Tea time.

[connoisseurde420]

Hey everyone it's been a while since I made ACT, Aerated compost tea. I been going over all the info around this site and have a few questions about the way I'm brewing and what I use.

I start by using a five gallon bucket I have two flat disc air stones running to a 8 liters per minute pump. I brew two gallons at a time using reverse osmosis water.

Next I add :
bennies that are pre mixed with Kelp 1 tsp per gal.

Half cup per gallon earthworm castings.
molasses 2 tablespoons per gallon.

2 tablespoons per gallon Dr earth rose and flower.

I let this brew for about 30 hours. dilute 4:1 water:tea

I know that a bucket is not the best way and have plans for a vortex type brewer.
I only use the Dr earth stuff cause it was the only source for alfalfa near to me. it also has bennies, rock phosphate, seaweed extract, fish meal, kelp, and other stuff that probably doesn't do anything for the tea.

I bought guanos but read that they don't help teas very much and are better off mixed in the soil.

My main concerns are that the tea is not aerated enough. is there any way to know if my tea is getting enough air

 

[mastacheeser]

They make dissolved oxygen(DO) meters, but I haven't used one personally

With guano teas you have to understand what your trying to accomplish. Guanos take long periods of time to break down. When you bubble that shit, it "jump starts" that process. With normal compost teas your trying to expand/increase mibrobial life in the rootzone

 

[connoisseurde420]

They make dissolved oxygen(DO) meters, but I haven't used one personally

With guano teas you have to understand what your trying to accomplish. Guanos take long periods of time to break down. When you bubble that shit, it "jump starts" that process. With normal compost teas your trying to expand/increase mibrobial life in the rootzone

what's your brew setup like?
I feel you on the guano teas but I decided it was easier just making one brew instead of two for now. really I'm going for diverse micro life and growth hormone from alfalfa. kelp is beneficial too but not the focus.

 

[mastacheeser]

I usually try n keep it real simple. I've got a huge thing of great white I'm trying to use up so I can get caps stuff rocking. Worm castings or Alaskan humisol for compost. carboload for food. Then I'll mix in a goodie or two based on where the plants are at in their lifecycle

Either alfafla meal, kelp, humic acid, fish hydrolysate, and azos are what come to mind

 

[connoisseurde420]

I usually try n keep it real simple. I've got a huge thing of great white I'm trying to use up so I can get caps stuff rocking. Worm castings or Alaskan humisol for compost. carboload for food. Then I'll mix in a goodie or two based on where the plants are at in their lifecycle

Either alfafla meal, kelp, humic acid, fish hydrolysate, and azos are what come to mind

cool sounds good. I'm using up my stuff up too going to make the switch to caps bennies. I used carboload before but switched too molasses. Are you using a bucket or a cool brewer setup?

 

[mastacheeser]

Just a bucket. i need to throw a real brewer together as well

 

[Seamaiden]

Just a note: Dr. Earth has guanos in it, I'm pretty sure the Rose mix does. So, I think you're already making a guano tea. Also, you can use straight up alfalfa hay for making a tea, too.

Given everything that's in your mix, because I'm familiar with the Dr. Earth ferts, I would call this a nutrient tea, not an aerated tea. Smells kinda gacky after a day..?

 

[connoisseurde420]

Just a note: Dr. Earth has guanos in it, I'm pretty sure the Rose mix does. So, I think you're already making a guano tea. Also, you can use straight up alfalfa hay for making a tea, too.

Given everything that's in your mix, because I'm familiar with the Dr. Earth ferts, I would call this a nutrient tea, not an aerated tea. Smells kinda gacky after a day..?

I just double checked and there was no guano in it from what I read on the box. there are some nutrients tho that are soluble. it says all the nitrogen is slow release so I add the leftover solids on my veg plants as top dressing. they get nitrogen from the casting but not sure how much. so it is a bit of a nutrient tea. I don't mind. how much alfalfa do you use for your tea when using fresh. they grow alfalfa around here and there's feed stores too just haven't gone yet. I hear they might have molasses dry and cheap there too.


my tea smells good, no molasses smell more like dirt. if it smells bad in any way I wouldn't use it. never had that issue. I brewed manure for outdoor years ago, it always smelled better when it was done. I did gusnos before but used the ff powder. now I have the sunleaves ones

.

what do you do for your teas sea? brewer, ingredients...

 

[Texas Kid]

Im using OG Biowar, Botaniguard, and Biolive in a 55 and keepin active 24/7 and just dip out 1 cup per 5 gallons every other day for applications

http://www.groworganic.com/dte-biolive-542-5-lb-box.html

http://www.bioworksinc.com/products/botanigard-es.php

 

[Seamaiden]

I just double checked and there was no guano in it from what I read on the box. there are some nutrients tho that are soluble. it says all the nitrogen is slow release so I add the leftover solids on my veg plants as top dressing. they get nitrogen from the casting but not sure how much. so it is a bit of a nutrient tea. I don't mind. how much alfalfa do you use for your tea when using fresh. they grow alfalfa around here and there's feed stores too just haven't gone yet. I hear they might have molasses dry and cheap there too.


my tea smells good, no molasses smell more like dirt. if it smells bad in any way I wouldn't use it. never had that issue. I brewed manure for outdoor years ago, it always smelled better when it was done. I did gusnos before but used the ff powder. now I have the sunleaves onesView attachment 350889 .

what do you do for your teas sea? brewer, ingredients...

They changed it! But the price hasn't come down. Well God damn. I buy it in the 32lb bags and it lasts, last time I bought myself a bag was the year before last and I could *swear* it has guano in it... err, had, I used it up this year and tossed the bag.

I built my own brewer, got a huge-ass Ecoplus that's so loud, oh man it's so loud. Don't remember the model off-hand, but the thing BLOWS, I could build out my whole basement as a fishroom and I'd be able to power a few hundred tanks with this thing, I swear. I simply dry-fitted drilled PVC into a cheap 45gal square-bodied rolling trash can from Wally World. It's not the best design in the world, but it stays very clean and it works. I did it so all the holes are aligned along the bottom of the pipe as it's sitting in the can, so that nothing can fall INTO the pipe before, during or after brewing. That way, as long as I keep the air going I can pull the aeration structure in and out of the water column and nothing gets stuck inside, it only ever gets gunked a bit on the outside and a strong hosing off does the job of cleaning it.

My ACTs are simple, molasses and worm castings, sometimes I add rock powders, sometimes I'll add dry kelp, sometimes I'll toss in some hay, sometimes I'll gather what plants are growing vigorously and use those for a plant extract kind of tea. I ask my feed store for the hay sweepings, they give that to me for free. ;)

I'll have to see what I did with the videos of my brewer, I had them on my phone but then blew out the memory card so had to do a dump and I can't remember where I dumped 'em.

 

[Mogrow]

from microbman/// mr act .
Recipes;

Through a plethora of trial and error brewing with a dissolved oxygen meter at hand we determined that a pretty reliable volume of [vermi]compost to use is 2.38% by volume of water used up to around a 250 gallon brewer.

So if you have 5 gallons you multiply that by 2.38% to get the amount of [vermi]compost to use. Then you can go to;http://www.onlineconversion.com/volume.htm and convert it into any unit of measure which is convenient. In my opinion measuring [vermi]compost by weight is inaccurate because of varying moisture content.

Anyway to proceed we have;

5 x 2.38% = 0.119 of a gallon = 0.476 of a quart = 0.450 of a liter
= 450.5 milliliters [450 rounded] = 1.904 cups [2 cups rounded] - Your choice

Likewise with the use of black strap molasses, a percentage of 0.50% is a good median amount to use.

These two ingredients, perhaps surprisingly, comprise the total of inputs in most of our brews these days. This simple recipe, if using an efficient ACT maker and good quality [vermi]compost results in a microbial population made up of the important three groups. This is the only recipe used to date, in all the videos on my Youtube channel ‘Microbe Organics’

To get these three groups the ACT maker should be run for 36 to 42 hours. The ideal temperature range is 65 to 72 Fahrenheit (18 to 22 Celsius), however a little cooler or warmer is okay. I’ve had pretty equivalent results with ambient temperatures around 100 F (38 C) and as cool as 50 F (10 C).

To spill a small secret, I’ve been pre-feeding or pre-activating [vermi]compost which is not so fresh by mixing in a small amount of wheat bran (livestock store or bulk foods department grocery store) and moistening with very diluted black strap molasses, loosely covered with cloth or paper towel 24 hours ahead of brew. (approximate ratios, wheat bran 1:30 [vermi]compost & BSM 1:300 water).

This has, so far resulted in (most of the time) attaining the desired microbial population at 24 hours brew time rather than the usual 36 to 42 hours

 

[Seamaiden]

I want to sticky that one post, Mogrow.

 

[connoisseurde420]

thanks everyone for your replies!.

sea - 32 lbs would last along time for brew only lol. there's a post in another tea threa with those same measurements + more. That should beade as a sticky for teas seeing how much people use them. I post from my phone or else I would have this stuff compiled in a text file.

mogro - thanks for that u included some things I hadn't seen before.

I'm going to get a bigger air pump. I have only 15l per min I think. and when I can find some alfalfa throw that in and keep my brew to Alf, castings, molasses, bennies...

thanks guys feels like I'm on the right track

 

[Mogrow]

thanks everyone for your replies!.

sea - 32 lbs would last along time for brew only lol. there's a post in another tea threa with those same measurements + more. That should beade as a sticky for teas seeing how much people use them. I post from my phone or else I would have this stuff compiled in a text file.

mogro - thanks for that u included some things I hadn't seen before.

I'm going to get a bigger air pump. I have only 15l per min I think. and when I can find some alfalfa throw that in and keep my brew to Alf, castings, molasses, bennies...

thanks guys feels like I'm on the right track

i'm going to get bigger pump too.