost tea. The organisms in
the compost have been lost, for the most part.
For that reason, anaerobic teas are not called compost teas, as the organisms which cause the beneficial
effects desired in compost tea will not be present. Anaerobic teas may do some interesting things, but they
cannot provide the benefits discussed below that are possible with aerobic compost teas.
Machine Testing
Tea-brewing machines must be tested to show that adequate biomass of all groups of necessary aerobic
organisms were present in the final tea. The testing conditions should use:
1. either the food resources sold by the tea machine maker, or a standard set of foods, such as 0.01% fish
hydrolysates and 0.01% humic acid (1 gal of fish, and 1 gal of humic acid in 100 gal of water),
2. compost with documented initial biology,
3. aerated conditions, such that oxygen remains in the aerobic ranges during the tea brew.
The data from these tests (a minimum of three replicated tests) must be available to the buyer, in order that
the buyer can assess whether this machine performs as advertised.
To obtain the full benefits possible from compost tea, the brewing process has to be aerobic. The balance
of amount and type of foods added determines oxygen demand by the organisms growing on those foods.
Testing of the machine must be displayed by the tea machine maker before anyone would consider buying
a machine labeled as compost tea maker. .
ASK FOR DATA so you don’t have to do this testing yourself. You need to know what amount of food to
put in the machine as temperatures change through the course of the year.
Anaerobic Conditions
Anaerobic teas are much less clearly defined than for aerobic tea. Sometimes compost tea may become
anaerobic for only a few minutes, for a few hours, or sometimes for days or weeks. Brief anaerobic periods
may increase diversity, if the aerobic organisms are not destroyed or put-to-sleep. Prolonged anaerobic
conditions mean that many organisms will become inactive or die, and that nutrients will be lost.
Anaerobic tea will not replenish the full soil food web, nor can it be a nutrient supplier. Anaerobic teas add
only anaerobic bacteria and yeasts. Leaf surfaces are aerobic environments, and anaerobic organisms do
not stay active nor will they perform their functions in aerobic environments. An anaerobic tea applied to
an aerobic environment may provide a physical barrier, for a short time, but that is the only function it
provides from a food web point of view.
Filamentous fungi that build soil structure and hold nutrients are lost, or become dormant, when conditions
become anaerobic. Aerobic bacteria that make micro-aggregates go into dormant stages in anaerobic
conditions, and therefore soil structure will not be maintained. Protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods
die in conditions that rapidly become anaerobic. Nutrient cycling will therefore no longer occur. In
4
anaerobic conditions, nutrients are lost through volatilization, because major nutrients are converted to
gaseous forms in reduced oxygen, conditions. When you smell ammonia, rotten egg, vinegar, putrid, or
sour smells, pH is dropping, alcohol is being produced, and N, S, and P are lost as gases.
The work Soil Foodweb Inc. has done was to define production requirements for beneficial, diseasesuppressive,
nutrient retaining, nutrient cycling, and soil-structure building compost tea. Anaerobic tea
production parameters are still largely undefined, leaving us without a working knowledge of how to
predict whether the tea will “work”, or not.
Human Pathogens
A major concern is the potential for human pathogens to grow in compost tea. This can only be a concern
if the compost is not properly made. Elements in the USDA take the view that even with non-manure
materials, human beings could still contaminate compost starting materials. Therefore, all compost must be
properly treated (heat or worm contact). Even then, certain programs view compost as potentially
containing human pathogens, but they lack a realistic understanding of the environment in which we live.
If there are no detectable pathogens in the compost, and conditions during compost tea production are
managed to prevent pathogen growth, then the risk involved in pathogens in compost tea are minimal.
There would be more probability of a bird infecting your sandwich while it was sitting on a picnic table
than having pathogens grow in the aerobically maintained tea.
Therefore, understanding the conditions selecting against pathogen growth in compost tea is vital. These
conditions that select AGAINST human pathogen growth are:
1. Maintain aerobic conditions in order to select against pathogens, which are mostly facultative
anaerobes.
2. Make sure a huge diversity of aerobic bacteria and fungi are present, which compete-with
facultative-anaerobe-growth in all conditions in the tea brewer,
3. Make sure no anaerobic bio-films are left in the tea brewer after a tea brew.
Cleaning is an extremely important factor that many do not consider before buying a machine. No one
wants to spend hours cleaning a machine. The greater the number of “hidden-from-view” surfaces present,
the longer it will take to clean the machine. Don’t trust manufacturers to tell you the truth about cleaning
issues. Talk to someone who owns the machine, and who tests their tea. They will relate how critical
testing and cleaning actually are.
What Growers Need to Know
The point of applying compost tea is to return the biology that should be present, to grow the desired plants
with as little effort as possible. There can be no question that presence of beneficial organisms improves
plant growth (Ingham et al, 1985, USDA Soil Biology Primer, 1995 and numerous papers on the benefits of
biology to plant growth since that time).
Growers need to know:
1. The biology that should be present in their soils and plant surfaces.
2. If they know what should be there, then they can determine what biology is missing from their
soil.
3. What organisms are in the compost. Selection for bacterial or fungal growth can be managed
during the compost tea brewing process by adding appropriate foods.
4. The tea sprayer does not kill the organisms in the tea
5. Delivery of the missing organisms, along with foods, has been successful.
Beneficial bacteria and fungi are needed to immobilize nutrients, to prevent erosion and run-off by gluing
and binding soil particles together to form aggregates, to compete with disease organisms for food, to build
soil structure and to allow roots of plants to grow deep into soil and find water and nutrients. Protozoa,
nematodes and microarthropods consume bacteria and fungi, and thus release nutrients at the place, time
and rates that plants require.
A maximum diversity of each of the sets of beneficial organisms is needed in soil and on plant surfaces.
5
Each combination of environmental conditions selects for the activity of at least several hundred species of
bacteria and fungi, several tens of species of protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods. There are always
organisms performing their function, until the conditions become so extreme that all activity shuts down,
such as when soil freezes, or moisture drops very low. Diversity is necessary, and the way to replenish that
diversity is by using compost made with a wide range of plant materials, or compost tea, made from
properly processed compost.
Even “pest” species should be present, in low numbers and low diversity, because they have a function in
soil. Pests are designed to remove stressed plants, for example, and as such, are indicators that the soil food
web is not healthy.
There might be a few disease organisms present in soil and compost. What is a disease in one system may
be a beneficial organism in another system. Dormant stages of many organisms survive the composting
process, but are not active and do not often cause disease.
The ratios of the different groups must be managed to promote the soil conditions that select for the growth
of the particular species of plant desired. For more information about the soil food web, check
www.soilfoodweb.com for references, textbooks and publications.
Qualitative Assessment of Compost Tea
Perhaps one of the most exciting recent developments by Soil Foodweb Inc is a way that individuals can
easily and cheaply assess every batch of tea of the organisms they want to know about. There is set-up
required, and some training is needed to do this yourself, so an alternative is to send the samples into the
lab or to an SFI advisor. These assays are typically a factor of 10 less than the quantitative assessments.
This method uses simple categories of assessment, from bad, to poor, to adequate, to good, very good and
excellent. Enough people are starting to get “better” than excellent levels, so a new category of outstanding
will likely be added. The categories are based on the presence and concentration of organisms observed in
the sample, but they are not precisely quantified. They are placed in broad categories, but it allows a
general assessment of tea quality.
Classes to train to do this work are typically held whenever enough people sign up, or at about one to two
month intervals. Please see the SFI web site for dates and locations. And please remember that if you
don’t wish to do these assays yourself, contact your closest SFI lab (all labs on the SFI homepage, based on
location world-wide).
The qualitative assay is $25 for the categorization of tea, $35 for soil or compost. The full-scale,
quantitative assessment, necessary to do scientific study, varies between $100 and $275 depending on the
number of organisms groups being quantified.
The Habitat Must Select for Beneficials
The habitat in compost and in compost tea needs to select for beneficial organisms and suppress disease
organisms. Most plant and human pathogens require reduced oxygen conditions in order to be highly
competitive. Since most beneficials require fully aerobic conditions to function, when oxygen becomes
limiting, pathogens win in anaerobic, or reduced oxygen, conditions.
The factors that must be considered for making certain the habitat is correct for beneficial organisms are:
1. The foods used in the compost or the compost tea need to be selective for the beneficial
organisms, not the disease organisms (see Recipe section).
2. The proper set of organisms needs to be present for the foods to be consumed, and for processes to
occur.
3. Temperatures between 65 and 85 F in tea, salts within range, nitrates and sulfur less than 3 ppm
and no toxic levels of any material.
With adequate extraction, compost tea will contain what was in the compost. If there are no human
pathogens in the compost, then there will be no human pathogens in the compost tea made from that
6
compost. Thus, compost quality is critical when making compost tea. This means we need to have
standards for the biology in compost as well as in the compost tea.
Figure 1. A Soil Foodweb Diagram demonstrates the relationships between the sets of organisms
(functional groups in boxes) needed in most crop, grassland, and vegetable soils to grow plants without
requiring pesticides or inorganic fertilizers.
Complex,
recalcitrant
carbons
Simple sugars
Shoots
Roots
Algae
P-Bacteria
Lichen
Plant-feeding
Nematodes
Saprophytic
Fungi
Bacteria
Organic
Matter
Fungal-
Feeding
Mites
Fungal-
Feeding
Nematodes
Bacterial-
Feeding
Nematodes
Flagellates
Amoebae
Ciliates
Predatory
Nematodes
Predatory
Mites
Higher
level
Predators
C
to fungus
N, P, μnutrients
to plant
Mycorrhizal
Fungi
Dead
Material
(from all boxes)
Is Compost Tea A Fertilizer?
Nutrients are removed when crops are harvested. These nutrients need to be replenished or “put back” into
the soil. Even better, fertility should increase with time. Soils in natural systems increase in nutrient
concentration as succession proceeds, but this doesn’t occur in conventional agriculture, because erosion,
run-off, leaching and compaction result in loss of nutrients from the soil.
Why does this happen? What changes? The organisms that should hold both soil and nutrients in place are
destroyed in conventional agriculture:
1. by tillage, which slices, dices and crushes the organisms,
2. by use of pesticides which kill far more than just the target organism species,
3. by use of high levels of inorganic fertilizers (which are salts, all of them, killing organisms
through osmotic removal of water), and
4. by compaction which changes oxygen content in the soil, resulting in conversion of organisms
metabolism from aerobic to anaerobic species. The problem is, those nutrients will not be held in
a biology-poor soil, resulting in nutrient pollution of surface and ground waters, and atmosphere.
Because of all these losses, conventional chemical systems require 150 to 200 pounds – or more! -of N, to
be “added back” to the soil each cropping cycle. In sustainable systems, where the biology is managed
properly, and holds nutrients, only the nutrients removed through harvest must be replaced. Based on
nitrogen (N) content in plant material, for example, only 15 grams of N per ton of plant material is
7
removed. Therefore, in an orchard where perhaps 4 tons of fruit per acre is removed per acre, only 4 times
15, or 60 grams of N per acre is needed to replace that removed by harvest. Why are some conventional
orchardists putting 1000 pounds of fertilizer per acre on their orchards each year?
The “worst case scenario” with respect to harvest removal of nutrients is production of silage, where 200
tons of plant material may be removed per acre. At these high rates, 200 times 15, or 3,000 grams of N (3
kg of N) would need to be added back per acre.
Can compost tea supply those needs? The surprising answer to this question is yes. Not in the standard
“fertilizer” form (nitrate), however, but as organic N, held by the biology in organic matter and microbial,
biological forms.
Most people have been told that compost is not a fertilizer. That statement can only be made if only
soluble, inorganic nutrient values are used. The fertilizer industry has pushed to define N as only nitrate,
possibly nitrite, and maybe ammonium, the inorganic forms of N. While this is based on the soluble forms
of N that most vegetable and row crop plants take up through their roots, it is far from the only source of N
in soil.
If the full soil food web is present, then forms of N that are not nitrate, nitrite or ammonium will be cycled
into these soluble forms by the organism. And not just N, but any not-soluble form of any nutrient will
eventually be converted from its non-soluble form to the plant-available, soluble form by the organisms
cycling system in a healthy soil. Phosphorus, for example, is converted from not plant available forms (in
rocks, in sand, silt, and clay, in humic materials, in organic matter, in dead plant material) into organism
biomass and then be consumed by predators which results in release of plant-available forms of the
nutrient.
If the organisms that perform these cycling processes have been destroyed by agricultural “management”,
then nutrients cannot be processed from not-plant-available forms into plant available forms. Leaching,
erosion, and compaction then result in loss of the remaining nutrients from the soil, and plant production
will suffer. The engineering and chemical answer is to load more and more soluble, inorganic nutrients
into the soil, while bemoaning the fact that water quality suffers. These sciences have ignored the fact that
natural systems manage to hold nutrients, manage to produce clean water, and produce higher plant yields
than any agricultural system.
Plans for cleaning up nutrients using mechanical filtration systems (requiring engineers to design, build and
maintain them), using soil-less mixes have been suggested as solutions to the water quality problem, all the
while ignoring that nature has been successfully feeding everyone since life began on this planet. We have
all the food we need; it is social systems that prevent people from having food. The human system needs to
be fixed, not the plant production system. We need to learn the lessons nature puts in front of us everyday
Nutrient Pools in Compost
Why is it that when you send a sample into a soil chemistry lab, compost will always be reported as being
low in nitrogen? First, soil chemistry labs may remove the obvious organic matter as soon as the sample
arrives, because their methods cannot extract minerals from large chunks of organic matter. They typically
dry the sample and then use extracting agents to remove the soluble forms of the nutrients from the soil
solution (soluble pool), or remove the “exchangeable” forms of nutrients from the surfaces of the clays,
silts, sands and organic matter.
Does either approach to extracting nutrients assess bacteria? Fungi? Protozoa, nematodes or
microarthropods? No. Nutrients in humus are not extracted either. Nor nutrients in parent material. Only
the nutrients that are soluble (dissolved in water) or that can be extracted from the SURFACES of sand, silt
and clay particles and organic matter are pulled from the soil. The exact value obtained for any nutrient
also depends on the extracting agent used. Some extractants pull more nutrients than others, so in order to
compare one lab’s results with another’s, the extractants used must be known..
What test tells you what the plant will take up? Neither soluble nutrient pool concentration nor
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exchangeable nutrient pool concentrations will tell you what the plant will take up. Water soluble nutrients
concentrations (N or P, or S, for examples) just indicate what is dissolved in water, right now. The plant
may not be able to take up any of that if osmotic concentration is too high. If salt content is too high, water
is held by the salts, and the plant cannot access either nutrients or water.
Figure 2. The three pools of nutrients in soil. The total extractable pool is assessed using very strong
extracting agents, while the exchangeable pool uses less and less strong extractants, until the soluble where
weak extracting agents are used. In natural soils, it is the bacteria and fungi that make enzymes and
organic acids to solubilize nutrients from rocks, organic matter, clay, sand and silt particles, and tie-up
those nutrients in their living biomass, as well as organic matter waste products. Nitrogen is not held in
rocks, but N-fixing bacteria perform the same function. These bacteria immobilize that fixed N in their
biomass. In both cases, predators are required to mineralize these nutrients into inorganic forms the
plants require.
Components of Soil Nutrient Pools Tests used for each pool
Total Extractable
Exchangable
Soluble
Biology Biology
Roots
Bacteria
and Fungi
Grind; Conc. Nitric
acid, combustion
10% HCl, H2NO3
Melich III
Bray 2
Amm. Cl / BaCl
Colwell
Olsen, Bray 1
Melich I
Morgan (Reams)
1 M KCl, Universal
Soluble nutrient concentration does not predict what the plant will take up. It does not predict what
nutrients will be solubilized in the next instant. To predict what will be made available to plants requires
knowledge of what plant material is present as food for the microbes (how active will the bacteria and fungi
be?), what population of bacteria and fungi are present that can solubilize nutrients from parent material,
from humus and dead plant material, what population of predators of bacteria and fungi are present and
how active they are consuming bacteria and fungi, and releasing soluble nutrients.
Consider the following information based on extractions of nutrients from soil. The original soil contained
on average only 1.8 ug of phosphate per gram (ppm) of soil. Rock phosphate and compost were added to
achieve a value of 75 ppm phosphate, on average. Two weeks later, soil from the same field was sampled
using the same methods and phosphate was 200 ppm. Bacteria has decreased slightly, and fungi had
increased by nearly 2-fold. Nothing was added to the field in the intervening 2 weeks. No fertilizer, no
pesticides, no tillage, no seed, just grass growing in the field.
Where did the “extra” phosphate come from? Did the lab have a problem? “Messed up” in their
assessment? Which time?
Think it through. Plants were growing, making exudates, feeding bacteria and fungi in the root system.
Phosphate was solubilized from a plant-not-available pool. Organisms solubilize many nutrients. If the
9
organisms are present, and have foods, they will perform nutrient cycling processes.
What then is the chemistry information that we need in order to predict what will become available to
plants through the course of a growing season? If we know the extractant methods used (see right hand
side of Figure 3), we can properly interpret what part of the nutrient pool is being assessed by any soil
chemistry test. If we then know the biology in that soil or compost, the activity of the bacteria and fungi,
the activity of the predators, then we can begin to predict the rate at which N, or P, or other nutrients will
become available for plant use. Examination of any of the journals in the area of soil ecology, e.g., Applied
Soil Ecology, or Soil Biology and Biochemistry, or Biology and Fertility of Soil, will reveal that this area
of investigation is beginning to be understood.
The problem in agriculture has not been a lack of nutrients, but a lack of the proper biology to make those
nutrients available to plants. The total extractable nutrient level is in excess in most soils examined so far.
But the biology has been destroyed.
Similarly, compost contains plant-available (soluble) nutrients, exchangeable nutrients but an even greater
pool of plant-not-available nutrients that will only be made available as the bacteria and fungi in the
compost solubilize those nutrients, and then protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods release those
nutrients from the bacteria and fungi.
Compost contains both excellent biomass of organisms (bacterial and fungal biomass both in excess of 300
micrograms per gram, protozoa in excess of 50,000 individuals per gram, and nematodes in excess of 60
per gram) and high levels of total extractable nutrients (16,000 micrograms of N per gram of compost,
9,000 micrograms of P, and similar levels for most other nutrients).
Compost tea contains soluble nutrients extracted from the compost. Nearly all of the soluble and
exchangeable pools will be extracted, plus perhaps 50% of the total pool in compost, based on assessment
of the compost after tea production. For example, an assessment performed by the Environmental Analysis
Lab at Southern Cross University showed that the three pools (as shown in Fig 2 above) in a good compost
contained about 286 micrograms of soluble N per gram dry weight of compost, about 340 ug of
exchangeable N, and 17,000 ug of total extractable N per gram of compost.
That means, in a compost tea (2000 L or 500 gal of water using 15 pounds or about 7 kg of compost),
approximately 45,500 micrograms of N were released into the 2000 L of water. One application of
compost tea would supply a small but significant amount of N. And even more, when soil organic matter is
present, and humic materials were added in the compost tea, a continuing supply of N would be provided to
the plants through the nutrient cycling processes the biology provides.
Several compost tea applications could supply all the N a crop needed. But even more, a single application
of one ton of compost plus compost tea could supply everything a crop needed, from nutrients to disease
protection to weed prevention.
Compost contains many years worth of any nutrient. As long as the biology remains un-compromised by
toxic chemical additions, the organisms will cycle those nutrients into plant-available forms. This strongly
suggests that compost is a fertilizer; an organic fertilizer. Compost tea will contain many, but not all, of the
nutrients that were in the compost. Compost quality is critical to understand, in order that we can
maximize nutrient concentrations in the tea. Understanding the role of the organisms is all important,
therefore.
Natural systems don’t require additions of inorganic, soluble (and thus very leachable) forms of nutrients to
maintain productivity. The most productive systems on this planet are systems which do not have, and
have not ever had, inorganic fertilizer applied.
If we want clean water, we have to get the biology back in our soils. If we want to grow and harvest crops,
we have to build soil and fertility with time, not destroy it. The only way to reach these endpoints is to
improve the life in the soil.
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COMPOST QUALITY IS CRITICAL
Of all the organism groups in soil (Figure 1), how many are in compost? Compost typically contains all the
important groups that are in soil, but typically lacks pathogens, if made properly (Fig 3).
Figure 3. The Compost Foodweb. The organisms in compost tea come from the compost. All of the
species and many individuals of each species are extracted from the compost, but individuals reproduce
based on the habitat present in the tea. If conditions are appropriate for beneficial species to grow, they
will out-compete disease organisms. If the habitat in the tea is more conducive to the growth of disease
organisms, disease organisms grow. Care in providing the proper conditions are critical.
*Plant-feeding
Nematodes
Saprophytic
Fungi
(includes
yeasts)
Bacteria
(includes
actinomycetes)
Hi N (temp)
Fungal-
Feeding
Mites*
Fungal-
Feeding
Nematodes
Bacterial-
Feeding
Nematodes
Flagellates
Amoebae
Ciliates
Predatory
Nematodes
Predatory
Mites *
* Higher
level
Predators
Green
(bacteria)
Woody (fungi)
Plants
* typically not
present
*Algal
blooms Pests and pathogens
killed by high
temperature,
competition, inhibition
Organisms
Well-made compost will contain, for the most part, only beneficial bacteria or fungi. Think of the bacteria
or fungal boxes in the soil food web picture above as having a dotted line down the middle: Half of the
species are “good guys” and help your plants grow, while the other half are “bad guys” that decompose
plant tissues if growing on plant surface. These “bad guys” bacteria and fungi are selected against in the
composting process, whether by high temperature, competition, inhibition or consumption by predators, or
by passage through earthworm digestive systems, the result is the same. Pathogens should be inactive and
not detectable in well-made compost.
Organism biomass, diversity and growth or activity can be enhanced by adding organisms, different kinds
of foods, or nutrients to improve conditions for beneficial bacterial and fungal growth. Check to make sure
they are without pathogens, which means documentation of the biology must be given by the seller of the
product. Care needs to be taken to not add so much food resource that the growth of bacteria and fungi will
consume oxygen to a detrimental level and allow the compost to become anaerobic.
Disturbance
The less disturbed the compost, especially in the maturation phase of composting, the greater the likelihood
that compost will contain higher biomass of fungi, and numbers of predators, such as beneficial nematodes,
protozoa, and microarthropods. Good aerobic compost should NOT contain root-feeding nematodes, weed
seeds, or human pathogens. Good aerobic compost should contain very few plant pathogens.
Of course the need to not disturb compost during the composting process must be balanced with the need
for air in the compost. If the bacteria and fungi have gone through their burst of growth early in the
composting process, and are truly maturing the pile, then heat will no longer be generated and the pile will
cool. If the microbes are still growing and using food resources, the temperature of the pile will not cool.
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Often when anaerobic conditions occur, the pile “never cools”. If the pile remains at 140 to 150 for months
and months, this is a clear indication that the pile is not compost, and should be considered putrefying
organic matter (POM).
Do not use putrefied organic matter to make compost tea, and do not expect any of the benefits discussed
relative to good compost to occur if POM is used.
Compost should contain a maximum diversity of many types of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes. If
water movement through the compost is adequate to pull the organisms from the surfaces of the compost,
but not crush the organisms, the microbes in the compost will be extracted into the tea solution. Higher
quality compost will have a more diverse microbial population, resulting in greater diversity in the compost
tea.
Clearly, compost and compost tea become even more critical, as sources of the indigenous beneficials
disappear from the landscape.
COMPOST TEA ORGANISMS
The “Good Guys” or beneficial organisms – including bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes – are
present in good compost and therefore will be present in compost tea. Species diversity may be as high as
25,000 species to as many as half a million species in a gram of compost or tea. DNA methods for
assessing species diversity of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes will be the way to determine the
actual number. Fingerprinting methods sound promising for assessing diversity. Plate count methods are
not useful for assessing diversity. Currently, a combination of selective media, enzymes and fingerprinting
can serve to determine whether 20 specific beneficial species are present or not. In this way, you can
determine whether your tea includes the beneficial organisms that you need. If they are lacking, then you
would know to add them back to your compost or compost tea. More advances are forth-coming in this
area, however.
Bacteria.
Good compost teas have on the order of a billion bacteria per ml (108 to 109 bacteria per ml), most of which
are beneficial to plant growth. Highly aerobic teas can contain even greater numbers, on the order of 1010
to 1011 bacteria per ml. Beneficial bacteria compete with disease organisms for food, for space, and for
infection sites on plant surfaces.
Since coverage of leaf or root surfaces by the tea organisms is what is important, these numbers mean that
100 times more tea from a bucket method might be needed to achieve the same results as from one of the
commercial units that make good compost tea.
Bacteria make glues that hold them strongly on leaf, root or soil surfaces. This is why nutrients held in
their biomass don’t leach and will not be lost from soil or leaf surfaces. Given this fact, it is thus necessary
to apply enough energy to compost to physically pull these organisms from compost particles into the tea.
Some of the initial testing with the Microb-Brewer was conducted to determine the strength of the vortex in
the liquid that would remove by not destroy organisms. If too much force is applied, the organisms will be
killed by impact on the surfaces of the brewer. This type of testing must be performed with other
machines, to make certain the physical blending performed does not macerate or disintegrate some of the
organisms, but is enough to pull the organisms from the compost.
Once pulled from the compost, the organisms must be able to pass through the mesh of the compost
container, and must survive in the tea. If conditions drop below aerobic levels, many of the beneficial
bacteria will not be able to grow, and some will be killed or put into dormant condition. If there are no
12
foods to feed the beneficials, they will become dormant in the tea, and not increase in numbers in the tea.
The desired conditions in the tea are aerobic, with good levels of foods to grow beneficial organisms.
Figure 4. Fungi (strands), bacteria (tiny dots and rafts of dots), ciliate cysts (large circles) in a compost
tea.
How to Measure Bacteria and Fungi
Direct Methods are the best way to assess both active and total bacterial and fungal biomass in any
material. The organisms are viewed and counted and there is no question that what is being counted is the
organism of interest. There is no requirement to know what food resource is needed to grow the bacteria or
fungi, what temperature the organisms grow at, what humidity is required by the different species, etc. as
there is with plate count methods
It is impossible for a single set of incubation conditions to meet the growth requirements for all the
different species of bacteria or fungi. For example, a plate count assessment cannot enumerate both heatloving
and cold-loving bacteria species, wet-loving and dry-loving bacterial species, species requiring high
N and those requiring low N. Direct methods can assess total and active biomass of bacteria or fungi in any
kind of material.
No incubation step is required using direct methods. There is no “guess” required with respect to dilution.
Samples are finished within several hours of arrival in the lab so if a different dilution is needed, the
original sample can be used. The actual sizes of the bacteria and fungi in the sample are measured, so no
guesswork about bacterial and fungal biomass occurs with this method.
Plate Methods are best for identifying SPECIFIC species, using selective growth media. When
technological methods for performing direct count methods were not particularly reliable, perhaps 20 to 30
years ago, plate counts were used to estimate total or active bacterial or fungal numbers in soil. However,
no one particular type of medium can grow all the different bacteria or fungi that occur in any
environmental sample, including compost or compost tea. Consider that the microorganisms in soil, or tea,
or compost, grow at many, many different temperatures, use many different foods, and a whole range of
moistures and humidity’s. These variations are not mimicked in nay way by the growth conditions used in
a laboratory. In order to understand true diversity in any sample, plate methods would have to use several
thousand kinds of food resources, incubated at each temperature, each moisture, each humidity and each
oxygen concentration of interest.
In plate counts, ten-fold dilutions are typically prepared and the quantifier has to “guess” which dilutions to
plate on the medium chosen. Plates are then incubated at one temperature, one moisture, one humidity, one
set of limited carbon, nitrogen, P, K, Fe, Ca, etc. concentration. The plate that has a “countable” number of
colonies, between 30 and 300 per plate, is counted at 1 and 2 weeks, but how many of the total bacteria
13
present were missed? How can you possibly know which ones were active in the conditions of your soil?
Microbiology texts discuss problems with plate count methods (i.e., Sylvia et al., 1999). Plate counts
always underestimate the number of actual bacteria present, but what is not known is by how much
numbers are under-estimated - 2-fold, 10-fold, 1000-fold, or more?
Plate count methods are therefore NOT useful for assessing species diversity, or species richness.
Why Are Bacteria Needed in Tea?
Bacteria occupy most of the leaf or root surface and thus are most effective at consuming the food
resources that the disease-causing organisms would otherwise consume. Bacteria occupy most of the
infection sites, which would otherwise be occupied by the disease-causing organisms. In soil, bacteria have
additional functions beyond consuming foods and occupying infection sites, they also retain nutrients (N, P,
S, Ca, Fe, etc) in their biomass (given the C:N ratio of bacteria, they cannot mineralize N, they have to be
immobilizing N in their biomass – the exception is nitrifying or ammonifying bacteria which use N as
electron acceptors or donators, but these are unusual and very special processes which occur in particular
conditions in soil). Bacteria also decompose plant-toxic materials and plant residues (especially the simple,
easy to use substrates), and build soil aggregate structure. The smallest “building-blocks” of soil structure
are built by beneficial bacteria. Without these bacteria, the bricks to make the “soil house” will not occur
and further development of soil structure will not happen. Water-holding capacity can never be improved
and soil will remain compacted, if the organisms are not present and functioning in soil, or in compost.
Bacteria build the bricks that allow passageways for diffusion of oxygen into, and carbon dioxide out of,
the soil.
Thus, it is critical to have bacteria in high enough numbers, and with as great a diversity of species as
possible, so that some portion of these bacteria can function within existing environmental conditions and
suppress various cultivars or races of disease-causing organisms. Most of the bacteria added in the tea will
not be the right ones at the moment you add the tea, so they go to sleep in the soil, and wait for the right
conditions that will allow them to wake up, suppress their competitors, retain nutrients, decompose
residues, and build soil aggregate structure. But of the tens of thousands of species of bacteria added in tea,
several hundred will match the growth conditions present at this moment, and suppress disease, retain
nutrients, decompose residues and build soil aggregates. What are the names of these bacteria? We don’t
know. We can’t grow them on ANY culture medium; plate count methods cannot be used to assess these
organisms.
Do we have to know the names of each of these bacterial species in order to have them work for us? No.
Until science develops ways to inexpensively identify them, just get the critters in tea working without
worrying about their names. Let plants select the organisms needed. The plant feeds those organisms that
prevent diseases around its roots, leaves, stems, etc. The plant feeds bacteria and fungi, so that protozoa
and nematodes will have something to eat, and result in nutrients being made available in the form plants
require. The plant feeds bacteria and fungi so they will build soil structure, keeping oxygen diffusion
flowing smoothly, as well as making the water-holding pores in soil.
Wise agriculturalists will learn to stop killing beneficial organisms with toxic chemicals and let the
organisms in soil do the work nature designed them to do.
Fungi.
There should be 2 - 10 micrograms of active fungal biomass per ml, and 5 - 20 μg total fungal biomass per
ml in good compost tea. Decent compost, which should contain 150 to 200 μg of total fungal biomass per
gram, contains both simple extractable carbon sources (sugars, proteins, amino acids, simple organic acids)
as well as more complex fungal foods (complex amino-sugars, complex proteins, hormones, siderophores,
complex carbohydrates, phenols, tannins, and humic acids). Simple carbon sources are easier to extract
than more complex molecules, but fungi require complex molecules as their food resource.
Energy must be provided during tea-brewing to extract complex molecules. Complex molecules are needed
so fungi have something to grow on in the tea. Fungi also have to be extracted from the compost, which
means the aggregate structures that fungi form must be broken, and the fungal strands teased free into the
14
tea solution. This is tricky, to provide enough energy to disintegrate aggregates and to break fungal strands,
but not destroy them.
Why Are Fungi Needed in Tea?
Just as with bacteria, certain fungi compete extremely well with disease-causing organisms. The foods
added to tea should help these fungi. Materials high in inorganic nitrogen are not wise additions to tea,
since high nitrogen levels help disease-causing organisms grow rapidly. Fungi and bacteria often compete
with each other for food, space, oxygen, water, etc, so a bacterial tea tends to reduce fungal growth and
vice versa. Plants generally require either bacterial-dominated, or fungal-dominated soils because the
microbes control nutrient cycling and the FORM of the available nutrients. For example, most trees do
NOT do well with nitrate. Nitrate/nitrite tends to select for disease conditions along the roots. Thus
ammonium, requiring pH levels lower than 7, and supported by the metabolites produced by fungi, is a
better choice for trees.
Fungi tend to occupy only 5 - 20% of the leaf surfaces, but appear to be very important for competition
with disease-causing organisms. One reason why applying a single bacterial species to control blossom rot
doesn’t work is because the environmental conditions may not favor the growth or survival of that single
species. Or fungal interactions may be more important under those specific conditions. Beneficial fungi
may be needed to consume the exudates that plant leaf surfaces, stems, blossoms, etc., produce, so there is
no food to allow the disease-causing organisms to germinate and/or grow on the leaf surface. Infection
sites on the leaves may need to be occupied by beneficial fungi so that disease-causing organisms cannot
infect the plant.
In soil, fungi have additional functions beyond protecting plant surfaces from non-beneficial organism
growth, by competing for nutrients, space and occupying infection sites. These additional functions
include:
1. retention of nutrients (N, P, S, Ca, Fe, etc) in fungal biomass (the C:N ratio of fungi means that fungi
cannot possibly be mineralizing N, they have to be immobilizing N in their biomass).
2. retention of micronutrients in fungal biomass - fungi are the major holders of Ca, at least in soils we
have tested,
3. decomposition of plant-toxic materials and plant residues (especially more recalcitrant, less easy to use
substrates), and
4. building soil aggregate structure. The visible aggregates that are seen in soil are built by fungi by
binding together the “bricks” made by bacteria, organic matter, root hairs, fecal pellets provided by soil
arthropods, etc. Without fungi, visible aggregate formation would not occur as often, and further
development of soil structure would not occur. Soil would remain compacted, because fungi build the
hallways and passageways between aggregates that allow oxygen to diffuse into the soil, and carbon
dioxide to diffuse out of the soil.
5. improvement of water-holding capacity by building structure in soil.
Thus, it is critical to have fungi in high enough biomass and with as great diversity of beneficial species for
the plant as possible to be present, so that at least some species of beneficial fungi will be functioning
within the existing environmental conditions. It is the fungal biomass that is most rapidly destroyed by
continuous plowing. Fungal biomass is typically lacking in any field that has been plowed more than 10 to
15 times. Thus, beneficial fungi are critical components to return to the soil.
Of the thousands of species of fungi added in tea, the conditions in the soil will match the conditions that
are best for only a limited set of fungal species to grow and perform their functions. Which set of fungi will
this be? What are their names? We don’t know. Typically, we can’t grow them on ANY culture medium;
there is no plate count method that can enumerate them. We can detect their presence using DNA analysis
and molecular approaches, but we then cannot match their function to their DNA sequence.
Do we have to know the names of each of these fungal species in order to get them to work for us? Until
methods are available to identify them and give them names, that isn’t possible. So, just get the full
diversity of fungi back and let the exudates plants produce select for desired species. Don’t kill beneficial
fungi with toxic chemicals, especially fungicides, or too high levels of inorganic fertilizers.
15
Figure 5. Basidiomycete fungi (dark brown) with clamp connections growing in brown amorphous soil
organism matter. Small dots in the picture are bacteria. Magnification is 250 times actual.
Protozoa.
Three factors are important for protozoan extraction:
1. Breaking apart aggregates so protozoa can be extracted from these previously protected places.
2. Supplying energy to pull the protozoa off surfaces, but not kill them.
3. Minimizing brewing time during which protozoa are subject to changes in pressure that results
in cytolysis, or breakage, of individuals.
Protozoa eat bacteria, releasing nutrients that stimulate the growth of bacteria, fungi, and plants, if plants
are present. So, when scientists say “bacteria mineralize N in soil”, what is REALLY happening is that
protozoa mineralize N as they consume bacteria.
With time, protozoa will increase in number in the tea, but when brewing times are short, there is no time
for reproduction to occur. For example, a 24-hour brew time is not enough time for an increase in numbers,
and only the protozoa extracted directly from the compost will be present in the tea. For short-term tea
makers, this means use of good compost is critical in order to extract the protozoa from the compost, since
growth will not be possible during the extraction time. Teas that are brewed longer can have protozoa grow
in the tea. For example, in a three days tea brew cycle, protozoa could multiply, giving a 3 to 6 times
increase in numbers.
Flagellates and amoebae do not tolerate reduced oxygen conditions well. If the tea becomes anaerobic at
any time, these groups of protozoa will be killed. Thus flagellates and amoebae are good indicators of
aerobic conditions – if their numbers are low, anaerobic conditions or extreme mixing pressures are
indicated.
Ciliates, on the other hand, tolerate anaerobic conditions, and indeed, apparently prefer to feed on anaerobic
bacteria. High ciliate numbers in tea, or soil, or compost are indicative that anaerobic conditions occurred
sometime during the production cycle, although conditions may not be anaerobic at the time of sampling.
Anaerobic conditions could have occurred in the PAST, and no longer be a problem.
Immature compost most likely will not have a decent set of protozoa, which therefore cannot be extracted
into the tea. Compost needs to cool to at least 125° F (50° C) before most protozoa will start to reproduce
normally. Thus, a pile should cool at least 1 week, without turning, after falling below 125° F (50° C) to
allow the protozoa to grow and reach minimum numbers (20,000 per gram dry weight of compost)
throughout the compost pile.
16
Nematodes.
Like protozoa, nearly all the nematodes in the compost will be extracted in good tea making machines
because enough energy is applied to the compost to pull these organisms out of the compost. Dripping
water through compost is not adequate for extraction, however. Good compost normally contains fifty to
several hundred beneficial nematodes per gram, which can be extracted into the tea. All these nematodes
should be beneficial; only poor compost would contain root-feeding nematodes.
Nematodes play a number of different roles in soil, and it is important to recognize that while one group of
nematodes is detrimental to plant growth, most nematodes in soil are beneficial for plant growth. There are
four major functional groups of nematodes in soil:
• Plant-feeders are the “bad guys”, and consume root material, reducing plant growth and yield,
• Bacterial-feeders consume bacteria, releasing N, P, S, etc which are then available for plant
uptake,
• Fungal-feeders consume fungi, releasing N, P, S, etc which are available for plant uptake, and
• Predatory nematodes consume other nematodes and keep the population numbers of the bad
guys, and the good guys, under control. Too many bacterial-feeders could reduce bacterial
populations below the level needed to suppress disease, retain nutrients, decompose residues, or
build soil aggregates. Thus predators are important controls on the foodweb system.
Compost that has reached high enough temperatures for long enough (131F or 55C for three full days in all
parts of the pile), or been processed completely by earthworms (surface contact, or passage through the
nematode digestive system) will not contain root-feeding nematodes. Care is needed to choose compost
that is mature in order to have a good set of beneficial nematodes in the compost. Awareness of postproduction
contamination is also required.
Beneficial nematodes do not start to grow in a compost pile until after temperature drops back to less than
approximately 115° F (45° C). Both predatory and most fungal-feeding nematodes are killed if the pile is
turned too often. Thus, the pile has to mature, unturned, at least two to three weeks AFTER temperature
has dropped below 115° F (45° C) in order for there to even be a hope that it will contain adequate
nematode numbers.
Mycorrhizal fungi
These fungi do not grow in tea solutions, although spores and hyphae will be extracted into the solution
from the compost. The heating process during composting often kills the spores, so although present, they
will not be viable. It is usually of some benefit to add an inoculum of mycorrhizal spores to the final tea
solution when the tea is to be used for soil drench or root applications. The food resources present in tea
may cause mycorrhizal spores to germinate after a few days, but if the germinated spores do not find active
roots within 24 to 48 hours of germination, they will die. Therefore, spores should be added to the tea just
before application to the crop, not at the beginning of a tea brew.
Species Composition of Bacteria, Fungi, Protozoa and Nematodes
Species diversity in tea is dependent on diversity in the compost. If there is poor diversity in the compost,
the tea will not give the benefits that would result with a healthy diversity of species. Healthy compost has
between 15,000 to 25,000 species of bacteria per gram (based on DNA sequence more different than the
sequence difference between human beings and chimpanzees, for example), but the DNA analysis required
to establish the set of species in highly diverse compost versus the number of species in not-highly diverse
compost – or compost tea - awaits further work.
In a study using plate methods, performed by the Soil Microbial Biomass Service (SMBS), every
morphological type and every species that occurred in compost was found in the compost tea. Some of the
bacterial species extracted will grow in the tea solution, provided the correct food resources are added or
present. It is unlikely, though, that all the food resources for all bacterial species will be present in even the
best compost tea solution. Therefore, this is a selective step. It is important that the food resources in the tea
are selected for beneficial species, and not pathogens.
Diverse sets of bacterial species will control pathogen growth. Most pathogens cannot compete well with
17
beneficial species. Therefore, by maximizing bacterial and fungal species diversity, selection will be
against the growth of pathogenic and pest species.
In the study performed by SMBS, fungal species and biomass were found in much smaller quantities in the
tea than in the compost. Extraction efficiency for fungi was not great using tea-making methods. In
addition, the fungi extracted did not grow well in tea because they were shattered and killed by mixing and
agitation. All protozoan and nematode species found in the compost were found in the tea (SMBS study,
1993).
Pathogens in Tea
E. coli is just an indicator of fecal contamination. Over the last century, total coliforms, fecal coliforms,
fecal E. coli, and E. coli O157 have been used to indicate human health problems with water and soil. Of
these groups, which ones are truly of no concern (you have them on your hands, skin surface, any door
handle recently opened, in the roots of plants, etc), of some concern, of significant concern and which can
kill people?
Total coliforms are found in a wide range of habitats, and are not of concern, except to say that a fecal E.
coli test should be performed. Wash your hands and your food to remove this bacterial load.
Fecal coliforms exist in animal digestive systems (birds, snakes, rabbits, humans, cows, etc), and are
important for proper digestion. Fecal coliforms occur wherever people are present, or where animals are
housed. For example, benches and door handles can be good reservoirs, since people touch these objects
all the time, and sooner or later someone who has not washed their hands after visiting the restroom will
leave a load of fecal coliforms on these objects. Instead of vowing never to touch these things again, vow
to wash your hands before you eat. These bacteria are secondary invaders, and only people already sick or
stressed by something else will succumb to fecal coliforms. Typically, if you have been getting a normal
set of coliforms in soil into your food, there is little risk from these organisms. BUT if fecal coliforms are
present in food, or a food preparation area, it means some source of contamination is occurring, and should
be tracked down and removed.
Fecal E. coli presence indicates, however, that a problem exists. E. coli doesn’t survive all that well or for
that long in aerobic, non-fecal conditions. That’s why it is a good indicator of a problem. If fecal E. coli is
surviving, then it is possible that the true human pathogens such as Shigella, Salmonella, Pasteurella, etc
are also surviving. If E. coli can survive, then so too might the true human pathogens.
But listen carefully to what was just written. If E. coli can be detected, then the true bad guys MIGHT also
be present. Fecal E. coli presence is an indicator that the possibility exists, and that sooner or later, there
will be a problem. So, when fecal E. coli shows up on the selective medium, it is time to start investigating
where the contamination is coming from. What is going wrong? Why are cleanliness procedures not
taking care of the problem?
Ask for the results of E. coli testing when you buy compost to put on your vegetables or food crops. If you
apply a source of questionable material anytime 120 days before you are going to eat those vegetables
without washing them, there’s a possibility that E. coli could still be present, especially if your crop
production system does not have adequate aerobic organisms to out-compete the coliforms. But, a good
washing will likely take care of the problem, both on your hands and on the surface of the vegetable.
Fresh vegetables sold in containers are the place where problems are likely to occur, because if the
vegetables have a high load of contamination, the bacteria have a chance to grow while they are on the
shelf, in the package. There is therefore, a much more stringent set of rules for those processes. A less
stringent set of rules is required for back-yard gardeners. This then means we need to make sure that local
gardening education programs such as Master Gardeners teach this information and keep up with new
information over the years.
If contamination in compost is found, an investigation should then occur, to determine where breakdowns
in processing are occurring. The questions would be:
18
1. Are proper temperatures developing during the composting process? Ten to 14 days at 131 degree F or
higher.
2. Is re-contamination of the pile occurring? If material rolls off the pile, and doesn’t heat properly, but is
then added back to the pile, contamination can occur, especially if the set of organisms in the compost
was not fully active and functioning.
3. Where is the contamination coming from? Quite often composting operations forget that machinery
that contacts fresh manure will carry the disease organisms into the finished material, if the machinery
isn’t cleaned before it is used with finished product. There should be a separate truck or loader used at
the beginning of the process with the raw materials and a different loader or truck for the finished
product, or re-contamination will occur.
The problem needs to be found, fixed and then the piles re-tested for indicator organisms. When buying
compost from a commercial source, you should ask for their E. coli data, to document that they are at least
monitoring the pathogen problem. You should probably also ask for a report on the active bacteria and
active fungi, because that’s part of the protection system as well.
Only one sub-species of E. coli are truly human pathogens. The people in danger from this sub-species are
those with immature or stressed immune systems. If E. coli O157 is on or in their food, death can be a
result. Only fecal material from people or animals sick with this pathogen contains this pathogen, but there
can be animals with sub-lethal illness that can spread the pathogen if care is not taken in the processing of
the compost. Thus, compost used to make compost tea should be processed correctly and tested to make
certain no contamination of the tea is occurring. While most E. coli contamination will be removed by
proper tea aeration, high loads of E. coli will not be removed. Thus, making sure that the compost is not
contaminated is a must.
E. coli and aerobic conditions. There is some confusion about the habitat that allows E. coli to grow. No
single condition selects against or for E. coli, or any other human pathogen. Each pathogen has a particular
set of conditions within which it does best. Those conditions must be met in order for the disease organism
to grow to high enough numbers to cause a problem if ingested by a person.
What are the conditions that select for human pathogen growth in general, and then in particular? All
human pathogens grow much better when oxygen is limiting. Just consider the habitat in which E. coli,
Salmonella and Shigella generally grow – inside warm bodies, where oxygen is limiting and there are
sufficient food resources, of the right kind. How limiting? In general, below 5.5 to 6 mg oxygen per liter
of liquid. But some don’t grow until oxygen reaches even lower levels, 4.5 mg, or maybe 5.2 mg.
The “indicator” organism, E. coli, makes enzymes that are more capable of taking nutrients away from
other bacteria when the habitat is oxygen limiting. If E. coli can grab food away from other organisms,
then the other bacteria can’t grow, both because of limited oxygen and because they can’t get food.
Competition is limited and E. coli flourishes.
Perhaps not adding any of the sugars that E. coli can use could be one approach, but then the growth of the
competing organisms would be limited in aerobic conditions. Not adding sugar is the incorrect choice.
Maintain aerobic conditions, allow lots of aerobic organisms to grow. In aerobic conditions, enzymes work
better than those of the human pathogens or indicators of potential pathogen growth.
Compost and compost tea need to have BOTH aerobic conditions AND high diversity of active organisms
in order to be a habitat that does not allow disease organisms to grow. If the growth of other organisms is
suppressed, then E. coli can grow aerobically. This is why in lab cultures, when we test for E. coli, the
medium contains foods selective for just E. coli. The medium often contains antibiotics which kill
competing bacteria and fungi. The temperature best for E. coli growth is also maintained in lab culture
conditions. A stain is used to select against other organisms, as well as to detect the pH change that occurs
when E. coli grows. But these lab conditions are a far cry from the real world. In healthy soil, compost or
compost tea, there are many other organisms, which in aerobic conditions, grab food away from E. coli,
take up the space E. coli needs to grow, and consume E. coli.
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Table 1. Can Brewing Tea Remove E. coli ? Composted manure high in E. coli but also high in beneficial
bacteria and fungi was used as the compost to brew a tea. The aeration and growth of both the beneficial
bacteria and the beneficial fungi out-competed E. coli. The protozoa in the brew also consumed E. coli
(along with other bacteria) to drop E. coli numbers to less than what is allowed in irrigation water. E. coli
was assessed using Coli-Blue medium, a standard EPA approved method. Results are the mean of three
samples.
Material
Tested
Active Bacterial
Biomass
(μg)
Total Bacterial
Biomass
(μg)
Active Fungal
Biomass
(μg)
Total
Fungal
Biomass
(μg)
E. coli
(# CFU)
Composted
Manure (per
gram dry
material)
10.5
13,455
0.35
0.56
44,000
SD 1.5 2,446 0.29 0.44 0
Comments
on manure
Low activity
using FDA
staining, most of
the bacteria were
growing
anaerobically
Lots of bacteria
present, most of
which were
anaerobic
Highly
variable,
because such
low levels in
the anaerobic
manure
High
variation,
it’s hard to
find fungi
where there
are so few.
Really high
numbers of
E. coli,
anaerobic
conditions
Compost
Tea (per ml
of tea)
18.9
722
1.33
5.28
2.7
SD 1.9 53.5 0.38 2.45 0
Comments
on tea
Mostly aerobic
bacteria
Bacterial
biomass much
reduced
Activity within
desired range;
aerobic
Good totals
only
possible if
aerobic
Below
irrigation
water levels
for E. coli
SD means standard deviation of the sample values, a measure of variation in the results. The
variation should be less than 10% of the mean.
In aerobic habitats, with high numbers of beneficial organisms out-competing and consuming the
pathogens originally present, E. coli will not survive, much less grow. Presumably, if these conditions are
encouraged, reduction in E. coli and other human pathogens can be expected. E. coli does not long survive
in aerobic habitats with lots of competitors and consumers present. That fact should be used more
extensively in organic production.
Does the above table GUARANTEE that E. coli has been killed? No. Clearly there are fecal E. coli left in
the tea, but from a regulatory point-of-view, concentration was brought to below the risk level for vegetable
production. Growers of fresh vegetables for market need to understand these interactions, to assure safety
for their clients. Monitoring and checking the compost is necessary.
Consider these points when trying to determine if compost or tea should be checked:
1. If E. coli is not present in the compost, there will be no E. coli in the tea, no matter how much
molasses or sugar is added. (May 2003 BioCycle).
2. If there are low E. coli numbers in the compost, and if adequate aeration is maintained, E. coli will
not survive in the tea.
3. If E. coli is present in the “compost” but too much food was added in the tea and the tea drops into
reduced oxygen concentration zones, then E. coli MAY be detected, depending on the growth of
competing organisms.
4. If there are high numbers of E. coli in the compost, it may take more than 24 hours of aeration to
20
reduce E. coli numbers to below detectable levels.
5. If the tea maker is not cleaned properly, the biofilm will form a habitat for E. coli to out compete
other bacteria and E. coli will be detected until the machine is cleaned properly.
In another experiment, E. coli-free compost (documented with “Coli-blue” MPN medium, standard EPA
methods) was used to make tea in 5 gal KIS brewers. No matter how much molasses was used (from 0.1%
to 5%), along with kelp, E. coli was not detected in the tea.
If E. coli were not present in any starting material, and were not present in the tea brewer, then there can be
no E. coli in the compost tea, regardless of whether sugar of any kind was added. This clearly refutes
statements that have been made suggesting that if sugar is used, then E. coli will grow in compost tea.
If the compost used was actually putrefying organic matter, which is a habitat for the growth of human
pathogens, and molasses was used in the compost tea, then it cannot be surprising that E. coli would be
detected in the compost tea. But when the tea brew was well-aerated, and conditions were not correct for
E. coli growth, no or very low levels of E. coli were detected in the compost tea.
Fungal Pathogens.
Normally, aerobic conditions in the compost tea maker, the fact that humic acids and complex food
resources select against fungal pathogens, and competition from beneficial organisms prevent the growth of
disease-causing organisms, particularly fungi, in well-made compost tea.
Ascari or eggs of helminth worms can be present in compost, but they are rarely small enough to escape the
compost bag. Mesh sizes of greater than 30 mesh retains these eggs. They do not survive or grow in water,
so if they are extracted into the tea, they do not increase in number. Properly made compost should prevent
these from being a concern. If the compost was treated properly to kill E. coli, then these parasites should
be killed as well. Weed seed will not be extracted into compost tea either.
However, if the compost was not properly composted, and if the tea lacks proper aeration, then fungal
pathogens can be present and grow in the compost tea. Pathogens may find a perfect home in felt or fabric
bags, if they are not washed and cleaned properly from brew to brew. Tea machine makers should test their
equipment for these problems and warn customers of these possible situations. In the best of all worlds, the
tea machine maker would change the compost bag so their customers would not have to even consider this
problem.
Worm compost
Worm compost contains worm castings plus material that did not pass through the worm digestive system,
but contacted the outside of the worms. Typically the organisms inside worms add plant growth hormones,
enzymes and diversity that are not in as high concentration in thermal compost. If the worms have been
mis-treated, these beneficial materials will be lacking from the worm compost. Therefore, worms have to
be considered to be very small livestock, and must be managed correctly to obtain maximum benefit.
Maintaining Aerobic Conditions in Teas
How can aerobic conditions be maintained in compost tea, to assure that the beneficial aspects of compost
tea will remain intact and not be lost to anaerobic conditions developing?
The following are some ways you can assess anaerobic conditions:
1. Aerate compost tea sufficiently. This information should be determined by the machine
manufacturer.
2. Measure oxygen, or use a tea maker where the amount of compost, food resource and growth of
the organisms at different temperatures and air pressure (elevation) have been studied and the
information on how to alter the food resources or aeration rate is given with the tea brewer.
3. Use your nose to detect bad smells. But production of these gases may not reach a level your nose
can detect unless you accumulate the smells. Fill half a clean plastic bottle with tea, seal, and
incubate overnight at ambient temperature. Open the bottle (carefully!) and smell. If it smells
21
bad, you aren’t aerating enough. If the tea smells ok, then there is most likely enough aeration and
not too much food in the tea recipe.
If the tea smells bad, then it probably is bad. Put this tea on something that will not be harmed by the
toxins potentially present, for example, an area of weeds, an area with known plant diseases, bare soil that
needs organic matter. Let the area recover before growing any plant in the area. This typically requires
120 days if the soil is quite poor and does not have an adequate Foodweb. If the food web is in good shape,
recovery (E. coli or other pathogens no longer detectable) can occur within 3 days.
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HOW TO USE COMPOST TEA
Every chemical-based pesticide, fumigant, herbicide and fertilizer tested harms or outright kills some part
of the beneficial life that exists in soil, even when applied at rates recommended by their manufacturers.
Reviews of these effects are in the scientific literature (e.g., see Ingham, 1985). However, less than half of
the existing active ingredients used in pesticides have been tested for their effects on soil organisms. This is
an oversight that should perhaps be dealt with by a comprehensive government testing program.
Compost teas, correctly made and applied, improve the life in the soil and on plant surfaces. With time and
continued use, compost and compost tea of a quality designed to improve the set of organisms relative to
the plant species desired, will increase the number of individuals and the species diversity of the
communities of leaf, stem, flower, seed-surface and soil microorganisms, and will select against diseasecausing
or pest organisms. Thus use of compost tea is indicated when the set of organisms in soil or on
plant surfaces is below optimal levels for the plant life desired.
Compost and compost tea add a huge diversity of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes. Typically, if
the compost is well-made, beneficial organisms are present in the compost, not diseases or pests. Thus,
making or obtaining good compost is critical.
Standards for compost production and for the biological components of compost relative to the
requirements of the plant are given on the SFI website (www.soilfoodweb.com). The beneficial organisms
and the soluble foods to feed them must be extracted from the compost and survive in the tea in order to
obtain the full benefit of a healthy compost tea.
Potential Benefits of Compost Tea
The whole set of beneficial organisms must be extracted and survive in tea. Soluble foods must be
extracted or added to tea so the beneficial organisms can grow. If all these things occur, then the benefits
of using compost tea for foliar or root applications can include the following:
1. pathogens cannot infect the plant tissues because the specific infection sites on the plant surface are
already occupied by beneficial organisms;
2. disease-causing organisms have no food and cannot grow because the exudates produced by the plant
are used by the beneficial species present on the plant tissues before the disease-causing organisms
arrive;
3. spaces on the surfaces of plant are physically occupied by beneficial organisms. The pests and
pathogens cannot reach the plant surface, and disease cannot occur;
4. plants take up nutrients in the tea needed to allow them to resist infection more rapidly because the
beneficial biology influences leaf surface gas concentrations, causing stomates to open sooner and for
a longer time;
5. food resources in the tea allow beneficial microorganisms to grow, protecting plant surfaces;
6. nutrients are retained on the leaf surface and become available to the plant with time, improving plant
nutrition and health;
7. soil structure is improved and more oxygen reaches the root system, preventing toxins from being
produced in the soil, increasing plant health;
8. water-retention in soil is improved, reducing water use by up to 50% in two years in some cases;
9. rooting depth of the plants is increased, increasing the nutrients the plant can access;
10. decomposition of plant materials and toxins is increased;
11. the nutritional quality of plant produce is enhanced;
12. worker exposure to potentially harmful chemicals is reduced;
13. chemical-based pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers are no longer used, and beneficial microorganisms
in the ecosystem are no longer killed or harmed;
14. chemical input and labor costs are reduced;
15. on-farm recycling of waste is enhanced;
16. landfill space requirements can be reduced;
17. plant growth can be improved.
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Not all of these benefits will be observed in every case of tea application, perhaps because the compost did
not contain the necessary organisms. The necessary organisms may not have been extracted from the
compost, or did not grow in the tea or may have been killed during removal from the compost or during the
growth process. Other reasons for lack of the necessary organisms in the tea may be that toxic materials
were leached from poor compost, or the compost became anaerobic and killed the aerobes during the
brewing cycle, or some other factor was not optimal.
Application of Compost Tea
There are two different, but not mutually exclusive, ways of applying compost tea: as a soil drench, or as a
foliar spray.
1) F oliar applications:
a) Apply beneficial organisms to plant aboveground surfaces, so disease-causing organisms
cannot find infection sites or food resources (i.e., pro-biotic approach).
b) Provide nutrients as a foliar feed.
2) S oil applications:
a) Help develop the biological barrier around roots (i.e., pro-biotic approach),
b) Provide nutrients for roots to improve plant growth,
c) Improve life in the soil in general, with effects on soil structure, water holding, root
depth,
d) Improve nutrient cycling, nutrient retention and disease-suppressiveness.
Foliar applications
These are applied typically with no dilution, although water is often used as a “carrier”. Concentration of
organisms in the tea is critical, so careful attention to maintaining that concentration is important. If the tea
is diluted, inadequate coverage on leaf surfaces may occur.
If tea is within the desired range indicated on the Soil Foodweb report (see following sections on beneficial
organisms in tea), then it can used at 5 gal/ac (50L/HA). If organism numbers are greater than this, then the
tea can be used at a lower rate, relative to how much it can be diluted based on getting adequate coverage
on the leaf surfaces.
If disease is visible on leaf or blossoms surfaces, then tea should be sprayed directly, with no dilution, on
the affected area, without regard to a per acre amount. Drenching the affected plant tissue and immediate
surroundings, where the foliar disease organism may have spread, should be performed as rapidly as
possible, typically within 24 hours of observing the first evidence of a problem.
Generally on seedlings and small plants, such as tomato seedlings, peppers, basil, etc, five gallons of tea to
the acre (50 liters/HA) every one to two weeks through a disease infection period give excellent protection
of plant surfaces.
For larger plants, more tea is required because of the greater foliar area to cover. For example, a single 25-
foot (8 meter) tall oak tree may require 25 gallons (250 liters) of tea to adequately cover the leaf surfaces.
Generally, apply 5 gallons of tea per ac for each 6 feet in height of the plants. Thus, an acre of 25 foot tall
trees would require 25 gallons of tea (5 gallons for the 0 to 6 feet height, another 5 for the 6 to 12 foot
height, another 5 gal for the 12 to 18 foot height, another 5 gallons for the 18 to 24 foot height, and another
5 gallons for the top foot, or 25 gallons per acre). Most people err on the side of too generous, because as
far as we are aware, you do not have to worry about over-application. Under-application can lead to
problems if the organisms in the tea are inadequate.
The critical factor with respect to foliar applications is coverage of the leaf surface by the organisms in the
tea. One reason coverage is important is that beneficial organisms must consume the leaf surface exudates,
leaving no food for the disease-causing organisms so these organisms are unable to germinate or grow.
Another reason is that all the infection sites on the leaf need to be occupied by beneficial organisms, so no
site allowing infection is left unprotected.
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Without assessment of leaf coverage at some time during the season, there may be serious problems
preventing adequate organisms in the tea (tea quality) or adequate coverage on the leaves (leaf coverage).
Testing is necessary. If the leaf is covered adequately by beneficial organisms, there can be no colonization
of the plant surface by disease-causing organisms. Does this always work? Given adequate coverage of the
plant’s surface, the answer is yes.
The plant surface must be assessed for adequate coverage in order to make certain the tea contained
the required set of organisms and that these organisms cover the plant surface adequately.
In Recent Experimental Results section, a minimum of 60 - 70% coverage of the leaf surface was required.
A minimum of 5% of that coverage had to be beneficial fungal biomass in order to prevent disease from
establishing on leaf surfaces.
Pesticide residues in tanks, chlorine in water, too cold water either in the tea brewing or for dilution in the
spray tank, application when UV may destroy the organisms, temperatures too hot in the brewing process
or too high when spraying, and poor extraction energy are all factors that must be recognized as resulting in
poor coverage of organisms on leaf surfaces. Testing is needed.
Tea organisms on the leaf surface can be removed by rain or wind, killed by UV, or pesticide drift,
especially if the plant is not supplying adequate food resources.
Figure 6. Compost tea application to vineyard in Monroe, Oregon, as part of the USDA-SARE study on
Compost Tea Effects on Mildew and Botrytis awarded to the Sustainable Studies Institute, Eugene, Oregon
Use of a biological spreader/sticker, such as yucca, pine sap, or simply molasses, can help, but choose a
material that does not cause osmotic shock or destroy organisms. As long as the leaf material is adequately
covered with beneficial organisms, then the plant surface will remain healthy and disease cannot win in the
competition for the leaf surface. How would you know if the organisms are still there? Have a leaf
organism assay performed.
If disease appears after tea is used, consider then that something prevented adequate coverage of the leaf
surface or killed the organisms before or after they were applied. The disease may have been misdiagnosed,
and what was called a foliar leaf disease was in fact stem rot. The soil needs to have a healthy
food web to prevent stem rot and the tea should then be applied to the stem and soil around the plant, not to
the leaves. Alternatively, if pesticide residue in the sprayer killed the organisms in the tea, then disease may
occur through no fault of the conceptual approach! If a leak in the machine’s pump let oil into the tea,
organisms will be killed; or if pump pressure was too high or too low.
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Leaf samples should be sent for analysis after the first tea spray of each season, so the quality of the tea and
coverage of the leaf is assured. As long as the leaf stays adequately covered, no problems have been
observed. If tea is applied and plant surface coverage has been shown to be adequate, and still disease takes
over, then this is a situation that requires attention because it is unusual (i.e., has not been seen before). The
author of this manual would request further interaction on this situation, because it presents a situation that
needs to be understood. What allowed diseases to be able to “win” in the competition for the leaf surface
and how can we prevent this from occurring again? This situation would present a challenge to our
understanding of why compost tea works, and figuring out how to overcome this challenge keeps us on the
cutting edge.
Soil applications
The soil needs to be inoculated with the right set of organisms, and the foods for the organisms to consume,
in order to keep beneficial organisms functioning through the year.
On a per plant basis, typically 1 liter (0.25 gallons) of tea (water can be used as a carrier if required) is
applied per 100-mm (3 inch) tall seedling when planting into the field. The foliage and soil around the plant
should be drenched by this application. A one-time application has proven adequate to prevent soil root
disease if the soil contained a reasonable food web before tea application.
If the soil does not contain an adequate food web set of organisms, then multiple applications may be
needed. For example, in strawberry fields where methyl bromide was injected before planting, 20 liters of
tea per acre (5 gallons/ac) were applied at each two week to 1-month interval to maintain soil health. This
5 gal of tea can be added in any amount of non-chlorinated water, as long as the full 5 gal of tea is applied
to the 1 acre of area.
An alternative is to apply good compost around the root systems of the plants, so soil drenches of tea may
not be necessary. As always, if disease is observed, then a tea application is immediately indicated.
How far does the tea move into the soil? It depends on the soil texture, compaction and the amount of
organic matter in the soil. The sandier the soil, the further down the tea, and the organisms in it, will move.
The heavier the clay, the more the tea stays at the surface. Organic matter can open up structure in heavy
clay, and then the tea, and the organisms, will move deeper. Organic matter usually allows the organisms
added in the tea to continue growing, so added benefit is obtained from a single application of tea with
greater organic matter in the soil. Compaction of course reduces the ability of water to move through soil,
and increases the likelihood that inadequate oxygen is present.
In the greenhouse or nursery or a field where disease has been a problem, the soil should be drenched
before planting. In pots, a drench means water should just barely begin to drip from the bottom of the pots.
Be careful that the tea does not just run along the inner surface of the pot and out the bottom of the
container. In the field, soil should be wetted to the depth of the plant’s root system. Once plants are planted,
apply tea to the foliage as well as using a soil drench. In situations where disease has been serious, saturate
the soil surface, and maintain stem and leaf coverage by tea organisms every week to two weeks to keep
the soil and plant healthy. If problems are encountered, feedback is requested, so unusual situations can be
explored and solutions found.
Generalized Approaches for Using Compost Tea
How and when do you apply compost tea? It depends on the plant, the soil, the seasonal cycle, and exactly
what it is you want to do. A few examples are given below.
Addition of compost in conjunction with compost tea needs to be considered. Properly made, aerobic
compost contains an amazing amount of nitrogen (16,000 ug N per gram of compost), phosphorus (23,000
ug/g), sulfur, calcium, and micronutrients.
When assessing the need for compost, determine the amount of compost by considering the amount of N
needed to replace the nutrients removed in the crop. The previous crop removed between 50 and 100
pounds of N per acre (residues left in the field). That means 50 to 100 pounds on N must be replaced in the
26
soil. Aerobic compost has a C:N of 20:1 and thus 2 tons up to 4 tons of compost should be adequate to
replace the N, P, K, etc. removed in the crop. Paying attention to just nitrate or ammonium is not going to
tell you what N will become available from the organic matter and the organisms also added in the
compost. These count as sources of N, if you have adequate biology present. Compost tea will also
contribute N, P,K, etc, but not usually enough to do more than give a foliar “shot-in-the-arm”.
Figure 7. Asparagus grown with an autumn application of compost (1 ton/HA) and three monthly
applications compost tea through the spring growing period. No weeds to speak of were present in the
organic area while asparagus could barely be seen for the weeds in the conventional field. The asparagus
was on average 5.5 to 6 foot tall in the organic filed, and only 4 to 4.5 feet high in the conventional field.
The yield in the organic treatment was double as compared to the conventional asparagus. Richard Prew,
Cambridge, New Zealand.
Organic, with tea
Few weeds, taller plants, no bare ground
Organic, with compost tea
Potato
In the fall, after harvest, just before fall rains or snow occur, apply enough compost to improve the soil
food web to desired ranges (1 to 5 tons/ac, or 2.5 to 12 tons/HA), but no more than 10 tons to the acre (too
much compost in one application will compact and possibly become anaerobic).
Soil chemistry should be assessed, and any nutrient deficiencies should be dealt with by adding fish, kelp or
other micronutrients into the compost or compost tea. Making sure the compost or tea brings in the proper
biology is also necessary.
Generally 10 tons of compost is much, much more than needed, but in the first year of resuscitating soil
after years of methyl bromide applications, it may be necessary to apply as much as 30 tons to the acre.
Typically, in soils not destroyed by severe chemical usage, 1 to 5 tones to the acre is reasonable.
If that many tons of good compost are not available, apply compost tea instead. It might be a good idea to
apply mulch or ground “compost” material, followed by an application of compost to inoculate the proper
biology. Typically 15 to 20 gal of compost tea per acre (150 to 200L/HA) is applied as a soil drench,
If the tea is top quality and contains more than an adequate amount of fungi, then less compost tea might be
used. But, if the compost tea lacks fungal biomass, then the amount of tea must be increased to assure
adequate fungal application. Without adequate fungi, plant residues may not decompose rapidly. Without
adequate fungi, pesticide and inorganic fertilizer applied during the summer may not properly decompose.
A good rule-of-thumb is that the residues should be half-gone within a month of harvest, if temperature and
moisture have been in reasonable ranges. If the plant residues from harvest are not half-gone within a
month, then a second application of compost tea as a soil drench is indicated.
In the first spring following conversion to sustainable growing, a second application of compost should be
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applied, again at 15 to 20 gal/ac (150 to 200 L/HA) compost tea as a soil drench.
If the conversion to sustainable is started in the spring, no guarantees can be given with respect to success
in the first crop cycle. It is just too soon to expect, with 100% confidence that all the improvements that the
biology can supply will actually occur in the first growing season, when the biology has not had the entire
winter, or non-growing season, to establish and start the process of building soil structure.
In the spring, seed pieces should be treated with a surface spray of compost tea. If VAM colonization is
not adequate on the root surfaces, add VAM spores to the tea. VAM colonization should be monitored
each year in the fall in order to know if VAM spores will be needed.
If potato seed pieces have been treated with fungicide, then the compost tea with VAM spores should be
sprayed or dribbled onto the soil below where the seed pieces will be placed. This allows the roots to
become colonized with beneficial organisms and VAM as the roots grow out of the seed piece and through
the compost tea inoculum.
Figure 8. Applying compost tea with a jet nozzle at Jolly Farmer in New Brunswick, Canada. Almost
any nozzle will do for applying tea, as long as the nozzle opening size is larger than 400 micrometers in
diameter.
Compost Tea Application
Sept 7, 2003
At the first true leaf stage, and then again just before blossom and again just after blossom, the plants
should be treated with 5 gal/ac (50L/HA) of good, as-fungal-as-possible tea as a foliar application. If the
fungal component is too low, then increase the gallons of tea applied to make sure adequate coverage
results. Brewing and applying another tea should be considered if fungi are inadequate.
Add foliar nutrients if the plants show any signs of nutritional limitations. Organisms in the tea increase
uptake of foliar nutrients. This means the concentration of nutrients applied as inorganic fertilizers can be
sharply reduced even in the first year of conversion to biological.
After harvest, begin the cycle again.
Since diseases, root-feeding pests and foliar insects are excluded from these systems through the addition
of a healthy food web, rotation of crops will quite quickly no longer be necessary. Nutrient cycling will
begin to occur again. Diseases that were enhanced each year in the conventional management system
because of developing resistance-to-the-chemicals no longer develop. But consider that diversity is critical
to maintain a healthy food web, so variation in the foods going into the compost will continue to be
extremely important.
Monitor the soil food web annually in the fall to know what kind of compost is needed to replace the
organisms that may have been lost during the crop cycle.
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Weather patterns can be strange, and surprises will always be part of the growing system. Monitoring the
soil food web is necessary. If plants looked diseased, then additional applications of tea may be needed,
either as soil drenches or foliar sprays. In the worst cases, fungicides or insecticides may be required to
deal with a plague situation. If used, just remember that some beneficial organisms have been harmed, and
need to be replaced or helped to be resuscitated. Use compost or compost tea to do the job of putting back
in the biology as well as some foods.
Table 2. Data from Jolly Farmer 2003 Compost Tea Potato Trial, using Russet Burbank cultivar,
Ernest Culberson field agent.
Check With Compost tea Differences
Total Yield (cwt/ac) 304 335 + 31 in tea
Market Yield (cwt/ac) 233 272 +39 in tea
Large size (%) 10.3 16.2 + 5.9 in tea
Small size (%) 23.4 19.0 - 4.4% in tea
Row Crops / Broadacre Crops
Corn, wheat, tomato, lettuce, etc all are treated the same as potato:
1. Fall application of compost (1 to 5 tons.ac) or compost tea (20 gal/ac as soil drench) need to be
made.
2. Monitor VAM colonization in plants needing mycorrhizal colonization (many brassicas are not
mycorrhizal).
3. Monitor residue decomposition.
4. Apply compost or tea (20 gal.ac soil drench) in the spring to replace anything missing in the soil.
5. Apply compost tea to the seed or to the soil in the planting row, with VAM spores and/or humic
acids if needed, to improve VAM colonization.
6. Applications of foliar compost teas (5 gal/ac for each 6 foot height of canopy) should occur at first
true leaf stage, before blossom, and after blossom.
7. If any diseases are scouted, apply the teas ASAP to re-occupy the leaf surfaces so the diseases
cannot win. Along roads, boundaries with neighbors that spray chemicals, and where drift from
toxic areas occurs, extra teas may be required.
8. Monitor leaf surfaces.
9. Check the tea for the beneficial organisms (SFI assays).
As with any system, variation in application times and methods will occur. No matter what sprayer, tea
maker or weather condition, checking leaf surfaces, or checking the soil to determine if the biology is
present, or checking leaf surfaces to determine coverage, checking to determine if the organisms are
growing, or active, can always be done, and give peace-of-mind.
A new approach in field crop or row crop systems is to put a perennial cover crop in the system as has been
tried at Washington State University. Green “manure” cover crops have often been used, except that
herbicides or tillage are then needed to bring down the cover crop in the spring, both of which are
detrimental to building good soil life and maintaining soil structure. Instead of using a tall grass or row
crop species, use a short canopy (1/2 inch tall) plant species that goes dormant when water becomes
limiting, or when it is shaded by the over-story plant. Direct drill or strip till the row crop plant into the
system, and maintain the under-story cover year-round. This reduces erosion. The reduction in evaporation
from the bare soil surface is more than enough to make up for water use by the cover crop in the summer.
It is a bit of mythology that ground covers always take moisture away from the over-story plant. Studies
showing ground covers take away water from the crop may have been biased by the funding source.
Those studies need to be repeated by researchers with no connection to herbicide companies.
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Figure 9. Melons in Australia. Shane Gishford, an SFI advisor in Brisbane, Australia, used compost in
the soil and three applications of foliar tea applications in the growing season. Weeds, insect pests and
fungal pathogens were significantly reduced, while yield was increased, water use was decreased, and
rooting depth improved.
Figure 10. Radish grown in potting soils, with either a compost tea (Nature’s Solutions product), or a
common inorganic fertilizer addition. Plants with the compost tea clearly were far ahead of the inorganic
fertilizer, and remained more productive through their whole growth cycle.
[email protected]
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Turf
Perennial grass systems are a bit different than annual systems and turf is unique in many ways. Turf will
be walked on, whether by grazing animals, golfers, football or soccer players, or by people strolling on a
lawn. Compaction is a never-ending issue with grass systems of any kind. The food web has to be healthy
enough to maintain soil structure and not succumb to compaction.
Application of pesticides or high amounts (over 100 pounds/ac) of inorganic fertilizers will kill organisms
in the soil, and disease will be the likely result. Instead of toxic chemicals, try the following:
1. Apply 1 to 2 ton per acre of finely sieved worm castings or worm compost in the fall (the sieved
compost should be able to shift between the blades of the grass to lie on the soil surface), or
2. apply 15 to 20 gal/ac (150 – 200 L/HA) foliar compost tea application.
3. Apply 5 gal/ac compost tea (50L/HA) each week until frost occurs, and then hold off on any more
applications until spring.
4. Again in the spring, apply 1 to 2 tons finely sieved worm compost/castings to highly compacted
areas (the greens), and where needed in to fairways, tees and putting surfaces.
5. Apply 5 gal/ac compost tea through the summer until diseases are gone, or poorly covered or
thatch problem areas are grown in.
If aeration is needed, a practice that should rapidly end as turf health improves, apply a good compost tea
(match the needs of the soil with the biology in the tea) immediately and then fill the aeration holes with a
mix of 15 to 30% medium sieve compost high in woody or fungal foods, and 70% to 85% sand. Add VAM
inoculum in the tea and compost material if the roots of the grasses are not mycorrhizal enough. Add
humic acids if colonization is present but inadequate.
Figure 10. Rugby Club in southern England used the typical Soil Foodweb approach, with the
following results. For details contact Mike Harrington, Laverstoke Park, England.
FROM THIS TO THIS IN ONE YEAR
Sept, 2003 Aug 2004
Orchards and Vineyards
In these perennial systems, an under-story cover crop is required in the tree, vine or berry bush row in order
to prevent herbicide sprays in the area that needs to be fully fungal dominated. The under-story plants need
to be fungal dominated, need to be good weed mats to prevent weeds from growing in the tree rows, should
be colonized by the same kinds of mycorrhizal fungi as the over-story tree requires, should be short canopy
so mice cannot girdle the trees without the predatory birds seeing them, and should easily go senescent or
dormant in a dry summer period, but otherwise maintain a good layer on the surface so the soil does not dry
out. During the summer, the grass in the inter-row areas should be mowed and blown onto the row area
under the trees. This allows composting to continue all summer long. The under-story plant should be able
to let grass clippings blown on top of the plants shift between the stems and reach the soil surface.
In the fall, compost should be applied at 5 to 10 tons per acre under the rows and again, the compost should
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be able to sift between the plant stems to reach the soil surface. Apply compost tea at 15 gal per ac after all
leaf fall has occurred, in order to cover all leaf litter surface. This prevents diseases from being able to
grow on the leaf material and overwinter. Leaf litter should be 50% reduced in weight within one month.
If the leaf residues are not 50% gone within one month following leaf fall, apply tea again to speed the
decomposition process. Leaf litter should reduce by well over 50% the amount of disease that occurs in a
conventional orchard.
In the spring, if needed, apply another 1 to 5 tons of compost followed by a soil drench of compost tea.
Then, 2 weeks before bud break, apply foliar compost tea to establish the beneficial organisms on all the
leaf surfaces. For as long as no foliar disease is found, only apply tea in a foliar fashion once a month.
Avoid applying foliar teas when pollination is at its peak. If a disease outbreak occurs, it may be necessary
to apply the tea each day until the disease is out-competed.
Landscape Trees
In these systems, the challenge is to maintain the soil biology appropriate for the plant desired, even though
a bacterial-dominated plant is within inches of a plant requiring fungal-dominance. This spatial
heterogeneity is maintained by use of bacterial and fungal foods applied correctly to the root system and
drip line of each plant. Management of the proper biology is maintained in this fashion.
Trees may need to have root trenches dug several feet deep, fungal-dominated compost added to the trench
and then filled in with the soil, after applying a strongly fungal-dominated compost tea. While no
guarantees can be made about effectiveness, in many cases effects of root rots, wilts, blights and other
fungal diseases have been reversed by application of compost tea. The proper biology will compete with,
and possibly prevent the disease from establishing on roots of trees. Work by a number of Soil Foodweb
Advisors has shown that the use of tea has suppressed disease, and possibly prevented disease. However, a
great deal more work is needed before we can say for certain that compost tea can consistently and with
complete assurance work to remove disease from perennial root systems.
Greenhouse
Apply aerobic woody compost at about 30 to 50% in potting mix to replace peat moss and/or coconut fiber.
Drench flats with compost tea to make certain the beneficial organisms are established. For vegetables to
be planted in the field, place seeds rolled in compost tea and VAM spores in 100% good compost, or dilute
the compost by half or three-quarters. Teas should be applied as soon as first true leaf stage is reached. All
watering events should include some compost tea to maintain healthy root systems and maximize rooting
depth. Drench the soil with compost tea just before sales.
Hydroponics should have 1 gal of compost tea added per each 50 gals of water. Beds or “soil-less” potting
mixes should be drenched with compost tea to establish the beneficial organisms that will protect plants.
Roots systems in aeroponics should be misted with compost tea instead of Hoaglund’s solution. In water
systems, again, 1 gal of compost tea should be added to 50 gal of water to prevent disease. In the case of
water lettuce, for example, the entire plant should be dipped into compost tea made without humic acid (the
humic acids can cause spotting of the leaf surfaces). Aquatic bulbs should be immersed in compost tea for
10 to 15 minutes before planting in order to establish the beneficial organisms around the bulb and on the
roots. Compost tea should be added periodically to the water.
Nurseries
Potting soils should contain 30 to 50% aerobic compost, as a replacement for peat moss or coconut fiber.
Beds should be made with 30% to 100% aerobic compost and drenched with 15 gal per acre (150L/HA) asfungal-
as-possible compost tea immediately before planting. Bare root plants should be dipped in compost
tea with VAM spores (see spore package for density of spores) and then planted into the beds. Foliar
surfaces should be treated with compost tea (5 gal per acre) each month or more often if disease requires.
Soil drenches should be performed before planting and when litter or residue need to be decomposed. If
possible, addition of compost tea to the watering system will reduce disease out-breaks.
Ponds and Lagoons
Aeration is the most important factor in maintaining pond or lagoon health. Plants can contribute to
32
aeration, but if a layer of algae begins to grow, or if food resources (like manure) going into the pond or
lagoon increase organism growth beyond the rate at which oxygen diffusion or photosynthesis adds oxygen
to the pond, the pond will go anaerobic. Stink begins. Either reduce input of foods (manure, sugars, and
dead plant material) or increase rate of aeration. Algal blooms may be adding oxygen into the water on the
surface, but as the lower layers of algae die, and the dead bodies are decomposed, oxygen uptake increases,
often beyond the level where the photosynthesizing algae can offset the oxygen demand.
At this point, aeration of the lower levels of the water in the pond must occur. Thus, any aerator needs to
pull water from the bottom of the pond, not just stirring the surface waters. Addition of the beneficial
organisms that were lost when the water went anaerobic is a must. Thus, compost tea needs to be added to
the water, at 1 gallon per acre foot of water. Just an inoculum is needed; the foods are present, and aeration
is occurring. Recovery can be rapid. As long as the pond or lagoon does not become anaerobic again, that
single application of compost tea should be adequate to re-establish the needed biology.
The basic approach to using compost tea in conjunction with compost and soil should be apparent by this
point. There are additional factors to be considered in making certain compost tea is disease-free and
capable of giving the best benefit.
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Factors Affecting Compost Tea Quality
Compost tea can be inconsistent from batch to batch, but this variability is actually relatively easy to
control. When making tea, test the tea periodically to make sure the set of organisms in the tea is
maintained and no unexpected problems occur to harm extraction and growth of the organisms.
Added Materials. Many ingredients can be added to compost tea to enhance the growth of specific
microorganisms and provide micronutrients for plants. This manual gives a basis for choosing some of
these materials (see The Recipes later in this manual), but a great deal more work is needed to understand
why some additives work in certain conditions but not in others. It is important to recognize that only
certain microorganisms will be encouraged, or selected by different foods. Combine food resource with
aeration, pH, temperature and interactions with soluble compost material, and very different organisms can
grow at different times. Make certain that the kind of compost, the temperature, etc are maintained the
same, and each tea brew can be very similar.
Aeration. Oxygen is required by all aerobic organisms. A large problem in making highly beneficial teas is
when microbial growth rapidly uses up a significant portion of the oxygen such that anaerobic conditions
ensue, and materials that are toxic to plant growth are produced in the tea. Properly controlling oxygen
input into the water is critical. It is a wise idea to buy an oxygen probe in order to make certain the tea
remains in the aerobic range (above 6 ppm or 70 to 80% dissolved oxygen – versus carbon dioxide - in
solution, or 20 to 22% oxygen as total atmospheric gases; see Table 3 below).
Table 3. Relationship between Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, and Aerobic, Facultative Anaerobic and
Anaerobic Organisms
Type of Organism Total Atmospheric Gases Percent Dissolved
Gases
Dissolved Gases (mg/L)
Aerobic 20 – 21% oxygen
1 to 6% carbon dioxide
95 to 98% oxygen
1 to 5% carbon
dioxide
> 6 mg/L oxygen
Facultative
Anaerobe
15 – 16% oxygen
6 to 12% carbon dioxide
75 to 95% oxygen
5% to 25% carbon
dioxide
4 to 6 mg/L oxygen
Anaerobe 2 to 15% oxygen
> 12% carbon dioxide
< 75% oxygen
> 25% carbon dioxide
< 4 mg/L oxygen
Temperature and
air pressure
(elevation)
Percent oxygen declines
and other gases increase
as elevation increases
Oxygen and carbon
dioxide will always
sum to 100%
regardless of
elevation, pressure or
temperature
Maximum concentration of
oxygen at sea level, freezing
is 16 mg/L, decreases as
temperature increases or air
pressure decreases
Oxygen has to diffuse into water at the interface between air and water. By bubbling air into water that
interface is increased, resulting in more diffusion of oxygen into water. The smaller the bubble size, then
the greater the exchange surface and the more efficient the transfer of oxygen into the water. Bubblers that
decrease the size of individual bubbles improve the oxygen content of water more rapidly than aerators
with larger size openings to produce bubbles. Of course, if the bubble size is extremely small, then airflow
may be restricted because it is harder to push air through a small opening. Aquarium bubblers typically
produce rather large size bubbles and are not very efficient oxygenators of water, but they are very
inexpensive and can run all the time. Depth of the water is important too, since in order to produce a
bubble, the air pressure must be greater than water pressure, and water pressure increases with increasing
depth. Thus an air pump adequate for a 5-gallon machine may not be adequate for a 500-gallon machine,
depending on the water depth.
If bacteria and fungi are not growing, tea solutions will remain well oxygenated. Bacteria consume the
34
majority of the oxygen during aerobic metabolism. If the oxygen is replenished at a rate greater than what
is consumed by the bacteria, the tea will remain aerobic. Conversely, when oxygen is consumed at a rate
greater than the rate at which it is replenished, the tea will become anaerobic.
When dealing with tea, and the need for a short brew cycle, the growth of bacteria and fungi can be so rapid
that air can be drawn below aerobic levels extremely rapidly, within an hour or less of adding molasses,
humic acids or other food resources. Therefore, air needs to be provided at a relatively high rate to offset
the use of oxygen by the aerobic, beneficial organisms.
Teas can become anaerobic if molasses or sugar is added to the solution. The offensive odor produced
(rotten egg smell, vinegar or sour smell, sour milk or vomit smells) is an indication of anaerobic conditions.
However, if the tea is allowed to continue “fermenting,” microorganism growth slows as food resources are
used up. Oxygen will begin to diffuse into the tea more rapidly than it is consumed by bacterial and fungal
growth, and aerobic organisms will begin to grow using the organic acids produced during anaerobic
metabolism. The tea will become aerobic again.
Strict aerobes require oxygen concentrations around normal atmospheric levels (18 to 22% total
atmospheric gases or 8 ppm, or 8 μg per liter; see Table 3) in order to perform the functions of life.
Examples of some of these genera of bacteria are Pseudomonas, Bacillus, and Aerobactor. As oxygen
concentration is reduced, dropping below 5 ppm, strictly aerobic organisms will become dormant, and
eventually die. Lack of oxygen allows the growth of facultative anaerobes (which switch from aerobic to
anaerobic metabolism when oxygen levels fall below 15 to 16% O2 or 5 to 6 ppm oxygen). Examples of
bacteria that are facultative anaerobes are E. coli, Klebsiella, and Acinetobactor). True anaerobic bacteria
cannot tolerate O2 above 7 to 8%, or 4 to 5 ppm oxygen while strict anaerobes require low oxygen
concentrations (less than 2% oxygen) to grow.
Anaerobic organisms are not detrimental in themselves, but their metabolic products can be extremely
detrimental to plants as well as many beneficial microorganisms. Anaerobic metabolites produced are
volatile organic acids (valeric acid, butyric acid, phenols, see Brinton, 1997) that are very detrimental to the
growth of plants and beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. Anaerobic products may kill some
disease-causing microorganisms, but usually the death of a few disease-causing microorganisms is not
positive enough to offset the reduction in plant growth.
When aeration is too great, the tea can become over-charged with oxygen, which can be detrimental to
beneficial microorganisms. However, there is no compost tea maker on the market that over-charges tea.
Only if someone decided to add hydrogen peroxide, or ozone to the water would it be likely that the water
could have too great an amount of oxygen.
Aerobes, facultative anaerobes and strict anaerobes are everywhere. They live in soil, on plant surfaces, on
the surfaces of stones, on and in pavement and clothing. Facultative anaerobes include some species that
are highly beneficial to plants as well as some disease-causing species. These microorganisms are needed
so that the cycling processes within nature can occur. Thus, sterilization of tea is not the answer. Many
highly beneficial microorganisms would be lost if the tea were sterile. The goal is to keep the tea fully
oxygenated and maintain aerobic conditions, so that the benefits from a widely diverse set of
microorganisms can be realized.
Organism growth in a batch of compost tea follows a typical pattern (Fig. 11). The organisms first adjust to
the liquid environment as the organisms and the soluble nutrients are ripped off the compost by mixing and
aeration. Adjustment to changes in temperature occur as well, although it may take a few hours for that
adjustment to occur, called lag time, before growth commences again. The temperature of the water should
match the temperature of the soil, or leaf surfaces, depending on the purpose of the tea application.
As the organisms grew faster and activity increased rapidly, both foods and oxygen were depleted. At a
certain point, which is dependent on the food resources added, the aeration rate and the rate of movement
of water through the compost and tea brewer, the organisms used up oxygen at a rate faster than the
35
machine was adding air into the water. As a result, oxygen levels in the water dropped. The point at which
organism activity peaked (green triangle line), the organisms had used up the simple, easy-to-use foods in
the tea and growth begins to wane.
At that point, the organisms are no longer using up oxygen faster than it can be replaced, and oxygen
concentration in the water begins to increase. As the organisms stabilize, their activity reaches an
equilibrium for the next few days.
The critical part of the curve is the relationship between organism growth causing oxygen to dip into
anaerobic ranges, and aeration rate. In these teas (Fig 11), filamentous fungi, protozoa and beneficial
nematodes were lost as oxygen was depleted and fell below 6 micrograms oxygen per ml (or 6 mg oxygen
per L). These teas could not suppress foliar disease on the plants they were applied to, because the
beneficial fungal were lost.
Compost Tea Oxygen Levels
0
2
4
6
8
10
0 3 7 11 15 19 23 27 31 35 39 43 47
Hours
Oxygen (ppm)
Activity (ug/ml)
Activity
O2
Figure 11 . This curve was generated based on eight tea brews using the same recipe with 1 gal molasses
and 1 gal dry kelp product. Note the lag time associated with addition to cold water which must be
overcome by the organisms early in the tea brew.
Brewing time. Up to the point that most of the soluble nutrients are all extracted from the compost, and
most of the organisms capable of being pulled from the compost are off the compost, the longer the time
the compost remains suspended in the water or tea solution, the greater the amount of soluble material
extracted from the compost and the greater the number of organisms extracted. More soluble material in
the tea means more food resources to grow beneficial bacteria and fungi, and more nutrients that will
potentially be made available for plants.
The easiest way to know how long a machine takes to make tea with adequate organism numbers in it is to
measure them over time.
Organisms growing in tea consume the extracted nutrients, immobilize them in their biomass and keep the
nutrients from washing through soil or off the leaf surfaces. If the tea is well mixed and well aerated (see
Compost Tea Production Methods), all these processes will be maximized.
36
If oxygen supply is not adequate, bacteria and fungi growing in the tea can use oxygen faster than oxygen
diffuses into the tea, and then anaerobic organisms grow in the tea with the production of potentially
phytotoxic materials in the tea. Any corner of less than 120 degrees angle tends to be a place where biofilms
form rapidly, a well-known phenomenon in the world of biofouling. Despite any amount of mixing in
the container, the “dead-air” effect of a corner results in no replenishment of well-oxygenated water, so that
oxygen is rapidly depleted as microbes grow. Thus corners can result in the production of rank-smelling
materials, and have quite negative impacts on plant growth if these anaerobic decomposition products are
not used by aerobic organism growth before the tea is placed on or around the plant.
The shorter the brew time, the less likely it is that anaerobic bio-films can develop. Thus there is a balance
between extraction of nutrients and growth of organisms, giving an optimal time for tea production,
depending on the exact conditions of brewing.
The longer the brewing time, the more likely weather will change and application will have to be put off.
With longer brewing times, the organisms in the tea will use up all their food and go to sleep, or if brewing
times are very long, some of the organisms colonize the surfaces of the containers and begin to develop
anaerobic layers on the container walls. Thus, there needs to be a balance between the time organisms
immobilize nutrients extracted from the compost and the time they will begin to colonize the container
walls and produce anaerobic layers.
Each tea brewer has an optimal time for extraction unique to the design of the machine. For example, the
Microb-Brewer and the Earth Tea Brewer can produce the optimal number of organisms within 20 to 24
hours when run at room temperatures (colder temperatures require longer brew times). The bucket method
of brewing (see Ingham, 2000) requires 3 days, and some trough methods of production, and most notaerated
brews require 2 to 3 weeks.
Not-aerated, no-nutrients added tea brews may have such low numbers of organisms in a tea that bio-films
never develop and the liquid never becomes anaerobic, no matter if the liquid is never stirred or mixed or
aerated. If the tea does not contain many organisms, the tea cannot have the benefits that organisms give
that have been discussed previously.
Compost Source and Quality. All of the soluble compounds in compost can be extracted into the tea. It is
essential, therefore, that only beneficial food sources be present in the material being extracted. Only by
composting correctly can this be assured. Whether using thermal, or static compost, temperature must have
reached AT LEAST 131 to 135° F (57° C) continuously for 3 entire days throughout the entire pile (the
surface of the pile is not at 135° F (57° C), so the outside material must be turned to inside and temperature
maintained). The material cannot have been anaerobic for any length of time or phytotoxic compounds
may be present, and nutrients will volatilize if the compost becomes anaerobic. If worm-compost
(vermicompost) is used, the material does not have to reach temperature, but must be adequately processed
by the worms. Passage through the earthworm digestive system kills human pathogens and most plant
pathogens, although more work needs to be performed to document this in a fully scientific manner.
Adequate time in the worm bin must be allowed for full processing of all materials by the worms to occur.
All of the species of organisms that can be detected in the compost will be extracted into the tea. This does
not mean all individuals of all species will be extracted however. Many individuals will be left in the
compost, so the compost can be re-added to the compost pile. If pathogenic or pest microorganisms are
present in the compost, then they too will be extracted into the tea. Therefore, GOOD COMPOST, which
does not contain significant numbers of active disease-organisms, is essential.
If compost is properly made, disease-causing microorganisms will be killed, out-competed, inhibited or
consumed by beneficial organisms in the compost, or in the tea. A huge range of beneficial food resources
is made during the composting process (see Cornell’s Handbook on On-Farm Composting, Rodale’s books
on composting, and the Soil Foodweb Web Site for more information on making good compost).
How do you know compost you buy is good? Data are REQUIRED. Ask your compost supplier to show
37
the temperature information on the batch you are buying. Ask them to show you the data on oxygen
concentration (or the reverse measurement, carbon dioxide concentration) during composting. Because the
heat during composting is generated by bacterial and fungal growth, that increase in temperature also
reveals whether bacteria and fungi used up oxygen and if the compost became anaerobic during peak
temperature times.
Temperature should, however, not exceed 155° to 160° F (68° to 71° C) and the oxygen level should not
drop below 12 to 15%. When temperature reaches these high ranges, oxygen is being consumed rapidly,
and anaerobic conditions, with production of phytotoxic materials, is quite likely. If compost gets too hot,
does not heat enough, or becomes anaerobic, the set of organisms in the compost is not desirable. If you use
poor compost, the tea will not contain the desired set of organisms.
A good test of compost that you can do yourself is determining smell. It should smell like soil, or
mushrooms that you buy in the store. If compost went anaerobic for a significant period of time, it will
smell sour, like vinegar, or sour milk, or vomit, rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide) or urine (ammonia). Not
only will the material have lost nitrogen and sulfur (and why would you pay good money for something
lacking fertility?), but it also contains phytotoxic materials that can kill your plant if they encounter any
plant surface.
In order to maximize populations of beneficial organisms, it is important that an adequate range of food
resources be extracted from compost into the tea. This can only occur if organism numbers are adequate in
the compost. It is the organisms that make humic and fulvic acids. Minerals will be extracted from the
compost as well, making it critical that the salt level not be too high, and that no toxic chemicals, or at least
no high concentrations of toxins, be present.
Extraction and Mixing. Mixing needs to be not too much and not too little. Too rapid mixing will
physically destroy beneficial microorganisms in the tea. Think about yourself impacting the wall of the
container going 320 km (200 miles) an hour. If the speed of the impact would kill you, it will kill the
organisms in the tea. Too slow mixing means a lack of organisms pulled from the compost, allows bio-film
development to be rapid, and the surface of everything will develop an anaerobic slime with resulting
phytotoxic materials present in the liquid.
There are two things to understand about mixing.
1. Enough energy has to be imparted to the compost to physically remove the bacteria and fungi
from the surface of the compost. Bacteria can glue themselves onto the surface of any particle
in compost, and it takes significant energy to remove bacteria from these surfaces. Fungi wrap
around particles and the hyphae have to be broken enough to let the strands be pulled out of the
compost, but not broken so much that they are shredded into tiny pieces. Thus, most extraction
methods that involve blades, whirring mixing bars, or blender action can break up the hyphae,
or the bacterial cells, too much and result in poor fungal and/or bacterial biomass in the tea.
2. Uniformity of the end product, the tea, is necessary. Good mixing – enough but not too much -
produces both effects. Most of the commercially available machines were developed around the
principles of enough aeration and enough mixing to get organisms into the tea, but not shred
them to death.
If brown color comes from the compost, then fungal extraction is probably good. Add fungal food
resources and surfaces that will allow fungi to grow in liquids. So, BEFORE placing any dark-colored
materials in to the tea water at the beginning of the cycle, add the compost into the tea maker, in whatever
container you have, and make certain the compost tea-maker is mixing the water well enough to pull the
humic acids (brown color) from the compost. No brown color out of the compost in the holder should
instantly indicate that adequate extraction is not occurring. Additional mixing of the compost in the
container will be necessary.
Foam. The presence of foam on the surface of tea is considered a positive sign, but just means there are
free proteins, amino acids or carbohydrates present. This can occur as the result of adding fish hydrolysate,
certain organic acids or carbohydrates. If worm compost was used, excessive foam suggests a few
38
earthworms were in the compost and their dead bodies are providing this source of protein/carbohydrate.
Excess protein or amino acids should not occur if bacteria are growing well, although dead worms may
continue to release proteinaceous materials throughout the brewing cycle. Foam can be suppressed by using
organic surfactants, such as yucca or vegetable oil (not olive or canola oil!). Don’t use commercial defoamers
– every single one we have tested kills the organisms in the tea.
Maintaining Compost Activity. If a large amount of compost is bought to make tea during the rest of the
year, be aware that the organisms in the compost go to sleep, become dormant, and don’t extract from the
compost easily the older compost gets. Maintain compost organism activity by adding compost tea to the
compost. Even then, we have seen a compost get so “mature” that you can’t wake them up to grow at all in
a 24 hour brewing cycle.
Compost for foliar compost tea applications should to be SLIGHTLY IMMATURE! That means, a little bit
of temperature is a good thing – about 5° - 10° above ambient is the desired range.
Mesh size of the tea bag or final filtration material. The opening size in the compost container or any
filters through which the tea must pass, can affect the kind of particulate material and organisms that will
be present in the tea. Mesh is a measurement of the number of holes in an inch surface area, the smaller the
mesh number, the larger the size of the holes. For example, an 80-mesh screen has holes with diameters of
170 micrometers (a micrometer is a millionth of a meter). A 20-mesh screen has holes with diameters of
800 micrometers.
The finer the size of the openings, the more likely only soluble components will be extracted. If the
openings are too large, particulate matter in the tea may clog sprayers and irrigation systems.
A variety of materials can be used, as long as they are inert to microbial decomposition. For example,
polycarbonates, plastic, nylon, silk and fine-weave cotton work well, but window screening, wire mesh,
and burlap may also be used. Fresh burlap should be used with caution, though, as it is soaked in
preservative materials which can be extracted into the tea and kill the organisms.
Consider the size of the organisms desired in the tea. The largest beneficial nematodes are around 150 to
200 micrometers (10-6 meters) in length, but only 30 to 50 micrometers in diameter. Thus, a mesh that
allows organisms of this size to pass, but restricts passage of larger materials, is desirable. The openings
should not be smaller than this size since then a number of the beneficial organisms would not be present in
the final product.
Microbes in tea. A wide diversity of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes need to be present in the
compost and be extracted into the tea (see previous discussion of the organisms in tea). The greater the
diversity of beneficial microorganisms, the greater the likelihood that disease-causing organisms will be
out-competed on leaves, stems, roots or in the soil.
Nutrient retention will be higher, because all the food resources will be used and the nutrients retained and
not leached from the leaf, stem, root or soil. Plant-available nutrients will be cycled at a more beneficialto-
the-plant rate, and soil aggregation will improve, along with water-holding capacity, breakdown of toxic
materials and decomposition rates.
When the diversity of microorganisms in the compost is low, the health of plant surfaces will be limited,
and one particular set of metabolic products can accumulate to the detriment of plants and other
microorganisms. Thus good compost is critical to the production of good tea (see Wagner, 2000, Rodale
books on composting, the Soil Foodweb website, www.soilfoodweb.com for information about the set of
organisms in good compost and how to tell if they are present).
Ratio of Compost to Water. The dilution of soluble materials and microorganisms extracted into the tea is
important. Too little compost will result in too dilute a tea with too few nutrients or organisms. Too much
compost means not everything is extracted that could be extracted. If the “spent” compost is placed back
into an active compost pile, then ”wastage” isn‘t a worry. But it may be possible to overload some tea
39
makers with too much compost, such that water cannot flow through the compost and extraction efficiency
will be low. Because the optimal ratio of compost to water tends to be variable, experiment with the
amount of compost put in your compost tea brewing machine to find the best ratio. If your machine calls
for 7 pounds or kilos of compost, try 6 or maybe 8 pounds or kilos and see if the amount makes a
difference.
Temperature. Temperature, humidity, evaporation and other abiotic conditions influence the growth rate
of microorganisms. For example, high temperatures volatilize nutrients. Evaporation concentrates salts,
while low temperatures slow microorganism growth. Obviously, these conditions can have a significant
influence on the quality of the tea. Again, experiment a bit to find the optimal temperatures for your
particular situation.
Place the tea making equipment inside a greenhouse or shed. In hot weather, cover or shade tea-making
units prevent evaporation and concentration of salt.
In machines where the tea goes through a pump, the growth of microorganisms elevates the water
temperature, but as long as the tea is well mixed, temperatures will not exceed 100° - 110° F (38° - 43° C).
If temperature in the machine exceeds 100° F (38° C), something is wrong with the pump, or too much
biofilm has developed in the pipes or tubes, suggesting that the machine should be cleaned to remove
restriction of the passageways in the machine.
Machines mixed using aeration, where the tea does not go through the pump, are cooled by the temperature
of the ambient air and rarely have an increased temperature. In these machines, it is wise to use a tank
heater to raise temperature and increase microbial reproduction.
Water Source. Water high in salts, heavy metals, nitrate, chlorine, sulfur, tannic acid, carbonates, or
contaminated with pathogens (human, animal or plant disease-causing microorganisms) should not be used.
Where present, removal of contaminants becomes a priority before using the water. Both chlorine and
sulfur can be removed by aeration. Carbonates can be removed by precipitating them with additives, and
then de-gassing those additives. Contact your water treatment department or send a water sample to a
testing lab for analysis. Or, try some of these simple assessments: Drink a glass of bottled water (make
sure it is less than 1 ppm (μg/ml) nitrate. Drink a glass of your own water.
• Bitter? May be high in nitrate.
• Rotten egg taste or smell? High sulfur.
• Chlorine smell? High chlorine. Keep aerating, or remove chlorine with reverse osmosis or a
chlorine filter.
• Slippery feel to the water? High in carbonates. Use some acid to remove the carbonate and
balance the pH
• Earthy taste? Algae or actinomycetes (actinobacteria) present. Find a better source of water.
40
Compost Tea Standards
The desired MINIMAL ranges for active as well as total bacteria, active and total fungi, protozoa and
nematodes in a good tea, i.e., one that will begin to move the soil in the direction of improving the
communities of beneficial organisms and provide the benefits discussed previously (page 7). In order to
see these benefits, the following points must occur;
1. Adequate amounts of tea, with adequate concentrations of organisms must be applied to the plant
surfaces.
2. Cover plant surfaces at least 70%,
3. At least 5 gallons of tea should be applied per acre (50L/HA) for leaf coverage, and 15 gallons per acre
(150 L/HA) for a soil drench,
4. The organisms have to survive the application,
5. The organisms require foods to begin to grow,
6. If disease is already present, it may be necessary to displace the disease through the mechanisms of
competition for space, food, or infection sites. There is little evidence that antibiotic or toxiccompound
production is a major, or even important, mechanism. Therefore use of the term “biopesticide”
or “pesticide” is NOT appropriate for the mechanisms by which compost or compost tea has
it’s major, or most important, impacts on disease.
The following table lists the minimum levels of each organism group required in compost (per gram dry
weight of compost), or in the tea (per mL of tea before spraying).
Table 4. The desired minimal ranges for different organisms in compost or compost tea.
Active
Bacteria
(μg)
Total
Bacteria
(μg)
Active
Fungi
(μg)
Total
Fungi
(μg)
Protozoa (#)
F A C
Beneficial
Nematodes
(#)
Compost
(per gram
dry weight)
15 – 30
150 - 300
2 - 10
150 -200
10,000
10,000
20 to
50
50 – 100
Compost
tea
(per ml)
10 – 150
150 -300
2 - 10
2 - 20
1,000
1,000
20 to
50
2 – 10
μg means microgram, or one millionth of a gram. A gram is about one teaspoon
Active Bacteria – The biomass of bacteria performing measurable aerobic metabolism
Total Bacteria – All of the bacterial biomass present, including the sleeping, dormant, inactive and notvery-
active portions of the community. Gives a relative idea of whether adequate bacterial diversity is
present.
Active Fungi – The biomass of fungi performing their functions right now.
Total Fungi – All of the fungal biomass present, including active, inactive and dormant. Gives an idea of
the diversity Must be adequate in order to be able to prevent diseases under all conditions.
Protozoa – All three groups cycle nutrients from bacteria into plant available forms. Flagellates and
amoebae are strict aerobes. Ciliates prefer to feed on anaerobic bacteria and thus indicate that the
conditions are conducive to anaerobic bacteria growing. Higher than the desired range of ciliate numbers
indicates lack of oxygen somewhere in the material. If flagellates and amoebae numbers are above the
desired range, then even greater than minimal nutrient cycling will occur.
Beneficial nematodes – These are the bacterial-feeding, fungal-feeding and predatory nematodes. They
consume their prey group, and release nutrients from the prey group into plant available forms. The greater
the diversity of these groups, the more likely nutrient cycling will occur in all conditions.
There will be variability from tea-to-tea, even if compost, mixing, amendments used, etc. are the same. But
that variability is not excessive, and typically is no more than 10% for bacterial and fungi biomass, and up
to 20% for protozoa. Note that for ciliates, numbers should not exceed greater than 100 individuals per ml
of tea, as this would indicate limited oxygen conditions (anaerobic) in the tea.
41
Tea can be diluted if the biomass of all categories will still be within desired ranges AFTER dilution is
complete. If the biomass/numbers are lower than the desired range, the amount of tea sprayed will have to
be increased from the 5 gallons per acre typical to achieve the desired coverage.
In all the studies performed the organisms must occupy AT LEAST 70% of any plant surface. The desired
ranges are 60 to 70% for bacterial coverage, and 2 to 5% fungal coverage, for a total of at least 70%
coverage.
Comparison of a Not-Suppressive Tea with a Suppressive Tea
How do you know compost tea is doing the job? Well, which job are you interested in? If it is protection of
a plant from disease, then to document protection, you need to have plants that you know are being
attacked by the disease, and you need to show that the plant does not come down with the disease.
Do this experiment yourself, and demonstrate whether your tea is doing the job.
Protocol:
1. Plants were from a nursery where the greenhouse was infested with blight. All plants were infested,
and the greenhouse was being fumigated to get rid of the problem. Plants from the greenhouse were
donated to SFI. Presumably all plants remaining at the nursery succumbed to the disease.
2. Two compost teas were made. The suppressive tea was made in an EPM 100 gallon tea maker. The
not-suppressive tea was made in a home-modified version of a commercially available tea machine.
The EPM machine used 10 pounds of compost (mixed 50-50 thermal and worm compost), while the
modified machine used 5 pounds of compost in a fabric bag. The recipe used was the same in both
machines: molasses and kelp, aerated water, at ambient temperature (about 65 F air temperature at the
start; water temperatures slightly lower).
3. The teas were brewed for 24 hours, and applied to the tomato plants using a hand-held spritzer.
4. All leaves were well-covered with the straight tea.
5. Tea samples were removed for SFI methods and for plate count analysis (dilution series was begun).
The process of clean-up took about an hour.
6. Leaf samples were removed from the plants (leaves were dry), stained and examined using SFI
methods.
7. Tea was assessed using SFI methods (1:10 and 1:100 dilutions used), and plates were spread for plate
count assessment (1:10, 1:100, 1:1000, 1:10,000 and 1:1,000,000 dilutions spread plated as needed) .
Results: The following table shows the results from this study. It is clear which tea was able to protect the
plant and which tea was not able to protect the plant, based on the fact that all plants died in the nonsuppressive
tea trial, and all the plants lived in the suppressive tea trial. There were five plants in each
treatment, and several hundred plants in the control (the plants in the greenhouse succumbing to disease
when the tomato plants were given to SFI for this trial).
The plate count data are shown as they would be reported from a standard plate count lab. These are the
Colony Forming Units, or Most Probable Number of individual bacterial cells that can grow on these
specific media, under the specific incubation conditions in the lab. The problem with Pseudomonas counts
is that you cannot tell whether these are disease-causing Pseudomonas species, or beneficial species. The
not-suppressive tea had higher counts of bacteria that can grow on King’s B medium, but does that mean
more or less suppressive species? You cannot tell from this assay.
The Cellulase-producing bacteria and fungi were higher in the suppressive tea, but not by a significant
amount. In the BBC “Species Richness Diversity” Index, this difference in CFU would not result in a
different index reading. So, is it significant? There is no way to tell.
The number of spore-forming bacteria and fungi were higher in the not-suppressive tea, but again, were
these beneficial species, or were these the disease-causing species? Just because a number is higher, and
would perhaps get a higher “index value” from a BBC Lab assessment does not mean anything beneficial.
A higher number of disease organisms is not a beneficial thing.
The comparison of aerobic to “anaerobic” bacteria was not performed, because this is a truly meaningless
42
test. Many, if not most, of the bacteria that grow on the aerobic plate are in fact facultative anaerobes.
That means, they will grow on the “anaerobic” plate was well as the aerobic. So, what does it mean that
some grow on both plates? Which are the strictly aerobic species, and which are the disease-causing
switchers? The “aerobic/anaerobic ratio” calculated from these plate methods cannot give that information.
It is a meaningless ratio unless there are data showing that plants die when the ratio is at some level, and
what plants are benefited at some other ratio. Once that information is made available, then perhaps that
ratio could be useful. The aerobic/anaerobic ratio has no data to back up what it means.
Table 5. How to tell that tea will be suppressive. Comparison of results from plate assessments and
direct assessments when tea was not able to suppress disease, compared to when tea was able to suppress
disease.
Tea Lacking Suppressiveness
Tea Capable of Suppressing
Disease
Plate Methods (MPN or CFU per ml)
TSA
(Aerobic Bacteria)
1.6 (0.5) X 108
1.6 (0.7) X 108
King’s B
(Pseudomonads)
5.0 (1.4) X 103
1.2 (0.2) X 103
Cellulose
(Cellulase producers)
35 (12)
210 (43)
Spore-Formers
(Bacillus sp)
7.9 (0.4) X 102
0.3 (0.1) X 102
Direct Microscopy (μg biomass per ml of tea)
Active Bacteria 8.0 (2.6) 12.7 (5.0)
Total Bacteria 25.1 (1.0) 245 (34)
Active Fungi 0.00 (None detected) 3.76 (1.00)
Total Fungi 0.35 (0.12) 11.1 (2.33)
Leaf Coverage (%)
Bacterial Coverage 27 (4.7) 86.9 (9.7)
Fungal Coverage None detected 5.1 (0.6)
Disease (5 tomato plants)
All plants died within a few days
All plants lived and produced
tomatoes
Numbers in parentheses are Standard Deviations of three readings taken for all the lab methods. These
values indicate variation levels in the measurements taken.
It is clear from the direct microscopic methods which tea will be able to perform the job. Adequate fungi
must be present to deal with blight. Without adequate fungi and bacteria covering the leaf surface, there
will be no disease suppression. Both the assessment of the tea itself, and the leaf surface once the tea was
sprayed out were predictive of whether the tea was going to be able to deal with the disease beginning to
grow on the leaf surfaces. It is easiest at this time to use the direct assessment of the tea solution. Once we
have the equipment to assess the leaf surface IN THE FIELD, this will become the more useful measure,
most likely.
Will all fungi adequately suppress disease? There is probably some specificity of fungal species which are
better at occupying the spaces on leaf surfaces, or using up the foods that the disease fungi need. Do we
know if those fungi were present in this tea? No, we don’t. That we had adequate fungi and bacteria
present are clear. But, in the next tea made, will adequate species diversity, the right species of suppressive
organisms be present? Most likely they will. But until we have methods that can measure that information,
we are left to try to maximize the beneficial species in compost, and in tea, and let the plant do some of the
work by putting out the foods that will feed the right fungi and bacteria to take care of the problems on the
leaf surfaces.
43
Brewing Methods and Machines
Each kind of compost tea machine extracts, aerates and mixes tea differently than other machines. Yet,
when the machines do a good job, the results can be quite similar. As long as the factors involved in
making good tea are paid attention to, extraction, survival and growth of the organisms will be maximized.
Evaluation Criteria
Therefore, each machine needs to be evaluated based on the following factors:
1. Aerobic? Ability to maintain aerobic conditions (above 6 mg oxygen per L). This level is based on
effects on plants and leaf material. Burning, browning, lack of foliar pathogen control, lack of nutrient
color improvement all indicate anaerobic toxins produced. Quite often this is also related to
compaction of the compost in the container, and too many nutrients added as amendments.
2. Extraction of organisms from the compost? Did the machine extract the ALL the different kinds of
organisms? Some machines do not extract the fungi, protozoa and nematodes. Only by obtaining data
about these other organisms can their presence be determined.
3. Extraction of soluble nutrients from the compost? Did the machine extract soluble nutrients from
the compost? Or are the nutrients only from added materials? Then why make compost tea?
4. Compost compaction? If mixing and aeration are not adequate, the compost will compact, most
likely go anaerobic if there are organisms growing in the tea. The tea will lose the beneficial fungi,
because these beneficials require aerobic conditions in order to survive. Teas can go anaerobic
because oxygen is used up by bacteria and fungi growing in the tea and in the compost. Especially if
the compost does not have aerated water moving through it, the compost will go anaerobic and
anaerobic products from anaerobic bacterial growth will disperse into the tea, killing beneficial aerobic
organisms.
5. Amendments? Were adequate amounts of food added to grow beneficial organisms? Or too much
food, causing the bacteria and fungi to grow rapidly, and outstrip the capacity of the aerating unit to
keep up with their oxygen demand? Or food supply too low, resulting in extracted organisms, but no
growing organisms? The machine manufacturer should test their machine, and tell their clients the
correct nutrient concentrations to balance the growth of the organisms with the aeration rate. Please be
aware that higher temperatures mean less nutrient amendments can be added because the organism
grow faster. In addition, water that that is higher in temperature can hold less oxygen. As elevation
increases, less oxygen is present in the atmosphere, and so less rapid growth can be allowed before the
water goes anaerobic. Please see the USGS website for a table of these values.
6. Ease of Cleaning? Cleaning is serious business. In all production systems, a biological film of
microorganisms, called a biofilm and sometimes much thicker than a film (up to an inch or more in
thickness in some systems), develops on surfaces. With time, the deepest layer of the film becomes
anaerobic, resulting in production of strong organic acids that can kill organisms in the tea, kill plant
tissue if applied to them, and can etch the tea-maker’s surfaces. If the surface is metal, the metal will
be solubilized and end up in the tea solution. For this reason, a metal container is not recommended. If
brew time is short, and the unit is cleaned to remove the biofilm between brews, there will be little
problem. Wood or plastic containers are preferable because they can be easily cleaned.
Cleaning the tea maker is SERIOUS. If biofilms aren’t cleaned off, tea may contain pathogens and other
toxic materials that can harm plants. A bio-film doesn’t necessarily mean things are terrible, but they
always occur when a problem has been seen.
Early Methods of Compost Tea Production.
Bucket Method. Bucket methods date back to early Roman, Greek and Egyptian times (Brehaut, 1933,
Cato’s De Agricultura, Varro’s Rerum Rusticarum Libri Tres). Many versions of’ “compost in a bucket”
are still used today. Typically, the compost is either free in the water (which means that the non-soluble
chunks have to be strained out of the tea if you want to put it through a delivery system) or suspended in a
sack or bag, along with other non-soluble ingredients.
44
Fill the bucket half-full with water and stir vigorously for 10 to 20 minutes to de-gas any chlorine. Add the
compost until the container is full, within an inch of the top for stirring to occur. Stir periodically with a
stick, which mixes the solution as well as adding a small amount of air. Brew times need to be several
weeks long, in order to get any of the organisms extracted from the compost. A few organisms will grow,
but biofilm formation on surfaces is not usually that great, because there isn’t much food for the organisms
in mature compost and the bacteria won’t grow rapidly enough to use up oxygen more rapidly than it can
diffuse into the water. Molasses or sugar can be added, but in tea that is not aerated, this typically causes
the tea to become anaerobic. Immature compost can be a problem, however, and can result in highly
anaerobic teas. After brewing, the solution is strained and applied to the crop (see Application Methods on
page 18). These are typically the production methods from which we hear reports about “the tea killed our
plants”, because poor compost, anaerobic conditions develop or toxic materials are extracted into the tea.
Bucket-Bubbler Method (based on work by Pat Battle at Highland Inn, Ashville, NC, and summarized by
E. Ingham in Kitchen Gardner, Oct/Nov 2000). A more modern version of “compost in a bucket” is one
used by many homeowners and backyard gardeners because small quantities can be made inexpensively.
This is not useful at a commercial level however.
On the bottom of a 3 to 5 gallon (15 to 20 L) bucket, tape (waterproof tape, please!) air stones or bubblers
attached to an aquarium-type pump. Fill the bucket half-full with water and bubble air through the water for
10 to 20 minutes before adding the compost. Add compost to fill bucket to nearly the top, with enough
space for bubbling (DO NOT compact the compost or extraction will be poor and the tea may also go
anaerobic). Add molasses or another food source for bacteria or fungi, as desired, but realize that the
amount needs to be kept minimal, or growth of bacteria and fungi will use oxygen in the air faster than the
aquarium pump can replace it. The aerator provides a continuous flow of air and creates enough turbulence
to provide mixing. Still, in most cases, an occasional brisk stir helps the quality of the tea, by removing the
organisms from the surface of the organic matter.
Brew for 2 to 3 days, minimum. Longer is ok. Then turn the aerator off and let the brew settle for a halfhour
until most of the solids are on the bottom of the bucket. The soluble portion of the tea can be decanted
from the top, leaving the insoluble solids to be returned to the compost pile. If the tea is used in a backpack
sprayer, it may be necessary to strain the tea through cheesecloth, or a fine mesh tea sieve to prevent
plugging the sprayer nozzles.
Trough Method. In this version, compost is suspended on a wire tray over a large tank of water, for
example an old horse trough - thus the name of the method. Water is pumped from the tank, sprayed over
the compost, and allowed to drip through the compost, like water through coffee grounds, into the tank. The
trough can range in size from 5 to 500-gallons (20 to 2000 L). The brewing period generally has to be quite
lengthy, as in several weeks, because not enough energy is applied to the compost to physically remove the
organisms from the compost. Because the water is sprayed onto the compost, UV light kills many of the
organisms in the water droplets if the unit is outside. Evaporation can be a serious problem, concentrating
salts in the tea. As the water drops fly through the air before impacting the compost, oxygen diffuses into
the drops, but typically not enough to maintain enough oxygen in the tea if molasses, sugars, humic acids,
or some other food resource for the bacteria or fungi is added. Aerators are often used to supplement air
diffusion into the water. Nutrients are of course extracted from the compost, and that benefit to plant
growth can be significant.
Bio-films typically form on trough surfaces, especially in the corners of the tank and can result in amazing
smells for a portion of the brew cycle while the few bacteria that are extracted grow rapidly in the tea. It
would be better to use round-bottom containers. However, diversity of bacteria and fungi is typically quite
limited in these teas. But these teas are not likely still anaerobic when applied on plant material, if the
brewing has gone on long enough.
The following table shows results from replicated trials with the Bubbler and the Trough methods. The teas
produced were not within the desired ranges, and quite often, plants were not protected from disease
organisms, did not jump-start nutrient retention, or nutrient cycling, or build soil structure or consume toxic
compounds.
45
Table 6. Comparison of Microbial Numbers Using Bucket Bubblers and Trough Brewing Methods.
Microbial populations in tea produced by different methods. Same quality compost, starting materials (1%
molasses, 1% kelp), brew time as indicated.
Production
Method
Brew
Time
Temperature
above ambient
Active
Bacteria
Total
Bacteria
Active
Fungi
Total
Fungi
Protozoa
(see below)
F, A, C
Nematodes
(see below)
Bubbler 3 days 1 – 2° F None
detected 1 μg None
detected 10 μg 100, 25, 0 1 B
Trough 3 weeks No increase None
detected 1 μg None
detected
None
detected 0, 0, 2000 5 B
Desired
Range NA NA 10 – 150
μg
150 – 300
μg
1 - 10
μg
2- 20
μg
1000, 1000,
50
2- 10
B, F, P
Protozoa = F stands for flagellate numbers, A for amoebae numbers, C for ciliate numbers
Nematodes = B stands for bacterial-feeder numbers, F for fungal-feeders, R for root-feeders,
and P for predatory nematodes (beneficials).
Microb-Brewer Results, 1998 to 2000.
As an example of an unforeseen problem, compare the result from the Microb-Brewer year 2000 test with
the Microb-Brewer year 1999 test. In the year 2000 test, this machine had significant bio-film formation in
the pipes, resulting in poorer organism numbers in the tea because of anaerobic conditions that develop,
and toxic materials produced by those anaerobic organisms. The Microb-Brewer 1999 tea, without any biofilm
formation in the pipes, was clearly outstanding. For this reason, the pipes that used to occur on the
bottom of the Microb-Brewer were replaced with clear plastic tubing, so users can see when a bio-film is
forming. The solution is easy: Use a long-handled brush to clean the bio-film out of the pipes at the end of
the run. Cleaning ANY tea-making machine, not just the Microbrewers, is a VERY important step in
equipment maintenance.
Table 7. Microb-Brewer Tea Results, 1999 versus 2000. Similar quality compost, starting materials
(1% molasses, 1% kelp), 20 hour brew time in both years.
Active
Bacteria
(μg/ml)
Total
Bacteria
(μg/ml)
Active
Fungi
(μg/ml)
Total
Fungi
(μg/ml)
Protozoa
(#/ml)
F A C
Nematodes
(#/ml)
1999 138 1235 32.5 1524 2,546 3,398 45 11 B 3 F 1P
2000 96 536 12.5 21 2,250 1,679 145 43 B 2 F 3P
Desired
Range
10 - 150
150 - 300
2 – 10
2- 20
1,000 1,000 50
2 – 10 B, F, P
Nematodes = B stands for bacterial-feeder numbers, F for fungal-feeders, R for root-feeders, and P for
predatory nematodes (beneficials). Protozoa = F stands for flagellate numbers, A for amoebae numbers, C
for ciliate numbers
Comparison of Different Commercial Brewers
The Sustainable Studies Institute Tea Grant, 2002
In the tea grant sponsored by the Sustainable Studies Institute, growers made tea using the machines they
bought, with nutrient starters sold by the companies or prepared by the grower, using their own choice of
composts. Composts chosen for use were widely variable, temperature, water source, and cleaning
conditions were widely variable, and yet the teas produced were quite similar. Of course, assessing total
and active bacteria and total and active fungi does not take into account species diversity per se, so the level
of resolution assessed means only one kind of variation was assessed. But good tea machines resulted in
good organism numbers, regardless of conditions, while poor tea machines rarely produced decent
organism numbers.
This is opposite claims by some tea machine makers that because compost, water, food resources and so
46
forth are so different from tea brew to tea brew that the teas are so variable that consistent data cannot be
obtained. Clearly, tea contains reasonably the same bacterial and fungal biomass and same levels of
activity if decent compost and recipes are used. Only tea machine makers trying to hide the fact that their
machine cannot make consistent brews would use arguments that testing is not possible.
In the following study, teas were made according to the manufacturer’s directions. In some instances, the
teas were made at SFI by SFI technicians (maintained at 72 F, using de-gassed Corvallis city water), but in
most cases, the teas were made by growers, using the instructions received from the tea machine
manufacturer, and sent overnight mail to SFI Corvallis, or New York. Growers were requested to make
their composts from 50% thermal compost and 50% vermicompost. The compost was mixed well before
use, the amounts needed for each machine measured, placed in the unit, with the same amount of molasses
and soluble kelp per volume of water added to each machine. Each machine was run for the specified time.
One to three sub-samples of tea were removed from the machine, typically via whatever method was
available to move tea from the tea-making machine into the spray tank of a sprayer. If there was no
discharge pump, this is noted. Samples were sent to the lab by overnight mail in plastic water containers
filled a third to a half full. Each sample was assessed for total and active bacteria, total and active fungi,
protozoa, and nematodes at SFI.
Results. The most notable finding is that despite widely different sources of compost, and different
machine designs, the resulting teas were reasonably uniform with respect to achieving minimal levels of
bacterial and fungal activity and biomass. Some manufacturers have suggested that there is so much
variation from tea to tea that testing is meaningless, but generally what that means is the tea maker is trying
to disguise an inferior machine. If the machine does not achieve the same minimum levels of organisms
from tea brew to tea brew when using similar compost, ingredients, and climate conditions, then there is
quite likely something wrong with the machine.
Growers need to recognize that brew-to-brew differences based on different composts, different food
additives, and different weather conditions are possible, but if the compost has decent organism levels,
similar food resources are added, and temperatures are reasonably warm, the tea will always have organism
numbers above the minimum levels on the desired range of the SFI test.
Some machines routinely have much higher fungal or bacterial biomass than others and there are machines
that ALWAYS give higher then the minimal range on the SFI test. This is excellent, and quite likely a true
difference in the ability of the machine to extract organisms from the compost.
In several instances we have documented that the reasons some machines cannot extract organisms from
the compost are:
1. Compost compacts in the basket, making water movement impossible through the compost. Without
water movement through the compost, organisms cannot be extracted from the compost and organisms
will be lacking in the tea.
2. When water cannot move through the compost, it is quite likely that the compost will become
anaerobic during the brew cycle. Visit trade shows where the machines are running. Put your hand in
the compost in a machine to see if water is actively moving through the compost. But be careful –
some manufacturers have been known to use compost with a higher-than-normal amount of chunky
material to make it seems like the machine has good water flow, when in fact, using non-woody
compost, the material compacts. Check in-use machines to determine flow-through in the compost.
3. Bio-film build-up occurs. Usually build-up within one brew cycle is not a problem, except where
water flow does not occur. Cleaning then becomes an important factor. Some machines are difficult
to clean, and when considering different machines, consider cleaning ease.
The number of samples in each assessment below are given in the table. Some growers sent in one tea,
some sent in three, a few sent in more teas. Results are listed by machine type and volume. In some cases,
new machines have come on the market, but the only testing has been with the manufacturer. The tea grant
will be repeated in 2003, and the results should be available next year.
47
Note the differentiation into compost tea and bacterial tea. If only bacteria grow well in the tea, and fungi,
protozoa and nematodes do not appear in at least minimal amounts in the tea, then the tea cannot be called a
compost tea.
Table 8. Tea Quality Assessed by the SSI Tea Grant Study. Growers sent in compost teas from
different machines, using their own or manufacturer supplied compost, the manufacturer’s nutrient starting
mix, or molasses and kelp, in conditions in the field through the summer of 2002. Data from SFI research
is included as well. While some range of response is present, in general the data by machine are not widely
different. In general, when variability is greater than the mean, the compost tea machine has trouble
making consistent tea.
Active Bacteria
(μg/ml)
Total Bacteria
(μg/ml)
Active Fungi
(μg/ml)
Total Fungi
(μg/ml)
Desired Ranges
for suppressive
teas*
10 - 150
150 - 300
2 – 10
2 -20
Compost Tea
Brewers^
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
Earth Tea Brewer
500 gal (8 teas)
500 gal (2001–1tea)
100 gal (6 teas)
527
35
168
468
ND
118
13224
6700
4518
3841
ND
1054
57.6
23
2.24
38.5
ND
1.36
109
30
8.46
57.0
ND
3.33
Simplici-Tea KIS
5 gal (10 teas)
141
93
3730
2755
6.88
2.63
11.8
3.12
EarthWorks
85 gal (9 teas)
326
219
10210
5084
1.70
1.52
2.62
3.45
Clarke
60 gal (12 teas)
100 gal (3 teas)
70.3
52.4
66.6
22.9
2519
1306
2231
363
1.88
3.55
1.13
1.49
3.62
7.63
2.26
0.83
Alaska Giant
1 gal (3 teas)
5 gal (2 teas)
35.8
52.4
22.8
53.3
5254
2528
4022
1312
1.03
0.34
0.57
0.46
5.79
2.47
4.43
1.07
Compara
50 gal (200 L) (3
teas)
89.1
19.7
2115
715
2.79
1.37
5.72
1.73
Bacterial Tea
Brewers^
SoilSoup
30 gal (6 teas)
aNylon Bag (3 teas)
40.2
101
23.1
13.3
1769
1500
947
210
0.03
1.23
0.03
1.26
0.25
3.01
0.19
1.88
Growing Solutions
25 gal (4 teas)
100 gal (12 teas)
500 gal (12 teas)
b Schraven (1 tea)
346
184
60.6
70.4
545
268
34.7
4156
2644
4106
209
4246
1861
5579
0.53
0.88
1.02
1.57
0.85
1.08
1.01
0.89
2.30
5.36
2.21
1.41
2.80
7.75
*Based on work comparing teas that are not suppressive with teas that are suppressive
^Based on results that show that bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes in the compost are
successfully and routinely extracted into the tea. On rare instances bacterial tea can put enough bacteria on
leaf surfaces to use up food and prevent disease growth.
aNylon Bag - set of brews done at SFI using a nylon bag instead of the fabric bag sold by SoilSoup.
bThe Schraven method of running the GSI System involves different foods, changing the aerator in
the basket and altering the basket arrangement when used in the larger machines. Clearly, things can be
done to improve this bacterial tea machine so it COULD make decent compost tea.
A great deal of assessment goes into determining whether a tea machine in fact can extract decent levels of
bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes from the compost and grow the organisms in the tea during the 24
48
49
hour aerobic brewing process. For example, Bruce Elliott who makes the Earth Tea Brewer machines has
worked with SFI since he started building tea makers in 1999. He has invested a great deal of effort in
determining the best recipe of foods to grow fungi in his tea maker. In addition, EPM has just developed a
22 gal tea machine, and so far, is getting as good organism numbers in the tea as their other tea brewers.
In the cases where we have data, it is interesting to compare the tea data with the compost from which the
tea was made. If nematode, protozoa or fungal biomass were low in the compost, that often explains low
biomass or numbers in the tea. Remember, however, that bacteria may increase by 100 to 500 times the
original number during a brewing cycle, while fungi may only increase by 5 to 10 times. Protozoa and
nematodes DO NOT increase in numbers in a tea cycle. Their life cycles are longer than the duration of a
compost tea brew cycle.
If the organisms are present in the compost, but not present, or low, in the tea, then the reason for the lack
of those organisms needs to be determined:
1. Were the organisms extracted? If neither active nor total fungi or active or total bacteria are present,
there’s a good indication that extraction is the problem. Is the mesh on the basket, bag or compost
container a problem? Neither active nor total fungi can be a result.
2. Were they killed by too much pressure going through a pump? No organisms at all present.
3. Did something in the tea kill them? Minimal amounts of total bacteria and total fungi (extraction
occurred), but no active biomass.
4. Did they lack food? Did they lack a surface to grow on? No active fungi, minimal biomass of total
fungi.
5. Did the tea drop into limited oxygen or anaerobic conditions? Low active and low total fungi, but
what is seen is covered with bacteria that do not stain with the activity stain.
Fig 13. Ciliates look like kidney beans and swim rapidly through the soil solution looking for bacteria, the
smaller dots. Organic matter (out of focus) in the lower left. Ciliates need to eat at least 10,000 bacteria
per day to stay alive. On a daily basis then, that is nearly a μg of N released in a plant available form, per
ciliate.
Application Methods
Compost tea, with the right set of organisms present, can be applied with water in any of the many ways
water is applied. For example, through pivots, irrigation systems of any kind, back-pack sprayers, boom
sprayers, hoses, drip, helicopters or airplanes. An important point is that the tea cannot contain particles
which will clog the water delivery system, and therefore must be properly screened to pass through the
spray nozzles, sprinkler heads, drip irrigation lines, emitters, etc. A good mist is desirable, but the drop
sizes should not be so small that UV light harms the organisms. Most pivot sprayers make drop sizes large
enough that tea can be applied at any time of the day (study done in the summer of 2002). Fine mists result
in drop sizes so small that the organisms should not be applied mid-day, because UV will not be blocked.
Sprayers are ideal for applications of tea onto leaf surfaces. Sprayers range from tractor mounted models
for large acreage to simple backpack versions. When applying compost tea to leaf surfaces, the key is
getting at least 70% of the leaf covered with the tea organisms - on both sides of the leaves.
Tea can be applied to foliage as a foliar spray - typically at 5 gallons to the acre (50 L /Ha) per 1 to 6 feet of
plant canopy, once per growing season, every two weeks, or when needed to occupy leaf surfaces and
compete with disease organisms. Coverage of leaf surface is the critical measure. It should be clear that if
organisms are delivered to leaf surfaces at too high a velocity, the organisms will smash into the leaf or
stem surface and disintegrate. This means they will not be present to protect the leaf surfaces or occupy
infection sites instead of the disease-organisms.
Tea can be applied to soil as a drench, typically at a pint to a quart per plant of undiluted tea. Additional
water can be used, but the point is to apply enough organisms to inoculate the soil around the root with a
good set of organisms. Tea can also be applied to drench the soil surface, typically 15 gallons to the acre
(150 L/Ha) in whatever amount of water is desired.
Other methods of root zone feeding vary from simple hose-end sprayers to elaborate drenching systems that
dose each plant with a pre-measured amount of solution to injection systems. It should be clear that with
injection systems, the pressure applied cannot smash the organisms into the soil particles, or all that results
is cytoplasm soup as the organism’s impact on soil particles and disintegrate. No more than 60 to 100 psi
should be used to spray out organisms; they should not hit surfaces at more than 20 to 80 psi.
Do not apply tea when it is raining hard, but a light mist often helps the organisms establish a foothold on
the leaf. Tea should be applied during weather when plants are active. This means starting at two weeks
before bud break, through to senescence of all plants in late fall in temperate zones, and in tropical areas,
when the plants need protection.
Tea should be applied so the liquid will remain on the leaf, stem and flowers of the plant, and not drip off.
The larger the drop size, the more likely the tea will run off the plant. Low volume sprayers with moderate
pressure are the best suited for tea application.
How Long Can Tea Be Held? This is an area currently being researched. When the first commercial
brewer (Microb-Brewer) was released, testing indicated that tea needed to be made and then used. With
further testing, however, we showed that if the tea is well-aerated, with maximum levels of oxygen in the
tea, and the organisms have used up most of the easy-to-use food resources, then the tea will remain
aerobic for 6 to 8 hours. After 8 hours, aerobic activity falls rapidly, most likely resulting from the lack of
oxygen in the liquid.
If, however, the liquid is kept aerated, then holding time can be increased, up to three to five days, although
numbers of active and total organisms falls off at an ever-increasing rate. At the end of three days, a tenfold
reduction in numbers, and a 90% reduction in activity occurred (work performed for ARDEO, Inc.
1995). This is acceptable for a soil application, but not for a foliar application. Active organisms are
necessary for foliar protection.
50
If bacterial and fungal foods are added to the tea at 48 to 72 hours, depending on the number of active
organisms, how much food was present in the tea recipe to begin, and the number of organisms extracted,
then the activity of the organisms can be extended. By the end of five days total, however, a serious
reduction in diversity of the organisms occurs, so these teas would be less likely to benefit plants than
younger, more diverse teas. More testing remains to be performed however on this point.
Addition of foods to tea can help maintain shelf life of a tea, but aeration must be continued. Any large tank
with aeration can be used to hold the tea, but adding food resources will likely out-strip the ability of
aeration to maintain aerobic conditions. The best thing is to keep the tea in the maker, and continue the
aeration if it becomes necessary to add food to maintain activity of the organisms in the tank.
Plate count assessments cannot be used to determine this kind of information since plate counts allow
spores and dormant individuals, as well as active organisms to grow. In fact, in a recent test, leaves that
contained very few active organisms and leaves that contained a high number of active organisms gave the
same plate count numbers. This is because very few of the organisms that live on leaves grow in any plate
count medium. During the incubation of the plates, dormant individuals, including spores, came to life on
plate media, and a similar number of spores appeared to be present on each set of leaves.
Put-to-sleep tea. Certain materials can be added to tea to push the organisms into dormancy. DNA
fingerprinting showed that nearly 50% of the species of bacteria or fungi being examined were lost when
3% phosphoric acid was added to initiate dormancy in the active organisms. The organisms in a tea MUST
be dormant if the tea is placed in a sealed container, or the respiration of the organisms will cause the bottle
to expand and perhaps explode. Thus, teas which are “put-to-sleep” are better for soil applications, because
the organisms have time to wake up before they have to start to function, whereas on leaves, the organisms
must be immediately active to protect the leaf surface.
Foliar Applications. Typically, applications for preventative control of foliar diseases are 5 gallons of tea
per acre (50 L/Ha) every two weeks, starting at two weeks before bud break and continuing until all danger
of loss of crop yield due to disease is past. If disease is observed, make a tea and spray immediately onto
the affected areas, drenching the area. Typically this results in protection of the leaf surfaces by the tea
organisms and the disease is consumed or out-competed. In a few cases, when the infestation was severe,
repeated application was required to bring back the condition of health.
For preventative applications, the 5 gallons (50 L) can be diluted in however much water is desired, as long
as 5 gallons per acre (50 L/Ha) is applied. Tea must be applied to both top and bottom of leaves, blossoms,
steams, etc, or sprayed directly into the top layer of soil. Recent work by John Buckerfield in Australia
indicates that coverage with a mulch layer improves organism survival (most particularly earthworms if
they are applied in worm compost) and increases the benefit of single-applications.
Control of Existing Disease Conditions. To control already existing foliar diseases, generally the
infected foliage has to be drenched with maximum amounts of tea every three days until the disease is
controlled. Tea is not a panacea that will cure everything. The mechanism for protection has to be
understood, and tea correctly applied to deal with the CAUSE of the problem.
For example, in the author’s yard, admittedly not a replicated study, but still of interest, a single application
of undiluted tea was made to the roses on May 15, 1999. No black spot or mildew was observed throughout
the summer, in fact, none until mid-July, 2000, a full year and three months after the single application.
This yard receives no pesticide or inorganic fertilizer applications, which may be a reason that a single
application was effective for more than a year. But mildew was noticed on the roses in July 2000. A single
application of un-diluted tea immediately applied slowed the mildew down, but did not get rid of it. Three
days later, a second application was made by drenching the infected areas with undiluted tea, and still, the
problem was not controlled, although there was no spread of infection. A third application of undiluted tea,
again, three days later controlled the mildew to the point that no visible symptoms were apparent. Already
wilted leaves could not be brought back to life and were removed. This suggests that even once disease
appears, by concentrating applications of organisms on infected, but not yet dead areas, recovery is
possible, but not guaranteed.
51
Soil Applications. To protect against soil diseases reaching the roots, a sample of soil must be taken and
the foodweb assessed. Then, make a tea that is appropriate to return the missing organism(s) to the soil and
apply at 5 gallons to the acre (50 L/Ha). After 2-4 weeks, take another soil sample for analysis to make
certain the organisms survived application to the soil (total biomass gives this information), and they had
food to stay alive (activity gives this information). If the organisms are not present, a chemical residue is
indicated, and needs to be remediated. Apply a tea with organisms that will degrade common pesticide
residues, with the foods those organisms require to decompose resides. If the right organisms are present,
but not active, then only the specific foods are needed, such as sugars for bacteria, or humic acids for fungi.
Compost Tea Appropriate to the Plant
The requirements of plants for the organisms that most benefit their growth need to be recognized. There
are different organisms for different plants, and the plant feeds the organisms needed. The organisms
needed by different plants can be supplied by applying compost and compost tea.
Compost and compost teas need to be defined relative to the specific plant and soil to which they are
applied. Soil rich in organic matter with a healthy foodweb will be adequate for plant growth. A tea less
rich in food resources can be used in this instance. Soil lacking organic matter will need a good set of
beneficial microorganisms and food to feed those organisms in order to get good plant growth.
Compost or compost tea will supply the organisms that do the work the plant needs. The plant will feed
those organisms. The organisms will supply the micro- and macro-nutrients that the plant requires, in a
form that is easy for the plant to take up. Compost tea can also contain nutrients that plants can take-up
through the foliage.
Compost and compost tea will increase the diversity of bacteria and fungi, protozoa and beneficial
nematodes, even in soils high in organic matter. Just because a soil has lots of organic matter does not mean
the full complement of organisms beneficial to the plant are present. Chemicals that kill the beneficial
bacteria and fungi on the plant’s leaves, stems and blossoms need a compost tea containing those
microorganisms in order to replenish the plant’s defenses. Similarly, a low organic matter soil will require a
compost or compost tea with high numbers of beneficial microorganisms, as well as sugars, soluble kelp,
carbohydrate material, humic acids and algal exudates to increase the food resources for the
microorganisms.
Compost tea should contain nutrients to feed the bacteria and fungi, as well as micronutrients that the plant
can absorb. Growers of plants, no matter how large or small the area involved, should ask:
“What does the plant require in terms of nutrients, bacteria and fungi to protect the plant from
disease-causing microorganisms? Does the plant require nutrients to be retained in the soil around the
plant? What is needed to make those nutrients available back to the plant? Which organisms decompose
any toxic or leftover residues that may be present in the soil? How can I build soil structure so air diffuses
into the root zone and prevents fungal root rot diseases? How do I improve water-holding in the root soil?
How can I get the roots of my plants growing down 5, to 10, to 15 feet deep into the soil?”
The answer to the above questions always lies with the soil organisms. Always consider, however, that you
need to know something about your soil. For example, if the soil is high in humic acids and other
recalcitrant materials (those resistant to decomposition or decay, such as woody materials, bark, straw, old
manure, oak leaves or conifer needles), then the soil is likely to be fungal-dominated, regardless of
sand/silt/clay ratios. In this case, the recipe chosen should enhance bacterial biomass in order to balance
the fungal-to-bacterial biomass ratio. Conversely, if the organic matter in the planting medium is not slow
to decay (e.g., green residues, green leaves, fresh manure), then the tea recipe should be one that selects
more for fungal biomass, again, to balance the fungal-to-bacterial biomass ratio.
52
The balance of fungi to bacteria must be viewed with respect to the needs of the plant. For example, trees
require a fungal-dominated soil, while row crops and grass need an equal balance of fungi to bacteria.
Based on the limited testing that has been done, we have determined that teas applied to foliage should
always be bacterial in nature.
The Right Compost.
It is critical to start with compost or vermicompost that will produce the desired microbial balance. If the
tea needs to be more fungal, compost high in fungal biomass should be chosen. Generally, compost high in
volume of woody material (resistant to rapid decay) will probably be fungal-dominated.
A typical fungal compost recipe contains 25% manure, 30% green material and 45% woody material.
Fungal composts typically need less turning because the chunkiness of the woody material allows better air
diffusion. Thus, piles without the high N and with more woody material typically do not reach
temperatures above 150° F (65° C). Turning is needed only to homogenize the pile and spread the growing
organisms evenly throughout the materials.
If bacterial tea is indicated, use compost made with 25% manure, 45% green material and 30% woody
material. Each composter needs to work the best combination out for themselves, with their own starting
materials). The quantity and source of manure is important. The higher the level of N in the manure, the
faster the pile heats. If too much N is present, the pile may heat above 180° F (85° C), and may combust.
Turning becomes critical for cooling the pile and bacteria are selected as fungi are killed during the turning
process.
Again, the size of the particles in a compost pile is important. If green or woody material is finely chopped,
then the N in that material is more readily available to the microbes, the bacteria will bloom, increasing
temperature and rapidly using up the oxygen. To prevent anaerobic conditions, compost with finely
chopped material will require air to be pumped in or turned at least once per day.
The Right Foods.
If you aren’t sure what your plants need, make a tea that contains both bacteria and fungi, as well as
protozoa, and let the plant do the selecting. Simple sugars to encourage bacteria growth; while soluble kelp
(surface area) and humic acids (foods) enhance the growth of fungi.
ADD NOTHING THAT CONTAINS A PRESERVATIVE!! What are preservatives? Anything we use to
prevent microbial growth, such as antibiotics, chlorine, fumigants, sterilants, alcohol, benzoate, benzene,
phenols, terpines, iodine, etc. When in doubt, ASK!
The selection for the preferred microbial community, given a compost of say equal bacterial to fungal
biomass, can be made by adding components to the tea solution before the tea brewing process begins.
Additives that help bacteria most are simple sugars, syrups such as molasses, cane syrup, sugar beet syrup,
spoiled carrot juice, apple juice from applesauce production, and yeasts (vitamin addition).
Materials that help fungi more than bacteria are things like fruit pulp (the cellulose in the pulp generally
helps fungi more than bacteria but bacteria will grow on the sugar portion of the pulp), soluble kelp (protein
and micronutrients), humic acids, or other high cellulose containing pulp material. Plant extracts, such as
comfrey, nettle or dandelion “soups” can also be added to enhance the micronutrient content of a tea.
Anecdotal information from growers suggests that comfrey is high in Ca, N and K, and thus alleviates
nutrient stress if plants are lacking these nutrients. Comfrey has been chopped and added to the compost
before it is composted, or after composting is finished (dangerous if there is any disease on the comfrey that
could spread through the compost), to the compost basket during the tea brewing operation, or as a brewed
soup (stuff a bucket full of comfrey leaves, add water, churn the leaves in the bucket for a day or so, then
add the liquid to the water at the start of the brew process). In each instance, significant benefit to plant
production was observed, most likely explained by improved Ca uptake by the plant. However, these were
not replicated studies, and to fully accept this type of work, controlled scientific studies are required.
53
Use cold-water grown kelp, not warm-water grown kelp. Cold-water kelp absorbs and retains more
nutrients during growth than warm-water kelps, resulting in greater micronutrient benefits.
Some spices have properties that inhibit specific microbes. While a great deal more testing is required to
document efficacy, materials like garlic oil, onion oil, orange oil, citric oils, cinnamon, and oregano have
been reported to reduce E. coli counts in teas. Testing needs to be performed. \
Many interesting ingredients have been used in teas, but their benefit has rarely been documented. The
special elixir that works wonders for one grower may have little or no benefit, or sometimes be detrimental,
to other plants. The explanation lies in the biology and the chemistry of the plant, the soil, and the tea. The
biology may have been right for your friend’s squash, but isn’t right for your indoor citrus tree. When in
doubt, test the tea on part of the plant, or in a small area of your field.
Table 9. EXAMPLES of Food Resources for Different Organism Groups.
Product Name/Company Group Fed Application Rate per 50
gal (200 L) of tea
BACTERIAL
Simple sugars Bacteria at low concentrations,
fungi at high concentration
(syrup)
600 ml (1 pint) to 4 L (1 gal)
Kelp Bacterial foods,
Fungal surfaces
0.1 to 1%
Fish Hydrolysate
/ Neptune’s Harvest, Organic
Gem
Fungi, important to have bones,
scales and cartilage liquefied
using enzymes, not heat or acid
0.01 % to 1%;
add carefully, can drive teas
anaerobic!
Fruit Pulp Fungi and Bacteria 0.1 to 1%; test in your system to
determine effect
Humic acids
/ Terra Vita, Eco-Nutrients,
Hydrahume
Fungi (as humics broken down,
then bacterial food is released)
1 to 15 oz, depending on product
FUNGI
Humic acids (see above) Fungi (some bacteria) 600 ml (1 pint) to 1 gal (4 L)
Protein Meals /
Soybean meal, Oatmeal, Barley
meal, Feathermeal, etc
Fungi Test in your system
Rock dust, powder Mineral nutrients for all
organisms, surfaces for fungi
Test in your system; look at the
mineral needs of the plants
Spices / Garlic, orange oil, citrus,
cinnamon, lemon, onion,
oregano, soy
Inhibitors of specific microbial
groups
Test in your system
Vitazyme / Vital Earth Resources Fungi 1 to 5 oz
Yeast (brewers, bakers, wine,
champagne)
Complex mix of proteins,
minerals, vitamins for both
bacteria and fungi, and plants
Test in your system
Yucca / Desert King, Helena
Chemical Co.
Fungi (some bacteria) 100 to 600 ml (beware of
foaming!)
*1 US gallon = 3.8 L, or round up to 4 L
54
Recipes
Most compost tea machine makers have food kits that match the aeration abilities of their machines. Use
their food kits until you can assess the effect of adding or subtracting food resources using, for example, a
light microscope. A reasonable investment is learning to use a microscope to recognize the sets of
organisms.
For those who wish to test the impacts of different foods on organism growth, the following recipes are
based on 50-gallon (200 L) compost tea making machines.
Ingredient amounts should be maintained at the same ratio per volume of water as in the following recipes,
even if compost volume is not linear. The same amount of food per unit liquid is still required, regardless of
the inoculum amount (which is not linear; see below). With high amounts of sugar, make certain that
adequate aeration is provided or the tea can become anaerobic within just a few hours.
There are two parameters to consider in Table 10.
1. Category of plant that is closest to the one you want to grow,
2. Soil type that is closest to the three listed in the table.
For example, tomatoes are in the grass/row crop category, while strawberries, grapevines, kiwi,
rhododendron, and snowbrush fall in the berry/vine/shrub category. Deciduous trees include poplar,
almond, peach, citrus, coffee, apple, avocado and olive. Conifers include pines and most evergreens. It
should be noted that some cedars actually fall in the deciduous category. Epiphytic plants and palms most
likely fall in that category as well.
Table 10. The Kind of Tea Needed for Different Plants and Soil Types.
Soil
Type
Plant types
Broccoli,
cabbage, cole
(strongly
bacterial)
Row Crops,
Grasses
(slightly
bacterial)
Berries
(Equal
bacteria and
fungi)
Deciduous
Trees, Vines
(2 – 10 times
more fungal)
Conifers
(100+ more
fungal than
bacterial)
Sand Need both
bacteria and
fungi to build
good soil
structure
Need mostly
fungal activity,
some bacteria
to build soil
structure
Need to help
fungi to the
maximum,
since fungi are
most likely
lacking
Help fungi to
the maximum
extent; fungi
most likely to
be seriously
lacking
Mycorrhizal
fungi usually
needed, fungi
need maximum
help, bacteria
usually are fine
Loam Need to
improve
bacteria
significantly;
some fungi
needed
Need both
bacteria and
fungi to build
good soil
structure
Need to really
push fungi,
since fungi are
most likely
lacking
Compaction is
tough to
overcome,
fungi need to
be helped
extensively
Check
mycorrhizal
fungi; improve
fungi to
maximum
amount
Clay Need mostly
bacteria to form
microaggregates
and get nutrient
cycling going
Need both
bacteria and
fungi; check
Ca:Mg ratio
Need to
improve both
bacteria and
fungi; check
Ca:Mg ratio
Check Ca:Mg,
look for
hydrides, fungi
need maximum
help
Maximize
fungi, check
mycorrhizae
Most plants can be colonized by mycorrhizal fungi, except for strongly bacterial-dominated plants such as
broccoli, most kales, cabbage, cauliflower (i.e., many brassicas). Most other plants either do better in low
nutrient conditions or are obligately mycorrhizal. Thus, mycorrhizal colonization of roots should be
checked by taking root samples from several plants and sending them into a soil biology lab (such as Soil
55
Foodweb Inc., www.soilfoodweb.com, or Efren Cazares lab, [email protected], to determine the
percent of the root system colonized by mycorrhizal fungi. Deciduous trees require VAM inoculum, while
conifers need ectomycorrhizal inoculum, or a combination of VAM and ectomycorrhizal fungi. Blueberry
needs ericoid mycorrhizal fungi, but no inoculum of these mycorrhizal fungi is available commercially. In
this case, or for other plants with limited species requirements, take soil from the surface near an existing
healthy plant growing in a native system and use this as an inoculum.
Water versus Compost Volumes and Extraction Efficiency. Extraction efficiency does not relate to the
volume of water used for extraction but rather to the efficiency with which the water pulls the organisms
from the compost. Lower pressure is acceptable if, at the same time, the particles of compost move against
each other and organisms are pulled from the compost. Thus, the compost has to be free to move in the
container. A very small amount of compost might be acceptable, if the extraction conditions are optimal
with respect to water flow THROUGH the compost, and movement of the compost in the container.
Initially use the compost amount recommended by the person you buy the tea machine from, and then test
your own machine to determine what amount of compost gives you the best extraction. Use the Qualitative
assessment methods until you have your recipe determined.
For Example:
Run a tea brew with 1 pound of compost in the machine, and look at what is in the tea at 8 hours, 24 hours
and 48 hours, using the qualitative assay. Then make a tea with 5 pounds, and observe the biology in the
tea. Then 10 pounds, 20 pounds, 30 pounds, etc. When the number of organisms in the compost does not
increase from one amount to the next higher amount of compost, the optimal amount of compost has been
found.
Brewing Time. The brewing time must be long enough and/or have enough mixing to extract the desired
soluble nutrients (food resources used by the microorganisms and micronutrients). If brewed too long, the
microorganisms may go to sleep and not be active.
When to Add Materials. Soluble materials should be added to the water at the beginning of the brew
cycle, unless otherwise noted in the recipe. If mechanical parts can clog, non-soluble materials should be
placed in the compost container. Mycorrhizal spore suspensions should be added to the tea at the end of the
brewing cycle, not at the beginning, because the spores will begin to germinate in the tea after several
hours. Mycorrhizal spores are sensitive to pressure just after they germinate and the pressure involved with
mixing will kill them.
Commercial versus Indigenous Organisms. Indigenous microorganisms are clearly the best choice for
any particular system; therefore develop beneficial microorganisms adapted to your conditions. One way to
get the indigenous beneficial microorganisms into the tea is to add a pound of soil from highly productive
soil or composts to the compost container. Be sure the soil has not had recent inorganic fertilizer or
pesticide applications. If a tea turns out well, save a small amount of the tea, or the soil to which the tea was
added, as an inoculum for the next batch of tea. This will keep improving the beneficial microorganisms.
Fine-Tuning Your Recipes. Follow directions on labels of various products for most food resources. Test
products to determine whether they are helping to grow organisms, or are harmful to them.
Make a tea with minimal additives, such as just kelp and a little molasses. Place the same amount of tea in
each of two, or three or more clean containers. To the “control” container, add only water, equal to what
you add with the product you are testing. To the next container, add the smallest amount of the product
possible that should have an effect. To the next container, add double that amount, Then add triple to a
fourth container of tea. Let the organisms have a few hours to grow before testing. Let them brew for 24
hours, and check the biology again. Which amount of product had the highest biomass of bacteria and
fungi? Protozoa? Nematodes? If the control had the greatest, then the product is detrimental. If the
container with double or triple amounts had highest organism’s biomass, then that tells you which amount
to test in the real tea brews.
56
The following recipes are all based on 50 gallons of water, degassed if required to remove chlorine, and
checked for extraction of the compost (brown color released into brew before adding molasses or kelps).
The Basic, Starting-point, Bacterial Tea (based on 50 gal tea maker)
15 pounds (7 kg) bacterial compost
16 ounces (500 mL) black strap molasses (Dry molasses does not substitute)
8 ounces (250 g) soluble cold-water kelp (additional proteins)
1 to 6 ounces (30 to 200 mL) liquid, filtered plant extract material (for example, yucca extracts,
nettle soup, dandelion wine, comfrey tea), proteins, fruit juices, fruit pulp, fish emulsion
Add nothing with a preservative or antibiotic in it!
Concoctions that become anaerobic can be added to recipes like this one that call for plant extracts, because
the anaerobic decomposition products will be consumed and converted into aerobic, plant-beneficial
compounds during the brewing process. Of course, the brewing process must remain highly aerobic, so use
a machine or method that provides a high rate of aeration and thorough mixing.
Dry molasses lacks a significant component of more complex sugars, so if using dry products, add a greater
amount of dry molasses. There are fewer types of sugar in dry molasses, so use a second type of sugar such
as corn syrup, maple syrup, or starch.
This yields a moderately bacterial tea. Addition of kelp adds micronutrients and some bacterial as well as
fungal food.
Equal Ratio Fungi to Bacteria Tea (based on 50 gal tea)
15 pounds (7 kg) 1:1 fungal to bacterial biomass ratio compost
16 ounces (500 mL) humic acids
8 ounces (250 g) soluble kelp
Fish hydrolysate, soybean meal, feathermeal, oatmeal, or other high complex protein materials
(see label on packages), fruit pulp
Add nothing with a preservative or antibiotic in it!
Humic acids select for beneficial fungi, but any fungal food could be substituted here. Make certain to
obtain a mixture containing many humic acids, rather than a limited set (i.e., 3 to 5 humic acids). Rock
dusts, rock powders, or rock flours can be beneficial as well, although these grainy materials can harm
mechanical pumps. Fish hydrolysate should be tested for their ability to serve as fungal food resources
before using extensively. Fish emulsions do not have the oils that help fungi grow, so an emulsion is more
beneficial as a bacterial food than a fungal food.
Fungal Tea
20 pounds (9 kg) fungal compost
1 pint humic acids (600 mL)
4 oz (100 mL) yucca high saponin content).
8 ounces (250 g) soluble kelp,
8 oz (250 g) Fish hydrolysate, additional proteins
Add nothing with a preservative or antibiotic in it!
Make sure the compost is mature and has not been disturbed or turned for a week or more.
Mycorrhizal Inoculum
The concentration of spores needed has not been well established for different plant species. A range of 50
to 100 spores per gram soil is probably adequate to establish colonization. Since mycorrhizal spores
germinate and begin to grow within a few hours of addition to most teas, add the spores to the spray tank,
holding tank, injection system, etc. For row crops, vegetables, grass, most berries, shrubs, and deciduous
trees, vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (VAM) are the mycorrhizal fungi of choice, while conifers
and some late-successional deciduous trees require ectomycorrhizal fungi.
57
Grower Experiences
In the past examples of experiences that growers have had with compost tea have been put in the manual.
Instead, we would like to have people check the SFI e-zine, or call us to learn more about local tea
production and tea centers.
Check the Soil Foodweb Inc web site. www.soilfoodweb.com updates and links to compost tea production.
Scientific Papers or Abstracts
Experiences in Natural Golf-Course Practices at Bandon Dunes Resort
Presented at Golf Consultants International, 2000 in Frankfurt, Dec. 5
Speaker: Troy Russell, Superintendent at Bandon Dunes Resort, Bandon, OR, 97411, USA
ABSTRACT:
The unique location of the BDR in the dunes, right at the Pacific Ocean, and in an environmentally
protected area, required a natural approach on the golf course practices. The challenge was to research what
natural practices are available and carefully apply, check results and gain reproducible results and
experiences. The basis of our NGCP (Natural Golf Course Practices) is founded on the properties of the
most natural system. To return the system to the most natural system, materials were applied that would
bring the natural system back into place most rapidly, for example, the use of compost, which contains
humic acids, a wide spectrum of beneficial microorganisms and last but not least, organic matter. The other
components of this system are minerals, which can be added as organic or inorganic forms. The challenge
was to copy nature on an industrial scale and in a fashion, suitable for easy golf course or management.
After gaining a 2-year experience, I feel confident and am happy to share those experiences with you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two student posters, the first where they actually determined the biology – all of it, not just bacteria – in
the tea and showed the tea they made was in good to very good range. As result, the tea suppressed
disease.
Gangaiah, C., Carey, E. and Tisserat, N.A. Kansas State University
Suppression of Septoria Leaf Spot Disease of Tomato Using Aerated Compost Tea
ASHS 2004 annual meeting.
Poster Board #292
Abstract: Compost teas, made using an aerated brewing process, have been reported to have potential for
controlling a range of plant diseases and improving crop health. Septoria leaf spot of tomato, caused by the
fungus Septoria lycopersici, is a common and destructive disease of tomato in Kansas. A field trial was
conducted at Wichita, Kansas during Summer 2003 to evaluate the potential of pre-plant compost, and
compost tea applied as a foliar spray or through drip fertigation, to control Septoria leaf spot of tomato. The
experimental design included three factors: Pre-plant application of 13N–13P–13K or vermicompost;
fertigation with CaNO3 or compost tea; and foliar spray with compost tea, fungicide (Dithane) or water. A
split plot design was used with fertigation treatments as main plots and the other two factors as sub-plots.
There were 3 replications. Tomato cultivar Merced was used and individual plots consisted of 5 plants
grown on beds covered with red plastic mulch and supported by stake and weave system. Aerated compost
tea was brewed weekly using a vermicompost-based recipe including alfalfa pellets, molasses, humic acid,
fish emulsion and yucca extract and applied to plots starting 2 weeks after transplanting. Disease
incidence and severity were recorded weekly for 3 weeks following the appearance of disease. Plots were
harvested twice weekly and counts of No. 1, No 2 and cull grade tomatoes were recorded. There were no
effects of pre-plant or fertigation treatments on Septoria leaf spot disease, but there was a significant effect
due to foliar sprays, with mean severity of compost-tea-sprayed plots (26.3%) and fungicide-sprayed plots
58
(31.9%) significantly lower than water-sprayed plots (45.9%) at trial termination.
No assessment of the biology in this one – did they actually make good tea?
Joslin, k. Taber, h. Helland, s. and Gleason, M. Iowa State University
Control of the Foliar Disease, Septoria lycopersici, in Organic Tomato Production
Poster Board #290
Abstract: Disease management in organic tomato production poses one of the greatest challenges for
organic producers in humid climates. Both organic and conventional tomato growers have relied on copper
(Cu) fungicides to control many diseases, including Septoria lycopersici common in tomato production.
Concerns have been raised regarding the use of Cu fungicides, because of their potential to cause plant
damage and toxicity to beneficial organisms. The objectives of this research were to: 1) investigate the
efficacy of compost tea made from either windrow composted cattle manure (WCCM) or vermicomposted
cattle manure (VCM), and 2) compare the efficacy of organic fungicides with conventional fungicides to
control S. lycopersici in organic tomatoes. Treatments included 1) a control, 2) a conventional treatment in
which fungicide applications of Bravo plus Cu and Quadris plus Cu were alternated, 3) copper fungicide
(Champion), 4) Serenade TM Fungicide (Bacillus subtilis), 5) WCCM compost tea, and 6) VCM compost
tea. Disease pressure was mostly from the bacteria speck/spot complex. Disease severity was significantly
(P < 0.05) reduced and marketable yield was 60% higher with the two Cu treatments (No. 2 and 3),
compared to other treatments. A follow-up greenhouse experiment is in progress and will be presented with
the field data.
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The following shows that having mixes of organisms can result in disease organism suppression.
Utkhede, R. and Koch, C. 2004. Biological treatments to control bacterial canker of greenhouse tomatoes.
BIOCONTROL. 49: 305-315.
Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of treatments on Clavibacter michiganensis subsp.
michiganensis in vitro and on young seedlings inoculated with the pathogen under greenhouse conditions.
Lysozyme was bactericidal at 10 g/l concentration in vitro. Tomato plants treated with lysozyme at 10 g/l
and 100 g/l showed significantly higher plant height compared with the inoculated control plants, and
plants in these treatments were as tall as those observed in untreated uninoculated control plants.
Treatments with B. subtilis (Quadra 136) and Trichoderma harzianum (RootShield(R)), lysozyme,
vermicompostea, Rhodosporidium diobovatum (S33), B. subtilis (Quadra 137) applied as a spray at 0.3 g/l,
0.6 g/l, 10 g/l, concentrated, 1 x 10(9) CFU/ml, and 0.5 g/l, respectively, have the ability to prevent the
incidence of bacterial canker of tomato plants caused by C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis under
greenhouse conditions.
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This is an interesting paper. It is the basis for the NOP being paranoid about molasses. They rather miss
the point that fungi, protozoa and nematodes, i.e., the whole food web, just might have something to do
with suppression. There are other things in this world than just bacteria!
Scheuerell, S. and Mahaffee, W. 2004. Compost Tea as a Container Medium Drench for Suppressing
Seedling Damping Off Caused by Pythium ultimum. Phytopathology 94:1156-1163.
Compost tea is being used increasingly in agricultural production to control plant diseases. However there
has been limited investigation relating disease control efficacy to various compost tea production methods,
particularly compost tea produced using active aeration and additives to increase microbial population
densities in compost tea. Aerated compost tea (ACT) and nonaerated compost tea (NACT) produced with
or without additives was investigated for the suppression of damping off of cucumber by Pythium ultimum.
Compost tea was used to drench soil less container medium inoculated with Pythium ultimum;. Effect on
damping off ranged from not suppressive to consistently suppressive depending on the method used to
produce the tea. The most consistent formulation for damping off suppression was ACT produced with
kelp and humic acid additives. Producing ACT with a molasses-based additive inconsistently suppressed
damping off; evidence suggests that residual nutrients can interfere with disease suppression. Heating or
diluting compost tea negated suppression. Across all compost tea samples, there was no significant
59
relationship of bacterial populations measured as active cells, total cells or CFU with disease suppression.
However for all ACT produced without the molasses-based additive, there was a threshold of bacterialbased
population density (6 log base 10 cells per ml, 7.48 log base 10 total cells per ml, or 7 log base 10
CFU) above which compost teas were suppressive.
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This is one of the two “papers” used by the USDA to support their statement that compost tea should be
viewed as being raw manure. No one in their right mind would produce compost tea in a sealed container
such as used in this “research”. What was the point of these people’s work? Trying to discredit the
growing industry of compost tea? Why would any this “journal” accept such an inaccurate paper?
Duffy, B. Sarreal, C., Ravva, S. and Stanker, L. 2004. Effect of molasses on regrowth of E-coli O157 : H7
and Salmonella in compost teas. COMPOST SCIENCE & UTILIZATION. 12:93-96.
Compost water extracts (compost teas) are gaining popularity among organic growers, largely because of
their disease suppressive activity when applied to foliage or soil. Production methods often include addition
of supplemental constituents, particularly molasses, to stimulate plant-beneficial microbial populations. We
have found that molasses amendments also favor regrowth of human pathogenic bacteria, raising public
health concerns about potential contamination of treated crops, particularly produce intended for fresh
consumption. Using disease outbreak strains marked with green fluorescent protein (GFP) and spontaneous
antibiotic-resistance, we found that regrowth of Salmonella enterica serovar Thompson and Escherichia
coli O157:H7 was positively correlated with molasses concentration. For Salmonella, regrowth was also
dependent on the type of starter compost material used. Salmonella populations increased from 1 at time 0
to over 1000 CFU ml(-1) in dairy manure compos!
t tea with 1% molasses, and from 1 at time 0 to over 350,000 CFU ml-1 in chicken manure compost tea by
72 h. E. coli populations increased from I at time 0 to approximately 1000 CFU ml(-1) in both types of tea
by 72 h. Pathogen regrowth did not occur when molasses was eliminated or kept to 0.2%.
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Note in the following paper, they do not in any way determine what is in the “compost extracts” that they
prepared. Rather like throwing a handful of dark stuff in water, and hoping it will cure your headache.
What proof did they have that the “composts” they used were even composts at all?
Al-Dahmani, J.H., Abbasi, P.A., Miller, S.A. and Hoitink, H.A.J. 2003. Suppression of bacterial spot of
tomato with foliar sprays of compost extracts under greenhouse and field conditions. PLANT DISEASE.
87:913-919.
The efficacy of foliar sprays with compost water extracts (compost extracts) in reducing the severity of
bacterial spot of tomato caused by Xanthomonas vesicatoria was investigated. Extracts prepared from
composted cow manure, composted pine bark, an organic farm compost, or composted yard waste, applied
as foliar sprays on tomato transplants, resulted in a moderate but statistically significant reduction in the
severity of bacterial spot. The population of X. vesicatoria in infected leaves was reduced significantly by
extracts prepared from composted cow manure. Efficacy of the water extracts was not affected by oxygen
concentrations in the suspension during extraction, compost maturity, or sterilization by filtration or
autoclaving. The degree of control provided by foliar sprays with the most effective compost extracts did
not differ from that obtained with the plant activator acibenzolar-S-methyl. In the field in two growing
seasons, foliar sprays with compost water extracts did not reduce the severity of foliar diseases, including
bacterial spot. During the 1997 season, when the severity of bacterial spot in the field was high, foliar
sprays with compost water extracts significantly reduced the incidence of bacterial spot on tomato fruit.
Amending plot soil with several rates of composted yard waste did not lead to additional control of fruit
disease over those only sprayed with extracts. Foliar sprays with a mixture of chlorothalonil and copper
hydroxide or with acibenzolar-S-methyl reduced the severity of bacterial spot as well as incidence of spot
on fruit.
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Ingham, E. 1998. Anaerobic bacteria and compost tea. BioCycle 39: 86
60
The writer discusses anaerobic bacteria and its impact on plant growth. Composters are concerned that the
presence of bacteria that can grow without oxygen or in a low oxygen environment poses a problem in
compost or compost tea. In the writer's opinion, the presence of bacteria is not a problem, as long as they
are not growing. The elimination of anaerobic conditions and the products of anaerobic metabolism are
also discussed.
Ingham, E. 1999. Part I. What is compost tea? Part I. BioCycle 40: 74-75.
The writer discusses compost tea. Compost tea is a liquid extract of compost that contains all of the soluble
nutrients, both organic and inorganic, and a large portion of the organisms, such as bacteria, fungi,
protozoa, and nematodes, that are present in the compost. The benefits provided by the tea depend on what
can be extracted from the compost; it is very important that the tea contains organisms. A major advantage
of compost tea is that it can be applied through the irrigation system or through a spray rig.
Ingham, E. 1999. Part II. Making a high quality compost tea. BioCycle: 40: 94 .
The writer discusses the major factors that influence the quality of compost tea, which can be inconsistent
from batch to batch. These include the mesh size of the bag or filter, steep time, and water recirculation
and aeration. Factors contributing to a wide diversity of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes desirable
in compost tea are also addressed.
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Brinton, W.F. ; Tränkner, A.; and Droffner, M. 1996. Investigations into liquid compost extracts.
BioCycle 37:68-70
In a review of the use of liquid extracts of compost for the control of pathogenic fungi in plants, variables
in producing and applying such compost teas are considered. Compost teas coat plant surfaces with live
bacteria, suppressing both the germination and the growth of plant pathogenic organisms. The maturity of
the compost and the nature of its source constituents are major factors in the effectiveness of compost tea
treatments.
Bess, V.H. 2000. Understanding compost tea. BioCycle 41: 71-72
The potential benefits of compost tea, a range of different preparations made using compost as a starting
material and producing a liquid extract or a liquid version of the original compost, are discussed. The
performance of these solutions depends on their preparation, compost quality, microbiology, storage, and
application methods.
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Scheuerell, S. 2003. Understanding How Compost Tea Can Control Disease. BioCycle 44: 20-5
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Grobe, Karin. 2003. Golf Courses Find Value in Compost Tea Programs. BioCycle 44:22-23. San
Francisco's Integrated Pest Management program is using compost tea as an effective tool for suppression
of turf diseases as well as overall reduction of synthetic fertilizers. The tea is brewed in two 100-gallon and
one 25-gallon brewers from Growing Solutions, is diluted with an equal volume of dechlorinated water,
and applied at a rate of 2 gallons per 1,000 square feet every 2 weeks. The effects of a compost tea trial on
golf course greens in San Francisco over a one-year period yielded positive results.
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Wickland, L. ; Murray, T. ; and Jimerson, J. 2001. Brewing up solutions to pest problems. BioCycle 42:64-
66.
The writers discuss the combined efforts of Washington State University Cooperative Extension and a
Whatcom County grower to evaluate compost tea in the suppression of plant diseases. In April 2000,
Alison Kutz-Troutman of Cascade Cuts gave the university an opportunity to test the efficacy of compost
teas as a valuable integrated pest management strategy. In 2 of the 3 trials, control plants had a greater
incidence of disease than plants treated with aerobic tea or anaerobic tea. However, statistical differences
did not emerge until 6 to 8 weeks after germination, so the practical benefits of using compost tea to
suppress root diseases may be marginal.
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Blair, M. and Koch, J.2001. Sustainable practices thrive in a national park. BioCycle 42: 51-52
The benefits of a composting project at the Presidio, which is part of the Golden Gate National Park in San
Francisco, California, are discussed. The Presidio Trust took on the composting project for economic
reasons and is now reaping the benefits. The eventual goal is to recycle 100 percent of the organic waste
produced in the park, thereby saving the Presidio Trust $100,000 per year. Using help from various
61
organizations, small trials were started. Recipes and uses for the quality compost were found. The next
stage was to expand the production of quality compost from 100 to 2,000 cubic yards per year. Studies are
being conducted to see if the compost increases the survival rate of transplanted native plants grown on site
to restore the habitat. A compost tea has also been made and is being used on the Presidio's golf course as
top dressing. Schoolchildren from San Francisco come every week to help with and learn about
composting.
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Touart, A.P. 2000. Time for (compost) tea in the Northwest. BioCycle 41: 74-77
The potential of compost tea to provide nutrients and combat infection in plants and crops is discussed.
Two Northwest companies are working toward the large-scale production and supply of compost tea--
Growing Solutions Inc. of Eugene, Oregon, and Soilsoup Inc. of Seattle, Washington. The effectiveness of
compost tea as demonstrated by experimentation is considered.
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Naylor, L. 2001. Using compost tea on golf courses. BioCycle 42 24-25.
Potential health hazards that may be associated with the use of compost tea on golf courses are addressed in
a question and answer format. Compost tea contains microorganisms that have been active in the
composting process but can include human and animal pathogens, especially if made from improperly
composted materials. However, it is unlikely that incidental contact with areas treated with compost tea
would result in illness.
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Salter, C. 2001. Teas versus leachate. BioCycle 42: 24
The differences between compost tea and compost leachate are addressed in a question and answer format.
Compost tea is derived from finished compost and implies a more deliberate extraction process, whereas
compost leachate formation is passive and secondary to the composting process.
62
Experimental Results
SARE grant (2001).
This is work being done with the Sustainable Studies Institute, Eugene, OR. In this experiment, we are
working with three different vineyard cooperators in the Willamette Valley. One is in McMinnville, OR,
the second in Wren, OR, and the third in Monroe, OR. The experimental design was application of a good
compost tea to five rows of the vineyards every two weeks, application to a different set of five rows every
week, compared with the control which is the rest of the vineyard using the grower’s normal practices.
During the summer, anaerobic teas were made and applied once. We intended to find strongly fungal
materials and apply a strongly fungal tea, but the problems with extraction and compost quality have
proven too difficult, and this application will be a part of the next year’s study.
Three 12 gallon Micro-Brewers were donated to the Sustainable Studies Institute for use in this study.
Initially the teas made were barely acceptable in terms of bacterial biomass, and were almost completely
lacking in fungal component. The compost being used was changed, because initially, worm compost was
mixed with some strongly fungal mushroom compost, but the mushroom compost was shown to contain
many inhibitory compounds which killed the other organisms in the tea. The next compost used was a
combination of strongly fungal worm compost and strongly fungal thermal compost, but as it became
difficult to afford the thermal compost, strictly fungal worm compost was used. These are the joys of
having budgets.
Application starting times in the spring varied in each vineyard, because of growers’ practices. This wasn’t
the experimental design, but there are times when practicality overcomes any other consideration. Because
we were limited in the amount of tea being made per batch, each vineyard diluted the tea to the correct
amount to cover the rows within their vineyard. At the Monroe vineyard, this meant the tea was diluted 1:5,
at Wren tea was diluted 1:1 and at the McMinnville vineyard, no dilution was used, but two rows were not
sprayed, and thus became the untreated control.
In mid-June, a mildew alert was released by the OSU Extension Service, indicating that mildew was in
epidemic proportions and all growers should be aware that it was perfect conditions for mildew outbreaks
to occur. None of the vineyards, at either application rate, reported mildew.
The last week of July, the tractor at the Monroe vineyard broke down, and no tea was applied for three
weeks. During the week of August 5, 2001, mildew was found in the block that had been last sprayed the
week of July 20, and had only received tea sprays every two weeks. Small levels of mildew were found in
the weekly block, which had not been sprayed since the week of July 20. Clearly, maintaining protection
was critical. The block with high levels of mildew was sprayed with fungicide, which ended the mildew
infestation, and the block went back to normal tea applications. No further mildew spread was observed. In
the weekly block, since the tractor had been fixed, tea application ended the mildew outbreak.
In the Wren vineyard, in the block sprayed every other week, mildew was found on some grapes during the
week of August 5. Therefore, tea application was increased to once a week, and increased to no dilution in
both blocks. Once the danger of infection was over, the tea applications returned to weekly and bi-weekly.
No mildew was observed in the McMinnville vineyard, except in the untreated control areas. Once mildew
was observed, tea sprays were initiated and no further mildew was observed.
The results from the trials were that grapes in the tea-treated areas were ready for harvest weeks before
conventional grapes were ready to be picked. This reduction in ripening time is significant with respect to
being able to initiate wine-making operations in the late summer.
The anaerobic tea tested the weeks of August 12 and 19 did not result in any improvement in organism
coverage on leaf surfaces.
63
These results clearly show the importance of dose-rates, and that the level of bacteria and fungi on the leaf
surfaces is critical.
SARE grant (2002)
Powdery mildew was a serious disease problem at vineyards in the Willamette Valley of Oregon in 2002,
as it was in 2001. In the vineyards used for this study, powdery mildew outbreaks were largely controlled,
or their severity reduced, in areas sprayed weekly with compost tea. Organism biomass in the teas, and
therefore leaf surface coverage by microorganisms, particularly fungi, was not sufficient to prevent
infection. Weekly compost tea applications reduced the number of applications to one to as many as three
applications of chemical fungicide needed to control powdery mildew over the summer growing season.
Changes in soil microorganisms between 2001 and 2002 were also documented. In general, bacterial
activity was higher in 2002. Fungal biomass declined in some areas sprayed with compost tea. Organism
biomass in soils from conventionally-treated areas followed similar patterns, however, so most likely these
changes are in fact seasonally related and not the result of compost tea application. Thus, it is clear that
SOIL organism biomass changes were due to other environmental factors or management practices, and not
to the application of compost tea. Foliar sprays did not significantly improve soil biology in this two year
study.
Miscommunications and inconsistencies between protocols and application rates in the different vineyards
have made it clear that all sites must be under the control and the responsibility of one grant-paid person,
not the manager of each vineyard. Next year, a project manager will be responsible for all treatment
applications and sample collection.
Compost tea and disease suppression
Compost teas applied to Wren, Broadly Vineyards and Reeds and Reynolds vineyard contained similar
levels of total bacterial biomass, active bacterial biomass, total fungal biomass, and active fungal biomass.
Few of the teas contained the 10 micrograms of fungal biomass found to be sufficient for disease
suppression in 2001.
When teas were applied to leaves, percent coverage of the leaf surface by bacteria increased significantly
relative to pre-spray samples and unsprayed controls. Percent coverage by fungi did not increase relative to
pre-spray samples or unsprayed controls, and very rarely reached the 2 – 5% level found to give effective
disease control in 2001.
Leaf samples from R & R were not replicated due to miscommunications. In a sample taken on 11 July,
60% of the leaf surface was covered with organisms, mostly bacteria. A sample taken on 11 Sept. showed
only 3% leaf surface coverage, probably due to the presence of a dessicant sprayed on 10 Sept. to control
the powdery mildew fungus.
As in 2001, disease pressure was higher from powdery mildew (PM) than from botrytis. In 2002, the
disease was first found at Wren on 25 July, in both the weekly and biweekly spray plots. The first
application of fungicide was made on July 27. The fungicide was applied three more times in August. Due
to the late frost this spring at the Wren vineyard, and reduced investment by the vineyard manager, the
usual cultural practice of thinning vines had not been performed in the rows being sprayed with compost
tea as of 31 July. On 5 September, the vineyard manager noted that most of the fruit on the vines sprayed
biweekly had been lost to PM, but these rows were not scheduled to be harvested, because of the late frost.
At Broadly vineyard, PM was found on 19 July in the plot sprayed biweekly. On 23 July, the disease was
found in both weekly and biweekly spray plots. Fungicide applications began on 23 July. On 8 August,
PM was present in both treatment areas, but was more prevalent in the biweekly spray plots.
At the R & R vineyard, PM was first noted on 20 May in the CONVENTIONALLY-treated area. This area
of the vineyard received seven applications of fungicide. On 16 July, PM was found in both plots sprayed
with compost tea. This area received only one application of fungicide, on 23 July, followed by two
applications of compost tea at twice the normal rate. These measures halted the progress of the PM
64
outbreak in the tea-sprayed plots.
Changes in soil microorganisms
Soil samples taken from the Wren and Broadly vineyards in April 2001 were compared to those taken in
April and May 2002 (Table 1). Total bacterial biomass did not change significantly, whereas active
bacterial biomass increased in both tea-sprayed plots and the control plots. Total fungal biomass decreased
in the both the plots sprayed weekly with compost tea and in the control plots. Numbers of protozoa
(flagellates, amoebae and ciliates) showed mixed trends, none of which were significant. The number of
nematodes in the plots receiving biweekly tea sprays and in the control decreased significantly from 2001
to 2002, most of the decrease being in the plant-parasitic category.
Table 11. Soil microorganism biomass and numbers from Wren and Broadly vineyards (Means,
with standard errors* in parentheses).
Dry Weight Active Total Active Total Total
of 1 gram Bacterial Bacterial Fungal Fungal Hyphal Protozoa Nematode
Fresh Biomass Biomass Biomass Biomass Diameter Numbers /g Numbers
Material (μg/g) (μg/g) (μg/g) (μg/g) (μm) Flagellates Amoebae Ciliates (#/g)
2001
Biweekly 0.76 14.4 192 14.8 136 2.58 6481 1494 71 6.17
Tea spray (0.02) (1.80) (4.55) (5.03) (13.9) (0.08) (2161) (627) (29) (1.73)
Weekly 0.77 9.05 196 19.2 174 2.67 2627 2308 89 2.30
Tea spray (0.02) (1.71) (5.73) (5.55) (17.2) (0.11) (826) (756) (62) (0.65)
Conven- 0.76 16.9 155 64.7 713 3.92** 13888 10164 134 7.12
Tional (0.01) (1.90) (18.0) (30.4) (421) (0.91) (9246) (7070) (93) (3.60)
2002
Biweekly 0.82 56.1 180 12.1 75.0 2.50 33895 10087 20 0.53
Tea spray (0.04) (32.2) (29.6) (3.56) (53.2) (0.00) (33165) (6071) (13) (0.11)
Weekly 0.81 62.8 173 11.9 56.3 2.50 27560 640 18 1.49
Tea spray (0.03) (32.3) (41.5) (2.62) (35.8) (0.00) (26825) (95) (18) (1.34)
Conven- 0.82 41.5 166 14.2 47.3 2.50 3025 16704 45 1.64
Tional (0.02) (20.4) (19.3) (2.30) (31.4) (0.00) (258) (16125) (10) (1.31)
* In 2001, n = 6; in 2002, n = 2. ** One sample with an average fungal diameter of 8 micrometers
was included.
Soil samples from the R & R vineyard were unreplicated. Between October 2001 and June 2002, total
bacterial biomass tended to decrease. Total fungal biomass was lower in all plots in 2002, whereas active
fungal biomass was higher in plots receiving weekly tea sprays.
In 2002, compost teas were produced using 100-gallon brewers from EPM Inc., of Cottage Grove, OR. Tea
applications continued on the same vineyards as in 2001. The same treatment plots were used in 2002 as in
2001. Compost teas were applied weekly and biweekly to plots at each vineyard, and a third plot received
conventional management practices. Applications began during the last week of April. The Wren vineyard
received its last frost on May 8.
The project coordinator brewed and applied compost teas at these vineyards, located sources of compost,
and worked to solve mechanical difficulties with brewers and sprayers. Between mid-May and mid-June,
65
the EPM tea maker at Sunbow Farm was leaking and could not be used, so a tea maker manufactured by
Compara International, Holland, was located and used. For two weeks in August, no teas were brewed due
to difficulty obtaining compost that was suitable for the project. It was immediately after this two week
period that mildew outbreaks occurred in the vineyard.
Application rates of compost tea varied occasionally from the standard of 25 gal/acre. At the R & R
vineyard, two teas were sprayed at 50 gal/acre in a successful attempt to halt the progress of a mildew
outbreak. At Broadly, three teas were applied at 38 gal/ acre to both tea plots because the sprayer setting
had been changed while the unit was being serviced.
During 2002, miscommunications occurred regarding sampling and consistency in applying
compost tea treatments between vineyards. Communication was not maintained as well as
expected. We have learned that the growers who are involved in the project must be willing to
follow the experimental protocol, even if the crops in the treated areas are jeopardized.
Irregularities due to mechanical problems and weather will always occur, but changes in
management practices and treatments need to be controlled. In further studies, one single project
manager should be solely responsible for making compost and applying teas, and collecting
samples.
Microb-Brewer Experiment #1.
Using a prototype of the Microb-Brewer, the Soil Microbial Biomass Service at Oregon State University
used compost provided by Ron Stewart of Columbia Gorge Organic Fruit Company. The classic study on
the effects of improved soil diversity on plant production was performed by Ingham et al., 1985, but the
entire literature is reviewed in Killham, 1994, Coleman and Crossley, 1995, Sylvia et al., 1998.
Microorganism biomass was assessed using direct methods. Both fungal and bacterial biomass were
determined using fluorescent stains and UV epi-fluorescent microscopy or Differential Interference
Microscopy (DIC). Diversity was assessed by morphological characteristics during direct microscopic
examination and colony morphology on spread plates. Protozoan numbers and species diversity were
determined from MPN plates; each well examined directly using DIC to allow identification to genus.
Nematodes were identified following concentration of the tea using a 5 um mesh size screen sieve, and
identification to genus by direct examination using DIC.
In the brewer, the quantity of beneficial organisms was improved and pathogens were not found. The
maximum bacterial, fungal, protozoan and nematode numbers occurred between 18 and 24 hours in the
brewing cycle.
66
Grape Foliar Experiments. There are beneficial bacteria and fungi on leaf surfaces that protect plants
from disease as well as produce and retain nutrients (Andrews, J.H. et al., 1991). The following data
demonstrates that this protective biofilm inoculated onto a detached leaf surface by compost tea suppresses
disease.
Table 12. Relation between leaf coverage and prevention of Botrytis on wine grapes.
% of grape leaf covered by tea
bacteria
% of grape leaf challenged by
Botrytis cinerea
Visual observation of grey mould
growth on leaf surface
0% (No tea, water only) 70% Visible growth of mold occupying
1/3 of leaf surface
10% tea 70% One spot of mold, 1/2 inch in
diameter
20% tea 70% One spot of mold, 1/2 inch in
diameter
30% tea 70% Barely noticeable growth of mold,
less than 1/4 inch in diameter
60% tea 70% Barely noticeable growth of mold,
less than 1/4 inch in diameter
90% tea 70% Barely noticeable mycelial strands on
surface, no visible colony growth
90% tea 0% No Botrytis; No visible signs of
disease on leaf
Territorial Seed Experiment, Summer 2000 – During the summer of 2000, tomato seedlings
were grown in the greenhouse and planted in three fields in different areas of the upper Willamette Valley
near Cottage Grove, OR. Four different treatments were applied to plots in these three fields:
(1) Conventional practices,
(2) A single foliar/soil drench immediately after planting,
(3) Tomato planting tray soil soaked with tea before planting, and
Foliar/soil drench at planting, foliar tea applied every 10 days to 2 weeks.
Tea was made using the standard Bacterial Tea recipe and using buffalo compost with a strong fungal
component. Results from this work will be published in a scientific journal. However, several conclusions
can be drawn from these results:
Using Good Compost is critical – Compost stored in a barrel and watered several days before use
was tested, it was found to have become anaerobic based on active bacteria, total bacteria and
protozoan analysis. The compost was tested two different times, and tea was made from that
compost using an early-design Microb-Brewer. The tea produced contained very few organisms of
any kind, because the compost contained few organisms of any kind. Leaf surfaces were tested for
coverage by the beneficial organisms, and leaf surfaces were found to be not adequately covered –
only 22 to 30% coverage. This is not adequate to exclude or inhibit disease-causing organisms from
the leaf surfaces.
This demonstrates the importance of knowing that the compost contains the organisms needed, that
the tea contains the organisms needed, as well as the leaves. When designing a testing scheme, it is
probably most useful to test leaf organism coverage (Leaf Organism Assay). Results are returned from the
lab within 24 hours, so you know whether you achieved adequate coverage or not. If coverage was not
adequate, and if disease-organism spores or cells are dispersing, an immediate re-spray of better compost
tea is indicated. You may also want to investigate where along the tea making process tea quality is being
reduced. Is the compost good compost? Does it contain the organisms needed for the application you are
using it for? This is bacteria and fungi for foliar sprays; bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes for soil
applications.
Seasonal Variation in Organism Activity on Leaves – Through the summer, leaf coverage was
monitored in the Territorial Seed Company tomato trials. Following spraying of each tea, as
67
documented by analysis of the compost, the organisms in the tea (good biomass of bacteria, fungi,
protozoa and nematodes present in the tea produced by the Microb-Brewer) and the leaf surfaces
(Leaf Organism Assay), leaf surfaces were monitored immediately, 24 hours and 48 hours after
spraying. Results indicated that through the summer, survival of the organisms on the leaf surfaces
varied with weather conditions. In cool, rainy weather, the organisms did not remain active on the
leaf surfaces for more than 25 hours. During warm, dry weather, the organisms on the tomato leaves
remained very active and increased in number.
More studies of organism survival on leaf surfaces need to be performed to indicate how often tea sprays
need to be performed in different weather conditions. In warm, dry weather, sprays may only need to be
done once every two to three weeks. In cool, rainy weather, stickers may need to be added to the tank to
improve retention on leaves. It may be a good idea to assess combinations of dormant oils and teas, to see if
combinations of this kind would improve growth on leaves during wet, cool periods. Addition of yucca (a
product called Saponyn from Helena Chemical Company which does not contain preservatives) to tea in
other trials appeared to improve organism survival on the leaf surface, as well as increase their ability to
remain on the leaf surface through rainy conditions.
Potato Trials at Oregon State University
Potato field plots were established a number of years ago at the Oregon State University Lewis Brown
Farm just outside Corvallis, OR. These plots were maintained by Dr. A. Mosely, Department of Agronomy,
Oregon State University. A number of treatments were within the experimental design, but to three plots
within the randomized design, compost tea was the only application made to the potato plants during the
summer besides routine and standard irrigation water. Compost tea, made with a Microb-Brewer, and using
the standard Bacterial Tea recipe, was applied every 10 to 14 days to three plots. Controls using standard
conventional practices were maintained. Wilt inoculum (Dr. M. Powelson, Oregon State University) was
applied to all plots during the late summer. The results of these trials will be published in scientific
journals. However, several conclusions can be drawn from the trials.
Tea from Different Composts versus % Disease Suppression - The kind of compost used to make
tea made a difference in level of disease-organism incidence on both leaves and tubers. The best
reduction in foliar disease occurred when still-warm (100° F), moisture-maintained (54% moisture)
compost was used. This compost contained highly active bacterial populations, which transferred to
the tea and grew rapidly during the 20-hour tea brewing cycle. Fungal biomass, protozoa and
nematode numbers were low in this tea, however. This tea was not effective at controlling tuber
infection, based on no significant difference from the control tubers with 60% of tuber surfaces
covered with disease-organism as assessed by visual surface inspection and confirmed by plating on
PDA. However, the tea made from older, fully mature compost that was at ambient temperature, but
also with good moisture levels (45%), was effective at controlling tuber disease-organisms levels
(reduced to less than 3% of tubers with disease-organisms infecting their surfaces.) This mature
compost tea had fewer active bacteria than the immature tea, but also contained good numbers of
fungal biomass, protozoa and nematodes. This tea reduced the presence of foliar infection as well,
but not quite as well as the immature compost tea.
It is important to recognize that the set of organisms in the tea can vary, and that this may influence
the application for which the tea is best suited. The tea containing all the organisms would be more
generally useful, but the tea with high bacterial activity was the most useful at reducing the presence of
foliar disease-organisms on the leaf surfaces. Thus, for a foliar application, immature compost might be the
best choice, while for a soil application, mature, more fungal dominated compost with higher numbers of
protozoa and nematodes would be the better choice.
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Glossary
Abiotic—Not biotic; not related to life or specific life conditions. Usually meaning physical or chemical
factors, such as temperature, humidity, inorganic chemicals.
Aerobactor—A specific genus of bacteria, most of which are strictly aerobic bacteria.
Aerobe—Any organism requiring atmospheric concentrations of molecular oxygen as the final acceptor in
metabolism.
Anaerobe – Any organism requiring reduced oxygen concentrations, or elevated carbon dioxide
concentrations in order to be able to perform metabolic processes. Strict anaerobes typically are killed
by even the slightest oxygen concentrations, while facultative anaerobes can function in both aerobic
and anaerobic conditions, but use very different metabolic pathways depending on oxygen
concentration.
Bacillus—A specific genus of bacteria, typically Gram-positive, rod-shaped, aerobic, spore-forming
bacteria, often occurring in chainlike formations. Used generically, any rod-shaped, chain-forming
bacterium.
Bacteria—Unicellular microorganisms, occurring in many forms, existing either as free-living organisms
or as parasites, with a broad range of biochemical, often pathogenic properties
Beneficial Organisms—Non-pathogenic life; often improving the growth of a desired organism in a moreor-
less mutualistic association where both organisms benefit from the presence of the other.
Butyric Acid—A volatile organic acid produced through the incomplete anaerobic oxidation of organic
matter, typically identified as sour milk smell.
Decomposition—The process of conversion of organic material from one form to another, generally with
biomass production by the organism doing the decomposition, production of metabolic waste
products and carbon dioxide.
Disease Suppression—The ability to inhibit, compete with, or consume disease-causing organisms
preventing them from causing disease.
Exudates- Simple sugars, proteins, carbohydrates, hormones released by plants into the environment,
typically for the express purpose of encouraging the growth of bacteria and fungi which form a
biological shield around the plant, preventing disease-causing organisms from detecting the root.
Facultative Anaerobe—Organisms that can perform metabolism using either oxygen or inorganic
molecules as the final electron acceptor in metabolism. These organisms generally switch from
aerobic to anaerobic metabolism at low oxygen concentrations.
Fermentation—A specific group decomposition process that typically involves the production of carbon
dioxide. Both aerobic and anaerobic processes can be included as fermentative process, although
usually this term refers to anaerobic fermentation where alcohol is produced. Wine or beer
fermentation, for example.
Fermentor—A vessel used for fermentation processes, such as making beer, wine. Broadly applied, any
container in which metabolic processes are being performed.
Fulvic Acid—A particular fraction of complex humus material composed of medium molecular weight
long-chain organic compounds, typically 2000 to 6000 dalton length chains. Of the recalcitrant humic
materials, these can be used by bacteria. Turnover times may be 100 to 300 years in soil.
Fungi—Plants of the division Thallophyta, lacking chlorophyll, ranging in form from a single cell to a
body mass of branched filamentous hyphae that often produce specialized fruiting bodies and
including the yeasts, molds, smuts, and mushrooms.
Foodweb—The set of organism relationships, often based on who-eats-who, or which organisms cycle a
particular nutrient within an ecological community.
Humic Acids—A particular fraction of complex humus, composed of extremely recalcitrant, high
molecular weight, very long-chain organic compounds typically 6,000 to 600,000 daltons in lengths
and highly structured in a three-dimensional manner. Very resistant to decomposition, and highly
condensed. Turnover time in soil may be 300 to 3000 years.
Humics—The mixture of all recalcitrant, long-turnover time organic compounds in soil, includes both
fulvic and humic fractions.
Metabolites—Organic compounds produced by metabolic processes.
Mycorrhizal Fungi - VAM are a set of mycorrhizal fungi that form arbuscules and vesicles within the
roots of plants, while ectomycorrhizal fungi form a net, called the Hartig net, within the first one-to-
69
two cell layers of feeders roots and send rhizomorphs along the root surface. Host ranges of row
crops for VAM are quite broad; the important factor to understand in choosing species of VAM is
climate. When growing conifers, ectomycorrhizal fungal experts should be consulted.
Nematodes—Any of various worms of the phylum Nematoda having unsegmented threadlike bodies.
There are four major functional groups in soil including bacterial-feeding, fungal-feeding, predatory
(eat other nematodes) and root-feeding.
Nutrient Cycling—A biogeochemical cycle; the process of conversion of organic and inorganic material
from one form to another, generally with the production of biomass by the organism doing the
cycling, production of metabolic waste products which serve as the next step in the nutrient cycle,
and carbon dioxide.
Nutrient Retention—The opposite of leaching, extraction or loss of nutrients. The least mobile nutrients
will nearly always be the organic forms, and the most mobile, or leachable, are the mineral forms.
Retention requires nutrients to be physically immobilized by inclusion in organic matter (in
organisms or organism waste-products such as bacteria, fungi, plants or plant detritus) or by
chemically binding on the surface of clay, sands, silts or organic matter.
Organism—A plant or animal; a system regarded as analogous to a living body.
Phenols—A benzene carbon ring structure with hydroxyl groups at various positions attached to the
carbons in the ring, typically resistant to enzyme attack and therefore considered relatively resistant
to decomposition. Many phenols have antibiotic or toxic capabilities.
Predator ––An organism that consumes other living organisms, as opposed to a decomposer, for example,
which consumes dead plant material, a primary producer that uses sunlight for energy.
Prey–– An organism that is eaten by a predator.
Protozoa—A group of single-celled animals whose major prey group is bacteria. The three major groups
of protozoa that occur in soil are the flagellates, the amoebae, and the ciliates. Amoebae can be
separated into naked amoebae, and testate amoebae. Because bacteria contain much more N per unit
C, N is released as ammonium, a plant available form of N.
Pseudomonas—A genus of bacteria, some species in this genus are plant-pathogens while some are
extremely beneficial to the growth of some plants. Taxonomic revision of this group of species is
underway.
Soil Aggregation—Soil particles (sand, silt, clay parent material) are bound together through the actions of
microorganisms, and the space between these particles formed through the bonding action, and by the
larger faunal organisms in soil. The more aggregated the soil, in both small and larger ped structures,
determines in part how water, roots and nutrients will be held by that soil.
Soluble—Capable of being dissolved in water; in solution.
Strict Anaerobe—Organisms that perform metabolism using oxidized forms of nutrients (carbon dioxide,
nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, sulfite, etc.) as the final electron acceptor in metabolism. Strict anaerobes will
be destroyed when they come in contact with di-oxygen, or ozone, as their membrane structure is
broken down by these compounds.
Valeric Acid—A volatile organic acid produced through the incomplete anaerobic oxidation of organic
matter, typically identified as a vomit smell.
Vortex Nozzle—Used in the Microb-Brewer, the Vortex Nozzle creates a high velocity atomization of tea
and air within the chamber of the nozzle.
70
Recent Literature and Resources
by Steve Diver (reprinted by permission)
Compost Tea Brewing Manual. 2000. By Elaine R. Ingham. Soil Foodweb, Inc., Corvallis, OR. 60
pages.
I highly recommend this manual to anybody who plans to make and use compost teas. Written by
Dr. Elaine Ingham, it provides a practical summary of compost teas underpinned with a scientific
understanding of applied microbiology, including: how to use compost teas; factors affecting
compost tea quality; beneficial organisms; compost tea production methods; application methods;
matching compost teas to plants and soils; bacterial vs, fungal dominated compost teas; compost
tea recipes; microbial food resources for different micro-organism groups; and experimental
results.
Organic Farming Research Foundation
Information Bulletin No. 9, Winter 2001
The Winter 2001 issue contains a special report on OFRF-funded compost tea research, pages 8-
20. This is a 1,896K PDF file, so be patient waiting for it to download. Included among the items
in the compost teas issue is “Benefits of Compost Tea: A Review of the Research Literature.” It
lists 53 citations, but the full report—see below—contains 88 references in total. Other items
include: “Apparatus and Experimental Protocol for Organic Compost Teas”, which describes and
illustrates a homemade on-farm compost tea brewer; and “Effectiveness of Compost Tea Extracts
as Diseases Suppressants in Fresh Market Crops,” which describes looked at the effectiveness on
compost teas to suppress diseases on strawberries, lettuce, leeks, and broccoli in British Columbia.
Effectiveness of Compost Extracts as Disease Suppressants in Fresh Market Crops in British
Columbia
Sylvia Welke, OFRF Grant Report 99–31
The full OFRF report reviewed above; a 10-page PDF download.
Organic Teas from Composts and Manures
Richard Merrill, OFRF Grant Report 97–40
The full OFRF report reviewed above; a 51-page PDF download, with 88 literature
references in the bibliography, “Selected References for Organic Tea Extract Studies.”
Compost Tea for Organic Farming and Gardening. By William Quarles. The IPM Practitioner. Vol.
23, No. 9 (September). p. 1–8.
The September 2001 issue of The IPM Practitioner—the monthly journal from Bio-Integral
Resource Center—featured compost teas. An 8-page reprint is available for $7.50 total through:
Bio-Integral Resource Center (BIRC)
PO Box 7414
Berkeley, CA 94707
510-524-2567 510-524-1758 Fax
[email protected] http://www.birc.org
Investigations into Liquid Compost Extracts (“Teas”) for the Control of Plant Pathogenic Fungi
By William F. Brinton and Andreas Trankner, a
BioCycle conference paper
A 12-page PDF download, featuring the work of Dr. William Brinton of Woods End Research
Laboratory in Maine.
Compost Practices for Control of Grape Powdery Mildew (Uncinula necator )
By Andreas Trankner and William F. Brinton, a Biodynamic journal reprint
An 8-page PDF download, featuring the work of Dr. William Brinton of Woods End Research
Laboratory in Maine.
71
Compost Microbiology
Compost Microbiology and the Soil Food Web
California Integrated Waste Management Board
6-page MS-Word download
Dr. Elaine Ingham: The Soil Foodweb & Compost Teas
The Soil Foodweb
By Elaine Ingham
http://www.soilfoodweb.com/
Soil Foodweb Information
The Soil Foodweb Structure
Foodweb “Funtions” in a Living Soil: The Benefits to Plants and Soils
Soil Organisms: Why are they important?
By Elaine Ingham; article reprint at Compara.nl
The Soil Foodweb: It’s Importance in Ecosystem Health
By Dr. Elaine Ingham; article reprint at Don’t Panic eat Organic
Dr. Ingham’s Monthly E-Zine
Note: The SFI E-Zine is a great place to keep up with Dr. Elaine Ingham’s latest comments and
notes on compost teas.
Anaerobic Bacteria and Compost Tea
By Elaine Ingham, a BioCycle article reprint
Brewing Compost Tea
by Elaine R. Ingham, Kitchen Gardener magazine
A Recipe for Tea: Start with a Good Compost
By Geraldine Warner, The GoodFruit Grower, March 2001
Content: Review of fungal dominated compost practices & compost teas from Elaine Ingham
Web Resource Collections on Soil Biology
Sustainable Soil Management: Web Links to Make Your Worms Happy!
Steve Diver, ATTRA
Content: Web resource list from ATTRA
Soil Biology Information Resources For Land Managers, Resource Professionals, and Educators
Content: Web resource list from NRCS-Soil Quality Institute
Compost and Disease Suppression
Bibliography on Compost for Disease Suppression
Compiled by Chloe Ringer, 1998
USDA Soil Microbial Lab, Beltsville, MD
Disease Suppressive Potting Mixes, ATTRA
Sustainable Management of Soil-borne Plant Disease, ATTRA
Suppressing Plant Diseases with Compost
By David Granatstein; The Compost Connection for Washington Agriculture
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October 1997, No.5 http://csanr.wsu.edu/compost/newsletter/compcon5.html
On-Farm Composting: Plant Disease Control / On-Farm Composting - A Review of the Literature
Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
Composts for Disease Suppression
UConn Integrated Pest Management
Microbial Ecology of Compost-Induced Disease Suppression
Eric Nelson et al; Proceedings of the 5th International PGPR Workshop
Disease Suppressive Compost as an Alternative to Methyl Bromide
Methyl Bromide Alternative Case Study, EPA 430-R-97-030
10 Case Studies, Volume 3, September 1997
Compost Teas: Regional Reports
Compost Tea Trials Final Report
Submitted to Office of Environmental Management, City of Seattle.
By Cascadia Consulting Group, March 8, 2001
A 53-page PDF download
Alternatives for Use & Management of “Compost Tea”
Clean Washington Center
Evaluation and Prioritization of Compost Facility Runoff Management Methods
53-page PDF download. Report addresses the reuse of a pasteurized compost leachate from city zoo for
use as a “tea” to fertilize crops. The liquid plant food, a compost tea product called Zoo Broo, will be
marketed along with the zoo’s other compost product, Zoo Doo.
Evaluation of Compost “Tea” for Reuse Opportunities (1997 & 1998)
Clean Washington Center
Evaluation of Compost Facility Runoff for Beneficial Reuse, Phase 2
39-page PDF download. Phase 2 report on compost leachate reuse.
Compost Teas: Research Reports
Response of Alternaria sp p. Blight and Septoria sp p. Leaf Spot to Biological Disease Control Agents in
Tomatoes
Jeremy Barker Plotkin; OFRF on-farm research report
Compost Cures All
By James Saper, (from
Sustainable Farming Magazine, Summer 1997, Vol. 7 No. 3)
http://www.genesis.ca/whatsnew_5.html
Peach Brown Rot Study at Woodleaf Farm, Oroville, CA
Carl Rosato; OFRF on-farm research report
North Coast Apple Scab Trials 1993/1994, Organic and Conventional Materials Comparison
Paul Vossen and Doug Gubler; reprint from UC Plant Protection Quarterly
University Research
Midwest Biosystems, Tampico, IL
Compost Tea and Blossom Brown Rot
73
Washington State University
http://depts.washington.edu/mulch/research/
Compost Teas: The Worm Digest Quarterly
A Homemade Compost Tea Brewer
By S. Zorba Frankel
http://www.wormdigest.org/articles/index.cgi?read=66
Compost Teas: Brewing a Sweet Blend
By Kelly Slocum
http://www.wormdigest.org/articles/index.cgi?read=65
Compost Teas: Complementary ATTRA Resources
Compost Teas for Plant Disease Control
The 1998 ATTRA publication
Compost Teas: A Tool for Rhizosphere-Phyllosphere Agriculture
[One slide per page — view on screen format; PPT.pdf = 4234K]
Compost Teas: A Tool for Rhizosphere-Phyllosphere Agriculture
[Six slides per page — print for quick reference format; PPT.pdf = 1303K]
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The History of Compost Tea
Compost tea has been with us in some form since the Roman Empire (Cato, De Agriculturia), and most
likely, even earlier than that. The recipe and machinery used to produce tea, initially a big vat aerated by
stirring the liquid occasionally, has changed through the years, however.
Historically, growers made compost tea, manure tea and plant teas – or tinctures – in various ways.
Biodynamic growers have been using the “low tech” approach since Steiner recommended its use. Many
of the BD preps he described are specifically for use in stirred teas. Making manure tea is a common
practice in Biodynamics. Steiner’s descriptions of tea making suggest using additives in low
concentrations, most likely so that the tea does not go anaerobic, but brews often go through an anaerobic
phase if growers are not careful, or brew when temperatures are too warm.
Once anaerobic, the tea needs to be brewed until the liquid returns to the aerobic phase. Thus, making tea
can take weeks. While an aerobic–to–anaerobic-and–back–again tea can have quite useful effects,
production takes too long for most growers, and can be fraught with problems if the products of anaerobic
metabolism are not taken care of before use on plants.
Robert Cantesano of CCOF (California Committee on Organic Farming) began the movement toward more
hi-tech methods of brewing by adding air pumps and dripping the tea through the compost. But brewing
methods remained fairly low-tech – dump some stuff in water and let it sit with only a few stirs - until the
early 1990’s when Karl Rubenberger started a revolution in the tea-making industry.
When Karl Rubenberger brought his hi-tech compost tea brewing machine to Dr. Elaine Ingham at Oregon
State University in 1993, Dr. Ingham wanted to know why making tea in this way would be useful. And
the collaboration between Rubenberger and Ingham began.
Dr. Ingham’s career has been devoted to studying the biology in soil, compost and compost tea. Her
professional career has been focused on learning about the “soil food web” which is the complex web of
bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, microarthropods, earthworms and other soil critters that work together
to feed plants, fight pathogens and pests, and improve soil structure.
This research is yielding some fascinating information. Different plants require different sets of organisms
in the soil. Select for the plant you want by making certain the organisms in the soil support the needs of
that plant. Once you have the right balance for the plant you want, you can maintain its growth and
maximize productivity by building the soil and improving life in that soil. Weeds, brassicas, and early
successional grass species grow best in soils dominated by bacterial biomass (there are fungi in bacterialdominated
soil, just more bacteria than fungi). Old-growth forests are at the other end of the scale,
dominated by fungal biomass. There may actually be more bacteria in a fungal-dominated soil than in
earlier stage of succession, but the fungi have even greater biomass than the bacteria in perennial systems.
Most flowers and vegetables grow best in soils that have balanced bacterial and fungal biomass.
Compost and compost tea can be used to improve the soil and foliar life required to protect plants from the
diseases that abound in pesticide and fertilizer degraded ecosystems. The most productive soils in the
world are those with the most organic matter mixed through the surface soil horizons. This wealth of
organic matter is used by beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods to build soil
structure.
Compost and compost tea need to be produced in oxygen-rich, aerobic environments. This ensures that the
finished product is rich in nutrients and beneficial organisms. When compost (or compost tea) is made in
anaerobic conditions, nutrients are lost to the atmosphere (which is why anaerobic compost stinks). The end
product of anaerobic decomposition may also contain alcohol, phenols, organic acids and proteins that are
toxic to plant tissues.
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Compost tea applied to the foliage of plants increases the biological activity on the leaf surface layer,
which increases the length of time the plant stomates are open. This increases the opportunity for nutrient
uptake, which improves growth and boosts yields. When leaf surfaces are coated with a layer of beneficial
bacteria and fungi, they are protected from disease-causing bacteria and fungi.
In 1996, Karl Rubenberger turned over production of his tea machine to a manufacturer, and commercial
production of highly aerobic, 24-hour compost tea machines began. The original machine tested at OSU
produced a water vortex to pull the organisms out of the compost, and had no pipes on the bottom of the
machine. When bio-film developed, it could be seen easily and cleaned. But when the manufacturer
decided the machine needed to look more professional, the machine was re-plumbed with solid PVC pipe
material to replace the plastic tubing. These pipes could not be easily removed or cleaned.
After this change, teas began to arrive at Soil Foodweb Inc. with reduced fungal biomass, and the reason
for the low activity and biomass could not be determined. The manufacturer blamed Soil Foodweb Inc for
the problem, saying that the lab did not know what they were doing, and that the SFI methods were not
reliable.
But the teas did not perform in the field the way they were expected to perform, so SFI kept trying to
determine the reason for the lack of acceptable sets of organisms in the teas. Eventually, it was determined
that thick, smelly, anaerobic bio-films developed in the pipes that had replaced the plastic tubing. The
anaerobic products harmed the organisms, especially fungi which cannot tolerate anaerobic conditions and
cannot compete with most anaerobic bacterial species.
The solution was simple: replace the solid pipes with plastic tubing, so when biofilm developed, it could be
seen and removed by cleaning. Cleaning was made easier by easy-release connections, and the problem
was solved.
The manufacturer of the Microb-Brewer decided to no longer make the Microb-Brewer, as the reputation of
the Microb-Brewer had been harmed by the problems with the pipes. The new system that was developed
had serious drawbacks, with bio-film formation and anaerobic conditions developing in the machine. The
machine did not result in tea with decent fungal biomass, and again, SFI was blamed. The claim was made
that fungi did not grow in tea, that SFI was just interested in making money because of the insistence that
tea machines be tested, and finally, it was claimed that SFI testing was questionable. The bacteria, fungi,
protozoa and nematodes are the reasons compost tea is beneficial to plant growth. If the tea contains no
organisms, and the main benefit of tea is just the nutrients extracted, then it is easier to buy liquid organic
materials. There is no need to brew for 24 hours to just extract nutrients from compost.
But compost tea is, of course, more than the soluble nutrients. Compost tea includes the whole set of
organisms extracted from good compost, and specifically the beneficial organisms that grow in aerobic
conditions.
Other people started to build good compost tea machines by 1998. Bruce Elliott, of EPM, put together and
tested in a complete and thorough fashion, a 500 gallon machine. Many different food resources were
tested, and a reliable, consistent, excellent fungal tea machine was made. With time, EPM has made 100
and 22 gallon machines, each one tested to make certain it produces tea with excellent levels of organisms.
These machines pull the biology, and the soluble nutrients, from the composts used. The nutrient mixes
developed for these machines enhance the beneficial organisms in the compost. While these machines use
pumps through which the tea passes, a great deal of testing has been done to make certain the pumps are
not harmful to the organisms.
In 1999, the Dutch company, Compara, built a tea brewer based on tube diffuser designs. A simple and
easy-to-clean machine, the Compara Extractor is used through most of Europe for commercial compost tea
production.
Leon Hussey was the next to develop a tea machine that works well, maintaining aeration and excellent
organism growth in the tea. The 5 gallon “Keep-It-Simple” machine makes excellent tea in 12 hours. It is
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nearly impossible to overwhelm this tea machine with too much food resource, and as a result, E. coli will
almost never grow in the tea. Only a combination of high foods and really poor compost will result in the
tea having E. coli above acceptable levels. The Simplici-tea company which makes the KIS brewers, has
added a 30 gallon machine. These machines use air bubblers to produce the tea, blowing air into the tea,
which causes mixing through the compost, with adequate extraction of the organisms and foods from the
compost.
The James Sottilo - Charlie Clarke machines were next on the market. These machines use tubes with
outer liners of plastic with fine holes in it, through which the air is blown. The movement of air through
the water column also mixes the water through the compost. These machines have been tested, and if the
compost used contains the needed life, results in excellent organism production and growth.
The next tea brewer produced was by the Compost Tea Company in New Zealand, which has developed an
industrial strength brewer for that country. Excellent results are typically seen using this large-scale air
bubbler type brewer. Aeration is maintained by a variable speed blower that can be tied to the actual
concentration of oxygen in the tea.
Compost Solutions in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia has also developed a good tea brewer,
based on swirling air through the water, and moving the compost bag continuously through the first few
hours of the brewing cycle. Nutri-Tech, and Tryton, in Lismore, New South Wales, and several other
growers in Australia have built tea makers, which are undergoing testing at this time.
Dennis Hronek designed a compost tea extraction unit, which extracts the organisms from the compost very
efficiently, and then grows the organisms while they are on the way to your field. The extractor units are
amazing in their ability to remove the organisms from the compost without requiring a growth period.
The lessons learned in these first few years of aerobic, highly consistent, 24-hour tea brews is that the
machines have to be tested and proven to stay aerobic in order to produce tea containing aerobic organisms
in high numbers and high diversity, with no toxic anaerobic materials produced.
In order to do this, machines have to be documented, in more than one run (means and standard deviations
have to be given, or multiple runs with data from all runs shown), to remain aerobic, and to have adequate
levels of active bacterial biomass, total bacterial biomass, active fungal biomass, total fungal biomass,
flagellates, amoebae, ciliates and beneficial nematodes.
Without this documentation of consistent beneficial organism growth in the tea, machines calling
themselves compost tea makers should be viewed with extreme skepticism. Anaerobic conditions in the tea
will result in the loss of the beneficial fungi, followed then by loss of flagellates and amoebae. High ciliate
numbers are indicative of the use of a poor compost. With loss of aerobic organisms resulting from
anaerobic conditions, human pathogens cannot be prevented from growing in the tea.
If an anaerobic tea is held for longer than 24 hours, and oxygen allowed to diffuse back into the water over
the course of several days to weeks, then the detrimental conditions can be alleviated. But it can take
weeks to out-compete the human pathogens and decompose toxins produced during the anaerobic period.
Can “brought-back” tea be beneficial? Yes, if the bacteria now growing in the tea are quite beneficial
species. The likelihood that the beneficial fungi will still be present, and be growing, is just about nil,
however. Control of many foliar fungal pathogens will be difficult, because the beneficial fungi that
protect the plants from those pathogens will have been lost.
Bacterial tea cannot be expected to give the benefits that a true compost tea gives, and buyers must be
aware of the differences. Any compost tea machine must be able to substantiate that all of the organisms in
the compost are extracted into the tea by that machine. If the compost has good organism numbers and
diversity, those organisms will be extracted into the tea by compost tea machines. If the machine is not
capable of extracting the organisms, then it is not a compost tea machine, and should not be called such.
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Once growers are certain that the machine they have is capable of extracting the organisms, and will allow
those organisms to survive (e.g., the tea stays aerobic), then the additives need to be assessed. Commercial
machines should have data for their machines, and the grower should be able to achieve good results (e.g.,
good active bacteria, active fungi, total bacteria and total fungi) the very first time they use a commercial
tea brewer with its nutrient starter mix.
SFI tests teas made by growers using commercial tea machines. If the reports on the SFI website show that
growers cannot obtain decent organism numbers using the directions the tea machine maker gives them,
then that machine should be considered too risky to buy. Hype is something all growers have to learn to
detect, and anyone offering a product without any solid data to back-up their claims will always let the
grower down when the machine does not perform as promised. Talk to other growers about tea machines.
Good places to obtain information about making compost tea, the equipment needed to apply tea, foods that
can be used in making compost tea, etc, are: [email protected] (there’s an underline between
compost and tea in the name), and www.intlctc.org
Over the next few years, Soil Foodweb Inc will continue to do research investigating the growth of different
kinds of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes in soil, compost and compost tea. What are the conditions
that allow different plant species to grow better than any other plant? How do you know that the conditions
in your soil will give the best yields, the highest flavor, the best color and longest storage times? Which
beneficial organisms are the best at protecting the plant from disease, or pests? All these issues have to be
understood, and SFI is committed to investigate those issues. We want to supply the best, and least
expensive, answers for all growers, no matter where they are in the world. A big order, but one we’ll do our
best to achieve, with your help.
Good brewing!
Elaine R. Ingham
"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well, but the conviction that what we are
doing makes sense, no matter how things turn out."
-- Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic
78
Additional References
Brehaut, E. 1933. Cato the Censor On Farming. Columbia University Press, NY. 156 pp.
Brinton, William F. 1995. The control of plant pathogenic fungi by use of compost teas. Biodynamics.
January-February. p. 12 15.
Cronin, M.J., D.S. Yohalem, R.F. Harris, and J.H. Andrews. 1996. Putative mechanism and dynamics of
inhibition of the apple scab pathogen Venturia inequalis by compost extracts. Soil Biology &
Biochemistry. Vol. 28, No. 9. p. 1241 1249.
Elad, Y., and D. Shtienberg. 1994. Effect of compost water extracts on grey mould (Botrytis cinerea). Crop
Protection. Vol. 13, No. 2. p. 109 114.
Ingham, R.E., J.A. Trofymow, E.R. Ingham and D.C. Coleman. 1985. Interactions of bacteria, fungi and
their nematode grazers: Effects on nutrient cycling and plant growth. Ecological Monographs 55:119-
140.
Kai, Hideaki, Tohru Ueda, and Masahiro Sakaguchi. 1990. Antimicrobial activity of bark-compost extracts.
Soil Biol. Biochem. Vol. 22, No. 7. p. 983 986.
Kuc, Joseph, and Norman E. Strobel. 1992. Induced resistance using pathogens and nonpathogens. p. 295
301. In: E.S. Tjamos, G.C. Papavizas, and R.J. Cook (ed.) Biological Control of Plant Diseases:
Progress and Challenges for the Future. NATO ASI Series No. 230. Plenum Press, New York, NY.
Trankner, Andreas. 1992. Use of agricultural and municipal organic wastes to develop suppressiveness to
plant pathogens. p. 35 42. In: E.C. Tjamos, G.C. Papavizas, and R.J. Cook (ed.) Biological Control of
Plant Diseases: Progress and Challenges for the Future. NATO ASI Series No. 230. Plenum Press,
New York, NY.
Weltzein, H.C., et al. 1986. Control of Downy Mildew, Plasmopara viticola (de Bary) Berlese et de Toni,
on grapevine leaves through water extracts from composted organic wastes. Journal of
Phytopathology. Vol. 116. p. 186 188.
Weltzein, Heinrich C. 1988. The effects of compost extracts on plant health. p. 551 552. In: Patricia Allen
and Debra Van Dusen (ed.) Global Perspectives on Agroecology and Sustainable Agricultural
Systems (Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of IFOAM). Agroecology Program,
University of California Santa Cruz.
Weltzein, H.C., et al. 1989. Improved plant health through application of composted organic material and
compost extracts. p. 377 379. In: A. Djigma et al. (ed). Agricultural Alternatives and Nutritional Self-
Sufficiency. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference of IFOAM, Ouagadougou, Burkina
Faso.
Weltzein, Heinrich C. 1989. Some effects of composted organic materials on plant health. Agriculture,
Ecosystems and Environment. Vol. 27. p. 439 446.
Weltzein, H.C. 1990. The use of composted materials for leaf disease suppression in field crops. p. 115
120. In: Crop Protection in Organic and Low-Input Agriculture. BCPC Monographs No. 45, British
Crop Protection Council, Farham, Surrey, England.
Weltzein, H. C. 1991. Biocontrol of foliar fungal diseases with compost extracts. p. 430 450. In: John H.
Andrews and Susan S. Hirano (ed.) Microbial Ecology of Leaves. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY.
79
Brewing Manual
Fifth Edition
By
Elaine R. Ingham, PhD
Soil Foodweb Incorporated
728 SW Wake Robin Ave
Corvallis, Oregon 97333
ii
When grown in healthy soil, roots extend much deeper than the height of the
shoots aboveground. Work by the Hendrikus Group (www.hendrikus.com) shows
that lawn grass grown in their EssentialSoil with compost tea applications has
roots extending at least 4 feet deep into the soil within 3.5 months after planting
lawn grass seed.
Root Photo courtesy of Hendrikus Schraven of the Hendrikus Group.
2000, 2001, 2002 Soil Foodweb Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without prior written permission from the copyright holder except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Soil
Foodweb Incorporated, 728 SW Wake Robin Ave, Corvallis, Oregon 97333.
First Edition
Printings November 2000, February 2001
Second Edition (US and Australia)
US Printings August 2001, September 2001 (2.1), October 2001, October 2001 (2.2)
Third Edition (US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa)
First US Printing March 2002
Fourth Edition, March, 2003 (US and Australia)
Fifth Edition, April 2005
This publication is part of the educational outreach program of the Sustainable Studies Institute
(SSI). A portion of all proceeds from sales of this publication goes to support SSI’s activities. For
more information about the Sustainable Studies Institute visit their website at
www.sustainablestudies.org
Acknowledgements
The following people contributed time, information and/or thoughts to developing my
understanding of compost tea. I would like to thank them for their help:
Karl Rubenberger, the first to build a commercially viable compost tea-brewing machine, the
guiding light behind the Microb-Brewer, and who continues to be a compatriot in the
world of compost tea.
Merline Olson has been a true friend for many years. Currently is the President of SFI Australia. Remember
taking samples every two hours from the Microb-Brewer for an entire week? Right-o mate!
Bruce Elliott, who currently manufactures the Earth Tea Brewer,
Leon Hussey, inventor and manufacturer of the Keep It Simple brewer, who is the first person to use
aeration alone to extract the organisms from compost,
And for everyone who is making compost tea in any form, and has communicated with me about
their results.
Keep sharing your ideas!
Elaine R. Ingham
President, Worldwide, Soil Foodweb Inc. [email protected]
President, Sustainable Studies Institute, www.sustainablestudies.org
Affiliate Faculty, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia
Board of Advisors, Sustainable Studies Institute
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contributed by Leon Hussey:
“This is a time when forces of a very different nature too often prevail - forces careless of life or
deliberately destructive of it and the essential web of living relationships.
My particular concern, as you know, is with the reckless use of chemicals so unselective in their
action that they should be more appropriately be called biocides rather than pesticides. Not even
the most partisan defenders can claim that their toxic effect is limited to insects or rodents or
weeds or whatever the target may be.
These are large problems and there is no easy solution. But the problem must be faced. As you
listen to the present controversy about pesticides, I recommend that you ask yourself
- Who speaks?
- And Why?"
Rachael Carson, 1963 address to The Garden Club of America
"Her speeches during the last year of her life reflect her moral conviction that 'no civilization can
wage relentless war on life without destroying itself, and without losing the rights to be called
civilized."
LOST WOODS - Linda Lear
iii
Table of Contents
Introduction to the Fifth Edition
What Is Compost Tea? .................................................................................................................1
Aerated Compost Tea (ACT).....................................................................................................2
Not-Aerated Compost Tea .........................................................................................................2
Anaerobic Compost Tea ............................................................................................................3
Manure Tea ................................................................................................................................3
Compost Extract.........................................................................................................................3
Compost Leachate......................................................................................................................3
Plant (or Fermented) Tea ..........................................................................................................3
Bacterial Soups ..........................................................................................................................3
Organisms and Food Resources.................................................................................................3
Compost Quality ........................................................................................................................4
Aerobic Conditions ....................................................................................................................4
Machine Testing.........................................................................................................................4
Anaerobic Conditions ................................................................................................................4
Human Pathogens ......................................................................................................................5
What Growers Need to Know....................................................................................................5
Qualitative Assessment of Compost Tea ...................................................................................6
The Habitat Must Select for Beneficials....................................................................................6
Figure 1. The Soil Foodweb......................................................................................................7
Is Compost Tea A fertilizer........................................................................................................7
Nutrient Pools in Compost.........................................................................................................8
Figure 2. The Three Pools of Nutrients ....................................................................................9
Compost Quality Is Critical ........................................................................................................11
Figure 3. The Compost Foodweb............................................................................................11
Organisms ................................................................................................................................11
Disturbance ..............................................................................................................................11
Compost Tea Organisms .............................................................................................................12
The “Good Guys” ....................................................................................................................12
Bacteria ....................................................................................................................................12
Figure 4. Fungi (strands), bacteria (tiny dots and rafts of dots), ciliate cysts (large
iv
circles) in a compost tea.....................................................................................................13
How to Measure Bacteria and Fungi .......................................................................................13
Direct Methods...................................................................................................................13
Plate Methods.....................................................................................................................13
Why Are Bacteria Needed in Tea? ..........................................................................................14
Fungi ........................................................................................................................................14
Why Are Fungi Needed in Tea? ..............................................................................................15
Figure 5. Basidiomycete fungi (dark brown) with clamp connections growing in
brown amorphous soil organism matter............................................................................16
Protozoa ...................................................................................................................................16
Nematodes................................................................................................................................17
Mycorrhizal Fungi ...................................................................................................................17
Species Composition of Bacteria, Fungi, Protozoa and Nematodes........................................17
Pathogens in Tea ......................................................................................................................18
E. coli and aerobic conditions..................................................................................................19
Table 1. Can Brewing Tea Remove E. coli?............................................................................20
Fungal Pathogens.....................................................................................................................21
Worm Compost........................................................................................................................21
Maintaining Aerobic Conditions in Tea ..................................................................................21
How to Use Compost Tea .......................................................................................................... 23
Potential Benefits of Compost Tea ..........................................................................................23
Application of Compost Tea....................................................................................................24
Foliar Applications.................................................................................................................. 24
Figure 6. Compost tea application to vineyard .......................................................................25
Soil Applications..................................................................................................................... 26
Generalized Approach for Using Compost Tea.......................................................................26
Figure 7. Asparagus ..........................................................................................................27
Potato .................................................................................................................................27
Figure 8. Applying compost tea........................................................................................28
Table 2. Data from Jolly Farmer 2003 Compost Tea Potato Trial ...................................29
Row Crops/ Broadacre Crops ............................................................................................29
Figure 9. Melons in Australia ...........................................................................................30
Figure 10. Radish..............................................................................................................30
Turf ....................................................................................................................................31
Figure 11. Rugby Club in southern England ....................................................................31
v
Orchards and Vineyards.....................................................................................................31
Landscape Trees.................................................................................................................32
Greenhouse ........................................................................................................................32
Nurseries ............................................................................................................................32
Ponds and Lagoons ............................................................................................................32
Factors Affecting Compost Tea Quality .................................................................................. 34
Added Materials.......................................................................................................................34
Aeration ...................................................................................................................................34
Table 3. Relationship between Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide and Aerobic, Facultative
Anaerobic and Anaerobic Organisms ................................................................................ 34
Figure 12. Compost Tea Oxygen Levels ..........................................................................36
Brewing Time ..........................................................................................................................36
Compost Source and Quality ...................................................................................................37
Extraction and Mixing .............................................................................................................38
Foam ........................................................................................................................................38
Maintaining Compost Activity ................................................................................................39
Mesh size of the tea bag or final filtration material .................................................................39
Microbes in Tea .......................................................................................................................39
Ratio of Compost to Water ......................................................................................................39
Temperature .............................................................................................................................40
Water........................................................................................................................................40
Compost Tea Standards .............................................................................................................41
Table 4 The desired minimum ranges for different organisms
in compost or compost tea .................................................................................................41
Comparison of a Not-Suppressive Tea with a Suppressive Tea ..............................................42
Protocol..............................................................................................................................42
Results................................................................................................................................42
Table 5. How to tell that tea will be suppressive ...............................................................43
Brewing Methods and Machines ................................................................................................44
Evaluation Criteria ...................................................................................................................44
Early Methods of Compost Tea Production.............................................................................44
Bucket Method.........................................................................................................................44
Bucket-Bubbler Method...........................................................................................................45
vi
Trough Method ........................................................................................................................45
Table 6. Comparison of Microbial Numbers Using Bucket Bubblers and Trough
Brewing Methods...............................................................................................................46
Microb-Brewer Results, 1998 to 2000.....................................................................................46
Table 7. Microb-Brewer Tea Results, 1999 versus 2000...................................................46
Comparison of Different Commercial Brewers: ....................................................................46
The Sustainable Studies Institute Tea Grant, 2002............................................................46
Results..........................................................................................................................47
Table 8. Tea quality Assessed by the SSI Tea Grant Study.........................................48
Fig 13. Ciliates.............................................................................................................49
Application Methods ...................................................................................................................50
How Long Can Tea Be Held?..................................................................................................50
Put-To-Sleep Tea .....................................................................................................................51
Foliar Applications...................................................................................................................51
Control of Existing Disease Conditions...................................................................................51
Soil Applications......................................................................................................................52
Compost Tea Appropriate to the Plant .....................................................................................52
The Right Compost ..................................................................................................................53
The Right Foods.......................................................................................................................53
Table 9. Examples of Food Resources for Different Organism Groups..................................54
Recipes .........................................................................................................................................55
Table 10. The Kind of Tea Needed for Different Plants and Soil Types.................................55
Water versus Compost Volumes and Extraction Efficiency....................................................56
Brewing Time ..........................................................................................................................56
When to Add Materials............................................................................................................56
Commercial versus Indigenous Organisms .............................................................................56
Fine-Tuning Your Recipes.......................................................................................................56
The Basic, Starting-point, Bacterial Tea............................................................................57
Equal Fungi-to-Bacterial Tea.............................................................................................57
Fungal Tea .........................................................................................................................57
Mycorrhizal Inoculum .......................................................................................................57
Grower Experiences ......................................................................................................................58
vii
Scientific Papers or Abstracts.....................................................................................................58
Experimental Results ..................................................................................................................63
SARE Grant 2001 ....................................................................................................................63
SARE Grant 2002 ....................................................................................................................64
Table 11. Soil microorganism biomass and numbers from Wren and Broadly vineyards.......... 65
Microb-Brewer Experiment #1 ................................................................................................66
Grape Foliar Experiment..........................................................................................................67
Table 12. Relation between leaf coverage and prevention
of Botrytis on wine grapes ............................................................................................67
Territorial Seed Experiment, Summer 2000 ............................................................................67
Using Good Compost is Critical........................................................................................67
Seasonal Variation in Organism Activity on Leaves.........................................................67
Potato Trials at Oregon State University .................................................................................68
Tea from Different Composts versus % Disease Suppression...........................................68
Glossary .......................................................................................................................................69
Recent Literature and Resources ..............................................................................................71
The History of Compost Tea.......................................................................................................75
Additional References .................................................................................................................79
viii
Introduction to the Fifth Edition
We’ve come a long way since I started working on liquid extracts of compost in graduate school. At that
time, variability was too great, so we went on to other projects. In the last 10 years, however, methods for
making aerated compost teas have been determined, but the methods for producing not-aerated teas are
lacking. We need to know exactly how to produce consistent and reproducible teas of each kind. Exactly
what do the teas produced by not-aerated, anaerobic or fermented methods do to plants? How can we
consistently produce each kind, so the effects are predictable?
Aerated compost teas contain all the species of organisms that were in the compost. Thus the compost has
to be “tea-quality”. Those organisms selected by the temperature, foods present, nutrient composition,
oxygen content in the tea brew grow during the brewing process. When oxygen drops below a certain
level, nutrients can be lost and disease-causing organisms may grow. Oxygen content is critical, but so is
the diversity of aerobic organisms. The competitive set of organisms must be present to prevent pathogen
growth. The amount of food added must be limited to enough to attain maximum growth of desired
organisms but not so much that oxygen concentration drops below the aerobic level. Balance is critical –
maximize growth, but maintain aerobic conditions. Machine cleanliness is important too. Anaerobic
biofilms growing in the machine can result in poor quality tea. Documenting that a consistent, plantbeneficial
product is always made is paramount.
Anaerobic teas require that low oxygen levels are reached, and this needs to be documented in order to
make the claim that this kind of product was made. Certain organisms make specific toxins which combat
disease- and pest-organisms. These toxins, like antibiotics, are only made in certain conditions. Machine,
recipe, oxygen management and compost used must be documented and understood. The biology in an
anaerobic tea is limited to basically anaerobic bacteria and yeasts. Since the set of organisms is so
significantly altered from what occurs in aerobic compost, anaerobically brewed teas should not be called
compost tea, but designated specifically as anaerobic tea.
Fermented, or plant, teas are typically produced by placing specific kinds or mixes of un-decomposed
plant materials in water. Compost is typically not even a part of the recipe, and thus should not be
confused with compost tea. Oxygen typically reaches low levels for several days to weeks, but not for the
full two to three week production period. The full food web of organisms is not present in fermented tea,
although typically some aerobic organisms return to activity as oxygen returns to the ferment.
Not-aerated compost teas typically do not have additional food resources added to the brew. The
likelihood that the tea will reach low oxygen levels or be anaerobic is minimal. The full food web may be
present if oxygen levels do not drop below aerobic levels. If the compost used was immature, enough
soluble foods may be released, organisms will grow rapidly, and the tea will drop into anaerobic oxygen
conditions. If the food web is lost, leaving only anaerobic bacteria, then the product should not be called a
compost tea. The potential variance in this product is significant, and much more work is needed.
There are many aerobic tea machine companies in the market, and many people are having great success in
improving plant production as a result. Soil Foodweb Inc has worked with most machine makers and
helped them to be successful. Bruce Elliot, Leon Hussey, Carole Ann Rollins, George Hahn, Shepard
Smith, Ray Gore, Steve Diver, Kirk Leonard and many others were important in improving our
understanding of compost tea machines and how they work. But other advancements in the area of notaerated
and purposefully anaerobic teas have yet to be explored.
Aerated compost tea can have amazing benefits for plant production, regardless of any negativity some
might have about this industry. To have consistently beneficial tea requires knowing what you are doing,
and that means being able to test and determine exactly what biology is present in the tea.
Compost tea “works” only because of the biology in them. Management is not possible if you can’t
measure that biology.
ix
What Is Compost Tea?
The simplest definition of compost tea is: A brewed, water extract of compost.
Properly made compost must be used, so that the compost tea needs no further pathogen reduction.
Compost tea production is therefore, a “cold brewing” process, allowing growth of the organisms extracted
from the compost.
Only if the process remains aerobic will the complex set of organisms extracted from the compost remain
in the tea. The complex set of organisms is needed to establish all of the benefits of a healthy soil food web
in soil, potting mix, or on the surfaces of plants. Plant growth is typically improved, although the correct
mixes of beneficial organisms need to be matched to the type of plant (see Ingham et al. 1985, other papers
by Ingham, and the Soil Biology Primer, 1999).
Compost is the main ingredient in compost tea, but in order to increase organism biomass and activity,
other foods are added at the beginning of the brewing period. These ingredients and their effects are
discussed later in this book. Many growers have special ingredients they add. New recipes are always
being tested with the goal of achieving higher microbial biomass, better plant production, better soil
structure, better nutrient cycling and less disease.
As the processes involved in producing compost tea are better defined, the important parameters that result
in the growth of certain organisms will be better understood. Different kinds of aerated and non-aerated
compost tea will provide the proper biology for different situations and will be ever-more integral parts of
sustainable agriculture.
Sustainable farming is possible, if year after year, the soil is improved and productivity increases. While
any one plant species is limited by its genetics, matching the plant to the biology in the soil solves
production problems. Natural processes improve soil productivity, and in the natural world, plant species
change with time. Plant communities shift from bare soil, to weeds, to grasses, shrubs, trees and then old
growth forest. The mythology of modern agriculture is that soil productivity is set, and once a field is put
into agriculture, productivity has no choice but to go downhill.
Fertilizer sales people have been heard to say that agriculture depletes soil health and results in loss of tilth.
Nutrients are mined out of the soil, ultimately leaving a field devoid of life, plants and nutrients, unless
fertilizers are added back into the soil, in plant-available forms. Instead of solving the problem, however,
addition of high levels of strictly inorganic, soluble, plant-available nutrients has resulted in an enormous
problem with water quality. The nutrients added are no longer held in the soil. As a result, excess amounts
of inorganic nutrients have to be added. This is so different from a healthy soil, where the soil holds
nutrients, thereby “cleaning up” the nutrients from the water moving through the soil.
Clean water comes out of healthy soil. Why is water coming from “conventional” agricultural fields laden
with excess inorganic N, P, S and other minerals? Or if leaching is not occurring, why are the nutrients lost
through gaseous emissions? This is not what happens in natural systems.
Change will occur when sustainable agriculture, not extractive, destructive agriculture, is practiced.
Pesticides and inorganic fertilizers are not needed, if soil health is maintained. Tillage needs to be reduced
to the minimum possible. Disease and pests are not significant in healthy, sustainable systems. Weeds are
really just an indication that the system is not healthy. Nature gives growers clues with respect to what is
wrong, if the information is read properly. We just need to learn how to read the information being given
to us. We reserve the use of pesticides and other toxic materials to the rare situation when some unusual
event occurs that harms the biology that should be present..
Only if soil lacks the biology required to convert nutrients from plant-not-available forms to plant available
forms would addition of inorganic nutrients result in improved plant growth. If the proper biology is not
1
present, then the soil is sick. Extractive agriculture uses tillage and addition of excessive inorganic
nutrients which harm the proper biology. When there was plenty of land for “slash and burn” approaches
to farming, and farming was done on small scale areas, the land and the biology could recover between
extractive agricultural disturbance events.
But in today’s world, land is not allowed to recover between farming events, and therefore the organisms
and the foods to feed them have to be added back into the system without the luxury of “downtime” to
recover. The lack of proper biology must be dealt with immediately, for without that set of organisms, soil
structure, nutrient retention and nutrient cycling cannot happen or are severely restricted, and disease
suppression and protection are practically non-existent. Returning the organisms needed to build soil
health is required.
People who don’t understand soil biology will say that bacteria are always present, at more or less the same
numbers. But this is an error based on the methods that have been used. The classical medical way of
looking at disease-causing organisms was applied to soil, and inappropriate conclusions made. “Plate
count” methods assess mainly spores, which are dormant stages of some, but not all, organisms. Spores
aren’t affected as much as active organisms are by toxic chemicals or tillage. Plate media miss 99.99% or
more of the actual species growing and being active in soil. As a result, people relying on plate methods
have lead others to extremely mis-informed decisions.
Direct observation methods, especially of active biomass, show that soil biology activity is significantly
harmed by pesticides, inorganic fertilizers, tillage and herbicides. The precise impact depends on
conditions in the soil. For example, when soil is very dry, and most organisms are inactive, the impacts are
limited. But if toxic chemicals are applied when the organisms are actively growing, impacts can be
detected.
How rapidly can organisms colonize from another place? Something has to carry bacteria, fungi, protozoa
or nematodes from one place to another, and if transportation agents, such as birds, snakes, and spiders, are
also dead, how can microbes reach a distant place? Not that many organisms in soil survive a dry, windblown
transfer. Where, in the chemically impacted agricultural valleys of modern technology, is there even
a source of healthy soil for colonization to spread from? The necessary diversity of organisms was killed
long ago. The wind can’t carry what isn’t there.
Therefore, we need to put back the full diversity of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes and if possible,
microarthropods that were killed by toxic chemicals, tillage and lack of foods (organic matter) in the soil
need to be put back. Until that happens, people will be forced to use toxic chemicals to attempt to grow
plants. Proper nutrition for the plants will be lacking until the organisms that retain nutrients in their
biomass are returned to the soil. How do we put back what has been harmed?
It’s called compost. Or compost tea, if the source of compost is distant, and transportation costs are too
high. Since compost tea extracts the full diversity, and then grows selected beneficials to high numbers, a
small amount of good compost can be extended dramatically.
But we need to know how to make compost tea that will contain the full set of organisms needed, at high
biomass and activity levels. Depending on what you want to do, choose the method of supplying the
organisms your soil needs to become healthy (from the point of view of the plant you want to grow) once
again.
Aerated Compost Tea (ACT)
ACT is a water extract of compost, brewed without use of heat, which allows beneficial organisms to grow
to high numbers. Foods may or may not be added. If no additional foods are used, organisms are not
typically active, and thus less likely to survive transfer to soil or to plant surfaces.
Not-Aerated Compost Tea
A water extract, brewed, with or without added foods, but aeration is not provided. If a highly mature
compost with few active organisms is used, the organisms will not be highly active and thus not use up
2
oxygen during the brewing. The tea will likely not become anaerobic, but neither will the organisms stick
to leaf surfaces, since they are not highly active. More work on production conditions is needed.
Anaerobic Tea
A brewed water-extract but foods are added (or from the compost) to result in organisms multiplying
rapidly, such that oxygen use is greater than oxygen diffusion into the water. The oxygen concentration
will drop, and if it drops below the threshold of 6 ppm, aerobic fungi, protozoa and nematodes will be lost,
replaced by strictly anaerobic bacteria and yeasts.
Manure Tea
Manure is added to water. If no mixing or stirring is used, only soluble nutrients will be extracted and the
tea will typically be high in nitrates, salts, phosphorus, and/or potassium. Antibiotics used in the animal
feed are soluble and so normally extracted into the water and can cause significant problems for
microorganisms in the liquid extract. If the manure tea is mixed or stirred, high numbers of anaerobic
bacteria will be extracted, since anaerobic bacteria are not as good at sticking to surfaces as aerobic
organisms. Manure tea contains high numbers of ciliates, extremely low fungal biomass, and can have high
numbers of nematodes. Human and animal pathogens can abound as well. At the very least, manure tea
cannot provide all the benefits possible from compost tea. Once manure is composted, then it should be
called compost.
Compost Extract
By running water at significant pressure through compost, the organisms and soluble nutrients can be
extracted from the solids, depending on the extraction force applied.
Compost Leachate
Passive movement of water through good compost removes soluble nutrients and a few organisms.
Leachate is not necessarily anaerobic, but can be if organisms in the compost are growing rapidly.
Phytotoxic compounds can be present and nutrients can be lost if the leachate becomes anaerobic. Soluble
nutrients, enzymes and hormones can benefit plant growth, of course, but care is also needed to make sure
salts (e.g., nitrates) are not present in the compost, as high levels can “burn” plant surfaces.
Plant (or Fermented) Tea
Fresh plant materials (e.g., nettles, chamomile, marigolds, and horsetail) can be added to water to remove
plant juices. Organisms on the surface of the plant material grow on the dead plant tissues and often go
anaerobic for a period of time. As the plant material is used up, organisms stop growing, allowing oxygen
to diffuse back into the tea. Usually high numbers of ciliates, extremely low fungal biomass, and many
bacteria are observed. Plant teas usually do not contain all the organisms in compost tea, nor provide all
the benefits possible from compost tea. Anti-microbial agents can be produced, and quite interesting
effects have been produced. More work is needed to achieve consistent production.
Bacterial Soups
As with plant tea, mixes of bacterial species can have specific beneficial impacts. Single species of
bacteria can produce bio-control effects, except the conditions in which a single species works is quite
limited. Addition of these cultures to compost tea can add functions to the tea, however.
Organisms and Food Resources
Bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, soluble foods and other nutrients need to be extracted from compost
during tea brewing. The higher the quality of the compost, the greater will be the number of beneficial
species of each group of organisms. Diversity of food resources and nutrients will improve as more kinds
of plant materials are used in the composting process.
Additional foods are typically added in compost tea, some to grow the organisms in the tea brew, but others
are added to the finished tea, just before application, to enhance the activity of the organisms so they will
glue and bind themselves to foliage, for example. Foliar applications require maximum coverage of the
leaf surfaces, as well as maximum activity of the beneficial species.
3
Compost Quality
Compost quality is critical. Making certain that the compost has the organisms is extremely important.
Aerobic compost means a habitat has been maintained that allows the beneficial organisms to out-compete
the less or not-beneficial organisms that grow more rapidly in reduced oxygen conditions. The soluble
nutrients and foods in aerobic compost help make certain the organisms will grow in the tea brewing
process.
Additives of organisms, different kinds of foods, or nutrients can be used to improve conditions for
beneficial bacterial and fungal growth in compost, or even in compost tea. These additives need to be
checked for pathogens. Care needs to be taken to not add too much food resource. If excess is added,
bacterial and fungal growth will result in oxygen consumption to a detrimental level.
Aerobic Conditions
Aerobic conditions maintain the presence and growth of beneficial organisms. If aerobic conditions are
lost, and the tea becomes anaerobic or low oxygen concentrations, the aerobic organisms will be lost. If
there are few aerobic organisms, then the resulting brew cannot actually be compost tea. The organisms in
the compost have been lost, for the most part.
For that reason, anaerobic teas are not called compost teas, as the organisms which cause the beneficial
effects desired in compost tea will not be present. Anaerobic teas may do some interesting things, but they
cannot provide the benefits discussed below that are possible with aerobic compost teas.
Machine Testing
Tea-brewing machines must be tested to show that adequate biomass of all groups of necessary aerobic
organisms were present in the final tea. The testing conditions should use:
1. either the food resources sold by the tea machine maker, or a standard set of foods, such as 0.01% fish
hydrolysates and 0.01% humic acid (1 gal of fish, and 1 gal of humic acid in 100 gal of water),
2. compost with documented initial biology,
3. aerated conditions, such that oxygen remains in the aerobic ranges during the tea brew.
The data from these tests (a minimum of three replicated tests) must be available to the buyer, in order that
the buyer can assess whether this machine performs as advertised.
To obtain the full benefits possible from compost tea, the brewing process has to be aerobic. The balance
of amount and type of foods added determines oxygen demand by the organisms growing on those foods.
Testing of the machine must be displayed by the tea machine maker before anyone would consider buying
a machine labeled as compost tea maker. .
ASK FOR DATA so you don’t have to do this testing yourself. You need to know what amount of food to
put in the machine as temperatures change through the course of the year.
Anaerobic Conditions
Anaerobic teas are much less clearly defined than for aerobic tea. Sometimes compost tea may become
anaerobic for only a few minutes, for a few hours, or sometimes for days or weeks. Brief anaerobic periods
may increase diversity, if the aerobic organisms are not destroyed or put-to-sleep. Prolonged anaerobic
conditions mean that many organisms will become inactive or die, and that nutrients will be lost.
Anaerobic tea will not replenish the full soil food web, nor can it be a nutrient supplier. Anaerobic teas add
only anaerobic bacteria and yeasts. Leaf surfaces are aerobic environments, and anaerobic organisms do
not stay active nor will they perform their functions in aerobic environments. An anaerobic tea applied to
an aerobic environment may provide a physical barrier, for a short time, but that is the only function it
provides from a food web point of view.
Filamentous fungi that build soil structure and hold nutrients are lost, or become dormant, when conditions
become anaerobic. Aerobic bacteria that make micro-aggregates go into dormant stages in anaerobic
conditions, and therefore soil structure will not be maintained. Protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods
die in conditions that rapidly become anaerobic. Nutrient cycling will therefore no longer occur. In
4
anaerobic conditions, nutrients are lost through volatilization, because major nutrients are converted to
gaseous forms in reduced oxygen, conditions. When you smell ammonia, rotten egg, vinegar, putrid, or
sour smells, pH is dropping, alcohol is being produced, and N, S, and P are lost as gases.
The work Soil Foodweb Inc. has done was to define production requirements for beneficial, diseasesuppressive,
nutrient retaining, nutrient cycling, and soil-structure building compost tea. Anaerobic tea
production parameters are still largely undefined, leaving us without a working knowledge of how to
predict whether the tea will “work”, or not.
Human Pathogens
A major concern is the potential for human pathogens to grow in compost tea. This can only be a concern
if the compost is not properly made. Elements in the USDA take the view that even with non-manure
materials, human beings could still contaminate compost starting materials. Therefore, all compost must be
properly treated (heat or worm contact). Even then, certain programs view compost as potentially
containing human pathogens, but they lack a realistic understanding of the environment in which we live.
If there are no detectable pathogens in the compost, and conditions during compost tea production are
managed to prevent pathogen growth, then the risk involved in pathogens in compost tea are minimal.
There would be more probability of a bird infecting your sandwich while it was sitting on a picnic table
than having pathogens grow in the aerobically maintained tea.
Therefore, understanding the conditions selecting against pathogen growth in compost tea is vital. These
conditions that select AGAINST human pathogen growth are:
1. Maintain aerobic conditions in order to select against pathogens, which are mostly facultative
anaerobes.
2. Make sure a huge diversity of aerobic bacteria and fungi are present, which compete-with
facultative-anaerobe-growth in all conditions in the tea brewer,
3. Make sure no anaerobic bio-films are left in the tea brewer after a tea brew.
Cleaning is an extremely important factor that many do not consider before buying a machine. No one
wants to spend hours cleaning a machine. The greater the number of “hidden-from-view” surfaces present,
the longer it will take to clean the machine. Don’t trust manufacturers to tell you the truth about cleaning
issues. Talk to someone who owns the machine, and who tests their tea. They will relate how critical
testing and cleaning actually are.
What Growers Need to Know
The point of applying compost tea is to return the biology that should be present, to grow the desired plants
with as little effort as possible. There can be no question that presence of beneficial organisms improves
plant growth (Ingham et al, 1985, USDA Soil Biology Primer, 1995 and numerous papers on the benefits of
biology to plant growth since that time).
Growers need to know:
1. The biology that should be present in their soils and plant surfaces.
2. If they know what should be there, then they can determine what biology is missing from their
soil.
3. What organisms are in the compost. Selection for bacterial or fungal growth can be managed
during the compost tea brewing process by adding appropriate foods.
4. The tea sprayer does not kill the organisms in the tea
5. Delivery of the missing organisms, along with foods, has been successful.
Beneficial bacteria and fungi are needed to immobilize nutrients, to prevent erosion and run-off by gluing
and binding soil particles together to form aggregates, to compete with disease organisms for food, to build
soil structure and to allow roots of plants to grow deep into soil and find water and nutrients. Protozoa,
nematodes and microarthropods consume bacteria and fungi, and thus release nutrients at the place, time
and rates that plants require.
A maximum diversity of each of the sets of beneficial organisms is needed in soil and on plant surfaces.
5
Each combination of environmental conditions selects for the activity of at least several hundred species of
bacteria and fungi, several tens of species of protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods. There are always
organisms performing their function, until the conditions become so extreme that all activity shuts down,
such as when soil freezes, or moisture drops very low. Diversity is necessary, and the way to replenish that
diversity is by using compost made with a wide range of plant materials, or compost tea, made from
properly processed compost.
Even “pest” species should be present, in low numbers and low diversity, because they have a function in
soil. Pests are designed to remove stressed plants, for example, and as such, are indicators that the soil food
web is not healthy.
There might be a few disease organisms present in soil and compost. What is a disease in one system may
be a beneficial organism in another system. Dormant stages of many organisms survive the composting
process, but are not active and do not often cause disease.
The ratios of the different groups must be managed to promote the soil conditions that select for the growth
of the particular species of plant desired. For more information about the soil food web, check
www.soilfoodweb.com for references, textbooks and publications.
Qualitative Assessment of Compost Tea
Perhaps one of the most exciting recent developments by Soil Foodweb Inc is a way that individuals can
easily and cheaply assess every batch of tea of the organisms they want to know about. There is set-up
required, and some training is needed to do this yourself, so an alternative is to send the samples into the
lab or to an SFI advisor. These assays are typically a factor of 10 less than the quantitative assessments.
This method uses simple categories of assessment, from bad, to poor, to adequate, to good, very good and
excellent. Enough people are starting to get “better” than excellent levels, so a new category of outstanding
will likely be added. The categories are based on the presence and concentration of organisms observed in
the sample, but they are not precisely quantified. They are placed in broad categories, but it allows a
general assessment of tea quality.
Classes to train to do this work are typically held whenever enough people sign up, or at about one to two
month intervals. Please see the SFI web site for dates and locations. And please remember that if you
don’t wish to do these assays yourself, contact your closest SFI lab (all labs on the SFI homepage, based on
location world-wide).
The qualitative assay is $25 for the categorization of tea, $35 for soil or compost. The full-scale,
quantitative assessment, necessary to do scientific study, varies between $100 and $275 depending on the
number of organisms groups being quantified.
The Habitat Must Select for Beneficials
The habitat in compost and in compost tea needs to select for beneficial organisms and suppress disease
organisms. Most plant and human pathogens require reduced oxygen conditions in order to be highly
competitive. Since most beneficials require fully aerobic conditions to function, when oxygen becomes
limiting, pathogens win in anaerobic, or reduced oxygen, conditions.
The factors that must be considered for making certain the habitat is correct for beneficial organisms are:
1. The foods used in the compost or the compost tea need to be selective for the beneficial
organisms, not the disease organisms (see Recipe section).
2. The proper set of organisms needs to be present for the foods to be consumed, and for processes to
occur.
3. Temperatures between 65 and 85 F in tea, salts within range, nitrates and sulfur less than 3 ppm
and no toxic levels of any material.
With adequate extraction, compost tea will contain what was in the compost. If there are no human
pathogens in the compost, then there will be no human pathogens in the compost tea made from that
6
compost. Thus, compost quality is critical when making compost tea. This means we need to have
standards for the biology in compost as well as in the compost tea.
Figure 1. A Soil Foodweb Diagram demonstrates the relationships between the sets of organisms
(functional groups in boxes) needed in most crop, grassland, and vegetable soils to grow plants without
requiring pesticides or inorganic fertilizers.
Complex,
recalcitrant
carbons
Simple sugars
Shoots
Roots
Algae
P-Bacteria
Lichen
Plant-feeding
Nematodes
Saprophytic
Fungi
Bacteria
Organic
Matter
Fungal-
Feeding
Mites
Fungal-
Feeding
Nematodes
Bacterial-
Feeding
Nematodes
Flagellates
Amoebae
Ciliates
Predatory
Nematodes
Predatory
Mites
Higher
level
Predators
C
to fungus
N, P, μnutrients
to plant
Mycorrhizal
Fungi
Dead
Material
(from all boxes)
Is Compost Tea A Fertilizer?
Nutrients are removed when crops are harvested. These nutrients need to be replenished or “put back” into
the soil. Even better, fertility should increase with time. Soils in natural systems increase in nutrient
concentration as succession proceeds, but this doesn’t occur in conventional agriculture, because erosion,
run-off, leaching and compaction result in loss of nutrients from the soil.
Why does this happen? What changes? The organisms that should hold both soil and nutrients in place are
destroyed in conventional agriculture:
1. by tillage, which slices, dices and crushes the organisms,
2. by use of pesticides which kill far more than just the target organism species,
3. by use of high levels of inorganic fertilizers (which are salts, all of them, killing organisms
through osmotic removal of water), and
4. by compaction which changes oxygen content in the soil, resulting in conversion of organisms
metabolism from aerobic to anaerobic species. The problem is, those nutrients will not be held in
a biology-poor soil, resulting in nutrient pollution of surface and ground waters, and atmosphere.
Because of all these losses, conventional chemical systems require 150 to 200 pounds – or more! -of N, to
be “added back” to the soil each cropping cycle. In sustainable systems, where the biology is managed
properly, and holds nutrients, only the nutrients removed through harvest must be replaced. Based on
nitrogen (N) content in plant material, for example, only 15 grams of N per ton of plant material is
7
removed. Therefore, in an orchard where perhaps 4 tons of fruit per acre is removed per acre, only 4 times
15, or 60 grams of N per acre is needed to replace that removed by harvest. Why are some conventional
orchardists putting 1000 pounds of fertilizer per acre on their orchards each year?
The “worst case scenario” with respect to harvest removal of nutrients is production of silage, where 200
tons of plant material may be removed per acre. At these high rates, 200 times 15, or 3,000 grams of N (3
kg of N) would need to be added back per acre.
Can compost tea supply those needs? The surprising answer to this question is yes. Not in the standard
“fertilizer” form (nitrate), however, but as organic N, held by the biology in organic matter and microbial,
biological forms.
Most people have been told that compost is not a fertilizer. That statement can only be made if only
soluble, inorganic nutrient values are used. The fertilizer industry has pushed to define N as only nitrate,
possibly nitrite, and maybe ammonium, the inorganic forms of N. While this is based on the soluble forms
of N that most vegetable and row crop plants take up through their roots, it is far from the only source of N
in soil.
If the full soil food web is present, then forms of N that are not nitrate, nitrite or ammonium will be cycled
into these soluble forms by the organism. And not just N, but any not-soluble form of any nutrient will
eventually be converted from its non-soluble form to the plant-available, soluble form by the organisms
cycling system in a healthy soil. Phosphorus, for example, is converted from not plant available forms (in
rocks, in sand, silt, and clay, in humic materials, in organic matter, in dead plant material) into organism
biomass and then be consumed by predators which results in release of plant-available forms of the
nutrient.
If the organisms that perform these cycling processes have been destroyed by agricultural “management”,
then nutrients cannot be processed from not-plant-available forms into plant available forms. Leaching,
erosion, and compaction then result in loss of the remaining nutrients from the soil, and plant production
will suffer. The engineering and chemical answer is to load more and more soluble, inorganic nutrients
into the soil, while bemoaning the fact that water quality suffers. These sciences have ignored the fact that
natural systems manage to hold nutrients, manage to produce clean water, and produce higher plant yields
than any agricultural system.
Plans for cleaning up nutrients using mechanical filtration systems (requiring engineers to design, build and
maintain them), using soil-less mixes have been suggested as solutions to the water quality problem, all the
while ignoring that nature has been successfully feeding everyone since life began on this planet. We have
all the food we need; it is social systems that prevent people from having food. The human system needs to
be fixed, not the plant production system. We need to learn the lessons nature puts in front of us everyday
Nutrient Pools in Compost
Why is it that when you send a sample into a soil chemistry lab, compost will always be reported as being
low in nitrogen? First, soil chemistry labs may remove the obvious organic matter as soon as the sample
arrives, because their methods cannot extract minerals from large chunks of organic matter. They typically
dry the sample and then use extracting agents to remove the soluble forms of the nutrients from the soil
solution (soluble pool), or remove the “exchangeable” forms of nutrients from the surfaces of the clays,
silts, sands and organic matter.
Does either approach to extracting nutrients assess bacteria? Fungi? Protozoa, nematodes or
microarthropods? No. Nutrients in humus are not extracted either. Nor nutrients in parent material. Only
the nutrients that are soluble (dissolved in water) or that can be extracted from the SURFACES of sand, silt
and clay particles and organic matter are pulled from the soil. The exact value obtained for any nutrient
also depends on the extracting agent used. Some extractants pull more nutrients than others, so in order to
compare one lab’s results with another’s, the extractants used must be known..
What test tells you what the plant will take up? Neither soluble nutrient pool concentration nor
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exchangeable nutrient pool concentrations will tell you what the plant will take up. Water soluble nutrients
concentrations (N or P, or S, for examples) just indicate what is dissolved in water, right now. The plant
may not be able to take up any of that if osmotic concentration is too high. If salt content is too high, water
is held by the salts, and the plant cannot access either nutrients or water.
Figure 2. The three pools of nutrients in soil. The total extractable pool is assessed using very strong
extracting agents, while the exchangeable pool uses less and less strong extractants, until the soluble where
weak extracting agents are used. In natural soils, it is the bacteria and fungi that make enzymes and
organic acids to solubilize nutrients from rocks, organic matter, clay, sand and silt particles, and tie-up
those nutrients in their living biomass, as well as organic matter waste products. Nitrogen is not held in
rocks, but N-fixing bacteria perform the same function. These bacteria immobilize that fixed N in their
biomass. In both cases, predators are required to mineralize these nutrients into inorganic forms the
plants require.
Components of Soil Nutrient Pools Tests used for each pool
Total Extractable
Exchangable
Soluble
Biology Biology
Roots
Bacteria
and Fungi
Grind; Conc. Nitric
acid, combustion
10% HCl, H2NO3
Melich III
Bray 2
Amm. Cl / BaCl
Colwell
Olsen, Bray 1
Melich I
Morgan (Reams)
1 M KCl, Universal
Soluble nutrient concentration does not predict what the plant will take up. It does not predict what
nutrients will be solubilized in the next instant. To predict what will be made available to plants requires
knowledge of what plant material is present as food for the microbes (how active will the bacteria and fungi
be?), what population of bacteria and fungi are present that can solubilize nutrients from parent material,
from humus and dead plant material, what population of predators of bacteria and fungi are present and
how active they are consuming bacteria and fungi, and releasing soluble nutrients.
Consider the following information based on extractions of nutrients from soil. The original soil contained
on average only 1.8 ug of phosphate per gram (ppm) of soil. Rock phosphate and compost were added to
achieve a value of 75 ppm phosphate, on average. Two weeks later, soil from the same field was sampled
using the same methods and phosphate was 200 ppm. Bacteria has decreased slightly, and fungi had
increased by nearly 2-fold. Nothing was added to the field in the intervening 2 weeks. No fertilizer, no
pesticides, no tillage, no seed, just grass growing in the field.
Where did the “extra” phosphate come from? Did the lab have a problem? “Messed up” in their
assessment? Which time?
Think it through. Plants were growing, making exudates, feeding bacteria and fungi in the root system.
Phosphate was solubilized from a plant-not-available pool. Organisms solubilize many nutrients. If the
9
organisms are present, and have foods, they will perform nutrient cycling processes.
What then is the chemistry information that we need in order to predict what will become available to
plants through the course of a growing season? If we know the extractant methods used (see right hand
side of Figure 3), we can properly interpret what part of the nutrient pool is being assessed by any soil
chemistry test. If we then know the biology in that soil or compost, the activity of the bacteria and fungi,
the activity of the predators, then we can begin to predict the rate at which N, or P, or other nutrients will
become available for plant use. Examination of any of the journals in the area of soil ecology, e.g., Applied
Soil Ecology, or Soil Biology and Biochemistry, or Biology and Fertility of Soil, will reveal that this area
of investigation is beginning to be understood.
The problem in agriculture has not been a lack of nutrients, but a lack of the proper biology to make those
nutrients available to plants. The total extractable nutrient level is in excess in most soils examined so far.
But the biology has been destroyed.
Similarly, compost contains plant-available (soluble) nutrients, exchangeable nutrients but an even greater
pool of plant-not-available nutrients that will only be made available as the bacteria and fungi in the
compost solubilize those nutrients, and then protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods release those
nutrients from the bacteria and fungi.
Compost contains both excellent biomass of organisms (bacterial and fungal biomass both in excess of 300
micrograms per gram, protozoa in excess of 50,000 individuals per gram, and nematodes in excess of 60
per gram) and high levels of total extractable nutrients (16,000 micrograms of N per gram of compost,
9,000 micrograms of P, and similar levels for most other nutrients).
Compost tea contains soluble nutrients extracted from the compost. Nearly all of the soluble and
exchangeable pools will be extracted, plus perhaps 50% of the total pool in compost, based on assessment
of the compost after tea production. For example, an assessment performed by the Environmental Analysis
Lab at Southern Cross University showed that the three pools (as shown in Fig 2 above) in a good compost
contained about 286 micrograms of soluble N per gram dry weight of compost, about 340 ug of
exchangeable N, and 17,000 ug of total extractable N per gram of compost.
That means, in a compost tea (2000 L or 500 gal of water using 15 pounds or about 7 kg of compost),
approximately 45,500 micrograms of N were released into the 2000 L of water. One application of
compost tea would supply a small but significant amount of N. And even more, when soil organic matter is
present, and humic materials were added in the compost tea, a continuing supply of N would be provided to
the plants through the nutrient cycling processes the biology provides.
Several compost tea applications could supply all the N a crop needed. But even more, a single application
of one ton of compost plus compost tea could supply everything a crop needed, from nutrients to disease
protection to weed prevention.
Compost contains many years worth of any nutrient. As long as the biology remains un-compromised by
toxic chemical additions, the organisms will cycle those nutrients into plant-available forms. This strongly
suggests that compost is a fertilizer; an organic fertilizer. Compost tea will contain many, but not all, of the
nutrients that were in the compost. Compost quality is critical to understand, in order that we can
maximize nutrient concentrations in the tea. Understanding the role of the organisms is all important,
therefore.
Natural systems don’t require additions of inorganic, soluble (and thus very leachable) forms of nutrients to
maintain productivity. The most productive systems on this planet are systems which do not have, and
have not ever had, inorganic fertilizer applied.
If we want clean water, we have to get the biology back in our soils. If we want to grow and harvest crops,
we have to build soil and fertility with time, not destroy it. The only way to reach these endpoints is to
improve the life in the soil.
10
COMPOST QUALITY IS CRITICAL
Of all the organism groups in soil (Figure 1), how many are in compost? Compost typically contains all the
important groups that are in soil, but typically lacks pathogens, if made properly (Fig 3).
Figure 3. The Compost Foodweb. The organisms in compost tea come from the compost. All of the
species and many individuals of each species are extracted from the compost, but individuals reproduce
based on the habitat present in the tea. If conditions are appropriate for beneficial species to grow, they
will out-compete disease organisms. If the habitat in the tea is more conducive to the growth of disease
organisms, disease organisms grow. Care in providing the proper conditions are critical.
*Plant-feeding
Nematodes
Saprophytic
Fungi
(includes
yeasts)
Bacteria
(includes
actinomycetes)
Hi N (temp)
Fungal-
Feeding
Mites*
Fungal-
Feeding
Nematodes
Bacterial-
Feeding
Nematodes
Flagellates
Amoebae
Ciliates
Predatory
Nematodes
Predatory
Mites *
* Higher
level
Predators
Green
(bacteria)
Woody (fungi)
Plants
* typically not
present
*Algal
blooms Pests and pathogens
killed by high
temperature,
competition, inhibition
Organisms
Well-made compost will contain, for the most part, only beneficial bacteria or fungi. Think of the bacteria
or fungal boxes in the soil food web picture above as having a dotted line down the middle: Half of the
species are “good guys” and help your plants grow, while the other half are “bad guys” that decompose
plant tissues if growing on plant surface. These “bad guys” bacteria and fungi are selected against in the
composting process, whether by high temperature, competition, inhibition or consumption by predators, or
by passage through earthworm digestive systems, the result is the same. Pathogens should be inactive and
not detectable in well-made compost.
Organism biomass, diversity and growth or activity can be enhanced by adding organisms, different kinds
of foods, or nutrients to improve conditions for beneficial bacterial and fungal growth. Check to make sure
they are without pathogens, which means documentation of the biology must be given by the seller of the
product. Care needs to be taken to not add so much food resource that the growth of bacteria and fungi will
consume oxygen to a detrimental level and allow the compost to become anaerobic.
Disturbance
The less disturbed the compost, especially in the maturation phase of composting, the greater the likelihood
that compost will contain higher biomass of fungi, and numbers of predators, such as beneficial nematodes,
protozoa, and microarthropods. Good aerobic compost should NOT contain root-feeding nematodes, weed
seeds, or human pathogens. Good aerobic compost should contain very few plant pathogens.
Of course the need to not disturb compost during the composting process must be balanced with the need
for air in the compost. If the bacteria and fungi have gone through their burst of growth early in the
composting process, and are truly maturing the pile, then heat will no longer be generated and the pile will
cool. If the microbes are still growing and using food resources, the temperature of the pile will not cool.
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Often when anaerobic conditions occur, the pile “never cools”. If the pile remains at 140 to 150 for months
and months, this is a clear indication that the pile is not compost, and should be considered putrefying
organic matter (POM).
Do not use putrefied organic matter to make compost tea, and do not expect any of the benefits discussed
relative to good compost to occur if POM is used.
Compost should contain a maximum diversity of many types of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes. If
water movement through the compost is adequate to pull the organisms from the surfaces of the compost,
but not crush the organisms, the microbes in the compost will be extracted into the tea solution. Higher
quality compost will have a more diverse microbial population, resulting in greater diversity in the compost
tea.
Clearly, compost and compost tea become even more critical, as sources of the indigenous beneficials
disappear from the landscape.
COMPOST TEA ORGANISMS
The “Good Guys” or beneficial organisms – including bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes – are
present in good compost and therefore will be present in compost tea. Species diversity may be as high as
25,000 species to as many as half a million species in a gram of compost or tea. DNA methods for
assessing species diversity of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes will be the way to determine the
actual number. Fingerprinting methods sound promising for assessing diversity. Plate count methods are
not useful for assessing diversity. Currently, a combination of selective media, enzymes and fingerprinting
can serve to determine whether 20 specific beneficial species are present or not. In this way, you can
determine whether your tea includes the beneficial organisms that you need. If they are lacking, then you
would know to add them back to your compost or compost tea. More advances are forth-coming in this
area, however.
Bacteria.
Good compost teas have on the order of a billion bacteria per ml (108 to 109 bacteria per ml), most of which
are beneficial to plant growth. Highly aerobic teas can contain even greater numbers, on the order of 1010
to 1011 bacteria per ml. Beneficial bacteria compete with disease organisms for food, for space, and for
infection sites on plant surfaces.
Since coverage of leaf or root surfaces by the tea organisms is what is important, these numbers mean that
100 times more tea from a bucket method might be needed to achieve the same results as from one of the
commercial units that make good compost tea.
Bacteria make glues that hold them strongly on leaf, root or soil surfaces. This is why nutrients held in
their biomass don’t leach and will not be lost from soil or leaf surfaces. Given this fact, it is thus necessary
to apply enough energy to compost to physically pull these organisms from compost particles into the tea.
Some of the initial testing with the Microb-Brewer was conducted to determine the strength of the vortex in
the liquid that would remove by not destroy organisms. If too much force is applied, the organisms will be
killed by impact on the surfaces of the brewer. This type of testing must be performed with other
machines, to make certain the physical blending performed does not macerate or disintegrate some of the
organisms, but is enough to pull the organisms from the compost.
Once pulled from the compost, the organisms must be able to pass through the mesh of the compost
container, and must survive in the tea. If conditions drop below aerobic levels, many of the beneficial
bacteria will not be able to grow, and some will be killed or put into dormant condition. If there are no
12
foods to feed the beneficials, they will become dormant in the tea, and not increase in numbers in the tea.
The desired conditions in the tea are aerobic, with good levels of foods to grow beneficial organisms.
Figure 4. Fungi (strands), bacteria (tiny dots and rafts of dots), ciliate cysts (large circles) in a compost
tea.
How to Measure Bacteria and Fungi
Direct Methods are the best way to assess both active and total bacterial and fungal biomass in any
material. The organisms are viewed and counted and there is no question that what is being counted is the
organism of interest. There is no requirement to know what food resource is needed to grow the bacteria or
fungi, what temperature the organisms grow at, what humidity is required by the different species, etc. as
there is with plate count methods
It is impossible for a single set of incubation conditions to meet the growth requirements for all the
different species of bacteria or fungi. For example, a plate count assessment cannot enumerate both heatloving
and cold-loving bacteria species, wet-loving and dry-loving bacterial species, species requiring high
N and those requiring low N. Direct methods can assess total and active biomass of bacteria or fungi in any
kind of material.
No incubation step is required using direct methods. There is no “guess” required with respect to dilution.
Samples are finished within several hours of arrival in the lab so if a different dilution is needed, the
original sample can be used. The actual sizes of the bacteria and fungi in the sample are measured, so no
guesswork about bacterial and fungal biomass occurs with this method.
Plate Methods are best for identifying SPECIFIC species, using selective growth media. When
technological methods for performing direct count methods were not particularly reliable, perhaps 20 to 30
years ago, plate counts were used to estimate total or active bacterial or fungal numbers in soil. However,
no one particular type of medium can grow all the different bacteria or fungi that occur in any
environmental sample, including compost or compost tea. Consider that the microorganisms in soil, or tea,
or compost, grow at many, many different temperatures, use many different foods, and a whole range of
moistures and humidity’s. These variations are not mimicked in nay way by the growth conditions used in
a laboratory. In order to understand true diversity in any sample, plate methods would have to use several
thousand kinds of food resources, incubated at each temperature, each moisture, each humidity and each
oxygen concentration of interest.
In plate counts, ten-fold dilutions are typically prepared and the quantifier has to “guess” which dilutions to
plate on the medium chosen. Plates are then incubated at one temperature, one moisture, one humidity, one
set of limited carbon, nitrogen, P, K, Fe, Ca, etc. concentration. The plate that has a “countable” number of
colonies, between 30 and 300 per plate, is counted at 1 and 2 weeks, but how many of the total bacteria
13
present were missed? How can you possibly know which ones were active in the conditions of your soil?
Microbiology texts discuss problems with plate count methods (i.e., Sylvia et al., 1999). Plate counts
always underestimate the number of actual bacteria present, but what is not known is by how much
numbers are under-estimated - 2-fold, 10-fold, 1000-fold, or more?
Plate count methods are therefore NOT useful for assessing species diversity, or species richness.
Why Are Bacteria Needed in Tea?
Bacteria occupy most of the leaf or root surface and thus are most effective at consuming the food
resources that the disease-causing organisms would otherwise consume. Bacteria occupy most of the
infection sites, which would otherwise be occupied by the disease-causing organisms. In soil, bacteria have
additional functions beyond consuming foods and occupying infection sites, they also retain nutrients (N, P,
S, Ca, Fe, etc) in their biomass (given the C:N ratio of bacteria, they cannot mineralize N, they have to be
immobilizing N in their biomass – the exception is nitrifying or ammonifying bacteria which use N as
electron acceptors or donators, but these are unusual and very special processes which occur in particular
conditions in soil). Bacteria also decompose plant-toxic materials and plant residues (especially the simple,
easy to use substrates), and build soil aggregate structure. The smallest “building-blocks” of soil structure
are built by beneficial bacteria. Without these bacteria, the bricks to make the “soil house” will not occur
and further development of soil structure will not happen. Water-holding capacity can never be improved
and soil will remain compacted, if the organisms are not present and functioning in soil, or in compost.
Bacteria build the bricks that allow passageways for diffusion of oxygen into, and carbon dioxide out of,
the soil.
Thus, it is critical to have bacteria in high enough numbers, and with as great a diversity of species as
possible, so that some portion of these bacteria can function within existing environmental conditions and
suppress various cultivars or races of disease-causing organisms. Most of the bacteria added in the tea will
not be the right ones at the moment you add the tea, so they go to sleep in the soil, and wait for the right
conditions that will allow them to wake up, suppress their competitors, retain nutrients, decompose
residues, and build soil aggregate structure. But of the tens of thousands of species of bacteria added in tea,
several hundred will match the growth conditions present at this moment, and suppress disease, retain
nutrients, decompose residues and build soil aggregates. What are the names of these bacteria? We don’t
know. We can’t grow them on ANY culture medium; plate count methods cannot be used to assess these
organisms.
Do we have to know the names of each of these bacterial species in order to have them work for us? No.
Until science develops ways to inexpensively identify them, just get the critters in tea working without
worrying about their names. Let plants select the organisms needed. The plant feeds those organisms that
prevent diseases around its roots, leaves, stems, etc. The plant feeds bacteria and fungi, so that protozoa
and nematodes will have something to eat, and result in nutrients being made available in the form plants
require. The plant feeds bacteria and fungi so they will build soil structure, keeping oxygen diffusion
flowing smoothly, as well as making the water-holding pores in soil.
Wise agriculturalists will learn to stop killing beneficial organisms with toxic chemicals and let the
organisms in soil do the work nature designed them to do.
Fungi.
There should be 2 - 10 micrograms of active fungal biomass per ml, and 5 - 20 μg total fungal biomass per
ml in good compost tea. Decent compost, which should contain 150 to 200 μg of total fungal biomass per
gram, contains both simple extractable carbon sources (sugars, proteins, amino acids, simple organic acids)
as well as more complex fungal foods (complex amino-sugars, complex proteins, hormones, siderophores,
complex carbohydrates, phenols, tannins, and humic acids). Simple carbon sources are easier to extract
than more complex molecules, but fungi require complex molecules as their food resource.
Energy must be provided during tea-brewing to extract complex molecules. Complex molecules are needed
so fungi have something to grow on in the tea. Fungi also have to be extracted from the compost, which
means the aggregate structures that fungi form must be broken, and the fungal strands teased free into the
14
tea solution. This is tricky, to provide enough energy to disintegrate aggregates and to break fungal strands,
but not destroy them.
Why Are Fungi Needed in Tea?
Just as with bacteria, certain fungi compete extremely well with disease-causing organisms. The foods
added to tea should help these fungi. Materials high in inorganic nitrogen are not wise additions to tea,
since high nitrogen levels help disease-causing organisms grow rapidly. Fungi and bacteria often compete
with each other for food, space, oxygen, water, etc, so a bacterial tea tends to reduce fungal growth and
vice versa. Plants generally require either bacterial-dominated, or fungal-dominated soils because the
microbes control nutrient cycling and the FORM of the available nutrients. For example, most trees do
NOT do well with nitrate. Nitrate/nitrite tends to select for disease conditions along the roots. Thus
ammonium, requiring pH levels lower than 7, and supported by the metabolites produced by fungi, is a
better choice for trees.
Fungi tend to occupy only 5 - 20% of the leaf surfaces, but appear to be very important for competition
with disease-causing organisms. One reason why applying a single bacterial species to control blossom rot
doesn’t work is because the environmental conditions may not favor the growth or survival of that single
species. Or fungal interactions may be more important under those specific conditions. Beneficial fungi
may be needed to consume the exudates that plant leaf surfaces, stems, blossoms, etc., produce, so there is
no food to allow the disease-causing organisms to germinate and/or grow on the leaf surface. Infection
sites on the leaves may need to be occupied by beneficial fungi so that disease-causing organisms cannot
infect the plant.
In soil, fungi have additional functions beyond protecting plant surfaces from non-beneficial organism
growth, by competing for nutrients, space and occupying infection sites. These additional functions
include:
1. retention of nutrients (N, P, S, Ca, Fe, etc) in fungal biomass (the C:N ratio of fungi means that fungi
cannot possibly be mineralizing N, they have to be immobilizing N in their biomass).
2. retention of micronutrients in fungal biomass - fungi are the major holders of Ca, at least in soils we
have tested,
3. decomposition of plant-toxic materials and plant residues (especially more recalcitrant, less easy to use
substrates), and
4. building soil aggregate structure. The visible aggregates that are seen in soil are built by fungi by
binding together the “bricks” made by bacteria, organic matter, root hairs, fecal pellets provided by soil
arthropods, etc. Without fungi, visible aggregate formation would not occur as often, and further
development of soil structure would not occur. Soil would remain compacted, because fungi build the
hallways and passageways between aggregates that allow oxygen to diffuse into the soil, and carbon
dioxide to diffuse out of the soil.
5. improvement of water-holding capacity by building structure in soil.
Thus, it is critical to have fungi in high enough biomass and with as great diversity of beneficial species for
the plant as possible to be present, so that at least some species of beneficial fungi will be functioning
within the existing environmental conditions. It is the fungal biomass that is most rapidly destroyed by
continuous plowing. Fungal biomass is typically lacking in any field that has been plowed more than 10 to
15 times. Thus, beneficial fungi are critical components to return to the soil.
Of the thousands of species of fungi added in tea, the conditions in the soil will match the conditions that
are best for only a limited set of fungal species to grow and perform their functions. Which set of fungi will
this be? What are their names? We don’t know. Typically, we can’t grow them on ANY culture medium;
there is no plate count method that can enumerate them. We can detect their presence using DNA analysis
and molecular approaches, but we then cannot match their function to their DNA sequence.
Do we have to know the names of each of these fungal species in order to get them to work for us? Until
methods are available to identify them and give them names, that isn’t possible. So, just get the full
diversity of fungi back and let the exudates plants produce select for desired species. Don’t kill beneficial
fungi with toxic chemicals, especially fungicides, or too high levels of inorganic fertilizers.
15
Figure 5. Basidiomycete fungi (dark brown) with clamp connections growing in brown amorphous soil
organism matter. Small dots in the picture are bacteria. Magnification is 250 times actual.
Protozoa.
Three factors are important for protozoan extraction:
1. Breaking apart aggregates so protozoa can be extracted from these previously protected places.
2. Supplying energy to pull the protozoa off surfaces, but not kill them.
3. Minimizing brewing time during which protozoa are subject to changes in pressure that results
in cytolysis, or breakage, of individuals.
Protozoa eat bacteria, releasing nutrients that stimulate the growth of bacteria, fungi, and plants, if plants
are present. So, when scientists say “bacteria mineralize N in soil”, what is REALLY happening is that
protozoa mineralize N as they consume bacteria.
With time, protozoa will increase in number in the tea, but when brewing times are short, there is no time
for reproduction to occur. For example, a 24-hour brew time is not enough time for an increase in numbers,
and only the protozoa extracted directly from the compost will be present in the tea. For short-term tea
makers, this means use of good compost is critical in order to extract the protozoa from the compost, since
growth will not be possible during the extraction time. Teas that are brewed longer can have protozoa grow
in the tea. For example, in a three days tea brew cycle, protozoa could multiply, giving a 3 to 6 times
increase in numbers.
Flagellates and amoebae do not tolerate reduced oxygen conditions well. If the tea becomes anaerobic at
any time, these groups of protozoa will be killed. Thus flagellates and amoebae are good indicators of
aerobic conditions – if their numbers are low, anaerobic conditions or extreme mixing pressures are
indicated.
Ciliates, on the other hand, tolerate anaerobic conditions, and indeed, apparently prefer to feed on anaerobic
bacteria. High ciliate numbers in tea, or soil, or compost are indicative that anaerobic conditions occurred
sometime during the production cycle, although conditions may not be anaerobic at the time of sampling.
Anaerobic conditions could have occurred in the PAST, and no longer be a problem.
Immature compost most likely will not have a decent set of protozoa, which therefore cannot be extracted
into the tea. Compost needs to cool to at least 125° F (50° C) before most protozoa will start to reproduce
normally. Thus, a pile should cool at least 1 week, without turning, after falling below 125° F (50° C) to
allow the protozoa to grow and reach minimum numbers (20,000 per gram dry weight of compost)
throughout the compost pile.
16
Nematodes.
Like protozoa, nearly all the nematodes in the compost will be extracted in good tea making machines
because enough energy is applied to the compost to pull these organisms out of the compost. Dripping
water through compost is not adequate for extraction, however. Good compost normally contains fifty to
several hundred beneficial nematodes per gram, which can be extracted into the tea. All these nematodes
should be beneficial; only poor compost would contain root-feeding nematodes.
Nematodes play a number of different roles in soil, and it is important to recognize that while one group of
nematodes is detrimental to plant growth, most nematodes in soil are beneficial for plant growth. There are
four major functional groups of nematodes in soil:
• Plant-feeders are the “bad guys”, and consume root material, reducing plant growth and yield,
• Bacterial-feeders consume bacteria, releasing N, P, S, etc which are then available for plant
uptake,
• Fungal-feeders consume fungi, releasing N, P, S, etc which are available for plant uptake, and
• Predatory nematodes consume other nematodes and keep the population numbers of the bad
guys, and the good guys, under control. Too many bacterial-feeders could reduce bacterial
populations below the level needed to suppress disease, retain nutrients, decompose residues, or
build soil aggregates. Thus predators are important controls on the foodweb system.
Compost that has reached high enough temperatures for long enough (131F or 55C for three full days in all
parts of the pile), or been processed completely by earthworms (surface contact, or passage through the
nematode digestive system) will not contain root-feeding nematodes. Care is needed to choose compost
that is mature in order to have a good set of beneficial nematodes in the compost. Awareness of postproduction
contamination is also required.
Beneficial nematodes do not start to grow in a compost pile until after temperature drops back to less than
approximately 115° F (45° C). Both predatory and most fungal-feeding nematodes are killed if the pile is
turned too often. Thus, the pile has to mature, unturned, at least two to three weeks AFTER temperature
has dropped below 115° F (45° C) in order for there to even be a hope that it will contain adequate
nematode numbers.
Mycorrhizal fungi
These fungi do not grow in tea solutions, although spores and hyphae will be extracted into the solution
from the compost. The heating process during composting often kills the spores, so although present, they
will not be viable. It is usually of some benefit to add an inoculum of mycorrhizal spores to the final tea
solution when the tea is to be used for soil drench or root applications. The food resources present in tea
may cause mycorrhizal spores to germinate after a few days, but if the germinated spores do not find active
roots within 24 to 48 hours of germination, they will die. Therefore, spores should be added to the tea just
before application to the crop, not at the beginning of a tea brew.
Species Composition of Bacteria, Fungi, Protozoa and Nematodes
Species diversity in tea is dependent on diversity in the compost. If there is poor diversity in the compost,
the tea will not give the benefits that would result with a healthy diversity of species. Healthy compost has
between 15,000 to 25,000 species of bacteria per gram (based on DNA sequence more different than the
sequence difference between human beings and chimpanzees, for example), but the DNA analysis required
to establish the set of species in highly diverse compost versus the number of species in not-highly diverse
compost – or compost tea - awaits further work.
In a study using plate methods, performed by the Soil Microbial Biomass Service (SMBS), every
morphological type and every species that occurred in compost was found in the compost tea. Some of the
bacterial species extracted will grow in the tea solution, provided the correct food resources are added or
present. It is unlikely, though, that all the food resources for all bacterial species will be present in even the
best compost tea solution. Therefore, this is a selective step. It is important that the food resources in the tea
are selected for beneficial species, and not pathogens.
Diverse sets of bacterial species will control pathogen growth. Most pathogens cannot compete well with
17
beneficial species. Therefore, by maximizing bacterial and fungal species diversity, selection will be
against the growth of pathogenic and pest species.
In the study performed by SMBS, fungal species and biomass were found in much smaller quantities in the
tea than in the compost. Extraction efficiency for fungi was not great using tea-making methods. In
addition, the fungi extracted did not grow well in tea because they were shattered and killed by mixing and
agitation. All protozoan and nematode species found in the compost were found in the tea (SMBS study,
1993).
Pathogens in Tea
E. coli is just an indicator of fecal contamination. Over the last century, total coliforms, fecal coliforms,
fecal E. coli, and E. coli O157 have been used to indicate human health problems with water and soil. Of
these groups, which ones are truly of no concern (you have them on your hands, skin surface, any door
handle recently opened, in the roots of plants, etc), of some concern, of significant concern and which can
kill people?
Total coliforms are found in a wide range of habitats, and are not of concern, except to say that a fecal E.
coli test should be performed. Wash your hands and your food to remove this bacterial load.
Fecal coliforms exist in animal digestive systems (birds, snakes, rabbits, humans, cows, etc), and are
important for proper digestion. Fecal coliforms occur wherever people are present, or where animals are
housed. For example, benches and door handles can be good reservoirs, since people touch these objects
all the time, and sooner or later someone who has not washed their hands after visiting the restroom will
leave a load of fecal coliforms on these objects. Instead of vowing never to touch these things again, vow
to wash your hands before you eat. These bacteria are secondary invaders, and only people already sick or
stressed by something else will succumb to fecal coliforms. Typically, if you have been getting a normal
set of coliforms in soil into your food, there is little risk from these organisms. BUT if fecal coliforms are
present in food, or a food preparation area, it means some source of contamination is occurring, and should
be tracked down and removed.
Fecal E. coli presence indicates, however, that a problem exists. E. coli doesn’t survive all that well or for
that long in aerobic, non-fecal conditions. That’s why it is a good indicator of a problem. If fecal E. coli is
surviving, then it is possible that the true human pathogens such as Shigella, Salmonella, Pasteurella, etc
are also surviving. If E. coli can survive, then so too might the true human pathogens.
But listen carefully to what was just written. If E. coli can be detected, then the true bad guys MIGHT also
be present. Fecal E. coli presence is an indicator that the possibility exists, and that sooner or later, there
will be a problem. So, when fecal E. coli shows up on the selective medium, it is time to start investigating
where the contamination is coming from. What is going wrong? Why are cleanliness procedures not
taking care of the problem?
Ask for the results of E. coli testing when you buy compost to put on your vegetables or food crops. If you
apply a source of questionable material anytime 120 days before you are going to eat those vegetables
without washing them, there’s a possibility that E. coli could still be present, especially if your crop
production system does not have adequate aerobic organisms to out-compete the coliforms. But, a good
washing will likely take care of the problem, both on your hands and on the surface of the vegetable.
Fresh vegetables sold in containers are the place where problems are likely to occur, because if the
vegetables have a high load of contamination, the bacteria have a chance to grow while they are on the
shelf, in the package. There is therefore, a much more stringent set of rules for those processes. A less
stringent set of rules is required for back-yard gardeners. This then means we need to make sure that local
gardening education programs such as Master Gardeners teach this information and keep up with new
information over the years.
If contamination in compost is found, an investigation should then occur, to determine where breakdowns
in processing are occurring. The questions would be:
18
1. Are proper temperatures developing during the composting process? Ten to 14 days at 131 degree F or
higher.
2. Is re-contamination of the pile occurring? If material rolls off the pile, and doesn’t heat properly, but is
then added back to the pile, contamination can occur, especially if the set of organisms in the compost
was not fully active and functioning.
3. Where is the contamination coming from? Quite often composting operations forget that machinery
that contacts fresh manure will carry the disease organisms into the finished material, if the machinery
isn’t cleaned before it is used with finished product. There should be a separate truck or loader used at
the beginning of the process with the raw materials and a different loader or truck for the finished
product, or re-contamination will occur.
The problem needs to be found, fixed and then the piles re-tested for indicator organisms. When buying
compost from a commercial source, you should ask for their E. coli data, to document that they are at least
monitoring the pathogen problem. You should probably also ask for a report on the active bacteria and
active fungi, because that’s part of the protection system as well.
Only one sub-species of E. coli are truly human pathogens. The people in danger from this sub-species are
those with immature or stressed immune systems. If E. coli O157 is on or in their food, death can be a
result. Only fecal material from people or animals sick with this pathogen contains this pathogen, but there
can be animals with sub-lethal illness that can spread the pathogen if care is not taken in the processing of
the compost. Thus, compost used to make compost tea should be processed correctly and tested to make
certain no contamination of the tea is occurring. While most E. coli contamination will be removed by
proper tea aeration, high loads of E. coli will not be removed. Thus, making sure that the compost is not
contaminated is a must.
E. coli and aerobic conditions. There is some confusion about the habitat that allows E. coli to grow. No
single condition selects against or for E. coli, or any other human pathogen. Each pathogen has a particular
set of conditions within which it does best. Those conditions must be met in order for the disease organism
to grow to high enough numbers to cause a problem if ingested by a person.
What are the conditions that select for human pathogen growth in general, and then in particular? All
human pathogens grow much better when oxygen is limiting. Just consider the habitat in which E. coli,
Salmonella and Shigella generally grow – inside warm bodies, where oxygen is limiting and there are
sufficient food resources, of the right kind. How limiting? In general, below 5.5 to 6 mg oxygen per liter
of liquid. But some don’t grow until oxygen reaches even lower levels, 4.5 mg, or maybe 5.2 mg.
The “indicator” organism, E. coli, makes enzymes that are more capable of taking nutrients away from
other bacteria when the habitat is oxygen limiting. If E. coli can grab food away from other organisms,
then the other bacteria can’t grow, both because of limited oxygen and because they can’t get food.
Competition is limited and E. coli flourishes.
Perhaps not adding any of the sugars that E. coli can use could be one approach, but then the growth of the
competing organisms would be limited in aerobic conditions. Not adding sugar is the incorrect choice.
Maintain aerobic conditions, allow lots of aerobic organisms to grow. In aerobic conditions, enzymes work
better than those of the human pathogens or indicators of potential pathogen growth.
Compost and compost tea need to have BOTH aerobic conditions AND high diversity of active organisms
in order to be a habitat that does not allow disease organisms to grow. If the growth of other organisms is
suppressed, then E. coli can grow aerobically. This is why in lab cultures, when we test for E. coli, the
medium contains foods selective for just E. coli. The medium often contains antibiotics which kill
competing bacteria and fungi. The temperature best for E. coli growth is also maintained in lab culture
conditions. A stain is used to select against other organisms, as well as to detect the pH change that occurs
when E. coli grows. But these lab conditions are a far cry from the real world. In healthy soil, compost or
compost tea, there are many other organisms, which in aerobic conditions, grab food away from E. coli,
take up the space E. coli needs to grow, and consume E. coli.
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Table 1. Can Brewing Tea Remove E. coli ? Composted manure high in E. coli but also high in beneficial
bacteria and fungi was used as the compost to brew a tea. The aeration and growth of both the beneficial
bacteria and the beneficial fungi out-competed E. coli. The protozoa in the brew also consumed E. coli
(along with other bacteria) to drop E. coli numbers to less than what is allowed in irrigation water. E. coli
was assessed using Coli-Blue medium, a standard EPA approved method. Results are the mean of three
samples.
Material
Tested
Active Bacterial
Biomass
(μg)
Total Bacterial
Biomass
(μg)
Active Fungal
Biomass
(μg)
Total
Fungal
Biomass
(μg)
E. coli
(# CFU)
Composted
Manure (per
gram dry
material)
10.5
13,455
0.35
0.56
44,000
SD 1.5 2,446 0.29 0.44 0
Comments
on manure
Low activity
using FDA
staining, most of
the bacteria were
growing
anaerobically
Lots of bacteria
present, most of
which were
anaerobic
Highly
variable,
because such
low levels in
the anaerobic
manure
High
variation,
it’s hard to
find fungi
where there
are so few.
Really high
numbers of
E. coli,
anaerobic
conditions
Compost
Tea (per ml
of tea)
18.9
722
1.33
5.28
2.7
SD 1.9 53.5 0.38 2.45 0
Comments
on tea
Mostly aerobic
bacteria
Bacterial
biomass much
reduced
Activity within
desired range;
aerobic
Good totals
only
possible if
aerobic
Below
irrigation
water levels
for E. coli
SD means standard deviation of the sample values, a measure of variation in the results. The
variation should be less than 10% of the mean.
In aerobic habitats, with high numbers of beneficial organisms out-competing and consuming the
pathogens originally present, E. coli will not survive, much less grow. Presumably, if these conditions are
encouraged, reduction in E. coli and other human pathogens can be expected. E. coli does not long survive
in aerobic habitats with lots of competitors and consumers present. That fact should be used more
extensively in organic production.
Does the above table GUARANTEE that E. coli has been killed? No. Clearly there are fecal E. coli left in
the tea, but from a regulatory point-of-view, concentration was brought to below the risk level for vegetable
production. Growers of fresh vegetables for market need to understand these interactions, to assure safety
for their clients. Monitoring and checking the compost is necessary.
Consider these points when trying to determine if compost or tea should be checked:
1. If E. coli is not present in the compost, there will be no E. coli in the tea, no matter how much
molasses or sugar is added. (May 2003 BioCycle).
2. If there are low E. coli numbers in the compost, and if adequate aeration is maintained, E. coli will
not survive in the tea.
3. If E. coli is present in the “compost” but too much food was added in the tea and the tea drops into
reduced oxygen concentration zones, then E. coli MAY be detected, depending on the growth of
competing organisms.
4. If there are high numbers of E. coli in the compost, it may take more than 24 hours of aeration to
20
reduce E. coli numbers to below detectable levels.
5. If the tea maker is not cleaned properly, the biofilm will form a habitat for E. coli to out compete
other bacteria and E. coli will be detected until the machine is cleaned properly.
In another experiment, E. coli-free compost (documented with “Coli-blue” MPN medium, standard EPA
methods) was used to make tea in 5 gal KIS brewers. No matter how much molasses was used (from 0.1%
to 5%), along with kelp, E. coli was not detected in the tea.
If E. coli were not present in any starting material, and were not present in the tea brewer, then there can be
no E. coli in the compost tea, regardless of whether sugar of any kind was added. This clearly refutes
statements that have been made suggesting that if sugar is used, then E. coli will grow in compost tea.
If the compost used was actually putrefying organic matter, which is a habitat for the growth of human
pathogens, and molasses was used in the compost tea, then it cannot be surprising that E. coli would be
detected in the compost tea. But when the tea brew was well-aerated, and conditions were not correct for
E. coli growth, no or very low levels of E. coli were detected in the compost tea.
Fungal Pathogens.
Normally, aerobic conditions in the compost tea maker, the fact that humic acids and complex food
resources select against fungal pathogens, and competition from beneficial organisms prevent the growth of
disease-causing organisms, particularly fungi, in well-made compost tea.
Ascari or eggs of helminth worms can be present in compost, but they are rarely small enough to escape the
compost bag. Mesh sizes of greater than 30 mesh retains these eggs. They do not survive or grow in water,
so if they are extracted into the tea, they do not increase in number. Properly made compost should prevent
these from being a concern. If the compost was treated properly to kill E. coli, then these parasites should
be killed as well. Weed seed will not be extracted into compost tea either.
However, if the compost was not properly composted, and if the tea lacks proper aeration, then fungal
pathogens can be present and grow in the compost tea. Pathogens may find a perfect home in felt or fabric
bags, if they are not washed and cleaned properly from brew to brew. Tea machine makers should test their
equipment for these problems and warn customers of these possible situations. In the best of all worlds, the
tea machine maker would change the compost bag so their customers would not have to even consider this
problem.
Worm compost
Worm compost contains worm castings plus material that did not pass through the worm digestive system,
but contacted the outside of the worms. Typically the organisms inside worms add plant growth hormones,
enzymes and diversity that are not in as high concentration in thermal compost. If the worms have been
mis-treated, these beneficial materials will be lacking from the worm compost. Therefore, worms have to
be considered to be very small livestock, and must be managed correctly to obtain maximum benefit.
Maintaining Aerobic Conditions in Teas
How can aerobic conditions be maintained in compost tea, to assure that the beneficial aspects of compost
tea will remain intact and not be lost to anaerobic conditions developing?
The following are some ways you can assess anaerobic conditions:
1. Aerate compost tea sufficiently. This information should be determined by the machine
manufacturer.
2. Measure oxygen, or use a tea maker where the amount of compost, food resource and growth of
the organisms at different temperatures and air pressure (elevation) have been studied and the
information on how to alter the food resources or aeration rate is given with the tea brewer.
3. Use your nose to detect bad smells. But production of these gases may not reach a level your nose
can detect unless you accumulate the smells. Fill half a clean plastic bottle with tea, seal, and
incubate overnight at ambient temperature. Open the bottle (carefully!) and smell. If it smells
21
bad, you aren’t aerating enough. If the tea smells ok, then there is most likely enough aeration and
not too much food in the tea recipe.
If the tea smells bad, then it probably is bad. Put this tea on something that will not be harmed by the
toxins potentially present, for example, an area of weeds, an area with known plant diseases, bare soil that
needs organic matter. Let the area recover before growing any plant in the area. This typically requires
120 days if the soil is quite poor and does not have an adequate Foodweb. If the food web is in good shape,
recovery (E. coli or other pathogens no longer detectable) can occur within 3 days.
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HOW TO USE COMPOST TEA
Every chemical-based pesticide, fumigant, herbicide and fertilizer tested harms or outright kills some part
of the beneficial life that exists in soil, even when applied at rates recommended by their manufacturers.
Reviews of these effects are in the scientific literature (e.g., see Ingham, 1985). However, less than half of
the existing active ingredients used in pesticides have been tested for their effects on soil organisms. This is
an oversight that should perhaps be dealt with by a comprehensive government testing program.
Compost teas, correctly made and applied, improve the life in the soil and on plant surfaces. With time and
continued use, compost and compost tea of a quality designed to improve the set of organisms relative to
the plant species desired, will increase the number of individuals and the species diversity of the
communities of leaf, stem, flower, seed-surface and soil microorganisms, and will select against diseasecausing
or pest organisms. Thus use of compost tea is indicated when the set of organisms in soil or on
plant surfaces is below optimal levels for the plant life desired.
Compost and compost tea add a huge diversity of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes. Typically, if
the compost is well-made, beneficial organisms are present in the compost, not diseases or pests. Thus,
making or obtaining good compost is critical.
Standards for compost production and for the biological components of compost relative to the
requirements of the plant are given on the SFI website (www.soilfoodweb.com). The beneficial organisms
and the soluble foods to feed them must be extracted from the compost and survive in the tea in order to
obtain the full benefit of a healthy compost tea.
Potential Benefits of Compost Tea
The whole set of beneficial organisms must be extracted and survive in tea. Soluble foods must be
extracted or added to tea so the beneficial organisms can grow. If all these things occur, then the benefits
of using compost tea for foliar or root applications can include the following:
1. pathogens cannot infect the plant tissues because the specific infection sites on the plant surface are
already occupied by beneficial organisms;
2. disease-causing organisms have no food and cannot grow because the exudates produced by the plant
are used by the beneficial species present on the plant tissues before the disease-causing organisms
arrive;
3. spaces on the surfaces of plant are physically occupied by beneficial organisms. The pests and
pathogens cannot reach the plant surface, and disease cannot occur;
4. plants take up nutrients in the tea needed to allow them to resist infection more rapidly because the
beneficial biology influences leaf surface gas concentrations, causing stomates to open sooner and for
a longer time;
5. food resources in the tea allow beneficial microorganisms to grow, protecting plant surfaces;
6. nutrients are retained on the leaf surface and become available to the plant with time, improving plant
nutrition and health;
7. soil structure is improved and more oxygen reaches the root system, preventing toxins from being
produced in the soil, increasing plant health;
8. water-retention in soil is improved, reducing water use by up to 50% in two years in some cases;
9. rooting depth of the plants is increased, increasing the nutrients the plant can access;
10. decomposition of plant materials and toxins is increased;
11. the nutritional quality of plant produce is enhanced;
12. worker exposure to potentially harmful chemicals is reduced;
13. chemical-based pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers are no longer used, and beneficial microorganisms
in the ecosystem are no longer killed or harmed;
14. chemical input and labor costs are reduced;
15. on-farm recycling of waste is enhanced;
16. landfill space requirements can be reduced;
17. plant growth can be improved.
23
Not all of these benefits will be observed in every case of tea application, perhaps because the compost did
not contain the necessary organisms. The necessary organisms may not have been extracted from the
compost, or did not grow in the tea or may have been killed during removal from the compost or during the
growth process. Other reasons for lack of the necessary organisms in the tea may be that toxic materials
were leached from poor compost, or the compost became anaerobic and killed the aerobes during the
brewing cycle, or some other factor was not optimal.
Application of Compost Tea
There are two different, but not mutually exclusive, ways of applying compost tea: as a soil drench, or as a
foliar spray.
1) F oliar applications:
a) Apply beneficial organisms to plant aboveground surfaces, so disease-causing organisms
cannot find infection sites or food resources (i.e., pro-biotic approach).
b) Provide nutrients as a foliar feed.
2) S oil applications:
a) Help develop the biological barrier around roots (i.e., pro-biotic approach),
b) Provide nutrients for roots to improve plant growth,
c) Improve life in the soil in general, with effects on soil structure, water holding, root
depth,
d) Improve nutrient cycling, nutrient retention and disease-suppressiveness.
Foliar applications
These are applied typically with no dilution, although water is often used as a “carrier”. Concentration of
organisms in the tea is critical, so careful attention to maintaining that concentration is important. If the tea
is diluted, inadequate coverage on leaf surfaces may occur.
If tea is within the desired range indicated on the Soil Foodweb report (see following sections on beneficial
organisms in tea), then it can used at 5 gal/ac (50L/HA). If organism numbers are greater than this, then the
tea can be used at a lower rate, relative to how much it can be diluted based on getting adequate coverage
on the leaf surfaces.
If disease is visible on leaf or blossoms surfaces, then tea should be sprayed directly, with no dilution, on
the affected area, without regard to a per acre amount. Drenching the affected plant tissue and immediate
surroundings, where the foliar disease organism may have spread, should be performed as rapidly as
possible, typically within 24 hours of observing the first evidence of a problem.
Generally on seedlings and small plants, such as tomato seedlings, peppers, basil, etc, five gallons of tea to
the acre (50 liters/HA) every one to two weeks through a disease infection period give excellent protection
of plant surfaces.
For larger plants, more tea is required because of the greater foliar area to cover. For example, a single 25-
foot (8 meter) tall oak tree may require 25 gallons (250 liters) of tea to adequately cover the leaf surfaces.
Generally, apply 5 gallons of tea per ac for each 6 feet in height of the plants. Thus, an acre of 25 foot tall
trees would require 25 gallons of tea (5 gallons for the 0 to 6 feet height, another 5 for the 6 to 12 foot
height, another 5 gal for the 12 to 18 foot height, another 5 gallons for the 18 to 24 foot height, and another
5 gallons for the top foot, or 25 gallons per acre). Most people err on the side of too generous, because as
far as we are aware, you do not have to worry about over-application. Under-application can lead to
problems if the organisms in the tea are inadequate.
The critical factor with respect to foliar applications is coverage of the leaf surface by the organisms in the
tea. One reason coverage is important is that beneficial organisms must consume the leaf surface exudates,
leaving no food for the disease-causing organisms so these organisms are unable to germinate or grow.
Another reason is that all the infection sites on the leaf need to be occupied by beneficial organisms, so no
site allowing infection is left unprotected.
24
Without assessment of leaf coverage at some time during the season, there may be serious problems
preventing adequate organisms in the tea (tea quality) or adequate coverage on the leaves (leaf coverage).
Testing is necessary. If the leaf is covered adequately by beneficial organisms, there can be no colonization
of the plant surface by disease-causing organisms. Does this always work? Given adequate coverage of the
plant’s surface, the answer is yes.
The plant surface must be assessed for adequate coverage in order to make certain the tea contained
the required set of organisms and that these organisms cover the plant surface adequately.
In Recent Experimental Results section, a minimum of 60 - 70% coverage of the leaf surface was required.
A minimum of 5% of that coverage had to be beneficial fungal biomass in order to prevent disease from
establishing on leaf surfaces.
Pesticide residues in tanks, chlorine in water, too cold water either in the tea brewing or for dilution in the
spray tank, application when UV may destroy the organisms, temperatures too hot in the brewing process
or too high when spraying, and poor extraction energy are all factors that must be recognized as resulting in
poor coverage of organisms on leaf surfaces. Testing is needed.
Tea organisms on the leaf surface can be removed by rain or wind, killed by UV, or pesticide drift,
especially if the plant is not supplying adequate food resources.
Figure 6. Compost tea application to vineyard in Monroe, Oregon, as part of the USDA-SARE study on
Compost Tea Effects on Mildew and Botrytis awarded to the Sustainable Studies Institute, Eugene, Oregon
Use of a biological spreader/sticker, such as yucca, pine sap, or simply molasses, can help, but choose a
material that does not cause osmotic shock or destroy organisms. As long as the leaf material is adequately
covered with beneficial organisms, then the plant surface will remain healthy and disease cannot win in the
competition for the leaf surface. How would you know if the organisms are still there? Have a leaf
organism assay performed.
If disease appears after tea is used, consider then that something prevented adequate coverage of the leaf
surface or killed the organisms before or after they were applied. The disease may have been misdiagnosed,
and what was called a foliar leaf disease was in fact stem rot. The soil needs to have a healthy
food web to prevent stem rot and the tea should then be applied to the stem and soil around the plant, not to
the leaves. Alternatively, if pesticide residue in the sprayer killed the organisms in the tea, then disease may
occur through no fault of the conceptual approach! If a leak in the machine’s pump let oil into the tea,
organisms will be killed; or if pump pressure was too high or too low.
25
Leaf samples should be sent for analysis after the first tea spray of each season, so the quality of the tea and
coverage of the leaf is assured. As long as the leaf stays adequately covered, no problems have been
observed. If tea is applied and plant surface coverage has been shown to be adequate, and still disease takes
over, then this is a situation that requires attention because it is unusual (i.e., has not been seen before). The
author of this manual would request further interaction on this situation, because it presents a situation that
needs to be understood. What allowed diseases to be able to “win” in the competition for the leaf surface
and how can we prevent this from occurring again? This situation would present a challenge to our
understanding of why compost tea works, and figuring out how to overcome this challenge keeps us on the
cutting edge.
Soil applications
The soil needs to be inoculated with the right set of organisms, and the foods for the organisms to consume,
in order to keep beneficial organisms functioning through the year.
On a per plant basis, typically 1 liter (0.25 gallons) of tea (water can be used as a carrier if required) is
applied per 100-mm (3 inch) tall seedling when planting into the field. The foliage and soil around the plant
should be drenched by this application. A one-time application has proven adequate to prevent soil root
disease if the soil contained a reasonable food web before tea application.
If the soil does not contain an adequate food web set of organisms, then multiple applications may be
needed. For example, in strawberry fields where methyl bromide was injected before planting, 20 liters of
tea per acre (5 gallons/ac) were applied at each two week to 1-month interval to maintain soil health. This
5 gal of tea can be added in any amount of non-chlorinated water, as long as the full 5 gal of tea is applied
to the 1 acre of area.
An alternative is to apply good compost around the root systems of the plants, so soil drenches of tea may
not be necessary. As always, if disease is observed, then a tea application is immediately indicated.
How far does the tea move into the soil? It depends on the soil texture, compaction and the amount of
organic matter in the soil. The sandier the soil, the further down the tea, and the organisms in it, will move.
The heavier the clay, the more the tea stays at the surface. Organic matter can open up structure in heavy
clay, and then the tea, and the organisms, will move deeper. Organic matter usually allows the organisms
added in the tea to continue growing, so added benefit is obtained from a single application of tea with
greater organic matter in the soil. Compaction of course reduces the ability of water to move through soil,
and increases the likelihood that inadequate oxygen is present.
In the greenhouse or nursery or a field where disease has been a problem, the soil should be drenched
before planting. In pots, a drench means water should just barely begin to drip from the bottom of the pots.
Be careful that the tea does not just run along the inner surface of the pot and out the bottom of the
container. In the field, soil should be wetted to the depth of the plant’s root system. Once plants are planted,
apply tea to the foliage as well as using a soil drench. In situations where disease has been serious, saturate
the soil surface, and maintain stem and leaf coverage by tea organisms every week to two weeks to keep
the soil and plant healthy. If problems are encountered, feedback is requested, so unusual situations can be
explored and solutions found.
Generalized Approaches for Using Compost Tea
How and when do you apply compost tea? It depends on the plant, the soil, the seasonal cycle, and exactly
what it is you want to do. A few examples are given below.
Addition of compost in conjunction with compost tea needs to be considered. Properly made, aerobic
compost contains an amazing amount of nitrogen (16,000 ug N per gram of compost), phosphorus (23,000
ug/g), sulfur, calcium, and micronutrients.
When assessing the need for compost, determine the amount of compost by considering the amount of N
needed to replace the nutrients removed in the crop. The previous crop removed between 50 and 100
pounds of N per acre (residues left in the field). That means 50 to 100 pounds on N must be replaced in the
26
soil. Aerobic compost has a C:N of 20:1 and thus 2 tons up to 4 tons of compost should be adequate to
replace the N, P, K, etc. removed in the crop. Paying attention to just nitrate or ammonium is not going to
tell you what N will become available from the organic matter and the organisms also added in the
compost. These count as sources of N, if you have adequate biology present. Compost tea will also
contribute N, P,K, etc, but not usually enough to do more than give a foliar “shot-in-the-arm”.
Figure 7. Asparagus grown with an autumn application of compost (1 ton/HA) and three monthly
applications compost tea through the spring growing period. No weeds to speak of were present in the
organic area while asparagus could barely be seen for the weeds in the conventional field. The asparagus
was on average 5.5 to 6 foot tall in the organic filed, and only 4 to 4.5 feet high in the conventional field.
The yield in the organic treatment was double as compared to the conventional asparagus. Richard Prew,
Cambridge, New Zealand.
Organic, with tea
Few weeds, taller plants, no bare ground
Organic, with compost tea
Potato
In the fall, after harvest, just before fall rains or snow occur, apply enough compost to improve the soil
food web to desired ranges (1 to 5 tons/ac, or 2.5 to 12 tons/HA), but no more than 10 tons to the acre (too
much compost in one application will compact and possibly become anaerobic).
Soil chemistry should be assessed, and any nutrient deficiencies should be dealt with by adding fish, kelp or
other micronutrients into the compost or compost tea. Making sure the compost or tea brings in the proper
biology is also necessary.
Generally 10 tons of compost is much, much more than needed, but in the first year of resuscitating soil
after years of methyl bromide applications, it may be necessary to apply as much as 30 tons to the acre.
Typically, in soils not destroyed by severe chemical usage, 1 to 5 tones to the acre is reasonable.
If that many tons of good compost are not available, apply compost tea instead. It might be a good idea to
apply mulch or ground “compost” material, followed by an application of compost to inoculate the proper
biology. Typically 15 to 20 gal of compost tea per acre (150 to 200L/HA) is applied as a soil drench,
If the tea is top quality and contains more than an adequate amount of fungi, then less compost tea might be
used. But, if the compost tea lacks fungal biomass, then the amount of tea must be increased to assure
adequate fungal application. Without adequate fungi, plant residues may not decompose rapidly. Without
adequate fungi, pesticide and inorganic fertilizer applied during the summer may not properly decompose.
A good rule-of-thumb is that the residues should be half-gone within a month of harvest, if temperature and
moisture have been in reasonable ranges. If the plant residues from harvest are not half-gone within a
month, then a second application of compost tea as a soil drench is indicated.
In the first spring following conversion to sustainable growing, a second application of compost should be
27
applied, again at 15 to 20 gal/ac (150 to 200 L/HA) compost tea as a soil drench.
If the conversion to sustainable is started in the spring, no guarantees can be given with respect to success
in the first crop cycle. It is just too soon to expect, with 100% confidence that all the improvements that the
biology can supply will actually occur in the first growing season, when the biology has not had the entire
winter, or non-growing season, to establish and start the process of building soil structure.
In the spring, seed pieces should be treated with a surface spray of compost tea. If VAM colonization is
not adequate on the root surfaces, add VAM spores to the tea. VAM colonization should be monitored
each year in the fall in order to know if VAM spores will be needed.
If potato seed pieces have been treated with fungicide, then the compost tea with VAM spores should be
sprayed or dribbled onto the soil below where the seed pieces will be placed. This allows the roots to
become colonized with beneficial organisms and VAM as the roots grow out of the seed piece and through
the compost tea inoculum.
Figure 8. Applying compost tea with a jet nozzle at Jolly Farmer in New Brunswick, Canada. Almost
any nozzle will do for applying tea, as long as the nozzle opening size is larger than 400 micrometers in
diameter.
Compost Tea Application
Sept 7, 2003
At the first true leaf stage, and then again just before blossom and again just after blossom, the plants
should be treated with 5 gal/ac (50L/HA) of good, as-fungal-as-possible tea as a foliar application. If the
fungal component is too low, then increase the gallons of tea applied to make sure adequate coverage
results. Brewing and applying another tea should be considered if fungi are inadequate.
Add foliar nutrients if the plants show any signs of nutritional limitations. Organisms in the tea increase
uptake of foliar nutrients. This means the concentration of nutrients applied as inorganic fertilizers can be
sharply reduced even in the first year of conversion to biological.
After harvest, begin the cycle again.
Since diseases, root-feeding pests and foliar insects are excluded from these systems through the addition
of a healthy food web, rotation of crops will quite quickly no longer be necessary. Nutrient cycling will
begin to occur again. Diseases that were enhanced each year in the conventional management system
because of developing resistance-to-the-chemicals no longer develop. But consider that diversity is critical
to maintain a healthy food web, so variation in the foods going into the compost will continue to be
extremely important.
Monitor the soil food web annually in the fall to know what kind of compost is needed to replace the
organisms that may have been lost during the crop cycle.
28
Weather patterns can be strange, and surprises will always be part of the growing system. Monitoring the
soil food web is necessary. If plants looked diseased, then additional applications of tea may be needed,
either as soil drenches or foliar sprays. In the worst cases, fungicides or insecticides may be required to
deal with a plague situation. If used, just remember that some beneficial organisms have been harmed, and
need to be replaced or helped to be resuscitated. Use compost or compost tea to do the job of putting back
in the biology as well as some foods.
Table 2. Data from Jolly Farmer 2003 Compost Tea Potato Trial, using Russet Burbank cultivar,
Ernest Culberson field agent.
Check With Compost tea Differences
Total Yield (cwt/ac) 304 335 + 31 in tea
Market Yield (cwt/ac) 233 272 +39 in tea
Large size (%) 10.3 16.2 + 5.9 in tea
Small size (%) 23.4 19.0 - 4.4% in tea
Row Crops / Broadacre Crops
Corn, wheat, tomato, lettuce, etc all are treated the same as potato:
1. Fall application of compost (1 to 5 tons.ac) or compost tea (20 gal/ac as soil drench) need to be
made.
2. Monitor VAM colonization in plants needing mycorrhizal colonization (many brassicas are not
mycorrhizal).
3. Monitor residue decomposition.
4. Apply compost or tea (20 gal.ac soil drench) in the spring to replace anything missing in the soil.
5. Apply compost tea to the seed or to the soil in the planting row, with VAM spores and/or humic
acids if needed, to improve VAM colonization.
6. Applications of foliar compost teas (5 gal/ac for each 6 foot height of canopy) should occur at first
true leaf stage, before blossom, and after blossom.
7. If any diseases are scouted, apply the teas ASAP to re-occupy the leaf surfaces so the diseases
cannot win. Along roads, boundaries with neighbors that spray chemicals, and where drift from
toxic areas occurs, extra teas may be required.
8. Monitor leaf surfaces.
9. Check the tea for the beneficial organisms (SFI assays).
As with any system, variation in application times and methods will occur. No matter what sprayer, tea
maker or weather condition, checking leaf surfaces, or checking the soil to determine if the biology is
present, or checking leaf surfaces to determine coverage, checking to determine if the organisms are
growing, or active, can always be done, and give peace-of-mind.
A new approach in field crop or row crop systems is to put a perennial cover crop in the system as has been
tried at Washington State University. Green “manure” cover crops have often been used, except that
herbicides or tillage are then needed to bring down the cover crop in the spring, both of which are
detrimental to building good soil life and maintaining soil structure. Instead of using a tall grass or row
crop species, use a short canopy (1/2 inch tall) plant species that goes dormant when water becomes
limiting, or when it is shaded by the over-story plant. Direct drill or strip till the row crop plant into the
system, and maintain the under-story cover year-round. This reduces erosion. The reduction in evaporation
from the bare soil surface is more than enough to make up for water use by the cover crop in the summer.
It is a bit of mythology that ground covers always take moisture away from the over-story plant. Studies
showing ground covers take away water from the crop may have been biased by the funding source.
Those studies need to be repeated by researchers with no connection to herbicide companies.
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Figure 9. Melons in Australia. Shane Gishford, an SFI advisor in Brisbane, Australia, used compost in
the soil and three applications of foliar tea applications in the growing season. Weeds, insect pests and
fungal pathogens were significantly reduced, while yield was increased, water use was decreased, and
rooting depth improved.
Figure 10. Radish grown in potting soils, with either a compost tea (Nature’s Solutions product), or a
common inorganic fertilizer addition. Plants with the compost tea clearly were far ahead of the inorganic
fertilizer, and remained more productive through their whole growth cycle.
[email protected]
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Turf
Perennial grass systems are a bit different than annual systems and turf is unique in many ways. Turf will
be walked on, whether by grazing animals, golfers, football or soccer players, or by people strolling on a
lawn. Compaction is a never-ending issue with grass systems of any kind. The food web has to be healthy
enough to maintain soil structure and not succumb to compaction.
Application of pesticides or high amounts (over 100 pounds/ac) of inorganic fertilizers will kill organisms
in the soil, and disease will be the likely result. Instead of toxic chemicals, try the following:
1. Apply 1 to 2 ton per acre of finely sieved worm castings or worm compost in the fall (the sieved
compost should be able to shift between the blades of the grass to lie on the soil surface), or
2. apply 15 to 20 gal/ac (150 – 200 L/HA) foliar compost tea application.
3. Apply 5 gal/ac compost tea (50L/HA) each week until frost occurs, and then hold off on any more
applications until spring.
4. Again in the spring, apply 1 to 2 tons finely sieved worm compost/castings to highly compacted
areas (the greens), and where needed in to fairways, tees and putting surfaces.
5. Apply 5 gal/ac compost tea through the summer until diseases are gone, or poorly covered or
thatch problem areas are grown in.
If aeration is needed, a practice that should rapidly end as turf health improves, apply a good compost tea
(match the needs of the soil with the biology in the tea) immediately and then fill the aeration holes with a
mix of 15 to 30% medium sieve compost high in woody or fungal foods, and 70% to 85% sand. Add VAM
inoculum in the tea and compost material if the roots of the grasses are not mycorrhizal enough. Add
humic acids if colonization is present but inadequate.
Figure 10. Rugby Club in southern England used the typical Soil Foodweb approach, with the
following results. For details contact Mike Harrington, Laverstoke Park, England.
FROM THIS TO THIS IN ONE YEAR
Sept, 2003 Aug 2004
Orchards and Vineyards
In these perennial systems, an under-story cover crop is required in the tree, vine or berry bush row in order
to prevent herbicide sprays in the area that needs to be fully fungal dominated. The under-story plants need
to be fungal dominated, need to be good weed mats to prevent weeds from growing in the tree rows, should
be colonized by the same kinds of mycorrhizal fungi as the over-story tree requires, should be short canopy
so mice cannot girdle the trees without the predatory birds seeing them, and should easily go senescent or
dormant in a dry summer period, but otherwise maintain a good layer on the surface so the soil does not dry
out. During the summer, the grass in the inter-row areas should be mowed and blown onto the row area
under the trees. This allows composting to continue all summer long. The under-story plant should be able
to let grass clippings blown on top of the plants shift between the stems and reach the soil surface.
In the fall, compost should be applied at 5 to 10 tons per acre under the rows and again, the compost should
31
be able to sift between the plant stems to reach the soil surface. Apply compost tea at 15 gal per ac after all
leaf fall has occurred, in order to cover all leaf litter surface. This prevents diseases from being able to
grow on the leaf material and overwinter. Leaf litter should be 50% reduced in weight within one month.
If the leaf residues are not 50% gone within one month following leaf fall, apply tea again to speed the
decomposition process. Leaf litter should reduce by well over 50% the amount of disease that occurs in a
conventional orchard.
In the spring, if needed, apply another 1 to 5 tons of compost followed by a soil drench of compost tea.
Then, 2 weeks before bud break, apply foliar compost tea to establish the beneficial organisms on all the
leaf surfaces. For as long as no foliar disease is found, only apply tea in a foliar fashion once a month.
Avoid applying foliar teas when pollination is at its peak. If a disease outbreak occurs, it may be necessary
to apply the tea each day until the disease is out-competed.
Landscape Trees
In these systems, the challenge is to maintain the soil biology appropriate for the plant desired, even though
a bacterial-dominated plant is within inches of a plant requiring fungal-dominance. This spatial
heterogeneity is maintained by use of bacterial and fungal foods applied correctly to the root system and
drip line of each plant. Management of the proper biology is maintained in this fashion.
Trees may need to have root trenches dug several feet deep, fungal-dominated compost added to the trench
and then filled in with the soil, after applying a strongly fungal-dominated compost tea. While no
guarantees can be made about effectiveness, in many cases effects of root rots, wilts, blights and other
fungal diseases have been reversed by application of compost tea. The proper biology will compete with,
and possibly prevent the disease from establishing on roots of trees. Work by a number of Soil Foodweb
Advisors has shown that the use of tea has suppressed disease, and possibly prevented disease. However, a
great deal more work is needed before we can say for certain that compost tea can consistently and with
complete assurance work to remove disease from perennial root systems.
Greenhouse
Apply aerobic woody compost at about 30 to 50% in potting mix to replace peat moss and/or coconut fiber.
Drench flats with compost tea to make certain the beneficial organisms are established. For vegetables to
be planted in the field, place seeds rolled in compost tea and VAM spores in 100% good compost, or dilute
the compost by half or three-quarters. Teas should be applied as soon as first true leaf stage is reached. All
watering events should include some compost tea to maintain healthy root systems and maximize rooting
depth. Drench the soil with compost tea just before sales.
Hydroponics should have 1 gal of compost tea added per each 50 gals of water. Beds or “soil-less” potting
mixes should be drenched with compost tea to establish the beneficial organisms that will protect plants.
Roots systems in aeroponics should be misted with compost tea instead of Hoaglund’s solution. In water
systems, again, 1 gal of compost tea should be added to 50 gal of water to prevent disease. In the case of
water lettuce, for example, the entire plant should be dipped into compost tea made without humic acid (the
humic acids can cause spotting of the leaf surfaces). Aquatic bulbs should be immersed in compost tea for
10 to 15 minutes before planting in order to establish the beneficial organisms around the bulb and on the
roots. Compost tea should be added periodically to the water.
Nurseries
Potting soils should contain 30 to 50% aerobic compost, as a replacement for peat moss or coconut fiber.
Beds should be made with 30% to 100% aerobic compost and drenched with 15 gal per acre (150L/HA) asfungal-
as-possible compost tea immediately before planting. Bare root plants should be dipped in compost
tea with VAM spores (see spore package for density of spores) and then planted into the beds. Foliar
surfaces should be treated with compost tea (5 gal per acre) each month or more often if disease requires.
Soil drenches should be performed before planting and when litter or residue need to be decomposed. If
possible, addition of compost tea to the watering system will reduce disease out-breaks.
Ponds and Lagoons
Aeration is the most important factor in maintaining pond or lagoon health. Plants can contribute to
32
aeration, but if a layer of algae begins to grow, or if food resources (like manure) going into the pond or
lagoon increase organism growth beyond the rate at which oxygen diffusion or photosynthesis adds oxygen
to the pond, the pond will go anaerobic. Stink begins. Either reduce input of foods (manure, sugars, and
dead plant material) or increase rate of aeration. Algal blooms may be adding oxygen into the water on the
surface, but as the lower layers of algae die, and the dead bodies are decomposed, oxygen uptake increases,
often beyond the level where the photosynthesizing algae can offset the oxygen demand.
At this point, aeration of the lower levels of the water in the pond must occur. Thus, any aerator needs to
pull water from the bottom of the pond, not just stirring the surface waters. Addition of the beneficial
organisms that were lost when the water went anaerobic is a must. Thus, compost tea needs to be added to
the water, at 1 gallon per acre foot of water. Just an inoculum is needed; the foods are present, and aeration
is occurring. Recovery can be rapid. As long as the pond or lagoon does not become anaerobic again, that
single application of compost tea should be adequate to re-establish the needed biology.
The basic approach to using compost tea in conjunction with compost and soil should be apparent by this
point. There are additional factors to be considered in making certain compost tea is disease-free and
capable of giving the best benefit.
33
Factors Affecting Compost Tea Quality
Compost tea can be inconsistent from batch to batch, but this variability is actually relatively easy to
control. When making tea, test the tea periodically to make sure the set of organisms in the tea is
maintained and no unexpected problems occur to harm extraction and growth of the organisms.
Added Materials. Many ingredients can be added to compost tea to enhance the growth of specific
microorganisms and provide micronutrients for plants. This manual gives a basis for choosing some of
these materials (see The Recipes later in this manual), but a great deal more work is needed to understand
why some additives work in certain conditions but not in others. It is important to recognize that only
certain microorganisms will be encouraged, or selected by different foods. Combine food resource with
aeration, pH, temperature and interactions with soluble compost material, and very different organisms can
grow at different times. Make certain that the kind of compost, the temperature, etc are maintained the
same, and each tea brew can be very similar.
Aeration. Oxygen is required by all aerobic organisms. A large problem in making highly beneficial teas is
when microbial growth rapidly uses up a significant portion of the oxygen such that anaerobic conditions
ensue, and materials that are toxic to plant growth are produced in the tea. Properly controlling oxygen
input into the water is critical. It is a wise idea to buy an oxygen probe in order to make certain the tea
remains in the aerobic range (above 6 ppm or 70 to 80% dissolved oxygen – versus carbon dioxide - in
solution, or 20 to 22% oxygen as total atmospheric gases; see Table 3 below).
Table 3. Relationship between Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, and Aerobic, Facultative Anaerobic and
Anaerobic Organisms
Type of Organism Total Atmospheric Gases Percent Dissolved
Gases
Dissolved Gases (mg/L)
Aerobic 20 – 21% oxygen
1 to 6% carbon dioxide
95 to 98% oxygen
1 to 5% carbon
dioxide
> 6 mg/L oxygen
Facultative
Anaerobe
15 – 16% oxygen
6 to 12% carbon dioxide
75 to 95% oxygen
5% to 25% carbon
dioxide
4 to 6 mg/L oxygen
Anaerobe 2 to 15% oxygen
> 12% carbon dioxide
< 75% oxygen
> 25% carbon dioxide
< 4 mg/L oxygen
Temperature and
air pressure
(elevation)
Percent oxygen declines
and other gases increase
as elevation increases
Oxygen and carbon
dioxide will always
sum to 100%
regardless of
elevation, pressure or
temperature
Maximum concentration of
oxygen at sea level, freezing
is 16 mg/L, decreases as
temperature increases or air
pressure decreases
Oxygen has to diffuse into water at the interface between air and water. By bubbling air into water that
interface is increased, resulting in more diffusion of oxygen into water. The smaller the bubble size, then
the greater the exchange surface and the more efficient the transfer of oxygen into the water. Bubblers that
decrease the size of individual bubbles improve the oxygen content of water more rapidly than aerators
with larger size openings to produce bubbles. Of course, if the bubble size is extremely small, then airflow
may be restricted because it is harder to push air through a small opening. Aquarium bubblers typically
produce rather large size bubbles and are not very efficient oxygenators of water, but they are very
inexpensive and can run all the time. Depth of the water is important too, since in order to produce a
bubble, the air pressure must be greater than water pressure, and water pressure increases with increasing
depth. Thus an air pump adequate for a 5-gallon machine may not be adequate for a 500-gallon machine,
depending on the water depth.
If bacteria and fungi are not growing, tea solutions will remain well oxygenated. Bacteria consume the
34
majority of the oxygen during aerobic metabolism. If the oxygen is replenished at a rate greater than what
is consumed by the bacteria, the tea will remain aerobic. Conversely, when oxygen is consumed at a rate
greater than the rate at which it is replenished, the tea will become anaerobic.
When dealing with tea, and the need for a short brew cycle, the growth of bacteria and fungi can be so rapid
that air can be drawn below aerobic levels extremely rapidly, within an hour or less of adding molasses,
humic acids or other food resources. Therefore, air needs to be provided at a relatively high rate to offset
the use of oxygen by the aerobic, beneficial organisms.
Teas can become anaerobic if molasses or sugar is added to the solution. The offensive odor produced
(rotten egg smell, vinegar or sour smell, sour milk or vomit smells) is an indication of anaerobic conditions.
However, if the tea is allowed to continue “fermenting,” microorganism growth slows as food resources are
used up. Oxygen will begin to diffuse into the tea more rapidly than it is consumed by bacterial and fungal
growth, and aerobic organisms will begin to grow using the organic acids produced during anaerobic
metabolism. The tea will become aerobic again.
Strict aerobes require oxygen concentrations around normal atmospheric levels (18 to 22% total
atmospheric gases or 8 ppm, or 8 μg per liter; see Table 3) in order to perform the functions of life.
Examples of some of these genera of bacteria are Pseudomonas, Bacillus, and Aerobactor. As oxygen
concentration is reduced, dropping below 5 ppm, strictly aerobic organisms will become dormant, and
eventually die. Lack of oxygen allows the growth of facultative anaerobes (which switch from aerobic to
anaerobic metabolism when oxygen levels fall below 15 to 16% O2 or 5 to 6 ppm oxygen). Examples of
bacteria that are facultative anaerobes are E. coli, Klebsiella, and Acinetobactor). True anaerobic bacteria
cannot tolerate O2 above 7 to 8%, or 4 to 5 ppm oxygen while strict anaerobes require low oxygen
concentrations (less than 2% oxygen) to grow.
Anaerobic organisms are not detrimental in themselves, but their metabolic products can be extremely
detrimental to plants as well as many beneficial microorganisms. Anaerobic metabolites produced are
volatile organic acids (valeric acid, butyric acid, phenols, see Brinton, 1997) that are very detrimental to the
growth of plants and beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. Anaerobic products may kill some
disease-causing microorganisms, but usually the death of a few disease-causing microorganisms is not
positive enough to offset the reduction in plant growth.
When aeration is too great, the tea can become over-charged with oxygen, which can be detrimental to
beneficial microorganisms. However, there is no compost tea maker on the market that over-charges tea.
Only if someone decided to add hydrogen peroxide, or ozone to the water would it be likely that the water
could have too great an amount of oxygen.
Aerobes, facultative anaerobes and strict anaerobes are everywhere. They live in soil, on plant surfaces, on
the surfaces of stones, on and in pavement and clothing. Facultative anaerobes include some species that
are highly beneficial to plants as well as some disease-causing species. These microorganisms are needed
so that the cycling processes within nature can occur. Thus, sterilization of tea is not the answer. Many
highly beneficial microorganisms would be lost if the tea were sterile. The goal is to keep the tea fully
oxygenated and maintain aerobic conditions, so that the benefits from a widely diverse set of
microorganisms can be realized.
Organism growth in a batch of compost tea follows a typical pattern (Fig. 11). The organisms first adjust to
the liquid environment as the organisms and the soluble nutrients are ripped off the compost by mixing and
aeration. Adjustment to changes in temperature occur as well, although it may take a few hours for that
adjustment to occur, called lag time, before growth commences again. The temperature of the water should
match the temperature of the soil, or leaf surfaces, depending on the purpose of the tea application.
As the organisms grew faster and activity increased rapidly, both foods and oxygen were depleted. At a
certain point, which is dependent on the food resources added, the aeration rate and the rate of movement
of water through the compost and tea brewer, the organisms used up oxygen at a rate faster than the
35
machine was adding air into the water. As a result, oxygen levels in the water dropped. The point at which
organism activity peaked (green triangle line), the organisms had used up the simple, easy-to-use foods in
the tea and growth begins to wane.
At that point, the organisms are no longer using up oxygen faster than it can be replaced, and oxygen
concentration in the water begins to increase. As the organisms stabilize, their activity reaches an
equilibrium for the next few days.
The critical part of the curve is the relationship between organism growth causing oxygen to dip into
anaerobic ranges, and aeration rate. In these teas (Fig 11), filamentous fungi, protozoa and beneficial
nematodes were lost as oxygen was depleted and fell below 6 micrograms oxygen per ml (or 6 mg oxygen
per L). These teas could not suppress foliar disease on the plants they were applied to, because the
beneficial fungal were lost.
Compost Tea Oxygen Levels
0
2
4
6
8
10
0 3 7 11 15 19 23 27 31 35 39 43 47
Hours
Oxygen (ppm)
Activity (ug/ml)
Activity
O2
Figure 11 . This curve was generated based on eight tea brews using the same recipe with 1 gal molasses
and 1 gal dry kelp product. Note the lag time associated with addition to cold water which must be
overcome by the organisms early in the tea brew.
Brewing time. Up to the point that most of the soluble nutrients are all extracted from the compost, and
most of the organisms capable of being pulled from the compost are off the compost, the longer the time
the compost remains suspended in the water or tea solution, the greater the amount of soluble material
extracted from the compost and the greater the number of organisms extracted. More soluble material in
the tea means more food resources to grow beneficial bacteria and fungi, and more nutrients that will
potentially be made available for plants.
The easiest way to know how long a machine takes to make tea with adequate organism numbers in it is to
measure them over time.
Organisms growing in tea consume the extracted nutrients, immobilize them in their biomass and keep the
nutrients from washing through soil or off the leaf surfaces. If the tea is well mixed and well aerated (see
Compost Tea Production Methods), all these processes will be maximized.
36
If oxygen supply is not adequate, bacteria and fungi growing in the tea can use oxygen faster than oxygen
diffuses into the tea, and then anaerobic organisms grow in the tea with the production of potentially
phytotoxic materials in the tea. Any corner of less than 120 degrees angle tends to be a place where biofilms
form rapidly, a well-known phenomenon in the world of biofouling. Despite any amount of mixing in
the container, the “dead-air” effect of a corner results in no replenishment of well-oxygenated water, so that
oxygen is rapidly depleted as microbes grow. Thus corners can result in the production of rank-smelling
materials, and have quite negative impacts on plant growth if these anaerobic decomposition products are
not used by aerobic organism growth before the tea is placed on or around the plant.
The shorter the brew time, the less likely it is that anaerobic bio-films can develop. Thus there is a balance
between extraction of nutrients and growth of organisms, giving an optimal time for tea production,
depending on the exact conditions of brewing.
The longer the brewing time, the more likely weather will change and application will have to be put off.
With longer brewing times, the organisms in the tea will use up all their food and go to sleep, or if brewing
times are very long, some of the organisms colonize the surfaces of the containers and begin to develop
anaerobic layers on the container walls. Thus, there needs to be a balance between the time organisms
immobilize nutrients extracted from the compost and the time they will begin to colonize the container
walls and produce anaerobic layers.
Each tea brewer has an optimal time for extraction unique to the design of the machine. For example, the
Microb-Brewer and the Earth Tea Brewer can produce the optimal number of organisms within 20 to 24
hours when run at room temperatures (colder temperatures require longer brew times). The bucket method
of brewing (see Ingham, 2000) requires 3 days, and some trough methods of production, and most notaerated
brews require 2 to 3 weeks.
Not-aerated, no-nutrients added tea brews may have such low numbers of organisms in a tea that bio-films
never develop and the liquid never becomes anaerobic, no matter if the liquid is never stirred or mixed or
aerated. If the tea does not contain many organisms, the tea cannot have the benefits that organisms give
that have been discussed previously.
Compost Source and Quality. All of the soluble compounds in compost can be extracted into the tea. It is
essential, therefore, that only beneficial food sources be present in the material being extracted. Only by
composting correctly can this be assured. Whether using thermal, or static compost, temperature must have
reached AT LEAST 131 to 135° F (57° C) continuously for 3 entire days throughout the entire pile (the
surface of the pile is not at 135° F (57° C), so the outside material must be turned to inside and temperature
maintained). The material cannot have been anaerobic for any length of time or phytotoxic compounds
may be present, and nutrients will volatilize if the compost becomes anaerobic. If worm-compost
(vermicompost) is used, the material does not have to reach temperature, but must be adequately processed
by the worms. Passage through the earthworm digestive system kills human pathogens and most plant
pathogens, although more work needs to be performed to document this in a fully scientific manner.
Adequate time in the worm bin must be allowed for full processing of all materials by the worms to occur.
All of the species of organisms that can be detected in the compost will be extracted into the tea. This does
not mean all individuals of all species will be extracted however. Many individuals will be left in the
compost, so the compost can be re-added to the compost pile. If pathogenic or pest microorganisms are
present in the compost, then they too will be extracted into the tea. Therefore, GOOD COMPOST, which
does not contain significant numbers of active disease-organisms, is essential.
If compost is properly made, disease-causing microorganisms will be killed, out-competed, inhibited or
consumed by beneficial organisms in the compost, or in the tea. A huge range of beneficial food resources
is made during the composting process (see Cornell’s Handbook on On-Farm Composting, Rodale’s books
on composting, and the Soil Foodweb Web Site for more information on making good compost).
How do you know compost you buy is good? Data are REQUIRED. Ask your compost supplier to show
37
the temperature information on the batch you are buying. Ask them to show you the data on oxygen
concentration (or the reverse measurement, carbon dioxide concentration) during composting. Because the
heat during composting is generated by bacterial and fungal growth, that increase in temperature also
reveals whether bacteria and fungi used up oxygen and if the compost became anaerobic during peak
temperature times.
Temperature should, however, not exceed 155° to 160° F (68° to 71° C) and the oxygen level should not
drop below 12 to 15%. When temperature reaches these high ranges, oxygen is being consumed rapidly,
and anaerobic conditions, with production of phytotoxic materials, is quite likely. If compost gets too hot,
does not heat enough, or becomes anaerobic, the set of organisms in the compost is not desirable. If you use
poor compost, the tea will not contain the desired set of organisms.
A good test of compost that you can do yourself is determining smell. It should smell like soil, or
mushrooms that you buy in the store. If compost went anaerobic for a significant period of time, it will
smell sour, like vinegar, or sour milk, or vomit, rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide) or urine (ammonia). Not
only will the material have lost nitrogen and sulfur (and why would you pay good money for something
lacking fertility?), but it also contains phytotoxic materials that can kill your plant if they encounter any
plant surface.
In order to maximize populations of beneficial organisms, it is important that an adequate range of food
resources be extracted from compost into the tea. This can only occur if organism numbers are adequate in
the compost. It is the organisms that make humic and fulvic acids. Minerals will be extracted from the
compost as well, making it critical that the salt level not be too high, and that no toxic chemicals, or at least
no high concentrations of toxins, be present.
Extraction and Mixing. Mixing needs to be not too much and not too little. Too rapid mixing will
physically destroy beneficial microorganisms in the tea. Think about yourself impacting the wall of the
container going 320 km (200 miles) an hour. If the speed of the impact would kill you, it will kill the
organisms in the tea. Too slow mixing means a lack of organisms pulled from the compost, allows bio-film
development to be rapid, and the surface of everything will develop an anaerobic slime with resulting
phytotoxic materials present in the liquid.
There are two things to understand about mixing.
1. Enough energy has to be imparted to the compost to physically remove the bacteria and fungi
from the surface of the compost. Bacteria can glue themselves onto the surface of any particle
in compost, and it takes significant energy to remove bacteria from these surfaces. Fungi wrap
around particles and the hyphae have to be broken enough to let the strands be pulled out of the
compost, but not broken so much that they are shredded into tiny pieces. Thus, most extraction
methods that involve blades, whirring mixing bars, or blender action can break up the hyphae,
or the bacterial cells, too much and result in poor fungal and/or bacterial biomass in the tea.
2. Uniformity of the end product, the tea, is necessary. Good mixing – enough but not too much -
produces both effects. Most of the commercially available machines were developed around the
principles of enough aeration and enough mixing to get organisms into the tea, but not shred
them to death.
If brown color comes from the compost, then fungal extraction is probably good. Add fungal food
resources and surfaces that will allow fungi to grow in liquids. So, BEFORE placing any dark-colored
materials in to the tea water at the beginning of the cycle, add the compost into the tea maker, in whatever
container you have, and make certain the compost tea-maker is mixing the water well enough to pull the
humic acids (brown color) from the compost. No brown color out of the compost in the holder should
instantly indicate that adequate extraction is not occurring. Additional mixing of the compost in the
container will be necessary.
Foam. The presence of foam on the surface of tea is considered a positive sign, but just means there are
free proteins, amino acids or carbohydrates present. This can occur as the result of adding fish hydrolysate,
certain organic acids or carbohydrates. If worm compost was used, excessive foam suggests a few
38
earthworms were in the compost and their dead bodies are providing this source of protein/carbohydrate.
Excess protein or amino acids should not occur if bacteria are growing well, although dead worms may
continue to release proteinaceous materials throughout the brewing cycle. Foam can be suppressed by using
organic surfactants, such as yucca or vegetable oil (not olive or canola oil!). Don’t use commercial defoamers
– every single one we have tested kills the organisms in the tea.
Maintaining Compost Activity. If a large amount of compost is bought to make tea during the rest of the
year, be aware that the organisms in the compost go to sleep, become dormant, and don’t extract from the
compost easily the older compost gets. Maintain compost organism activity by adding compost tea to the
compost. Even then, we have seen a compost get so “mature” that you can’t wake them up to grow at all in
a 24 hour brewing cycle.
Compost for foliar compost tea applications should to be SLIGHTLY IMMATURE! That means, a little bit
of temperature is a good thing – about 5° - 10° above ambient is the desired range.
Mesh size of the tea bag or final filtration material. The opening size in the compost container or any
filters through which the tea must pass, can affect the kind of particulate material and organisms that will
be present in the tea. Mesh is a measurement of the number of holes in an inch surface area, the smaller the
mesh number, the larger the size of the holes. For example, an 80-mesh screen has holes with diameters of
170 micrometers (a micrometer is a millionth of a meter). A 20-mesh screen has holes with diameters of
800 micrometers.
The finer the size of the openings, the more likely only soluble components will be extracted. If the
openings are too large, particulate matter in the tea may clog sprayers and irrigation systems.
A variety of materials can be used, as long as they are inert to microbial decomposition. For example,
polycarbonates, plastic, nylon, silk and fine-weave cotton work well, but window screening, wire mesh,
and burlap may also be used. Fresh burlap should be used with caution, though, as it is soaked in
preservative materials which can be extracted into the tea and kill the organisms.
Consider the size of the organisms desired in the tea. The largest beneficial nematodes are around 150 to
200 micrometers (10-6 meters) in length, but only 30 to 50 micrometers in diameter. Thus, a mesh that
allows organisms of this size to pass, but restricts passage of larger materials, is desirable. The openings
should not be smaller than this size since then a number of the beneficial organisms would not be present in
the final product.
Microbes in tea. A wide diversity of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes need to be present in the
compost and be extracted into the tea (see previous discussion of the organisms in tea). The greater the
diversity of beneficial microorganisms, the greater the likelihood that disease-causing organisms will be
out-competed on leaves, stems, roots or in the soil.
Nutrient retention will be higher, because all the food resources will be used and the nutrients retained and
not leached from the leaf, stem, root or soil. Plant-available nutrients will be cycled at a more beneficialto-
the-plant rate, and soil aggregation will improve, along with water-holding capacity, breakdown of toxic
materials and decomposition rates.
When the diversity of microorganisms in the compost is low, the health of plant surfaces will be limited,
and one particular set of metabolic products can accumulate to the detriment of plants and other
microorganisms. Thus good compost is critical to the production of good tea (see Wagner, 2000, Rodale
books on composting, the Soil Foodweb website, www.soilfoodweb.com for information about the set of
organisms in good compost and how to tell if they are present).
Ratio of Compost to Water. The dilution of soluble materials and microorganisms extracted into the tea is
important. Too little compost will result in too dilute a tea with too few nutrients or organisms. Too much
compost means not everything is extracted that could be extracted. If the “spent” compost is placed back
into an active compost pile, then ”wastage” isn‘t a worry. But it may be possible to overload some tea
39
makers with too much compost, such that water cannot flow through the compost and extraction efficiency
will be low. Because the optimal ratio of compost to water tends to be variable, experiment with the
amount of compost put in your compost tea brewing machine to find the best ratio. If your machine calls
for 7 pounds or kilos of compost, try 6 or maybe 8 pounds or kilos and see if the amount makes a
difference.
Temperature. Temperature, humidity, evaporation and other abiotic conditions influence the growth rate
of microorganisms. For example, high temperatures volatilize nutrients. Evaporation concentrates salts,
while low temperatures slow microorganism growth. Obviously, these conditions can have a significant
influence on the quality of the tea. Again, experiment a bit to find the optimal temperatures for your
particular situation.
Place the tea making equipment inside a greenhouse or shed. In hot weather, cover or shade tea-making
units prevent evaporation and concentration of salt.
In machines where the tea goes through a pump, the growth of microorganisms elevates the water
temperature, but as long as the tea is well mixed, temperatures will not exceed 100° - 110° F (38° - 43° C).
If temperature in the machine exceeds 100° F (38° C), something is wrong with the pump, or too much
biofilm has developed in the pipes or tubes, suggesting that the machine should be cleaned to remove
restriction of the passageways in the machine.
Machines mixed using aeration, where the tea does not go through the pump, are cooled by the temperature
of the ambient air and rarely have an increased temperature. In these machines, it is wise to use a tank
heater to raise temperature and increase microbial reproduction.
Water Source. Water high in salts, heavy metals, nitrate, chlorine, sulfur, tannic acid, carbonates, or
contaminated with pathogens (human, animal or plant disease-causing microorganisms) should not be used.
Where present, removal of contaminants becomes a priority before using the water. Both chlorine and
sulfur can be removed by aeration. Carbonates can be removed by precipitating them with additives, and
then de-gassing those additives. Contact your water treatment department or send a water sample to a
testing lab for analysis. Or, try some of these simple assessments: Drink a glass of bottled water (make
sure it is less than 1 ppm (μg/ml) nitrate. Drink a glass of your own water.
• Bitter? May be high in nitrate.
• Rotten egg taste or smell? High sulfur.
• Chlorine smell? High chlorine. Keep aerating, or remove chlorine with reverse osmosis or a
chlorine filter.
• Slippery feel to the water? High in carbonates. Use some acid to remove the carbonate and
balance the pH
• Earthy taste? Algae or actinomycetes (actinobacteria) present. Find a better source of water.
40
Compost Tea Standards
The desired MINIMAL ranges for active as well as total bacteria, active and total fungi, protozoa and
nematodes in a good tea, i.e., one that will begin to move the soil in the direction of improving the
communities of beneficial organisms and provide the benefits discussed previously (page 7). In order to
see these benefits, the following points must occur;
1. Adequate amounts of tea, with adequate concentrations of organisms must be applied to the plant
surfaces.
2. Cover plant surfaces at least 70%,
3. At least 5 gallons of tea should be applied per acre (50L/HA) for leaf coverage, and 15 gallons per acre
(150 L/HA) for a soil drench,
4. The organisms have to survive the application,
5. The organisms require foods to begin to grow,
6. If disease is already present, it may be necessary to displace the disease through the mechanisms of
competition for space, food, or infection sites. There is little evidence that antibiotic or toxiccompound
production is a major, or even important, mechanism. Therefore use of the term “biopesticide”
or “pesticide” is NOT appropriate for the mechanisms by which compost or compost tea has
it’s major, or most important, impacts on disease.
The following table lists the minimum levels of each organism group required in compost (per gram dry
weight of compost), or in the tea (per mL of tea before spraying).
Table 4. The desired minimal ranges for different organisms in compost or compost tea.
Active
Bacteria
(μg)
Total
Bacteria
(μg)
Active
Fungi
(μg)
Total
Fungi
(μg)
Protozoa (#)
F A C
Beneficial
Nematodes
(#)
Compost
(per gram
dry weight)
15 – 30
150 - 300
2 - 10
150 -200
10,000
10,000
20 to
50
50 – 100
Compost
tea
(per ml)
10 – 150
150 -300
2 - 10
2 - 20
1,000
1,000
20 to
50
2 – 10
μg means microgram, or one millionth of a gram. A gram is about one teaspoon
Active Bacteria – The biomass of bacteria performing measurable aerobic metabolism
Total Bacteria – All of the bacterial biomass present, including the sleeping, dormant, inactive and notvery-
active portions of the community. Gives a relative idea of whether adequate bacterial diversity is
present.
Active Fungi – The biomass of fungi performing their functions right now.
Total Fungi – All of the fungal biomass present, including active, inactive and dormant. Gives an idea of
the diversity Must be adequate in order to be able to prevent diseases under all conditions.
Protozoa – All three groups cycle nutrients from bacteria into plant available forms. Flagellates and
amoebae are strict aerobes. Ciliates prefer to feed on anaerobic bacteria and thus indicate that the
conditions are conducive to anaerobic bacteria growing. Higher than the desired range of ciliate numbers
indicates lack of oxygen somewhere in the material. If flagellates and amoebae numbers are above the
desired range, then even greater than minimal nutrient cycling will occur.
Beneficial nematodes – These are the bacterial-feeding, fungal-feeding and predatory nematodes. They
consume their prey group, and release nutrients from the prey group into plant available forms. The greater
the diversity of these groups, the more likely nutrient cycling will occur in all conditions.
There will be variability from tea-to-tea, even if compost, mixing, amendments used, etc. are the same. But
that variability is not excessive, and typically is no more than 10% for bacterial and fungi biomass, and up
to 20% for protozoa. Note that for ciliates, numbers should not exceed greater than 100 individuals per ml
of tea, as this would indicate limited oxygen conditions (anaerobic) in the tea.
41
Tea can be diluted if the biomass of all categories will still be within desired ranges AFTER dilution is
complete. If the biomass/numbers are lower than the desired range, the amount of tea sprayed will have to
be increased from the 5 gallons per acre typical to achieve the desired coverage.
In all the studies performed the organisms must occupy AT LEAST 70% of any plant surface. The desired
ranges are 60 to 70% for bacterial coverage, and 2 to 5% fungal coverage, for a total of at least 70%
coverage.
Comparison of a Not-Suppressive Tea with a Suppressive Tea
How do you know compost tea is doing the job? Well, which job are you interested in? If it is protection of
a plant from disease, then to document protection, you need to have plants that you know are being
attacked by the disease, and you need to show that the plant does not come down with the disease.
Do this experiment yourself, and demonstrate whether your tea is doing the job.
Protocol:
1. Plants were from a nursery where the greenhouse was infested with blight. All plants were infested,
and the greenhouse was being fumigated to get rid of the problem. Plants from the greenhouse were
donated to SFI. Presumably all plants remaining at the nursery succumbed to the disease.
2. Two compost teas were made. The suppressive tea was made in an EPM 100 gallon tea maker. The
not-suppressive tea was made in a home-modified version of a commercially available tea machine.
The EPM machine used 10 pounds of compost (mixed 50-50 thermal and worm compost), while the
modified machine used 5 pounds of compost in a fabric bag. The recipe used was the same in both
machines: molasses and kelp, aerated water, at ambient temperature (about 65 F air temperature at the
start; water temperatures slightly lower).
3. The teas were brewed for 24 hours, and applied to the tomato plants using a hand-held spritzer.
4. All leaves were well-covered with the straight tea.
5. Tea samples were removed for SFI methods and for plate count analysis (dilution series was begun).
The process of clean-up took about an hour.
6. Leaf samples were removed from the plants (leaves were dry), stained and examined using SFI
methods.
7. Tea was assessed using SFI methods (1:10 and 1:100 dilutions used), and plates were spread for plate
count assessment (1:10, 1:100, 1:1000, 1:10,000 and 1:1,000,000 dilutions spread plated as needed) .
Results: The following table shows the results from this study. It is clear which tea was able to protect the
plant and which tea was not able to protect the plant, based on the fact that all plants died in the nonsuppressive
tea trial, and all the plants lived in the suppressive tea trial. There were five plants in each
treatment, and several hundred plants in the control (the plants in the greenhouse succumbing to disease
when the tomato plants were given to SFI for this trial).
The plate count data are shown as they would be reported from a standard plate count lab. These are the
Colony Forming Units, or Most Probable Number of individual bacterial cells that can grow on these
specific media, under the specific incubation conditions in the lab. The problem with Pseudomonas counts
is that you cannot tell whether these are disease-causing Pseudomonas species, or beneficial species. The
not-suppressive tea had higher counts of bacteria that can grow on King’s B medium, but does that mean
more or less suppressive species? You cannot tell from this assay.
The Cellulase-producing bacteria and fungi were higher in the suppressive tea, but not by a significant
amount. In the BBC “Species Richness Diversity” Index, this difference in CFU would not result in a
different index reading. So, is it significant? There is no way to tell.
The number of spore-forming bacteria and fungi were higher in the not-suppressive tea, but again, were
these beneficial species, or were these the disease-causing species? Just because a number is higher, and
would perhaps get a higher “index value” from a BBC Lab assessment does not mean anything beneficial.
A higher number of disease organisms is not a beneficial thing.
The comparison of aerobic to “anaerobic” bacteria was not performed, because this is a truly meaningless
42
test. Many, if not most, of the bacteria that grow on the aerobic plate are in fact facultative anaerobes.
That means, they will grow on the “anaerobic” plate was well as the aerobic. So, what does it mean that
some grow on both plates? Which are the strictly aerobic species, and which are the disease-causing
switchers? The “aerobic/anaerobic ratio” calculated from these plate methods cannot give that information.
It is a meaningless ratio unless there are data showing that plants die when the ratio is at some level, and
what plants are benefited at some other ratio. Once that information is made available, then perhaps that
ratio could be useful. The aerobic/anaerobic ratio has no data to back up what it means.
Table 5. How to tell that tea will be suppressive. Comparison of results from plate assessments and
direct assessments when tea was not able to suppress disease, compared to when tea was able to suppress
disease.
Tea Lacking Suppressiveness
Tea Capable of Suppressing
Disease
Plate Methods (MPN or CFU per ml)
TSA
(Aerobic Bacteria)
1.6 (0.5) X 108
1.6 (0.7) X 108
King’s B
(Pseudomonads)
5.0 (1.4) X 103
1.2 (0.2) X 103
Cellulose
(Cellulase producers)
35 (12)
210 (43)
Spore-Formers
(Bacillus sp)
7.9 (0.4) X 102
0.3 (0.1) X 102
Direct Microscopy (μg biomass per ml of tea)
Active Bacteria 8.0 (2.6) 12.7 (5.0)
Total Bacteria 25.1 (1.0) 245 (34)
Active Fungi 0.00 (None detected) 3.76 (1.00)
Total Fungi 0.35 (0.12) 11.1 (2.33)
Leaf Coverage (%)
Bacterial Coverage 27 (4.7) 86.9 (9.7)
Fungal Coverage None detected 5.1 (0.6)
Disease (5 tomato plants)
All plants died within a few days
All plants lived and produced
tomatoes
Numbers in parentheses are Standard Deviations of three readings taken for all the lab methods. These
values indicate variation levels in the measurements taken.
It is clear from the direct microscopic methods which tea will be able to perform the job. Adequate fungi
must be present to deal with blight. Without adequate fungi and bacteria covering the leaf surface, there
will be no disease suppression. Both the assessment of the tea itself, and the leaf surface once the tea was
sprayed out were predictive of whether the tea was going to be able to deal with the disease beginning to
grow on the leaf surfaces. It is easiest at this time to use the direct assessment of the tea solution. Once we
have the equipment to assess the leaf surface IN THE FIELD, this will become the more useful measure,
most likely.
Will all fungi adequately suppress disease? There is probably some specificity of fungal species which are
better at occupying the spaces on leaf surfaces, or using up the foods that the disease fungi need. Do we
know if those fungi were present in this tea? No, we don’t. That we had adequate fungi and bacteria
present are clear. But, in the next tea made, will adequate species diversity, the right species of suppressive
organisms be present? Most likely they will. But until we have methods that can measure that information,
we are left to try to maximize the beneficial species in compost, and in tea, and let the plant do some of the
work by putting out the foods that will feed the right fungi and bacteria to take care of the problems on the
leaf surfaces.
43
Brewing Methods and Machines
Each kind of compost tea machine extracts, aerates and mixes tea differently than other machines. Yet,
when the machines do a good job, the results can be quite similar. As long as the factors involved in
making good tea are paid attention to, extraction, survival and growth of the organisms will be maximized.
Evaluation Criteria
Therefore, each machine needs to be evaluated based on the following factors:
1. Aerobic? Ability to maintain aerobic conditions (above 6 mg oxygen per L). This level is based on
effects on plants and leaf material. Burning, browning, lack of foliar pathogen control, lack of nutrient
color improvement all indicate anaerobic toxins produced. Quite often this is also related to
compaction of the compost in the container, and too many nutrients added as amendments.
2. Extraction of organisms from the compost? Did the machine extract the ALL the different kinds of
organisms? Some machines do not extract the fungi, protozoa and nematodes. Only by obtaining data
about these other organisms can their presence be determined.
3. Extraction of soluble nutrients from the compost? Did the machine extract soluble nutrients from
the compost? Or are the nutrients only from added materials? Then why make compost tea?
4. Compost compaction? If mixing and aeration are not adequate, the compost will compact, most
likely go anaerobic if there are organisms growing in the tea. The tea will lose the beneficial fungi,
because these beneficials require aerobic conditions in order to survive. Teas can go anaerobic
because oxygen is used up by bacteria and fungi growing in the tea and in the compost. Especially if
the compost does not have aerated water moving through it, the compost will go anaerobic and
anaerobic products from anaerobic bacterial growth will disperse into the tea, killing beneficial aerobic
organisms.
5. Amendments? Were adequate amounts of food added to grow beneficial organisms? Or too much
food, causing the bacteria and fungi to grow rapidly, and outstrip the capacity of the aerating unit to
keep up with their oxygen demand? Or food supply too low, resulting in extracted organisms, but no
growing organisms? The machine manufacturer should test their machine, and tell their clients the
correct nutrient concentrations to balance the growth of the organisms with the aeration rate. Please be
aware that higher temperatures mean less nutrient amendments can be added because the organism
grow faster. In addition, water that that is higher in temperature can hold less oxygen. As elevation
increases, less oxygen is present in the atmosphere, and so less rapid growth can be allowed before the
water goes anaerobic. Please see the USGS website for a table of these values.
6. Ease of Cleaning? Cleaning is serious business. In all production systems, a biological film of
microorganisms, called a biofilm and sometimes much thicker than a film (up to an inch or more in
thickness in some systems), develops on surfaces. With time, the deepest layer of the film becomes
anaerobic, resulting in production of strong organic acids that can kill organisms in the tea, kill plant
tissue if applied to them, and can etch the tea-maker’s surfaces. If the surface is metal, the metal will
be solubilized and end up in the tea solution. For this reason, a metal container is not recommended. If
brew time is short, and the unit is cleaned to remove the biofilm between brews, there will be little
problem. Wood or plastic containers are preferable because they can be easily cleaned.
Cleaning the tea maker is SERIOUS. If biofilms aren’t cleaned off, tea may contain pathogens and other
toxic materials that can harm plants. A bio-film doesn’t necessarily mean things are terrible, but they
always occur when a problem has been seen.
Early Methods of Compost Tea Production.
Bucket Method. Bucket methods date back to early Roman, Greek and Egyptian times (Brehaut, 1933,
Cato’s De Agricultura, Varro’s Rerum Rusticarum Libri Tres). Many versions of’ “compost in a bucket”
are still used today. Typically, the compost is either free in the water (which means that the non-soluble
chunks have to be strained out of the tea if you want to put it through a delivery system) or suspended in a
sack or bag, along with other non-soluble ingredients.
44
Fill the bucket half-full with water and stir vigorously for 10 to 20 minutes to de-gas any chlorine. Add the
compost until the container is full, within an inch of the top for stirring to occur. Stir periodically with a
stick, which mixes the solution as well as adding a small amount of air. Brew times need to be several
weeks long, in order to get any of the organisms extracted from the compost. A few organisms will grow,
but biofilm formation on surfaces is not usually that great, because there isn’t much food for the organisms
in mature compost and the bacteria won’t grow rapidly enough to use up oxygen more rapidly than it can
diffuse into the water. Molasses or sugar can be added, but in tea that is not aerated, this typically causes
the tea to become anaerobic. Immature compost can be a problem, however, and can result in highly
anaerobic teas. After brewing, the solution is strained and applied to the crop (see Application Methods on
page 18). These are typically the production methods from which we hear reports about “the tea killed our
plants”, because poor compost, anaerobic conditions develop or toxic materials are extracted into the tea.
Bucket-Bubbler Method (based on work by Pat Battle at Highland Inn, Ashville, NC, and summarized by
E. Ingham in Kitchen Gardner, Oct/Nov 2000). A more modern version of “compost in a bucket” is one
used by many homeowners and backyard gardeners because small quantities can be made inexpensively.
This is not useful at a commercial level however.
On the bottom of a 3 to 5 gallon (15 to 20 L) bucket, tape (waterproof tape, please!) air stones or bubblers
attached to an aquarium-type pump. Fill the bucket half-full with water and bubble air through the water for
10 to 20 minutes before adding the compost. Add compost to fill bucket to nearly the top, with enough
space for bubbling (DO NOT compact the compost or extraction will be poor and the tea may also go
anaerobic). Add molasses or another food source for bacteria or fungi, as desired, but realize that the
amount needs to be kept minimal, or growth of bacteria and fungi will use oxygen in the air faster than the
aquarium pump can replace it. The aerator provides a continuous flow of air and creates enough turbulence
to provide mixing. Still, in most cases, an occasional brisk stir helps the quality of the tea, by removing the
organisms from the surface of the organic matter.
Brew for 2 to 3 days, minimum. Longer is ok. Then turn the aerator off and let the brew settle for a halfhour
until most of the solids are on the bottom of the bucket. The soluble portion of the tea can be decanted
from the top, leaving the insoluble solids to be returned to the compost pile. If the tea is used in a backpack
sprayer, it may be necessary to strain the tea through cheesecloth, or a fine mesh tea sieve to prevent
plugging the sprayer nozzles.
Trough Method. In this version, compost is suspended on a wire tray over a large tank of water, for
example an old horse trough - thus the name of the method. Water is pumped from the tank, sprayed over
the compost, and allowed to drip through the compost, like water through coffee grounds, into the tank. The
trough can range in size from 5 to 500-gallons (20 to 2000 L). The brewing period generally has to be quite
lengthy, as in several weeks, because not enough energy is applied to the compost to physically remove the
organisms from the compost. Because the water is sprayed onto the compost, UV light kills many of the
organisms in the water droplets if the unit is outside. Evaporation can be a serious problem, concentrating
salts in the tea. As the water drops fly through the air before impacting the compost, oxygen diffuses into
the drops, but typically not enough to maintain enough oxygen in the tea if molasses, sugars, humic acids,
or some other food resource for the bacteria or fungi is added. Aerators are often used to supplement air
diffusion into the water. Nutrients are of course extracted from the compost, and that benefit to plant
growth can be significant.
Bio-films typically form on trough surfaces, especially in the corners of the tank and can result in amazing
smells for a portion of the brew cycle while the few bacteria that are extracted grow rapidly in the tea. It
would be better to use round-bottom containers. However, diversity of bacteria and fungi is typically quite
limited in these teas. But these teas are not likely still anaerobic when applied on plant material, if the
brewing has gone on long enough.
The following table shows results from replicated trials with the Bubbler and the Trough methods. The teas
produced were not within the desired ranges, and quite often, plants were not protected from disease
organisms, did not jump-start nutrient retention, or nutrient cycling, or build soil structure or consume toxic
compounds.
45
Table 6. Comparison of Microbial Numbers Using Bucket Bubblers and Trough Brewing Methods.
Microbial populations in tea produced by different methods. Same quality compost, starting materials (1%
molasses, 1% kelp), brew time as indicated.
Production
Method
Brew
Time
Temperature
above ambient
Active
Bacteria
Total
Bacteria
Active
Fungi
Total
Fungi
Protozoa
(see below)
F, A, C
Nematodes
(see below)
Bubbler 3 days 1 – 2° F None
detected 1 μg None
detected 10 μg 100, 25, 0 1 B
Trough 3 weeks No increase None
detected 1 μg None
detected
None
detected 0, 0, 2000 5 B
Desired
Range NA NA 10 – 150
μg
150 – 300
μg
1 - 10
μg
2- 20
μg
1000, 1000,
50
2- 10
B, F, P
Protozoa = F stands for flagellate numbers, A for amoebae numbers, C for ciliate numbers
Nematodes = B stands for bacterial-feeder numbers, F for fungal-feeders, R for root-feeders,
and P for predatory nematodes (beneficials).
Microb-Brewer Results, 1998 to 2000.
As an example of an unforeseen problem, compare the result from the Microb-Brewer year 2000 test with
the Microb-Brewer year 1999 test. In the year 2000 test, this machine had significant bio-film formation in
the pipes, resulting in poorer organism numbers in the tea because of anaerobic conditions that develop,
and toxic materials produced by those anaerobic organisms. The Microb-Brewer 1999 tea, without any biofilm
formation in the pipes, was clearly outstanding. For this reason, the pipes that used to occur on the
bottom of the Microb-Brewer were replaced with clear plastic tubing, so users can see when a bio-film is
forming. The solution is easy: Use a long-handled brush to clean the bio-film out of the pipes at the end of
the run. Cleaning ANY tea-making machine, not just the Microbrewers, is a VERY important step in
equipment maintenance.
Table 7. Microb-Brewer Tea Results, 1999 versus 2000. Similar quality compost, starting materials
(1% molasses, 1% kelp), 20 hour brew time in both years.
Active
Bacteria
(μg/ml)
Total
Bacteria
(μg/ml)
Active
Fungi
(μg/ml)
Total
Fungi
(μg/ml)
Protozoa
(#/ml)
F A C
Nematodes
(#/ml)
1999 138 1235 32.5 1524 2,546 3,398 45 11 B 3 F 1P
2000 96 536 12.5 21 2,250 1,679 145 43 B 2 F 3P
Desired
Range
10 - 150
150 - 300
2 – 10
2- 20
1,000 1,000 50
2 – 10 B, F, P
Nematodes = B stands for bacterial-feeder numbers, F for fungal-feeders, R for root-feeders, and P for
predatory nematodes (beneficials). Protozoa = F stands for flagellate numbers, A for amoebae numbers, C
for ciliate numbers
Comparison of Different Commercial Brewers
The Sustainable Studies Institute Tea Grant, 2002
In the tea grant sponsored by the Sustainable Studies Institute, growers made tea using the machines they
bought, with nutrient starters sold by the companies or prepared by the grower, using their own choice of
composts. Composts chosen for use were widely variable, temperature, water source, and cleaning
conditions were widely variable, and yet the teas produced were quite similar. Of course, assessing total
and active bacteria and total and active fungi does not take into account species diversity per se, so the level
of resolution assessed means only one kind of variation was assessed. But good tea machines resulted in
good organism numbers, regardless of conditions, while poor tea machines rarely produced decent
organism numbers.
This is opposite claims by some tea machine makers that because compost, water, food resources and so
46
forth are so different from tea brew to tea brew that the teas are so variable that consistent data cannot be
obtained. Clearly, tea contains reasonably the same bacterial and fungal biomass and same levels of
activity if decent compost and recipes are used. Only tea machine makers trying to hide the fact that their
machine cannot make consistent brews would use arguments that testing is not possible.
In the following study, teas were made according to the manufacturer’s directions. In some instances, the
teas were made at SFI by SFI technicians (maintained at 72 F, using de-gassed Corvallis city water), but in
most cases, the teas were made by growers, using the instructions received from the tea machine
manufacturer, and sent overnight mail to SFI Corvallis, or New York. Growers were requested to make
their composts from 50% thermal compost and 50% vermicompost. The compost was mixed well before
use, the amounts needed for each machine measured, placed in the unit, with the same amount of molasses
and soluble kelp per volume of water added to each machine. Each machine was run for the specified time.
One to three sub-samples of tea were removed from the machine, typically via whatever method was
available to move tea from the tea-making machine into the spray tank of a sprayer. If there was no
discharge pump, this is noted. Samples were sent to the lab by overnight mail in plastic water containers
filled a third to a half full. Each sample was assessed for total and active bacteria, total and active fungi,
protozoa, and nematodes at SFI.
Results. The most notable finding is that despite widely different sources of compost, and different
machine designs, the resulting teas were reasonably uniform with respect to achieving minimal levels of
bacterial and fungal activity and biomass. Some manufacturers have suggested that there is so much
variation from tea to tea that testing is meaningless, but generally what that means is the tea maker is trying
to disguise an inferior machine. If the machine does not achieve the same minimum levels of organisms
from tea brew to tea brew when using similar compost, ingredients, and climate conditions, then there is
quite likely something wrong with the machine.
Growers need to recognize that brew-to-brew differences based on different composts, different food
additives, and different weather conditions are possible, but if the compost has decent organism levels,
similar food resources are added, and temperatures are reasonably warm, the tea will always have organism
numbers above the minimum levels on the desired range of the SFI test.
Some machines routinely have much higher fungal or bacterial biomass than others and there are machines
that ALWAYS give higher then the minimal range on the SFI test. This is excellent, and quite likely a true
difference in the ability of the machine to extract organisms from the compost.
In several instances we have documented that the reasons some machines cannot extract organisms from
the compost are:
1. Compost compacts in the basket, making water movement impossible through the compost. Without
water movement through the compost, organisms cannot be extracted from the compost and organisms
will be lacking in the tea.
2. When water cannot move through the compost, it is quite likely that the compost will become
anaerobic during the brew cycle. Visit trade shows where the machines are running. Put your hand in
the compost in a machine to see if water is actively moving through the compost. But be careful –
some manufacturers have been known to use compost with a higher-than-normal amount of chunky
material to make it seems like the machine has good water flow, when in fact, using non-woody
compost, the material compacts. Check in-use machines to determine flow-through in the compost.
3. Bio-film build-up occurs. Usually build-up within one brew cycle is not a problem, except where
water flow does not occur. Cleaning then becomes an important factor. Some machines are difficult
to clean, and when considering different machines, consider cleaning ease.
The number of samples in each assessment below are given in the table. Some growers sent in one tea,
some sent in three, a few sent in more teas. Results are listed by machine type and volume. In some cases,
new machines have come on the market, but the only testing has been with the manufacturer. The tea grant
will be repeated in 2003, and the results should be available next year.
47
Note the differentiation into compost tea and bacterial tea. If only bacteria grow well in the tea, and fungi,
protozoa and nematodes do not appear in at least minimal amounts in the tea, then the tea cannot be called a
compost tea.
Table 8. Tea Quality Assessed by the SSI Tea Grant Study. Growers sent in compost teas from
different machines, using their own or manufacturer supplied compost, the manufacturer’s nutrient starting
mix, or molasses and kelp, in conditions in the field through the summer of 2002. Data from SFI research
is included as well. While some range of response is present, in general the data by machine are not widely
different. In general, when variability is greater than the mean, the compost tea machine has trouble
making consistent tea.
Active Bacteria
(μg/ml)
Total Bacteria
(μg/ml)
Active Fungi
(μg/ml)
Total Fungi
(μg/ml)
Desired Ranges
for suppressive
teas*
10 - 150
150 - 300
2 – 10
2 -20
Compost Tea
Brewers^
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
Earth Tea Brewer
500 gal (8 teas)
500 gal (2001–1tea)
100 gal (6 teas)
527
35
168
468
ND
118
13224
6700
4518
3841
ND
1054
57.6
23
2.24
38.5
ND
1.36
109
30
8.46
57.0
ND
3.33
Simplici-Tea KIS
5 gal (10 teas)
141
93
3730
2755
6.88
2.63
11.8
3.12
EarthWorks
85 gal (9 teas)
326
219
10210
5084
1.70
1.52
2.62
3.45
Clarke
60 gal (12 teas)
100 gal (3 teas)
70.3
52.4
66.6
22.9
2519
1306
2231
363
1.88
3.55
1.13
1.49
3.62
7.63
2.26
0.83
Alaska Giant
1 gal (3 teas)
5 gal (2 teas)
35.8
52.4
22.8
53.3
5254
2528
4022
1312
1.03
0.34
0.57
0.46
5.79
2.47
4.43
1.07
Compara
50 gal (200 L) (3
teas)
89.1
19.7
2115
715
2.79
1.37
5.72
1.73
Bacterial Tea
Brewers^
SoilSoup
30 gal (6 teas)
aNylon Bag (3 teas)
40.2
101
23.1
13.3
1769
1500
947
210
0.03
1.23
0.03
1.26
0.25
3.01
0.19
1.88
Growing Solutions
25 gal (4 teas)
100 gal (12 teas)
500 gal (12 teas)
b Schraven (1 tea)
346
184
60.6
70.4
545
268
34.7
4156
2644
4106
209
4246
1861
5579
0.53
0.88
1.02
1.57
0.85
1.08
1.01
0.89
2.30
5.36
2.21
1.41
2.80
7.75
*Based on work comparing teas that are not suppressive with teas that are suppressive
^Based on results that show that bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes in the compost are
successfully and routinely extracted into the tea. On rare instances bacterial tea can put enough bacteria on
leaf surfaces to use up food and prevent disease growth.
aNylon Bag - set of brews done at SFI using a nylon bag instead of the fabric bag sold by SoilSoup.
bThe Schraven method of running the GSI System involves different foods, changing the aerator in
the basket and altering the basket arrangement when used in the larger machines. Clearly, things can be
done to improve this bacterial tea machine so it COULD make decent compost tea.
A great deal of assessment goes into determining whether a tea machine in fact can extract decent levels of
bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes from the compost and grow the organisms in the tea during the 24
48
49
hour aerobic brewing process. For example, Bruce Elliott who makes the Earth Tea Brewer machines has
worked with SFI since he started building tea makers in 1999. He has invested a great deal of effort in
determining the best recipe of foods to grow fungi in his tea maker. In addition, EPM has just developed a
22 gal tea machine, and so far, is getting as good organism numbers in the tea as their other tea brewers.
In the cases where we have data, it is interesting to compare the tea data with the compost from which the
tea was made. If nematode, protozoa or fungal biomass were low in the compost, that often explains low
biomass or numbers in the tea. Remember, however, that bacteria may increase by 100 to 500 times the
original number during a brewing cycle, while fungi may only increase by 5 to 10 times. Protozoa and
nematodes DO NOT increase in numbers in a tea cycle. Their life cycles are longer than the duration of a
compost tea brew cycle.
If the organisms are present in the compost, but not present, or low, in the tea, then the reason for the lack
of those organisms needs to be determined:
1. Were the organisms extracted? If neither active nor total fungi or active or total bacteria are present,
there’s a good indication that extraction is the problem. Is the mesh on the basket, bag or compost
container a problem? Neither active nor total fungi can be a result.
2. Were they killed by too much pressure going through a pump? No organisms at all present.
3. Did something in the tea kill them? Minimal amounts of total bacteria and total fungi (extraction
occurred), but no active biomass.
4. Did they lack food? Did they lack a surface to grow on? No active fungi, minimal biomass of total
fungi.
5. Did the tea drop into limited oxygen or anaerobic conditions? Low active and low total fungi, but
what is seen is covered with bacteria that do not stain with the activity stain.
Fig 13. Ciliates look like kidney beans and swim rapidly through the soil solution looking for bacteria, the
smaller dots. Organic matter (out of focus) in the lower left. Ciliates need to eat at least 10,000 bacteria
per day to stay alive. On a daily basis then, that is nearly a μg of N released in a plant available form, per
ciliate.
Application Methods
Compost tea, with the right set of organisms present, can be applied with water in any of the many ways
water is applied. For example, through pivots, irrigation systems of any kind, back-pack sprayers, boom
sprayers, hoses, drip, helicopters or airplanes. An important point is that the tea cannot contain particles
which will clog the water delivery system, and therefore must be properly screened to pass through the
spray nozzles, sprinkler heads, drip irrigation lines, emitters, etc. A good mist is desirable, but the drop
sizes should not be so small that UV light harms the organisms. Most pivot sprayers make drop sizes large
enough that tea can be applied at any time of the day (study done in the summer of 2002). Fine mists result
in drop sizes so small that the organisms should not be applied mid-day, because UV will not be blocked.
Sprayers are ideal for applications of tea onto leaf surfaces. Sprayers range from tractor mounted models
for large acreage to simple backpack versions. When applying compost tea to leaf surfaces, the key is
getting at least 70% of the leaf covered with the tea organisms - on both sides of the leaves.
Tea can be applied to foliage as a foliar spray - typically at 5 gallons to the acre (50 L /Ha) per 1 to 6 feet of
plant canopy, once per growing season, every two weeks, or when needed to occupy leaf surfaces and
compete with disease organisms. Coverage of leaf surface is the critical measure. It should be clear that if
organisms are delivered to leaf surfaces at too high a velocity, the organisms will smash into the leaf or
stem surface and disintegrate. This means they will not be present to protect the leaf surfaces or occupy
infection sites instead of the disease-organisms.
Tea can be applied to soil as a drench, typically at a pint to a quart per plant of undiluted tea. Additional
water can be used, but the point is to apply enough organisms to inoculate the soil around the root with a
good set of organisms. Tea can also be applied to drench the soil surface, typically 15 gallons to the acre
(150 L/Ha) in whatever amount of water is desired.
Other methods of root zone feeding vary from simple hose-end sprayers to elaborate drenching systems that
dose each plant with a pre-measured amount of solution to injection systems. It should be clear that with
injection systems, the pressure applied cannot smash the organisms into the soil particles, or all that results
is cytoplasm soup as the organism’s impact on soil particles and disintegrate. No more than 60 to 100 psi
should be used to spray out organisms; they should not hit surfaces at more than 20 to 80 psi.
Do not apply tea when it is raining hard, but a light mist often helps the organisms establish a foothold on
the leaf. Tea should be applied during weather when plants are active. This means starting at two weeks
before bud break, through to senescence of all plants in late fall in temperate zones, and in tropical areas,
when the plants need protection.
Tea should be applied so the liquid will remain on the leaf, stem and flowers of the plant, and not drip off.
The larger the drop size, the more likely the tea will run off the plant. Low volume sprayers with moderate
pressure are the best suited for tea application.
How Long Can Tea Be Held? This is an area currently being researched. When the first commercial
brewer (Microb-Brewer) was released, testing indicated that tea needed to be made and then used. With
further testing, however, we showed that if the tea is well-aerated, with maximum levels of oxygen in the
tea, and the organisms have used up most of the easy-to-use food resources, then the tea will remain
aerobic for 6 to 8 hours. After 8 hours, aerobic activity falls rapidly, most likely resulting from the lack of
oxygen in the liquid.
If, however, the liquid is kept aerated, then holding time can be increased, up to three to five days, although
numbers of active and total organisms falls off at an ever-increasing rate. At the end of three days, a tenfold
reduction in numbers, and a 90% reduction in activity occurred (work performed for ARDEO, Inc.
1995). This is acceptable for a soil application, but not for a foliar application. Active organisms are
necessary for foliar protection.
50
If bacterial and fungal foods are added to the tea at 48 to 72 hours, depending on the number of active
organisms, how much food was present in the tea recipe to begin, and the number of organisms extracted,
then the activity of the organisms can be extended. By the end of five days total, however, a serious
reduction in diversity of the organisms occurs, so these teas would be less likely to benefit plants than
younger, more diverse teas. More testing remains to be performed however on this point.
Addition of foods to tea can help maintain shelf life of a tea, but aeration must be continued. Any large tank
with aeration can be used to hold the tea, but adding food resources will likely out-strip the ability of
aeration to maintain aerobic conditions. The best thing is to keep the tea in the maker, and continue the
aeration if it becomes necessary to add food to maintain activity of the organisms in the tank.
Plate count assessments cannot be used to determine this kind of information since plate counts allow
spores and dormant individuals, as well as active organisms to grow. In fact, in a recent test, leaves that
contained very few active organisms and leaves that contained a high number of active organisms gave the
same plate count numbers. This is because very few of the organisms that live on leaves grow in any plate
count medium. During the incubation of the plates, dormant individuals, including spores, came to life on
plate media, and a similar number of spores appeared to be present on each set of leaves.
Put-to-sleep tea. Certain materials can be added to tea to push the organisms into dormancy. DNA
fingerprinting showed that nearly 50% of the species of bacteria or fungi being examined were lost when
3% phosphoric acid was added to initiate dormancy in the active organisms. The organisms in a tea MUST
be dormant if the tea is placed in a sealed container, or the respiration of the organisms will cause the bottle
to expand and perhaps explode. Thus, teas which are “put-to-sleep” are better for soil applications, because
the organisms have time to wake up before they have to start to function, whereas on leaves, the organisms
must be immediately active to protect the leaf surface.
Foliar Applications. Typically, applications for preventative control of foliar diseases are 5 gallons of tea
per acre (50 L/Ha) every two weeks, starting at two weeks before bud break and continuing until all danger
of loss of crop yield due to disease is past. If disease is observed, make a tea and spray immediately onto
the affected areas, drenching the area. Typically this results in protection of the leaf surfaces by the tea
organisms and the disease is consumed or out-competed. In a few cases, when the infestation was severe,
repeated application was required to bring back the condition of health.
For preventative applications, the 5 gallons (50 L) can be diluted in however much water is desired, as long
as 5 gallons per acre (50 L/Ha) is applied. Tea must be applied to both top and bottom of leaves, blossoms,
steams, etc, or sprayed directly into the top layer of soil. Recent work by John Buckerfield in Australia
indicates that coverage with a mulch layer improves organism survival (most particularly earthworms if
they are applied in worm compost) and increases the benefit of single-applications.
Control of Existing Disease Conditions. To control already existing foliar diseases, generally the
infected foliage has to be drenched with maximum amounts of tea every three days until the disease is
controlled. Tea is not a panacea that will cure everything. The mechanism for protection has to be
understood, and tea correctly applied to deal with the CAUSE of the problem.
For example, in the author’s yard, admittedly not a replicated study, but still of interest, a single application
of undiluted tea was made to the roses on May 15, 1999. No black spot or mildew was observed throughout
the summer, in fact, none until mid-July, 2000, a full year and three months after the single application.
This yard receives no pesticide or inorganic fertilizer applications, which may be a reason that a single
application was effective for more than a year. But mildew was noticed on the roses in July 2000. A single
application of un-diluted tea immediately applied slowed the mildew down, but did not get rid of it. Three
days later, a second application was made by drenching the infected areas with undiluted tea, and still, the
problem was not controlled, although there was no spread of infection. A third application of undiluted tea,
again, three days later controlled the mildew to the point that no visible symptoms were apparent. Already
wilted leaves could not be brought back to life and were removed. This suggests that even once disease
appears, by concentrating applications of organisms on infected, but not yet dead areas, recovery is
possible, but not guaranteed.
51
Soil Applications. To protect against soil diseases reaching the roots, a sample of soil must be taken and
the foodweb assessed. Then, make a tea that is appropriate to return the missing organism(s) to the soil and
apply at 5 gallons to the acre (50 L/Ha). After 2-4 weeks, take another soil sample for analysis to make
certain the organisms survived application to the soil (total biomass gives this information), and they had
food to stay alive (activity gives this information). If the organisms are not present, a chemical residue is
indicated, and needs to be remediated. Apply a tea with organisms that will degrade common pesticide
residues, with the foods those organisms require to decompose resides. If the right organisms are present,
but not active, then only the specific foods are needed, such as sugars for bacteria, or humic acids for fungi.
Compost Tea Appropriate to the Plant
The requirements of plants for the organisms that most benefit their growth need to be recognized. There
are different organisms for different plants, and the plant feeds the organisms needed. The organisms
needed by different plants can be supplied by applying compost and compost tea.
Compost and compost teas need to be defined relative to the specific plant and soil to which they are
applied. Soil rich in organic matter with a healthy foodweb will be adequate for plant growth. A tea less
rich in food resources can be used in this instance. Soil lacking organic matter will need a good set of
beneficial microorganisms and food to feed those organisms in order to get good plant growth.
Compost or compost tea will supply the organisms that do the work the plant needs. The plant will feed
those organisms. The organisms will supply the micro- and macro-nutrients that the plant requires, in a
form that is easy for the plant to take up. Compost tea can also contain nutrients that plants can take-up
through the foliage.
Compost and compost tea will increase the diversity of bacteria and fungi, protozoa and beneficial
nematodes, even in soils high in organic matter. Just because a soil has lots of organic matter does not mean
the full complement of organisms beneficial to the plant are present. Chemicals that kill the beneficial
bacteria and fungi on the plant’s leaves, stems and blossoms need a compost tea containing those
microorganisms in order to replenish the plant’s defenses. Similarly, a low organic matter soil will require a
compost or compost tea with high numbers of beneficial microorganisms, as well as sugars, soluble kelp,
carbohydrate material, humic acids and algal exudates to increase the food resources for the
microorganisms.
Compost tea should contain nutrients to feed the bacteria and fungi, as well as micronutrients that the plant
can absorb. Growers of plants, no matter how large or small the area involved, should ask:
“What does the plant require in terms of nutrients, bacteria and fungi to protect the plant from
disease-causing microorganisms? Does the plant require nutrients to be retained in the soil around the
plant? What is needed to make those nutrients available back to the plant? Which organisms decompose
any toxic or leftover residues that may be present in the soil? How can I build soil structure so air diffuses
into the root zone and prevents fungal root rot diseases? How do I improve water-holding in the root soil?
How can I get the roots of my plants growing down 5, to 10, to 15 feet deep into the soil?”
The answer to the above questions always lies with the soil organisms. Always consider, however, that you
need to know something about your soil. For example, if the soil is high in humic acids and other
recalcitrant materials (those resistant to decomposition or decay, such as woody materials, bark, straw, old
manure, oak leaves or conifer needles), then the soil is likely to be fungal-dominated, regardless of
sand/silt/clay ratios. In this case, the recipe chosen should enhance bacterial biomass in order to balance
the fungal-to-bacterial biomass ratio. Conversely, if the organic matter in the planting medium is not slow
to decay (e.g., green residues, green leaves, fresh manure), then the tea recipe should be one that selects
more for fungal biomass, again, to balance the fungal-to-bacterial biomass ratio.
52
The balance of fungi to bacteria must be viewed with respect to the needs of the plant. For example, trees
require a fungal-dominated soil, while row crops and grass need an equal balance of fungi to bacteria.
Based on the limited testing that has been done, we have determined that teas applied to foliage should
always be bacterial in nature.
The Right Compost.
It is critical to start with compost or vermicompost that will produce the desired microbial balance. If the
tea needs to be more fungal, compost high in fungal biomass should be chosen. Generally, compost high in
volume of woody material (resistant to rapid decay) will probably be fungal-dominated.
A typical fungal compost recipe contains 25% manure, 30% green material and 45% woody material.
Fungal composts typically need less turning because the chunkiness of the woody material allows better air
diffusion. Thus, piles without the high N and with more woody material typically do not reach
temperatures above 150° F (65° C). Turning is needed only to homogenize the pile and spread the growing
organisms evenly throughout the materials.
If bacterial tea is indicated, use compost made with 25% manure, 45% green material and 30% woody
material. Each composter needs to work the best combination out for themselves, with their own starting
materials). The quantity and source of manure is important. The higher the level of N in the manure, the
faster the pile heats. If too much N is present, the pile may heat above 180° F (85° C), and may combust.
Turning becomes critical for cooling the pile and bacteria are selected as fungi are killed during the turning
process.
Again, the size of the particles in a compost pile is important. If green or woody material is finely chopped,
then the N in that material is more readily available to the microbes, the bacteria will bloom, increasing
temperature and rapidly using up the oxygen. To prevent anaerobic conditions, compost with finely
chopped material will require air to be pumped in or turned at least once per day.
The Right Foods.
If you aren’t sure what your plants need, make a tea that contains both bacteria and fungi, as well as
protozoa, and let the plant do the selecting. Simple sugars to encourage bacteria growth; while soluble kelp
(surface area) and humic acids (foods) enhance the growth of fungi.
ADD NOTHING THAT CONTAINS A PRESERVATIVE!! What are preservatives? Anything we use to
prevent microbial growth, such as antibiotics, chlorine, fumigants, sterilants, alcohol, benzoate, benzene,
phenols, terpines, iodine, etc. When in doubt, ASK!
The selection for the preferred microbial community, given a compost of say equal bacterial to fungal
biomass, can be made by adding components to the tea solution before the tea brewing process begins.
Additives that help bacteria most are simple sugars, syrups such as molasses, cane syrup, sugar beet syrup,
spoiled carrot juice, apple juice from applesauce production, and yeasts (vitamin addition).
Materials that help fungi more than bacteria are things like fruit pulp (the cellulose in the pulp generally
helps fungi more than bacteria but bacteria will grow on the sugar portion of the pulp), soluble kelp (protein
and micronutrients), humic acids, or other high cellulose containing pulp material. Plant extracts, such as
comfrey, nettle or dandelion “soups” can also be added to enhance the micronutrient content of a tea.
Anecdotal information from growers suggests that comfrey is high in Ca, N and K, and thus alleviates
nutrient stress if plants are lacking these nutrients. Comfrey has been chopped and added to the compost
before it is composted, or after composting is finished (dangerous if there is any disease on the comfrey that
could spread through the compost), to the compost basket during the tea brewing operation, or as a brewed
soup (stuff a bucket full of comfrey leaves, add water, churn the leaves in the bucket for a day or so, then
add the liquid to the water at the start of the brew process). In each instance, significant benefit to plant
production was observed, most likely explained by improved Ca uptake by the plant. However, these were
not replicated studies, and to fully accept this type of work, controlled scientific studies are required.
53
Use cold-water grown kelp, not warm-water grown kelp. Cold-water kelp absorbs and retains more
nutrients during growth than warm-water kelps, resulting in greater micronutrient benefits.
Some spices have properties that inhibit specific microbes. While a great deal more testing is required to
document efficacy, materials like garlic oil, onion oil, orange oil, citric oils, cinnamon, and oregano have
been reported to reduce E. coli counts in teas. Testing needs to be performed. \
Many interesting ingredients have been used in teas, but their benefit has rarely been documented. The
special elixir that works wonders for one grower may have little or no benefit, or sometimes be detrimental,
to other plants. The explanation lies in the biology and the chemistry of the plant, the soil, and the tea. The
biology may have been right for your friend’s squash, but isn’t right for your indoor citrus tree. When in
doubt, test the tea on part of the plant, or in a small area of your field.
Table 9. EXAMPLES of Food Resources for Different Organism Groups.
Product Name/Company Group Fed Application Rate per 50
gal (200 L) of tea
BACTERIAL
Simple sugars Bacteria at low concentrations,
fungi at high concentration
(syrup)
600 ml (1 pint) to 4 L (1 gal)
Kelp Bacterial foods,
Fungal surfaces
0.1 to 1%
Fish Hydrolysate
/ Neptune’s Harvest, Organic
Gem
Fungi, important to have bones,
scales and cartilage liquefied
using enzymes, not heat or acid
0.01 % to 1%;
add carefully, can drive teas
anaerobic!
Fruit Pulp Fungi and Bacteria 0.1 to 1%; test in your system to
determine effect
Humic acids
/ Terra Vita, Eco-Nutrients,
Hydrahume
Fungi (as humics broken down,
then bacterial food is released)
1 to 15 oz, depending on product
FUNGI
Humic acids (see above) Fungi (some bacteria) 600 ml (1 pint) to 1 gal (4 L)
Protein Meals /
Soybean meal, Oatmeal, Barley
meal, Feathermeal, etc
Fungi Test in your system
Rock dust, powder Mineral nutrients for all
organisms, surfaces for fungi
Test in your system; look at the
mineral needs of the plants
Spices / Garlic, orange oil, citrus,
cinnamon, lemon, onion,
oregano, soy
Inhibitors of specific microbial
groups
Test in your system
Vitazyme / Vital Earth Resources Fungi 1 to 5 oz
Yeast (brewers, bakers, wine,
champagne)
Complex mix of proteins,
minerals, vitamins for both
bacteria and fungi, and plants
Test in your system
Yucca / Desert King, Helena
Chemical Co.
Fungi (some bacteria) 100 to 600 ml (beware of
foaming!)
*1 US gallon = 3.8 L, or round up to 4 L
54
Recipes
Most compost tea machine makers have food kits that match the aeration abilities of their machines. Use
their food kits until you can assess the effect of adding or subtracting food resources using, for example, a
light microscope. A reasonable investment is learning to use a microscope to recognize the sets of
organisms.
For those who wish to test the impacts of different foods on organism growth, the following recipes are
based on 50-gallon (200 L) compost tea making machines.
Ingredient amounts should be maintained at the same ratio per volume of water as in the following recipes,
even if compost volume is not linear. The same amount of food per unit liquid is still required, regardless of
the inoculum amount (which is not linear; see below). With high amounts of sugar, make certain that
adequate aeration is provided or the tea can become anaerobic within just a few hours.
There are two parameters to consider in Table 10.
1. Category of plant that is closest to the one you want to grow,
2. Soil type that is closest to the three listed in the table.
For example, tomatoes are in the grass/row crop category, while strawberries, grapevines, kiwi,
rhododendron, and snowbrush fall in the berry/vine/shrub category. Deciduous trees include poplar,
almond, peach, citrus, coffee, apple, avocado and olive. Conifers include pines and most evergreens. It
should be noted that some cedars actually fall in the deciduous category. Epiphytic plants and palms most
likely fall in that category as well.
Table 10. The Kind of Tea Needed for Different Plants and Soil Types.
Soil
Type
Plant types
Broccoli,
cabbage, cole
(strongly
bacterial)
Row Crops,
Grasses
(slightly
bacterial)
Berries
(Equal
bacteria and
fungi)
Deciduous
Trees, Vines
(2 – 10 times
more fungal)
Conifers
(100+ more
fungal than
bacterial)
Sand Need both
bacteria and
fungi to build
good soil
structure
Need mostly
fungal activity,
some bacteria
to build soil
structure
Need to help
fungi to the
maximum,
since fungi are
most likely
lacking
Help fungi to
the maximum
extent; fungi
most likely to
be seriously
lacking
Mycorrhizal
fungi usually
needed, fungi
need maximum
help, bacteria
usually are fine
Loam Need to
improve
bacteria
significantly;
some fungi
needed
Need both
bacteria and
fungi to build
good soil
structure
Need to really
push fungi,
since fungi are
most likely
lacking
Compaction is
tough to
overcome,
fungi need to
be helped
extensively
Check
mycorrhizal
fungi; improve
fungi to
maximum
amount
Clay Need mostly
bacteria to form
microaggregates
and get nutrient
cycling going
Need both
bacteria and
fungi; check
Ca:Mg ratio
Need to
improve both
bacteria and
fungi; check
Ca:Mg ratio
Check Ca:Mg,
look for
hydrides, fungi
need maximum
help
Maximize
fungi, check
mycorrhizae
Most plants can be colonized by mycorrhizal fungi, except for strongly bacterial-dominated plants such as
broccoli, most kales, cabbage, cauliflower (i.e., many brassicas). Most other plants either do better in low
nutrient conditions or are obligately mycorrhizal. Thus, mycorrhizal colonization of roots should be
checked by taking root samples from several plants and sending them into a soil biology lab (such as Soil
55
Foodweb Inc., www.soilfoodweb.com, or Efren Cazares lab, [email protected], to determine the
percent of the root system colonized by mycorrhizal fungi. Deciduous trees require VAM inoculum, while
conifers need ectomycorrhizal inoculum, or a combination of VAM and ectomycorrhizal fungi. Blueberry
needs ericoid mycorrhizal fungi, but no inoculum of these mycorrhizal fungi is available commercially. In
this case, or for other plants with limited species requirements, take soil from the surface near an existing
healthy plant growing in a native system and use this as an inoculum.
Water versus Compost Volumes and Extraction Efficiency. Extraction efficiency does not relate to the
volume of water used for extraction but rather to the efficiency with which the water pulls the organisms
from the compost. Lower pressure is acceptable if, at the same time, the particles of compost move against
each other and organisms are pulled from the compost. Thus, the compost has to be free to move in the
container. A very small amount of compost might be acceptable, if the extraction conditions are optimal
with respect to water flow THROUGH the compost, and movement of the compost in the container.
Initially use the compost amount recommended by the person you buy the tea machine from, and then test
your own machine to determine what amount of compost gives you the best extraction. Use the Qualitative
assessment methods until you have your recipe determined.
For Example:
Run a tea brew with 1 pound of compost in the machine, and look at what is in the tea at 8 hours, 24 hours
and 48 hours, using the qualitative assay. Then make a tea with 5 pounds, and observe the biology in the
tea. Then 10 pounds, 20 pounds, 30 pounds, etc. When the number of organisms in the compost does not
increase from one amount to the next higher amount of compost, the optimal amount of compost has been
found.
Brewing Time. The brewing time must be long enough and/or have enough mixing to extract the desired
soluble nutrients (food resources used by the microorganisms and micronutrients). If brewed too long, the
microorganisms may go to sleep and not be active.
When to Add Materials. Soluble materials should be added to the water at the beginning of the brew
cycle, unless otherwise noted in the recipe. If mechanical parts can clog, non-soluble materials should be
placed in the compost container. Mycorrhizal spore suspensions should be added to the tea at the end of the
brewing cycle, not at the beginning, because the spores will begin to germinate in the tea after several
hours. Mycorrhizal spores are sensitive to pressure just after they germinate and the pressure involved with
mixing will kill them.
Commercial versus Indigenous Organisms. Indigenous microorganisms are clearly the best choice for
any particular system; therefore develop beneficial microorganisms adapted to your conditions. One way to
get the indigenous beneficial microorganisms into the tea is to add a pound of soil from highly productive
soil or composts to the compost container. Be sure the soil has not had recent inorganic fertilizer or
pesticide applications. If a tea turns out well, save a small amount of the tea, or the soil to which the tea was
added, as an inoculum for the next batch of tea. This will keep improving the beneficial microorganisms.
Fine-Tuning Your Recipes. Follow directions on labels of various products for most food resources. Test
products to determine whether they are helping to grow organisms, or are harmful to them.
Make a tea with minimal additives, such as just kelp and a little molasses. Place the same amount of tea in
each of two, or three or more clean containers. To the “control” container, add only water, equal to what
you add with the product you are testing. To the next container, add the smallest amount of the product
possible that should have an effect. To the next container, add double that amount, Then add triple to a
fourth container of tea. Let the organisms have a few hours to grow before testing. Let them brew for 24
hours, and check the biology again. Which amount of product had the highest biomass of bacteria and
fungi? Protozoa? Nematodes? If the control had the greatest, then the product is detrimental. If the
container with double or triple amounts had highest organism’s biomass, then that tells you which amount
to test in the real tea brews.
56
The following recipes are all based on 50 gallons of water, degassed if required to remove chlorine, and
checked for extraction of the compost (brown color released into brew before adding molasses or kelps).
The Basic, Starting-point, Bacterial Tea (based on 50 gal tea maker)
15 pounds (7 kg) bacterial compost
16 ounces (500 mL) black strap molasses (Dry molasses does not substitute)
8 ounces (250 g) soluble cold-water kelp (additional proteins)
1 to 6 ounces (30 to 200 mL) liquid, filtered plant extract material (for example, yucca extracts,
nettle soup, dandelion wine, comfrey tea), proteins, fruit juices, fruit pulp, fish emulsion
Add nothing with a preservative or antibiotic in it!
Concoctions that become anaerobic can be added to recipes like this one that call for plant extracts, because
the anaerobic decomposition products will be consumed and converted into aerobic, plant-beneficial
compounds during the brewing process. Of course, the brewing process must remain highly aerobic, so use
a machine or method that provides a high rate of aeration and thorough mixing.
Dry molasses lacks a significant component of more complex sugars, so if using dry products, add a greater
amount of dry molasses. There are fewer types of sugar in dry molasses, so use a second type of sugar such
as corn syrup, maple syrup, or starch.
This yields a moderately bacterial tea. Addition of kelp adds micronutrients and some bacterial as well as
fungal food.
Equal Ratio Fungi to Bacteria Tea (based on 50 gal tea)
15 pounds (7 kg) 1:1 fungal to bacterial biomass ratio compost
16 ounces (500 mL) humic acids
8 ounces (250 g) soluble kelp
Fish hydrolysate, soybean meal, feathermeal, oatmeal, or other high complex protein materials
(see label on packages), fruit pulp
Add nothing with a preservative or antibiotic in it!
Humic acids select for beneficial fungi, but any fungal food could be substituted here. Make certain to
obtain a mixture containing many humic acids, rather than a limited set (i.e., 3 to 5 humic acids). Rock
dusts, rock powders, or rock flours can be beneficial as well, although these grainy materials can harm
mechanical pumps. Fish hydrolysate should be tested for their ability to serve as fungal food resources
before using extensively. Fish emulsions do not have the oils that help fungi grow, so an emulsion is more
beneficial as a bacterial food than a fungal food.
Fungal Tea
20 pounds (9 kg) fungal compost
1 pint humic acids (600 mL)
4 oz (100 mL) yucca high saponin content).
8 ounces (250 g) soluble kelp,
8 oz (250 g) Fish hydrolysate, additional proteins
Add nothing with a preservative or antibiotic in it!
Make sure the compost is mature and has not been disturbed or turned for a week or more.
Mycorrhizal Inoculum
The concentration of spores needed has not been well established for different plant species. A range of 50
to 100 spores per gram soil is probably adequate to establish colonization. Since mycorrhizal spores
germinate and begin to grow within a few hours of addition to most teas, add the spores to the spray tank,
holding tank, injection system, etc. For row crops, vegetables, grass, most berries, shrubs, and deciduous
trees, vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (VAM) are the mycorrhizal fungi of choice, while conifers
and some late-successional deciduous trees require ectomycorrhizal fungi.
57
Grower Experiences
In the past examples of experiences that growers have had with compost tea have been put in the manual.
Instead, we would like to have people check the SFI e-zine, or call us to learn more about local tea
production and tea centers.
Check the Soil Foodweb Inc web site. www.soilfoodweb.com updates and links to compost tea production.
Scientific Papers or Abstracts
Experiences in Natural Golf-Course Practices at Bandon Dunes Resort
Presented at Golf Consultants International, 2000 in Frankfurt, Dec. 5
Speaker: Troy Russell, Superintendent at Bandon Dunes Resort, Bandon, OR, 97411, USA
ABSTRACT:
The unique location of the BDR in the dunes, right at the Pacific Ocean, and in an environmentally
protected area, required a natural approach on the golf course practices. The challenge was to research what
natural practices are available and carefully apply, check results and gain reproducible results and
experiences. The basis of our NGCP (Natural Golf Course Practices) is founded on the properties of the
most natural system. To return the system to the most natural system, materials were applied that would
bring the natural system back into place most rapidly, for example, the use of compost, which contains
humic acids, a wide spectrum of beneficial microorganisms and last but not least, organic matter. The other
components of this system are minerals, which can be added as organic or inorganic forms. The challenge
was to copy nature on an industrial scale and in a fashion, suitable for easy golf course or management.
After gaining a 2-year experience, I feel confident and am happy to share those experiences with you.
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Two student posters, the first where they actually determined the biology – all of it, not just bacteria – in
the tea and showed the tea they made was in good to very good range. As result, the tea suppressed
disease.
Gangaiah, C., Carey, E. and Tisserat, N.A. Kansas State University
Suppression of Septoria Leaf Spot Disease of Tomato Using Aerated Compost Tea
ASHS 2004 annual meeting.
Poster Board #292
Abstract: Compost teas, made using an aerated brewing process, have been reported to have potential for
controlling a range of plant diseases and improving crop health. Septoria leaf spot of tomato, caused by the
fungus Septoria lycopersici, is a common and destructive disease of tomato in Kansas. A field trial was
conducted at Wichita, Kansas during Summer 2003 to evaluate the potential of pre-plant compost, and
compost tea applied as a foliar spray or through drip fertigation, to control Septoria leaf spot of tomato. The
experimental design included three factors: Pre-plant application of 13N–13P–13K or vermicompost;
fertigation with CaNO3 or compost tea; and foliar spray with compost tea, fungicide (Dithane) or water. A
split plot design was used with fertigation treatments as main plots and the other two factors as sub-plots.
There were 3 replications. Tomato cultivar Merced was used and individual plots consisted of 5 plants
grown on beds covered with red plastic mulch and supported by stake and weave system. Aerated compost
tea was brewed weekly using a vermicompost-based recipe including alfalfa pellets, molasses, humic acid,
fish emulsion and yucca extract and applied to plots starting 2 weeks after transplanting. Disease
incidence and severity were recorded weekly for 3 weeks following the appearance of disease. Plots were
harvested twice weekly and counts of No. 1, No 2 and cull grade tomatoes were recorded. There were no
effects of pre-plant or fertigation treatments on Septoria leaf spot disease, but there was a significant effect
due to foliar sprays, with mean severity of compost-tea-sprayed plots (26.3%) and fungicide-sprayed plots
58
(31.9%) significantly lower than water-sprayed plots (45.9%) at trial termination.
No assessment of the biology in this one – did they actually make good tea?
Joslin, k. Taber, h. Helland, s. and Gleason, M. Iowa State University
Control of the Foliar Disease, Septoria lycopersici, in Organic Tomato Production
Poster Board #290
Abstract: Disease management in organic tomato production poses one of the greatest challenges for
organic producers in humid climates. Both organic and conventional tomato growers have relied on copper
(Cu) fungicides to control many diseases, including Septoria lycopersici common in tomato production.
Concerns have been raised regarding the use of Cu fungicides, because of their potential to cause plant
damage and toxicity to beneficial organisms. The objectives of this research were to: 1) investigate the
efficacy of compost tea made from either windrow composted cattle manure (WCCM) or vermicomposted
cattle manure (VCM), and 2) compare the efficacy of organic fungicides with conventional fungicides to
control S. lycopersici in organic tomatoes. Treatments included 1) a control, 2) a conventional treatment in
which fungicide applications of Bravo plus Cu and Quadris plus Cu were alternated, 3) copper fungicide
(Champion), 4) Serenade TM Fungicide (Bacillus subtilis), 5) WCCM compost tea, and 6) VCM compost
tea. Disease pressure was mostly from the bacteria speck/spot complex. Disease severity was significantly
(P < 0.05) reduced and marketable yield was 60% higher with the two Cu treatments (No. 2 and 3),
compared to other treatments. A follow-up greenhouse experiment is in progress and will be presented with
the field data.
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The following shows that having mixes of organisms can result in disease organism suppression.
Utkhede, R. and Koch, C. 2004. Biological treatments to control bacterial canker of greenhouse tomatoes.
BIOCONTROL. 49: 305-315.
Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of treatments on Clavibacter michiganensis subsp.
michiganensis in vitro and on young seedlings inoculated with the pathogen under greenhouse conditions.
Lysozyme was bactericidal at 10 g/l concentration in vitro. Tomato plants treated with lysozyme at 10 g/l
and 100 g/l showed significantly higher plant height compared with the inoculated control plants, and
plants in these treatments were as tall as those observed in untreated uninoculated control plants.
Treatments with B. subtilis (Quadra 136) and Trichoderma harzianum (RootShield(R)), lysozyme,
vermicompostea, Rhodosporidium diobovatum (S33), B. subtilis (Quadra 137) applied as a spray at 0.3 g/l,
0.6 g/l, 10 g/l, concentrated, 1 x 10(9) CFU/ml, and 0.5 g/l, respectively, have the ability to prevent the
incidence of bacterial canker of tomato plants caused by C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis under
greenhouse conditions.
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This is an interesting paper. It is the basis for the NOP being paranoid about molasses. They rather miss
the point that fungi, protozoa and nematodes, i.e., the whole food web, just might have something to do
with suppression. There are other things in this world than just bacteria!
Scheuerell, S. and Mahaffee, W. 2004. Compost Tea as a Container Medium Drench for Suppressing
Seedling Damping Off Caused by Pythium ultimum. Phytopathology 94:1156-1163.
Compost tea is being used increasingly in agricultural production to control plant diseases. However there
has been limited investigation relating disease control efficacy to various compost tea production methods,
particularly compost tea produced using active aeration and additives to increase microbial population
densities in compost tea. Aerated compost tea (ACT) and nonaerated compost tea (NACT) produced with
or without additives was investigated for the suppression of damping off of cucumber by Pythium ultimum.
Compost tea was used to drench soil less container medium inoculated with Pythium ultimum;. Effect on
damping off ranged from not suppressive to consistently suppressive depending on the method used to
produce the tea. The most consistent formulation for damping off suppression was ACT produced with
kelp and humic acid additives. Producing ACT with a molasses-based additive inconsistently suppressed
damping off; evidence suggests that residual nutrients can interfere with disease suppression. Heating or
diluting compost tea negated suppression. Across all compost tea samples, there was no significant
59
relationship of bacterial populations measured as active cells, total cells or CFU with disease suppression.
However for all ACT produced without the molasses-based additive, there was a threshold of bacterialbased
population density (6 log base 10 cells per ml, 7.48 log base 10 total cells per ml, or 7 log base 10
CFU) above which compost teas were suppressive.
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This is one of the two “papers” used by the USDA to support their statement that compost tea should be
viewed as being raw manure. No one in their right mind would produce compost tea in a sealed container
such as used in this “research”. What was the point of these people’s work? Trying to discredit the
growing industry of compost tea? Why would any this “journal” accept such an inaccurate paper?
Duffy, B. Sarreal, C., Ravva, S. and Stanker, L. 2004. Effect of molasses on regrowth of E-coli O157 : H7
and Salmonella in compost teas. COMPOST SCIENCE & UTILIZATION. 12:93-96.
Compost water extracts (compost teas) are gaining popularity among organic growers, largely because of
their disease suppressive activity when applied to foliage or soil. Production methods often include addition
of supplemental constituents, particularly molasses, to stimulate plant-beneficial microbial populations. We
have found that molasses amendments also favor regrowth of human pathogenic bacteria, raising public
health concerns about potential contamination of treated crops, particularly produce intended for fresh
consumption. Using disease outbreak strains marked with green fluorescent protein (GFP) and spontaneous
antibiotic-resistance, we found that regrowth of Salmonella enterica serovar Thompson and Escherichia
coli O157:H7 was positively correlated with molasses concentration. For Salmonella, regrowth was also
dependent on the type of starter compost material used. Salmonella populations increased from 1 at time 0
to over 1000 CFU ml(-1) in dairy manure compos!
t tea with 1% molasses, and from 1 at time 0 to over 350,000 CFU ml-1 in chicken manure compost tea by
72 h. E. coli populations increased from I at time 0 to approximately 1000 CFU ml(-1) in both types of tea
by 72 h. Pathogen regrowth did not occur when molasses was eliminated or kept to 0.2%.
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Note in the following paper, they do not in any way determine what is in the “compost extracts” that they
prepared. Rather like throwing a handful of dark stuff in water, and hoping it will cure your headache.
What proof did they have that the “composts” they used were even composts at all?
Al-Dahmani, J.H., Abbasi, P.A., Miller, S.A. and Hoitink, H.A.J. 2003. Suppression of bacterial spot of
tomato with foliar sprays of compost extracts under greenhouse and field conditions. PLANT DISEASE.
87:913-919.
The efficacy of foliar sprays with compost water extracts (compost extracts) in reducing the severity of
bacterial spot of tomato caused by Xanthomonas vesicatoria was investigated. Extracts prepared from
composted cow manure, composted pine bark, an organic farm compost, or composted yard waste, applied
as foliar sprays on tomato transplants, resulted in a moderate but statistically significant reduction in the
severity of bacterial spot. The population of X. vesicatoria in infected leaves was reduced significantly by
extracts prepared from composted cow manure. Efficacy of the water extracts was not affected by oxygen
concentrations in the suspension during extraction, compost maturity, or sterilization by filtration or
autoclaving. The degree of control provided by foliar sprays with the most effective compost extracts did
not differ from that obtained with the plant activator acibenzolar-S-methyl. In the field in two growing
seasons, foliar sprays with compost water extracts did not reduce the severity of foliar diseases, including
bacterial spot. During the 1997 season, when the severity of bacterial spot in the field was high, foliar
sprays with compost water extracts significantly reduced the incidence of bacterial spot on tomato fruit.
Amending plot soil with several rates of composted yard waste did not lead to additional control of fruit
disease over those only sprayed with extracts. Foliar sprays with a mixture of chlorothalonil and copper
hydroxide or with acibenzolar-S-methyl reduced the severity of bacterial spot as well as incidence of spot
on fruit.
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Ingham, E. 1998. Anaerobic bacteria and compost tea. BioCycle 39: 86
60
The writer discusses anaerobic bacteria and its impact on plant growth. Composters are concerned that the
presence of bacteria that can grow without oxygen or in a low oxygen environment poses a problem in
compost or compost tea. In the writer's opinion, the presence of bacteria is not a problem, as long as they
are not growing. The elimination of anaerobic conditions and the products of anaerobic metabolism are
also discussed.
Ingham, E. 1999. Part I. What is compost tea? Part I. BioCycle 40: 74-75.
The writer discusses compost tea. Compost tea is a liquid extract of compost that contains all of the soluble
nutrients, both organic and inorganic, and a large portion of the organisms, such as bacteria, fungi,
protozoa, and nematodes, that are present in the compost. The benefits provided by the tea depend on what
can be extracted from the compost; it is very important that the tea contains organisms. A major advantage
of compost tea is that it can be applied through the irrigation system or through a spray rig.
Ingham, E. 1999. Part II. Making a high quality compost tea. BioCycle: 40: 94 .
The writer discusses the major factors that influence the quality of compost tea, which can be inconsistent
from batch to batch. These include the mesh size of the bag or filter, steep time, and water recirculation
and aeration. Factors contributing to a wide diversity of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes desirable
in compost tea are also addressed.
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Brinton, W.F. ; Tränkner, A.; and Droffner, M. 1996. Investigations into liquid compost extracts.
BioCycle 37:68-70
In a review of the use of liquid extracts of compost for the control of pathogenic fungi in plants, variables
in producing and applying such compost teas are considered. Compost teas coat plant surfaces with live
bacteria, suppressing both the germination and the growth of plant pathogenic organisms. The maturity of
the compost and the nature of its source constituents are major factors in the effectiveness of compost tea
treatments.
Bess, V.H. 2000. Understanding compost tea. BioCycle 41: 71-72
The potential benefits of compost tea, a range of different preparations made using compost as a starting
material and producing a liquid extract or a liquid version of the original compost, are discussed. The
performance of these solutions depends on their preparation, compost quality, microbiology, storage, and
application methods.
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Scheuerell, S. 2003. Understanding How Compost Tea Can Control Disease. BioCycle 44: 20-5
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Grobe, Karin. 2003. Golf Courses Find Value in Compost Tea Programs. BioCycle 44:22-23. San
Francisco's Integrated Pest Management program is using compost tea as an effective tool for suppression
of turf diseases as well as overall reduction of synthetic fertilizers. The tea is brewed in two 100-gallon and
one 25-gallon brewers from Growing Solutions, is diluted with an equal volume of dechlorinated water,
and applied at a rate of 2 gallons per 1,000 square feet every 2 weeks. The effects of a compost tea trial on
golf course greens in San Francisco over a one-year period yielded positive results.
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Wickland, L. ; Murray, T. ; and Jimerson, J. 2001. Brewing up solutions to pest problems. BioCycle 42:64-
66.
The writers discuss the combined efforts of Washington State University Cooperative Extension and a
Whatcom County grower to evaluate compost tea in the suppression of plant diseases. In April 2000,
Alison Kutz-Troutman of Cascade Cuts gave the university an opportunity to test the efficacy of compost
teas as a valuable integrated pest management strategy. In 2 of the 3 trials, control plants had a greater
incidence of disease than plants treated with aerobic tea or anaerobic tea. However, statistical differences
did not emerge until 6 to 8 weeks after germination, so the practical benefits of using compost tea to
suppress root diseases may be marginal.
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Blair, M. and Koch, J.2001. Sustainable practices thrive in a national park. BioCycle 42: 51-52
The benefits of a composting project at the Presidio, which is part of the Golden Gate National Park in San
Francisco, California, are discussed. The Presidio Trust took on the composting project for economic
reasons and is now reaping the benefits. The eventual goal is to recycle 100 percent of the organic waste
produced in the park, thereby saving the Presidio Trust $100,000 per year. Using help from various
61
organizations, small trials were started. Recipes and uses for the quality compost were found. The next
stage was to expand the production of quality compost from 100 to 2,000 cubic yards per year. Studies are
being conducted to see if the compost increases the survival rate of transplanted native plants grown on site
to restore the habitat. A compost tea has also been made and is being used on the Presidio's golf course as
top dressing. Schoolchildren from San Francisco come every week to help with and learn about
composting.
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Touart, A.P. 2000. Time for (compost) tea in the Northwest. BioCycle 41: 74-77
The potential of compost tea to provide nutrients and combat infection in plants and crops is discussed.
Two Northwest companies are working toward the large-scale production and supply of compost tea--
Growing Solutions Inc. of Eugene, Oregon, and Soilsoup Inc. of Seattle, Washington. The effectiveness of
compost tea as demonstrated by experimentation is considered.
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Naylor, L. 2001. Using compost tea on golf courses. BioCycle 42 24-25.
Potential health hazards that may be associated with the use of compost tea on golf courses are addressed in
a question and answer format. Compost tea contains microorganisms that have been active in the
composting process but can include human and animal pathogens, especially if made from improperly
composted materials. However, it is unlikely that incidental contact with areas treated with compost tea
would result in illness.
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Salter, C. 2001. Teas versus leachate. BioCycle 42: 24
The differences between compost tea and compost leachate are addressed in a question and answer format.
Compost tea is derived from finished compost and implies a more deliberate extraction process, whereas
compost leachate formation is passive and secondary to the composting process.
62
Experimental Results
SARE grant (2001).
This is work being done with the Sustainable Studies Institute, Eugene, OR. In this experiment, we are
working with three different vineyard cooperators in the Willamette Valley. One is in McMinnville, OR,
the second in Wren, OR, and the third in Monroe, OR. The experimental design was application of a good
compost tea to five rows of the vineyards every two weeks, application to a different set of five rows every
week, compared with the control which is the rest of the vineyard using the grower’s normal practices.
During the summer, anaerobic teas were made and applied once. We intended to find strongly fungal
materials and apply a strongly fungal tea, but the problems with extraction and compost quality have
proven too difficult, and this application will be a part of the next year’s study.
Three 12 gallon Micro-Brewers were donated to the Sustainable Studies Institute for use in this study.
Initially the teas made were barely acceptable in terms of bacterial biomass, and were almost completely
lacking in fungal component. The compost being used was changed, because initially, worm compost was
mixed with some strongly fungal mushroom compost, but the mushroom compost was shown to contain
many inhibitory compounds which killed the other organisms in the tea. The next compost used was a
combination of strongly fungal worm compost and strongly fungal thermal compost, but as it became
difficult to afford the thermal compost, strictly fungal worm compost was used. These are the joys of
having budgets.
Application starting times in the spring varied in each vineyard, because of growers’ practices. This wasn’t
the experimental design, but there are times when practicality overcomes any other consideration. Because
we were limited in the amount of tea being made per batch, each vineyard diluted the tea to the correct
amount to cover the rows within their vineyard. At the Monroe vineyard, this meant the tea was diluted 1:5,
at Wren tea was diluted 1:1 and at the McMinnville vineyard, no dilution was used, but two rows were not
sprayed, and thus became the untreated control.
In mid-June, a mildew alert was released by the OSU Extension Service, indicating that mildew was in
epidemic proportions and all growers should be aware that it was perfect conditions for mildew outbreaks
to occur. None of the vineyards, at either application rate, reported mildew.
The last week of July, the tractor at the Monroe vineyard broke down, and no tea was applied for three
weeks. During the week of August 5, 2001, mildew was found in the block that had been last sprayed the
week of July 20, and had only received tea sprays every two weeks. Small levels of mildew were found in
the weekly block, which had not been sprayed since the week of July 20. Clearly, maintaining protection
was critical. The block with high levels of mildew was sprayed with fungicide, which ended the mildew
infestation, and the block went back to normal tea applications. No further mildew spread was observed. In
the weekly block, since the tractor had been fixed, tea application ended the mildew outbreak.
In the Wren vineyard, in the block sprayed every other week, mildew was found on some grapes during the
week of August 5. Therefore, tea application was increased to once a week, and increased to no dilution in
both blocks. Once the danger of infection was over, the tea applications returned to weekly and bi-weekly.
No mildew was observed in the McMinnville vineyard, except in the untreated control areas. Once mildew
was observed, tea sprays were initiated and no further mildew was observed.
The results from the trials were that grapes in the tea-treated areas were ready for harvest weeks before
conventional grapes were ready to be picked. This reduction in ripening time is significant with respect to
being able to initiate wine-making operations in the late summer.
The anaerobic tea tested the weeks of August 12 and 19 did not result in any improvement in organism
coverage on leaf surfaces.
63
These results clearly show the importance of dose-rates, and that the level of bacteria and fungi on the leaf
surfaces is critical.
SARE grant (2002)
Powdery mildew was a serious disease problem at vineyards in the Willamette Valley of Oregon in 2002,
as it was in 2001. In the vineyards used for this study, powdery mildew outbreaks were largely controlled,
or their severity reduced, in areas sprayed weekly with compost tea. Organism biomass in the teas, and
therefore leaf surface coverage by microorganisms, particularly fungi, was not sufficient to prevent
infection. Weekly compost tea applications reduced the number of applications to one to as many as three
applications of chemical fungicide needed to control powdery mildew over the summer growing season.
Changes in soil microorganisms between 2001 and 2002 were also documented. In general, bacterial
activity was higher in 2002. Fungal biomass declined in some areas sprayed with compost tea. Organism
biomass in soils from conventionally-treated areas followed similar patterns, however, so most likely these
changes are in fact seasonally related and not the result of compost tea application. Thus, it is clear that
SOIL organism biomass changes were due to other environmental factors or management practices, and not
to the application of compost tea. Foliar sprays did not significantly improve soil biology in this two year
study.
Miscommunications and inconsistencies between protocols and application rates in the different vineyards
have made it clear that all sites must be under the control and the responsibility of one grant-paid person,
not the manager of each vineyard. Next year, a project manager will be responsible for all treatment
applications and sample collection.
Compost tea and disease suppression
Compost teas applied to Wren, Broadly Vineyards and Reeds and Reynolds vineyard contained similar
levels of total bacterial biomass, active bacterial biomass, total fungal biomass, and active fungal biomass.
Few of the teas contained the 10 micrograms of fungal biomass found to be sufficient for disease
suppression in 2001.
When teas were applied to leaves, percent coverage of the leaf surface by bacteria increased significantly
relative to pre-spray samples and unsprayed controls. Percent coverage by fungi did not increase relative to
pre-spray samples or unsprayed controls, and very rarely reached the 2 – 5% level found to give effective
disease control in 2001.
Leaf samples from R & R were not replicated due to miscommunications. In a sample taken on 11 July,
60% of the leaf surface was covered with organisms, mostly bacteria. A sample taken on 11 Sept. showed
only 3% leaf surface coverage, probably due to the presence of a dessicant sprayed on 10 Sept. to control
the powdery mildew fungus.
As in 2001, disease pressure was higher from powdery mildew (PM) than from botrytis. In 2002, the
disease was first found at Wren on 25 July, in both the weekly and biweekly spray plots. The first
application of fungicide was made on July 27. The fungicide was applied three more times in August. Due
to the late frost this spring at the Wren vineyard, and reduced investment by the vineyard manager, the
usual cultural practice of thinning vines had not been performed in the rows being sprayed with compost
tea as of 31 July. On 5 September, the vineyard manager noted that most of the fruit on the vines sprayed
biweekly had been lost to PM, but these rows were not scheduled to be harvested, because of the late frost.
At Broadly vineyard, PM was found on 19 July in the plot sprayed biweekly. On 23 July, the disease was
found in both weekly and biweekly spray plots. Fungicide applications began on 23 July. On 8 August,
PM was present in both treatment areas, but was more prevalent in the biweekly spray plots.
At the R & R vineyard, PM was first noted on 20 May in the CONVENTIONALLY-treated area. This area
of the vineyard received seven applications of fungicide. On 16 July, PM was found in both plots sprayed
with compost tea. This area received only one application of fungicide, on 23 July, followed by two
applications of compost tea at twice the normal rate. These measures halted the progress of the PM
64
outbreak in the tea-sprayed plots.
Changes in soil microorganisms
Soil samples taken from the Wren and Broadly vineyards in April 2001 were compared to those taken in
April and May 2002 (Table 1). Total bacterial biomass did not change significantly, whereas active
bacterial biomass increased in both tea-sprayed plots and the control plots. Total fungal biomass decreased
in the both the plots sprayed weekly with compost tea and in the control plots. Numbers of protozoa
(flagellates, amoebae and ciliates) showed mixed trends, none of which were significant. The number of
nematodes in the plots receiving biweekly tea sprays and in the control decreased significantly from 2001
to 2002, most of the decrease being in the plant-parasitic category.
Table 11. Soil microorganism biomass and numbers from Wren and Broadly vineyards (Means,
with standard errors* in parentheses).
Dry Weight Active Total Active Total Total
of 1 gram Bacterial Bacterial Fungal Fungal Hyphal Protozoa Nematode
Fresh Biomass Biomass Biomass Biomass Diameter Numbers /g Numbers
Material (μg/g) (μg/g) (μg/g) (μg/g) (μm) Flagellates Amoebae Ciliates (#/g)
2001
Biweekly 0.76 14.4 192 14.8 136 2.58 6481 1494 71 6.17
Tea spray (0.02) (1.80) (4.55) (5.03) (13.9) (0.08) (2161) (627) (29) (1.73)
Weekly 0.77 9.05 196 19.2 174 2.67 2627 2308 89 2.30
Tea spray (0.02) (1.71) (5.73) (5.55) (17.2) (0.11) (826) (756) (62) (0.65)
Conven- 0.76 16.9 155 64.7 713 3.92** 13888 10164 134 7.12
Tional (0.01) (1.90) (18.0) (30.4) (421) (0.91) (9246) (7070) (93) (3.60)
2002
Biweekly 0.82 56.1 180 12.1 75.0 2.50 33895 10087 20 0.53
Tea spray (0.04) (32.2) (29.6) (3.56) (53.2) (0.00) (33165) (6071) (13) (0.11)
Weekly 0.81 62.8 173 11.9 56.3 2.50 27560 640 18 1.49
Tea spray (0.03) (32.3) (41.5) (2.62) (35.8) (0.00) (26825) (95) (18) (1.34)
Conven- 0.82 41.5 166 14.2 47.3 2.50 3025 16704 45 1.64
Tional (0.02) (20.4) (19.3) (2.30) (31.4) (0.00) (258) (16125) (10) (1.31)
* In 2001, n = 6; in 2002, n = 2. ** One sample with an average fungal diameter of 8 micrometers
was included.
Soil samples from the R & R vineyard were unreplicated. Between October 2001 and June 2002, total
bacterial biomass tended to decrease. Total fungal biomass was lower in all plots in 2002, whereas active
fungal biomass was higher in plots receiving weekly tea sprays.
In 2002, compost teas were produced using 100-gallon brewers from EPM Inc., of Cottage Grove, OR. Tea
applications continued on the same vineyards as in 2001. The same treatment plots were used in 2002 as in
2001. Compost teas were applied weekly and biweekly to plots at each vineyard, and a third plot received
conventional management practices. Applications began during the last week of April. The Wren vineyard
received its last frost on May 8.
The project coordinator brewed and applied compost teas at these vineyards, located sources of compost,
and worked to solve mechanical difficulties with brewers and sprayers. Between mid-May and mid-June,
65
the EPM tea maker at Sunbow Farm was leaking and could not be used, so a tea maker manufactured by
Compara International, Holland, was located and used. For two weeks in August, no teas were brewed due
to difficulty obtaining compost that was suitable for the project. It was immediately after this two week
period that mildew outbreaks occurred in the vineyard.
Application rates of compost tea varied occasionally from the standard of 25 gal/acre. At the R & R
vineyard, two teas were sprayed at 50 gal/acre in a successful attempt to halt the progress of a mildew
outbreak. At Broadly, three teas were applied at 38 gal/ acre to both tea plots because the sprayer setting
had been changed while the unit was being serviced.
During 2002, miscommunications occurred regarding sampling and consistency in applying
compost tea treatments between vineyards. Communication was not maintained as well as
expected. We have learned that the growers who are involved in the project must be willing to
follow the experimental protocol, even if the crops in the treated areas are jeopardized.
Irregularities due to mechanical problems and weather will always occur, but changes in
management practices and treatments need to be controlled. In further studies, one single project
manager should be solely responsible for making compost and applying teas, and collecting
samples.
Microb-Brewer Experiment #1.
Using a prototype of the Microb-Brewer, the Soil Microbial Biomass Service at Oregon State University
used compost provided by Ron Stewart of Columbia Gorge Organic Fruit Company. The classic study on
the effects of improved soil diversity on plant production was performed by Ingham et al., 1985, but the
entire literature is reviewed in Killham, 1994, Coleman and Crossley, 1995, Sylvia et al., 1998.
Microorganism biomass was assessed using direct methods. Both fungal and bacterial biomass were
determined using fluorescent stains and UV epi-fluorescent microscopy or Differential Interference
Microscopy (DIC). Diversity was assessed by morphological characteristics during direct microscopic
examination and colony morphology on spread plates. Protozoan numbers and species diversity were
determined from MPN plates; each well examined directly using DIC to allow identification to genus.
Nematodes were identified following concentration of the tea using a 5 um mesh size screen sieve, and
identification to genus by direct examination using DIC.
In the brewer, the quantity of beneficial organisms was improved and pathogens were not found. The
maximum bacterial, fungal, protozoan and nematode numbers occurred between 18 and 24 hours in the
brewing cycle.
66
Grape Foliar Experiments. There are beneficial bacteria and fungi on leaf surfaces that protect plants
from disease as well as produce and retain nutrients (Andrews, J.H. et al., 1991). The following data
demonstrates that this protective biofilm inoculated onto a detached leaf surface by compost tea suppresses
disease.
Table 12. Relation between leaf coverage and prevention of Botrytis on wine grapes.
% of grape leaf covered by tea
bacteria
% of grape leaf challenged by
Botrytis cinerea
Visual observation of grey mould
growth on leaf surface
0% (No tea, water only) 70% Visible growth of mold occupying
1/3 of leaf surface
10% tea 70% One spot of mold, 1/2 inch in
diameter
20% tea 70% One spot of mold, 1/2 inch in
diameter
30% tea 70% Barely noticeable growth of mold,
less than 1/4 inch in diameter
60% tea 70% Barely noticeable growth of mold,
less than 1/4 inch in diameter
90% tea 70% Barely noticeable mycelial strands on
surface, no visible colony growth
90% tea 0% No Botrytis; No visible signs of
disease on leaf
Territorial Seed Experiment, Summer 2000 – During the summer of 2000, tomato seedlings
were grown in the greenhouse and planted in three fields in different areas of the upper Willamette Valley
near Cottage Grove, OR. Four different treatments were applied to plots in these three fields:
(1) Conventional practices,
(2) A single foliar/soil drench immediately after planting,
(3) Tomato planting tray soil soaked with tea before planting, and
Foliar/soil drench at planting, foliar tea applied every 10 days to 2 weeks.
Tea was made using the standard Bacterial Tea recipe and using buffalo compost with a strong fungal
component. Results from this work will be published in a scientific journal. However, several conclusions
can be drawn from these results:
Using Good Compost is critical – Compost stored in a barrel and watered several days before use
was tested, it was found to have become anaerobic based on active bacteria, total bacteria and
protozoan analysis. The compost was tested two different times, and tea was made from that
compost using an early-design Microb-Brewer. The tea produced contained very few organisms of
any kind, because the compost contained few organisms of any kind. Leaf surfaces were tested for
coverage by the beneficial organisms, and leaf surfaces were found to be not adequately covered –
only 22 to 30% coverage. This is not adequate to exclude or inhibit disease-causing organisms from
the leaf surfaces.
This demonstrates the importance of knowing that the compost contains the organisms needed, that
the tea contains the organisms needed, as well as the leaves. When designing a testing scheme, it is
probably most useful to test leaf organism coverage (Leaf Organism Assay). Results are returned from the
lab within 24 hours, so you know whether you achieved adequate coverage or not. If coverage was not
adequate, and if disease-organism spores or cells are dispersing, an immediate re-spray of better compost
tea is indicated. You may also want to investigate where along the tea making process tea quality is being
reduced. Is the compost good compost? Does it contain the organisms needed for the application you are
using it for? This is bacteria and fungi for foliar sprays; bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes for soil
applications.
Seasonal Variation in Organism Activity on Leaves – Through the summer, leaf coverage was
monitored in the Territorial Seed Company tomato trials. Following spraying of each tea, as
67
documented by analysis of the compost, the organisms in the tea (good biomass of bacteria, fungi,
protozoa and nematodes present in the tea produced by the Microb-Brewer) and the leaf surfaces
(Leaf Organism Assay), leaf surfaces were monitored immediately, 24 hours and 48 hours after
spraying. Results indicated that through the summer, survival of the organisms on the leaf surfaces
varied with weather conditions. In cool, rainy weather, the organisms did not remain active on the
leaf surfaces for more than 25 hours. During warm, dry weather, the organisms on the tomato leaves
remained very active and increased in number.
More studies of organism survival on leaf surfaces need to be performed to indicate how often tea sprays
need to be performed in different weather conditions. In warm, dry weather, sprays may only need to be
done once every two to three weeks. In cool, rainy weather, stickers may need to be added to the tank to
improve retention on leaves. It may be a good idea to assess combinations of dormant oils and teas, to see if
combinations of this kind would improve growth on leaves during wet, cool periods. Addition of yucca (a
product called Saponyn from Helena Chemical Company which does not contain preservatives) to tea in
other trials appeared to improve organism survival on the leaf surface, as well as increase their ability to
remain on the leaf surface through rainy conditions.
Potato Trials at Oregon State University
Potato field plots were established a number of years ago at the Oregon State University Lewis Brown
Farm just outside Corvallis, OR. These plots were maintained by Dr. A. Mosely, Department of Agronomy,
Oregon State University. A number of treatments were within the experimental design, but to three plots
within the randomized design, compost tea was the only application made to the potato plants during the
summer besides routine and standard irrigation water. Compost tea, made with a Microb-Brewer, and using
the standard Bacterial Tea recipe, was applied every 10 to 14 days to three plots. Controls using standard
conventional practices were maintained. Wilt inoculum (Dr. M. Powelson, Oregon State University) was
applied to all plots during the late summer. The results of these trials will be published in scientific
journals. However, several conclusions can be drawn from the trials.
Tea from Different Composts versus % Disease Suppression - The kind of compost used to make
tea made a difference in level of disease-organism incidence on both leaves and tubers. The best
reduction in foliar disease occurred when still-warm (100° F), moisture-maintained (54% moisture)
compost was used. This compost contained highly active bacterial populations, which transferred to
the tea and grew rapidly during the 20-hour tea brewing cycle. Fungal biomass, protozoa and
nematode numbers were low in this tea, however. This tea was not effective at controlling tuber
infection, based on no significant difference from the control tubers with 60% of tuber surfaces
covered with disease-organism as assessed by visual surface inspection and confirmed by plating on
PDA. However, the tea made from older, fully mature compost that was at ambient temperature, but
also with good moisture levels (45%), was effective at controlling tuber disease-organisms levels
(reduced to less than 3% of tubers with disease-organisms infecting their surfaces.) This mature
compost tea had fewer active bacteria than the immature tea, but also contained good numbers of
fungal biomass, protozoa and nematodes. This tea reduced the presence of foliar infection as well,
but not quite as well as the immature compost tea.
It is important to recognize that the set of organisms in the tea can vary, and that this may influence
the application for which the tea is best suited. The tea containing all the organisms would be more
generally useful, but the tea with high bacterial activity was the most useful at reducing the presence of
foliar disease-organisms on the leaf surfaces. Thus, for a foliar application, immature compost might be the
best choice, while for a soil application, mature, more fungal dominated compost with higher numbers of
protozoa and nematodes would be the better choice.
68
Glossary
Abiotic—Not biotic; not related to life or specific life conditions. Usually meaning physical or chemical
factors, such as temperature, humidity, inorganic chemicals.
Aerobactor—A specific genus of bacteria, most of which are strictly aerobic bacteria.
Aerobe—Any organism requiring atmospheric concentrations of molecular oxygen as the final acceptor in
metabolism.
Anaerobe – Any organism requiring reduced oxygen concentrations, or elevated carbon dioxide
concentrations in order to be able to perform metabolic processes. Strict anaerobes typically are killed
by even the slightest oxygen concentrations, while facultative anaerobes can function in both aerobic
and anaerobic conditions, but use very different metabolic pathways depending on oxygen
concentration.
Bacillus—A specific genus of bacteria, typically Gram-positive, rod-shaped, aerobic, spore-forming
bacteria, often occurring in chainlike formations. Used generically, any rod-shaped, chain-forming
bacterium.
Bacteria—Unicellular microorganisms, occurring in many forms, existing either as free-living organisms
or as parasites, with a broad range of biochemical, often pathogenic properties
Beneficial Organisms—Non-pathogenic life; often improving the growth of a desired organism in a moreor-
less mutualistic association where both organisms benefit from the presence of the other.
Butyric Acid—A volatile organic acid produced through the incomplete anaerobic oxidation of organic
matter, typically identified as sour milk smell.
Decomposition—The process of conversion of organic material from one form to another, generally with
biomass production by the organism doing the decomposition, production of metabolic waste
products and carbon dioxide.
Disease Suppression—The ability to inhibit, compete with, or consume disease-causing organisms
preventing them from causing disease.
Exudates- Simple sugars, proteins, carbohydrates, hormones released by plants into the environment,
typically for the express purpose of encouraging the growth of bacteria and fungi which form a
biological shield around the plant, preventing disease-causing organisms from detecting the root.
Facultative Anaerobe—Organisms that can perform metabolism using either oxygen or inorganic
molecules as the final electron acceptor in metabolism. These organisms generally switch from
aerobic to anaerobic metabolism at low oxygen concentrations.
Fermentation—A specific group decomposition process that typically involves the production of carbon
dioxide. Both aerobic and anaerobic processes can be included as fermentative process, although
usually this term refers to anaerobic fermentation where alcohol is produced. Wine or beer
fermentation, for example.
Fermentor—A vessel used for fermentation processes, such as making beer, wine. Broadly applied, any
container in which metabolic processes are being performed.
Fulvic Acid—A particular fraction of complex humus material composed of medium molecular weight
long-chain organic compounds, typically 2000 to 6000 dalton length chains. Of the recalcitrant humic
materials, these can be used by bacteria. Turnover times may be 100 to 300 years in soil.
Fungi—Plants of the division Thallophyta, lacking chlorophyll, ranging in form from a single cell to a
body mass of branched filamentous hyphae that often produce specialized fruiting bodies and
including the yeasts, molds, smuts, and mushrooms.
Foodweb—The set of organism relationships, often based on who-eats-who, or which organisms cycle a
particular nutrient within an ecological community.
Humic Acids—A particular fraction of complex humus, composed of extremely recalcitrant, high
molecular weight, very long-chain organic compounds typically 6,000 to 600,000 daltons in lengths
and highly structured in a three-dimensional manner. Very resistant to decomposition, and highly
condensed. Turnover time in soil may be 300 to 3000 years.
Humics—The mixture of all recalcitrant, long-turnover time organic compounds in soil, includes both
fulvic and humic fractions.
Metabolites—Organic compounds produced by metabolic processes.
Mycorrhizal Fungi - VAM are a set of mycorrhizal fungi that form arbuscules and vesicles within the
roots of plants, while ectomycorrhizal fungi form a net, called the Hartig net, within the first one-to-
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two cell layers of feeders roots and send rhizomorphs along the root surface. Host ranges of row
crops for VAM are quite broad; the important factor to understand in choosing species of VAM is
climate. When growing conifers, ectomycorrhizal fungal experts should be consulted.
Nematodes—Any of various worms of the phylum Nematoda having unsegmented threadlike bodies.
There are four major functional groups in soil including bacterial-feeding, fungal-feeding, predatory
(eat other nematodes) and root-feeding.
Nutrient Cycling—A biogeochemical cycle; the process of conversion of organic and inorganic material
from one form to another, generally with the production of biomass by the organism doing the
cycling, production of metabolic waste products which serve as the next step in the nutrient cycle,
and carbon dioxide.
Nutrient Retention—The opposite of leaching, extraction or loss of nutrients. The least mobile nutrients
will nearly always be the organic forms, and the most mobile, or leachable, are the mineral forms.
Retention requires nutrients to be physically immobilized by inclusion in organic matter (in
organisms or organism waste-products such as bacteria, fungi, plants or plant detritus) or by
chemically binding on the surface of clay, sands, silts or organic matter.
Organism—A plant or animal; a system regarded as analogous to a living body.
Phenols—A benzene carbon ring structure with hydroxyl groups at various positions attached to the
carbons in the ring, typically resistant to enzyme attack and therefore considered relatively resistant
to decomposition. Many phenols have antibiotic or toxic capabilities.
Predator ––An organism that consumes other living organisms, as opposed to a decomposer, for example,
which consumes dead plant material, a primary producer that uses sunlight for energy.
Prey–– An organism that is eaten by a predator.
Protozoa—A group of single-celled animals whose major prey group is bacteria. The three major groups
of protozoa that occur in soil are the flagellates, the amoebae, and the ciliates. Amoebae can be
separated into naked amoebae, and testate amoebae. Because bacteria contain much more N per unit
C, N is released as ammonium, a plant available form of N.
Pseudomonas—A genus of bacteria, some species in this genus are plant-pathogens while some are
extremely beneficial to the growth of some plants. Taxonomic revision of this group of species is
underway.
Soil Aggregation—Soil particles (sand, silt, clay parent material) are bound together through the actions of
microorganisms, and the space between these particles formed through the bonding action, and by the
larger faunal organisms in soil. The more aggregated the soil, in both small and larger ped structures,
determines in part how water, roots and nutrients will be held by that soil.
Soluble—Capable of being dissolved in water; in solution.
Strict Anaerobe—Organisms that perform metabolism using oxidized forms of nutrients (carbon dioxide,
nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, sulfite, etc.) as the final electron acceptor in metabolism. Strict anaerobes will
be destroyed when they come in contact with di-oxygen, or ozone, as their membrane structure is
broken down by these compounds.
Valeric Acid—A volatile organic acid produced through the incomplete anaerobic oxidation of organic
matter, typically identified as a vomit smell.
Vortex Nozzle—Used in the Microb-Brewer, the Vortex Nozzle creates a high velocity atomization of tea
and air within the chamber of the nozzle.
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Recent Literature and Resources
by Steve Diver (reprinted by permission)
Compost Tea Brewing Manual. 2000. By Elaine R. Ingham. Soil Foodweb, Inc., Corvallis, OR. 60
pages.
I highly recommend this manual to anybody who plans to make and use compost teas. Written by
Dr. Elaine Ingham, it provides a practical summary of compost teas underpinned with a scientific
understanding of applied microbiology, including: how to use compost teas; factors affecting
compost tea quality; beneficial organisms; compost tea production methods; application methods;
matching compost teas to plants and soils; bacterial vs, fungal dominated compost teas; compost
tea recipes; microbial food resources for different micro-organism groups; and experimental
results.
Organic Farming Research Foundation
Information Bulletin No. 9, Winter 2001
The Winter 2001 issue contains a special report on OFRF-funded compost tea research, pages 8-
20. This is a 1,896K PDF file, so be patient waiting for it to download. Included among the items
in the compost teas issue is “Benefits of Compost Tea: A Review of the Research Literature.” It
lists 53 citations, but the full report—see below—contains 88 references in total. Other items
include: “Apparatus and Experimental Protocol for Organic Compost Teas”, which describes and
illustrates a homemade on-farm compost tea brewer; and “Effectiveness of Compost Tea Extracts
as Diseases Suppressants in Fresh Market Crops,” which describes looked at the effectiveness on
compost teas to suppress diseases on strawberries, lettuce, leeks, and broccoli in British Columbia.
Effectiveness of Compost Extracts as Disease Suppressants in Fresh Market Crops in British
Columbia
Sylvia Welke, OFRF Grant Report 99–31
The full OFRF report reviewed above; a 10-page PDF download.
Organic Teas from Composts and Manures
Richard Merrill, OFRF Grant Report 97–40
The full OFRF report reviewed above; a 51-page PDF download, with 88 literature
references in the bibliography, “Selected References for Organic Tea Extract Studies.”
Compost Tea for Organic Farming and Gardening. By William Quarles. The IPM Practitioner. Vol.
23, No. 9 (September). p. 1–8.
The September 2001 issue of The IPM Practitioner—the monthly journal from Bio-Integral
Resource Center—featured compost teas. An 8-page reprint is available for $7.50 total through:
Bio-Integral Resource Center (BIRC)
PO Box 7414
Berkeley, CA 94707
510-524-2567 510-524-1758 Fax
[email protected] http://www.birc.org
Investigations into Liquid Compost Extracts (“Teas”) for the Control of Plant Pathogenic Fungi
By William F. Brinton and Andreas Trankner, a
BioCycle conference paper
A 12-page PDF download, featuring the work of Dr. William Brinton of Woods End Research
Laboratory in Maine.
Compost Practices for Control of Grape Powdery Mildew (Uncinula necator )
By Andreas Trankner and William F. Brinton, a Biodynamic journal reprint
An 8-page PDF download, featuring the work of Dr. William Brinton of Woods End Research
Laboratory in Maine.
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Compost Microbiology
Compost Microbiology and the Soil Food Web
California Integrated Waste Management Board
6-page MS-Word download
Dr. Elaine Ingham: The Soil Foodweb & Compost Teas
The Soil Foodweb
By Elaine Ingham
http://www.soilfoodweb.com/
Soil Foodweb Information
The Soil Foodweb Structure
Foodweb “Funtions” in a Living Soil: The Benefits to Plants and Soils
Soil Organisms: Why are they important?
By Elaine Ingham; article reprint at Compara.nl
The Soil Foodweb: It’s Importance in Ecosystem Health
By Dr. Elaine Ingham; article reprint at Don’t Panic eat Organic
Dr. Ingham’s Monthly E-Zine
Note: The SFI E-Zine is a great place to keep up with Dr. Elaine Ingham’s latest comments and
notes on compost teas.
Anaerobic Bacteria and Compost Tea
By Elaine Ingham, a BioCycle article reprint
Brewing Compost Tea
by Elaine R. Ingham, Kitchen Gardener magazine
A Recipe for Tea: Start with a Good Compost
By Geraldine Warner, The GoodFruit Grower, March 2001
Content: Review of fungal dominated compost practices & compost teas from Elaine Ingham
Web Resource Collections on Soil Biology
Sustainable Soil Management: Web Links to Make Your Worms Happy!
Steve Diver, ATTRA
Content: Web resource list from ATTRA
Soil Biology Information Resources For Land Managers, Resource Professionals, and Educators
Content: Web resource list from NRCS-Soil Quality Institute
Compost and Disease Suppression
Bibliography on Compost for Disease Suppression
Compiled by Chloe Ringer, 1998
USDA Soil Microbial Lab, Beltsville, MD
Disease Suppressive Potting Mixes, ATTRA
Sustainable Management of Soil-borne Plant Disease, ATTRA
Suppressing Plant Diseases with Compost
By David Granatstein; The Compost Connection for Washington Agriculture
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October 1997, No.5 http://csanr.wsu.edu/compost/newsletter/compcon5.html
On-Farm Composting: Plant Disease Control / On-Farm Composting - A Review of the Literature
Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
Composts for Disease Suppression
UConn Integrated Pest Management
Microbial Ecology of Compost-Induced Disease Suppression
Eric Nelson et al; Proceedings of the 5th International PGPR Workshop
Disease Suppressive Compost as an Alternative to Methyl Bromide
Methyl Bromide Alternative Case Study, EPA 430-R-97-030
10 Case Studies, Volume 3, September 1997
Compost Teas: Regional Reports
Compost Tea Trials Final Report
Submitted to Office of Environmental Management, City of Seattle.
By Cascadia Consulting Group, March 8, 2001
A 53-page PDF download
Alternatives for Use & Management of “Compost Tea”
Clean Washington Center
Evaluation and Prioritization of Compost Facility Runoff Management Methods
53-page PDF download. Report addresses the reuse of a pasteurized compost leachate from city zoo for
use as a “tea” to fertilize crops. The liquid plant food, a compost tea product called Zoo Broo, will be
marketed along with the zoo’s other compost product, Zoo Doo.
Evaluation of Compost “Tea” for Reuse Opportunities (1997 & 1998)
Clean Washington Center
Evaluation of Compost Facility Runoff for Beneficial Reuse, Phase 2
39-page PDF download. Phase 2 report on compost leachate reuse.
Compost Teas: Research Reports
Response of Alternaria sp p. Blight and Septoria sp p. Leaf Spot to Biological Disease Control Agents in
Tomatoes
Jeremy Barker Plotkin; OFRF on-farm research report
Compost Cures All
By James Saper, (from
Sustainable Farming Magazine, Summer 1997, Vol. 7 No. 3)
http://www.genesis.ca/whatsnew_5.html
Peach Brown Rot Study at Woodleaf Farm, Oroville, CA
Carl Rosato; OFRF on-farm research report
North Coast Apple Scab Trials 1993/1994, Organic and Conventional Materials Comparison
Paul Vossen and Doug Gubler; reprint from UC Plant Protection Quarterly
University Research
Midwest Biosystems, Tampico, IL
Compost Tea and Blossom Brown Rot
73
Washington State University
http://depts.washington.edu/mulch/research/
Compost Teas: The Worm Digest Quarterly
A Homemade Compost Tea Brewer
By S. Zorba Frankel
http://www.wormdigest.org/articles/index.cgi?read=66
Compost Teas: Brewing a Sweet Blend
By Kelly Slocum
http://www.wormdigest.org/articles/index.cgi?read=65
Compost Teas: Complementary ATTRA Resources
Compost Teas for Plant Disease Control
The 1998 ATTRA publication
Compost Teas: A Tool for Rhizosphere-Phyllosphere Agriculture
[One slide per page — view on screen format; PPT.pdf = 4234K]
Compost Teas: A Tool for Rhizosphere-Phyllosphere Agriculture
[Six slides per page — print for quick reference format; PPT.pdf = 1303K]
74
The History of Compost Tea
Compost tea has been with us in some form since the Roman Empire (Cato, De Agriculturia), and most
likely, even earlier than that. The recipe and machinery used to produce tea, initially a big vat aerated by
stirring the liquid occasionally, has changed through the years, however.
Historically, growers made compost tea, manure tea and plant teas – or tinctures – in various ways.
Biodynamic growers have been using the “low tech” approach since Steiner recommended its use. Many
of the BD preps he described are specifically for use in stirred teas. Making manure tea is a common
practice in Biodynamics. Steiner’s descriptions of tea making suggest using additives in low
concentrations, most likely so that the tea does not go anaerobic, but brews often go through an anaerobic
phase if growers are not careful, or brew when temperatures are too warm.
Once anaerobic, the tea needs to be brewed until the liquid returns to the aerobic phase. Thus, making tea
can take weeks. While an aerobic–to–anaerobic-and–back–again tea can have quite useful effects,
production takes too long for most growers, and can be fraught with problems if the products of anaerobic
metabolism are not taken care of before use on plants.
Robert Cantesano of CCOF (California Committee on Organic Farming) began the movement toward more
hi-tech methods of brewing by adding air pumps and dripping the tea through the compost. But brewing
methods remained fairly low-tech – dump some stuff in water and let it sit with only a few stirs - until the
early 1990’s when Karl Rubenberger started a revolution in the tea-making industry.
When Karl Rubenberger brought his hi-tech compost tea brewing machine to Dr. Elaine Ingham at Oregon
State University in 1993, Dr. Ingham wanted to know why making tea in this way would be useful. And
the collaboration between Rubenberger and Ingham began.
Dr. Ingham’s career has been devoted to studying the biology in soil, compost and compost tea. Her
professional career has been focused on learning about the “soil food web” which is the complex web of
bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, microarthropods, earthworms and other soil critters that work together
to feed plants, fight pathogens and pests, and improve soil structure.
This research is yielding some fascinating information. Different plants require different sets of organisms
in the soil. Select for the plant you want by making certain the organisms in the soil support the needs of
that plant. Once you have the right balance for the plant you want, you can maintain its growth and
maximize productivity by building the soil and improving life in that soil. Weeds, brassicas, and early
successional grass species grow best in soils dominated by bacterial biomass (there are fungi in bacterialdominated
soil, just more bacteria than fungi). Old-growth forests are at the other end of the scale,
dominated by fungal biomass. There may actually be more bacteria in a fungal-dominated soil than in
earlier stage of succession, but the fungi have even greater biomass than the bacteria in perennial systems.
Most flowers and vegetables grow best in soils that have balanced bacterial and fungal biomass.
Compost and compost tea can be used to improve the soil and foliar life required to protect plants from the
diseases that abound in pesticide and fertilizer degraded ecosystems. The most productive soils in the
world are those with the most organic matter mixed through the surface soil horizons. This wealth of
organic matter is used by beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods to build soil
structure.
Compost and compost tea need to be produced in oxygen-rich, aerobic environments. This ensures that the
finished product is rich in nutrients and beneficial organisms. When compost (or compost tea) is made in
anaerobic conditions, nutrients are lost to the atmosphere (which is why anaerobic compost stinks). The end
product of anaerobic decomposition may also contain alcohol, phenols, organic acids and proteins that are
toxic to plant tissues.
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Compost tea applied to the foliage of plants increases the biological activity on the leaf surface layer,
which increases the length of time the plant stomates are open. This increases the opportunity for nutrient
uptake, which improves growth and boosts yields. When leaf surfaces are coated with a layer of beneficial
bacteria and fungi, they are protected from disease-causing bacteria and fungi.
In 1996, Karl Rubenberger turned over production of his tea machine to a manufacturer, and commercial
production of highly aerobic, 24-hour compost tea machines began. The original machine tested at OSU
produced a water vortex to pull the organisms out of the compost, and had no pipes on the bottom of the
machine. When bio-film developed, it could be seen easily and cleaned. But when the manufacturer
decided the machine needed to look more professional, the machine was re-plumbed with solid PVC pipe
material to replace the plastic tubing. These pipes could not be easily removed or cleaned.
After this change, teas began to arrive at Soil Foodweb Inc. with reduced fungal biomass, and the reason
for the low activity and biomass could not be determined. The manufacturer blamed Soil Foodweb Inc for
the problem, saying that the lab did not know what they were doing, and that the SFI methods were not
reliable.
But the teas did not perform in the field the way they were expected to perform, so SFI kept trying to
determine the reason for the lack of acceptable sets of organisms in the teas. Eventually, it was determined
that thick, smelly, anaerobic bio-films developed in the pipes that had replaced the plastic tubing. The
anaerobic products harmed the organisms, especially fungi which cannot tolerate anaerobic conditions and
cannot compete with most anaerobic bacterial species.
The solution was simple: replace the solid pipes with plastic tubing, so when biofilm developed, it could be
seen and removed by cleaning. Cleaning was made easier by easy-release connections, and the problem
was solved.
The manufacturer of the Microb-Brewer decided to no longer make the Microb-Brewer, as the reputation of
the Microb-Brewer had been harmed by the problems with the pipes. The new system that was developed
had serious drawbacks, with bio-film formation and anaerobic conditions developing in the machine. The
machine did not result in tea with decent fungal biomass, and again, SFI was blamed. The claim was made
that fungi did not grow in tea, that SFI was just interested in making money because of the insistence that
tea machines be tested, and finally, it was claimed that SFI testing was questionable. The bacteria, fungi,
protozoa and nematodes are the reasons compost tea is beneficial to plant growth. If the tea contains no
organisms, and the main benefit of tea is just the nutrients extracted, then it is easier to buy liquid organic
materials. There is no need to brew for 24 hours to just extract nutrients from compost.
But compost tea is, of course, more than the soluble nutrients. Compost tea includes the whole set of
organisms extracted from good compost, and specifically the beneficial organisms that grow in aerobic
conditions.
Other people started to build good compost tea machines by 1998. Bruce Elliott, of EPM, put together and
tested in a complete and thorough fashion, a 500 gallon machine. Many different food resources were
tested, and a reliable, consistent, excellent fungal tea machine was made. With time, EPM has made 100
and 22 gallon machines, each one tested to make certain it produces tea with excellent levels of organisms.
These machines pull the biology, and the soluble nutrients, from the composts used. The nutrient mixes
developed for these machines enhance the beneficial organisms in the compost. While these machines use
pumps through which the tea passes, a great deal of testing has been done to make certain the pumps are
not harmful to the organisms.
In 1999, the Dutch company, Compara, built a tea brewer based on tube diffuser designs. A simple and
easy-to-clean machine, the Compara Extractor is used through most of Europe for commercial compost tea
production.
Leon Hussey was the next to develop a tea machine that works well, maintaining aeration and excellent
organism growth in the tea. The 5 gallon “Keep-It-Simple” machine makes excellent tea in 12 hours. It is
76
nearly impossible to overwhelm this tea machine with too much food resource, and as a result, E. coli will
almost never grow in the tea. Only a combination of high foods and really poor compost will result in the
tea having E. coli above acceptable levels. The Simplici-tea company which makes the KIS brewers, has
added a 30 gallon machine. These machines use air bubblers to produce the tea, blowing air into the tea,
which causes mixing through the compost, with adequate extraction of the organisms and foods from the
compost.
The James Sottilo - Charlie Clarke machines were next on the market. These machines use tubes with
outer liners of plastic with fine holes in it, through which the air is blown. The movement of air through
the water column also mixes the water through the compost. These machines have been tested, and if the
compost used contains the needed life, results in excellent organism production and growth.
The next tea brewer produced was by the Compost Tea Company in New Zealand, which has developed an
industrial strength brewer for that country. Excellent results are typically seen using this large-scale air
bubbler type brewer. Aeration is maintained by a variable speed blower that can be tied to the actual
concentration of oxygen in the tea.
Compost Solutions in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia has also developed a good tea brewer,
based on swirling air through the water, and moving the compost bag continuously through the first few
hours of the brewing cycle. Nutri-Tech, and Tryton, in Lismore, New South Wales, and several other
growers in Australia have built tea makers, which are undergoing testing at this time.
Dennis Hronek designed a compost tea extraction unit, which extracts the organisms from the compost very
efficiently, and then grows the organisms while they are on the way to your field. The extractor units are
amazing in their ability to remove the organisms from the compost without requiring a growth period.
The lessons learned in these first few years of aerobic, highly consistent, 24-hour tea brews is that the
machines have to be tested and proven to stay aerobic in order to produce tea containing aerobic organisms
in high numbers and high diversity, with no toxic anaerobic materials produced.
In order to do this, machines have to be documented, in more than one run (means and standard deviations
have to be given, or multiple runs with data from all runs shown), to remain aerobic, and to have adequate
levels of active bacterial biomass, total bacterial biomass, active fungal biomass, total fungal biomass,
flagellates, amoebae, ciliates and beneficial nematodes.
Without this documentation of consistent beneficial organism growth in the tea, machines calling
themselves compost tea makers should be viewed with extreme skepticism. Anaerobic conditions in the tea
will result in the loss of the beneficial fungi, followed then by loss of flagellates and amoebae. High ciliate
numbers are indicative of the use of a poor compost. With loss of aerobic organisms resulting from
anaerobic conditions, human pathogens cannot be prevented from growing in the tea.
If an anaerobic tea is held for longer than 24 hours, and oxygen allowed to diffuse back into the water over
the course of several days to weeks, then the detrimental conditions can be alleviated. But it can take
weeks to out-compete the human pathogens and decompose toxins produced during the anaerobic period.
Can “brought-back” tea be beneficial? Yes, if the bacteria now growing in the tea are quite beneficial
species. The likelihood that the beneficial fungi will still be present, and be growing, is just about nil,
however. Control of many foliar fungal pathogens will be difficult, because the beneficial fungi that
protect the plants from those pathogens will have been lost.
Bacterial tea cannot be expected to give the benefits that a true compost tea gives, and buyers must be
aware of the differences. Any compost tea machine must be able to substantiate that all of the organisms in
the compost are extracted into the tea by that machine. If the compost has good organism numbers and
diversity, those organisms will be extracted into the tea by compost tea machines. If the machine is not
capable of extracting the organisms, then it is not a compost tea machine, and should not be called such.
77
Once growers are certain that the machine they have is capable of extracting the organisms, and will allow
those organisms to survive (e.g., the tea stays aerobic), then the additives need to be assessed. Commercial
machines should have data for their machines, and the grower should be able to achieve good results (e.g.,
good active bacteria, active fungi, total bacteria and total fungi) the very first time they use a commercial
tea brewer with its nutrient starter mix.
SFI tests teas made by growers using commercial tea machines. If the reports on the SFI website show that
growers cannot obtain decent organism numbers using the directions the tea machine maker gives them,
then that machine should be considered too risky to buy. Hype is something all growers have to learn to
detect, and anyone offering a product without any solid data to back-up their claims will always let the
grower down when the machine does not perform as promised. Talk to other growers about tea machines.
Good places to obtain information about making compost tea, the equipment needed to apply tea, foods that
can be used in making compost tea, etc, are: [email protected] (there’s an underline between
compost and tea in the name), and www.intlctc.org
Over the next few years, Soil Foodweb Inc will continue to do research investigating the growth of different
kinds of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes in soil, compost and compost tea. What are the conditions
that allow different plant species to grow better than any other plant? How do you know that the conditions
in your soil will give the best yields, the highest flavor, the best color and longest storage times? Which
beneficial organisms are the best at protecting the plant from disease, or pests? All these issues have to be
understood, and SFI is committed to investigate those issues. We want to supply the best, and least
expensive, answers for all growers, no matter where they are in the world. A big order, but one we’ll do our
best to achieve, with your help.
Good brewing!
Elaine R. Ingham
"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well, but the conviction that what we are
doing makes sense, no matter how things turn out."
-- Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic
78
Additional References
Brehaut, E. 1933. Cato the Censor On Farming. Columbia University Press, NY. 156 pp.
Brinton, William F. 1995. The control of plant pathogenic fungi by use of compost teas. Biodynamics.
January-February. p. 12 15.
Cronin, M.J., D.S. Yohalem, R.F. Harris, and J.H. Andrews. 1996. Putative mechanism and dynamics of
inhibition of the apple scab pathogen Venturia inequalis by compost extracts. Soil Biology &
Biochemistry. Vol. 28, No. 9. p. 1241 1249.
Elad, Y., and D. Shtienberg. 1994. Effect of compost water extracts on grey mould (Botrytis cinerea). Crop
Protection. Vol. 13, No. 2. p. 109 114.
Ingham, R.E., J.A. Trofymow, E.R. Ingham and D.C. Coleman. 1985. Interactions of bacteria, fungi and
their nematode grazers: Effects on nutrient cycling and plant growth. Ecological Monographs 55:119-
140.
Kai, Hideaki, Tohru Ueda, and Masahiro Sakaguchi. 1990. Antimicrobial activity of bark-compost extracts.
Soil Biol. Biochem. Vol. 22, No. 7. p. 983 986.
Kuc, Joseph, and Norman E. Strobel. 1992. Induced resistance using pathogens and nonpathogens. p. 295
301. In: E.S. Tjamos, G.C. Papavizas, and R.J. Cook (ed.) Biological Control of Plant Diseases:
Progress and Challenges for the Future. NATO ASI Series No. 230. Plenum Press, New York, NY.
Trankner, Andreas. 1992. Use of agricultural and municipal organic wastes to develop suppressiveness to
plant pathogens. p. 35 42. In: E.C. Tjamos, G.C. Papavizas, and R.J. Cook (ed.) Biological Control of
Plant Diseases: Progress and Challenges for the Future. NATO ASI Series No. 230. Plenum Press,
New York, NY.
Weltzein, H.C., et al. 1986. Control of Downy Mildew, Plasmopara viticola (de Bary) Berlese et de Toni,
on grapevine leaves through water extracts from composted organic wastes. Journal of
Phytopathology. Vol. 116. p. 186 188.
Weltzein, Heinrich C. 1988. The effects of compost extracts on plant health. p. 551 552. In: Patricia Allen
and Debra Van Dusen (ed.) Global Perspectives on Agroecology and Sustainable Agricultural
Systems (Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of IFOAM). Agroecology Program,
University of California Santa Cruz.
Weltzein, H.C., et al. 1989. Improved plant health through application of composted organic material and
compost extracts. p. 377 379. In: A. Djigma et al. (ed). Agricultural Alternatives and Nutritional Self-
Sufficiency. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference of IFOAM, Ouagadougou, Burkina
Faso.
Weltzein, Heinrich C. 1989. Some effects of composted organic materials on plant health. Agriculture,
Ecosystems and Environment. Vol. 27. p. 439 446.
Weltzein, H.C. 1990. The use of composted materials for leaf disease suppression in field crops. p. 115
120. In: Crop Protection in Organic and Low-Input Agriculture. BCPC Monographs No. 45, British
Crop Protection Council, Farham, Surrey, England.
Weltzein, H. C. 1991. Biocontrol of foliar fungal diseases with compost extracts. p. 430 450. In: John H.
Andrews and Susan S. Hirano (ed.) Microbial Ecology of Leaves. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY.
79
mojavegreen
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LittleDabbie
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Links are good... Books ... not so good ;)
GrowGod
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It took me ten minutes to scroll that without reading a single word!
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Just started using this tea recipe and almost already out. However, I'm confused on whether or not I have the right tea combination for step 4 ("Add 1 tablespoon per gallon of each OG Biowar root and foliar packs.") as I am only bubbling 1 gallon of dechlorinated water at this time (for early transplant)
Does 1 tablespoon per gallon apply to the amount of gallons of water I am bubbling, or apply to the amount of the reservoir it's applied to?
Does 1 tablespoon per gallon apply to the amount of gallons of water I am bubbling, or apply to the amount of the reservoir it's applied to?
LittleDabbie
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Gallons of water...
A
advanced396
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How much many gallons of tea does one have to brew for 90 gallon drain to waste
ivyboy1225
- 94
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so... does that mean the gallons of water in the tea?
or in my res?
or in my res?
LittleDabbie
Supporter
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- 438
