Tea brewing

[2dialed]

looking for some advice on the worm tea brewing.i'm using an old sock hung in a bucket with the pump circulating the water over the sock with the castings with a little kelp extract and molasses added along with a air pump. should i also be adding benficial bacteria or fungi to the brew? how bout hydroenzeme or fulvic acid? also i'm getting a good foam on the top but the ph went down to about 4 and started at about 6.5.

 

[2dialed]

 

[2dialed]

 

[GreenLove]

Are you using strictly worm castings as the base? That has to smell terrible brewing inside.

I use a lot of teas for all my gardening. I use worm castings but I add no more than 1/2 cup per 10 gals otherwise it will smell like raw sewage. I will mix blood meal, bone meal, Jamaican bat guano, Mexican bat guano, Peace-of-Mind dry ferts (lawn formula for 8-2-6 and fruit/flower at 5-8-4) BTW Peace-o-M is made by Fox Farms. Their mixes contain mycorrhizae and humic acids.

If you like using the poop as ferts you cant go wrong with bat guano for teas. It is so strong and dissolves so well. In fact I just about quit using worm castings in my teas (especially in the summer heat) and I just till the castings into the ground.

Paint strainers work well for reusable bags/filters. Home Depot or Lowes should have them.

My suggestion is to use stronger dry ferts for your base or buy a bag of composted mulch and use that as a starting base, then add your P-O-M or blood meal/bone meals, guanos whatever you like. The molasses and kelp is a good idea. I use the molasses but have yet to purchse liquid seaweed extract.

You're on the right track though. GL

 

[2dialed]

yeah i'm using the worm castings as a base. i ordered the book teaming with microbes to see if i can find any recipes or info on tea brewing. mostly i'm looking for info on the alaska humus or fulvic acid. dr ingram also has a book brewing compost tea that might have info as well

 

[GreenLove]

I just aim for a good mix that has bio-diversity. The Peace-of-Mind is great to use as a tea on its own. Whatever does not dissolve, just till it into the ground or pots that your plants are in. This is good because at least you will get a known n-p-k tea base. You can always add a cup of worm castings, kelp meal, and molasses.

 

[2dialed]

hi greenlove, i found a site with some info at gardening with microbes... not sure how to do a link but the same person also moderates a yahoo group discussion on compost tea. they seem to recommend an air pump that outputs over .08 cfm/gallon and keeping dissolved oxgen over 6mg/ litre during the brewing process. it seems i've made quite a few mistakes on my brewer container choice being square rather than round and using a circulating pump that can damage the netamodes, using a air pump that is to small and an airstone that is not glass as well as a 400 micron filter bag to hold the medium

 

[2dialed]

now i see why the 5 gallon brewers on the market cost money...... it's the air pump they're using is for a pond not an aquairum. it's looking like a 100 and up for a good air pump

 

[GreenLove]

Just run multiple pumps and stones. Also, I use aquarium maxijet 1200 pumps for saltwater tanks. I had a reef tank at one time and all kinds of biologics can go thru those things, otherwise....a reef tank would die.

Oddly enough using a deep sand bed and live rock as a filter for saltwater is very similar to maintaining biologics in soil. I am not saying they are the same, just related.

Also, I use a ten gallon rubbermaid food storage container (20 gal trash cans at the HD are $15-19 just fill it up halfway) The pumps can be ordered on the net or found at local fish stores, not big name places but any good fish store. should cost no more than 30-40 per pump, they do make smaller outputs for less. As for the air pumps, go to wally world and buy two, get a splitter and run four stones. Plenty of air.

Not only do those pumps circulate well but you can attatch 3/8" I.D. hose and pump it out into your watering can.

Sometimes I make the ten gallons strong and dilute it with hose water 50/50. The stuff at the bottom is like silt and I pour that around my beds. When I get my cam back I will do a brew and try to take some step-by-step of my own method. You gotta remember, its organic so its hard to screw it up. I have yet to overfertilize with the organo tea. BTW, you can see the resluts of my methods in my outdoor organic lst thread.

 

[2dialed]

the living soil: Bacteria not to sure if it's ok to post links

 

[2dialed]

mistake

 

[2dialed]

damm, no workie for me

 

[madodah]

For those interested in brewing AACT teas, here's some good info:

The ideal amount of air for personal brewing is .4 cubic foot per minute (cfm) of air per gallon of solution. Most air pumps are rated in liters per minute (lpm). The conversion from lpm to cfm is one lpm = .035314667 cfm.

In example, My 70 lpm pump is rated at 2.47 cfm with its .375" (3/8") outlet. I've necked it down to .250" (1/4") for a mathematical output of 1.63 cfm divided by four gallons equaling .41 cfm.

I constructed my own brewer, $118 including heater:

This years crop, after vegetation AACT drench and foliar applications:

 

[2dialed]

looking great!!!! i'm not seeing any glue joints on the diffuser so it must come apart for easy cleaning of biofilm. it also looks like u drilled the 90 connectors but does air come out there as well? does your air pump make any noise or racket that u can hear from 10 ft or 20ft away? my friend has two pumps he is willing to give me that look like a similar design with aluminum finned housing but when i plugged it in it made much more noise than my little air compressor for the airbrush so i was thinking about an alita or hakko brand pump.

 

[madodah]

looking great!!!! i'm not seeing any glue joints on the diffuser so it must come apart for easy cleaning of biofilm.

No glue, disassembled in the brew bucket after brewing with a 10% bleach 90% water solution for 24 hours. As you probably know, many bacteria merely hibernate unless destroyed. Especially the anaerobic ones that create bad odors. A successful AACT should smell like fresh earth.

it also looks like u drilled the 90 connectors but does air come out there as well? does your air pump make any noise or racket that u can hear from 10 ft or 20ft away? my friend has two pumps he is willing to give me that look like a similar design with aluminum finned housing but when i plugged it in it made much more noise than my little air compressor for the airbrush so i was thinking about an alita or hakko brand pump.

My air pump is loud. Brand doesn't make any difference if it can provide the required cubic feet of air per gallon of brew into a manifold that provides sufficient aeration.

 

[2dialed]

alita al15a
20 lpm (.7cfm)
26 w
29 db

hakko 25
up to 32 lpm
32/38 db at 1 meter

my honda 2000 portable generator is listed at 52 db at 7 meters @1/4 load so i'm hoping to keep noise levels below that level

 

[madodah]

alita al15a
20 lpm (.7cfm)
26 w
29 db

hakko 25
up to 32 lpm
32/38 db at 1 meter

my honda 2000 portable generator is listed at 52 db at 7 meters @1/4 load so i'm hoping to keep noise levels below that level

Don't forget to divide your air pump cfm by number of gallons being brewed.

ie: a .7cfm air pump being used in a five gallon bucket with four gallons of brew would be .7 / 4 = .175cfm per gallon. I wouldn't consider that adequate aeration when .4 cfm/gallon is considered minimum. More air output is better as it can always be reduced.

Is there a reason for concern regarding noise?

 

[2dialed]

tooo much racket for me lol, i'm in an apartment. the commercial organic nutrients from the hydro store seem just as expensive if u buy the full lineup. the best seem to mimic what the act teas do building microrganisms. the next bigger pumps are the 50 lpm at 40 watts class and 36db. i know more is better but i've seen .08 cfm per gallon as the bare minumum from a few sources even though they themselves are using more like what your saying at .4 cfm per gallon. without a microscope and a degree this is the challenging way to go no doubt

 

[madodah]

tooo much racket for me lol, i'm in an apartment. the commercial organic nutrients from the hydro store seem just as expensive if u buy the full lineup. the best seem to mimic what the act teas do building microrganisms. the next bigger pumps are the 50 lpm at 40 watts class and 36db. i know more is better but i've seen .08 cfm per gallon as the bare minumum from a few sources even though they themselves are using more like what your saying at .4 cfm per gallon. without a microscope and a degree this is the challenging way to go no doubt

As an outdoor grower my first thought is you growing in an apartment; how many plants? Five gallons of a diluted AACT brew will cover an acre in commercial applications. I dilute my four gallons by 10X as I also use it for decorative plant and lawn purposes. How much AACT do you need?

It sounds like there is a market for a 1/2 gallon gallon AACT brewer. Cheap air pumps are in place as are aquarium heaters. Molded plastic air diffuser and someone makes millions.

 

[2dialed]

yet another device john evans claims to be using or endorsing is the vortex water revitalizer from living water systems. one of their claims is it changes the electrical charge of water among many other things. another gardener from palmer alaska is claiming a 25% increase in disolved o2 ( a likely competitor for the state fair growing competition if he's using a device like this). i've heard of very good municipal tap water in alaska but they don't say if there using tap or well water.it almost makes me wonder if any phenotype grown in they're valley is called alaska thunder fuck or if it's a certain one.