Actively Aerated Compost Tea

[Guest grandad]

i've only been using it for a couple of months, i suffer fungus and hope it helps, but its got great write ups and its facinating reading. its the molasses that gets it going good, i use an pump/airstone. before i obtained the molasses i used just treakle.

[I Zimbra]

I must admit i generally just use worm casts or compost in mine, i think that soil texture and nutrient content has a bearing on the effectiveness of an AACT, the soil needs to be able to accommodate what we put in. i used a tea which has worked well for me in my soil mix on some plants in coco, the difference in effect is very notable.i think it depends on how you garden really ie if you grow using plant available nutrients and compact root balls or if you use nutrients that rely on the soil life to cycle, i prefer the later, adding soil life in its billions to a pot with the nutrients waiting to be processed and cycled to the plant when the plant calls on it.

sorry been on the skull attack

[Felix Dzerzhinsky]

sorry fellas, I may have missed it in another thread and its just occured to me, is there any reason why some esscence or canna trichoderma etc.. culd not be brewed in a compost tea?

I would suggest essence rather than plain Trichoderma as it contains specific compost living bacteria as well.

[solarchild]

Aye, that sounds reasonable Felix cheers. I was thinking about wether it would be more beneficial just to keep em separate

or make a big brew with everything in. Keeping the specific fungal fighting innoculant away from competitors until application would give them the best chance of getting big and strong rather than living with other, possibly more vigorous bacteria that serve a different purpose. The innoculants and trichoderma have worked a treat. my last grow had lots of lsf and it was a battle all the way through, it never got truly devastating, which I believe is down to the friendly stuff, but it cant have helped things. My new grow, however, which has been treated from childhood looks hard as nails!

Not really used any teas on this grow, my first couple of grows were done using nothing but teas and odd stuff like the water that spinach was cooked in. They gave really nice results but with nowhere near the yields I'm getting now. However I'm now using 600w hid`s whereas then I was using compact and tube fluorescents from the back of my van, so the yield from my homemade ferts maybe wasnt too bad. A side by side little test may be in order. Anyway seeing Grandads lovely looking brew and reading this thread has re-peaked my curiosity. Its time for a brew tonight for a treatment this weekend so I think i'm gonna get me a new bucket and do a double bubble.

Cheers I Zimbra and everyone else.

[I Zimbra]

you can add what you like to a brew just look at grandads, it is important to start with good compost just as it's important to grow good seed. Adding essence would be fine but being as it's specific then prob best to brew it seperately.

Today I will be mixing soya meal with coco to increase the trichoderma population in it, in a week it will be added to a brew, I have some used soil which I used mycorrhizal fungi in and am leaving it to produce spores(about 10 days) so if my timing is correct my cuttings should have rooted well, the brew should be ready and the mycorrhizal spores ready to be used. All this will be added with fresh compost on top of a small bed full of used and undisturbed soil mix. I'm looking forward to the results

[Randalizer]

Thanks to everyone for this topic! Also thanks to Felix for making me look less offensive. :wink:

I'll be building a bubbler soon for teas and will post pictures.

[I Zimbra]

thanks for the hint Randalizer I will see if I get time today, you can just chuck some air stones in a bucket I'm just one of them cussy funts is all. It be good have a few peoples versions as there's more than one way to skin a cat, grandads brewer looks to use a stocking to house the ingredients which is good if you intend to use the brew as a folier spray. Different size pumps air stones/tubing, it can turn into a hobby in itself

[Guest grandad]

i added a tspn of molasses to the brew yesterday.

i make my own soil mix measured in cups

mix.

13 homebase multipurpose

1.5 perlite

1 comfrey/alfalf pellets

1 plagron allmix

0.5 epsom salts

1 dolomite powder

1.5 bat guano

1 fylonite..not sure if i spelt right, supposed to be for oxygen

i dampen off with diluted molasses and leave at least 2 week. i'm wating for delivery of peletised cow manure.

Edited September 6, 2008 by grandad

[Randalizer]

okay. My turn.

So hear is the deal. I'm building a AACT brewer/dispenser. Air stones, crock with tap. I need to review all of the notes I am reading up on here but the basic plan is to have a "base brew" that is always and continuously bubbling away. When I am ready to fertilize, I add certain ingredients (microherd powders, molasses, etc) at the appropriate time.

Thanks to everyone for the grand ideas! Here are pictures of my brew crock.

[I Zimbra]

nice brewer Randalizer! im a bit worried about your constant base brew tho, you can keep a brew going for about 5 days but it will be diminishing in micro life the longer its left, bio slime can also be an issue.

the purpose of an AACT is to tease the micro life out of the compost and into the water (carrier) additional feeds can be added such as molasses to multiply the herd. depending on the brewer it can take from 12 -48hrs after it peeks the brew will start to diminish even if more food is added, it can also go sour. just like good soil good compost tea smells fresh and sweet so if it starts to smell offensive it should not be used,

i found this brew to be great

25ltr water

20ml seaweed extract

20ml molasses

2 cups worm castings

2 cups spent mushroom compost

about a tbls of fine rock dust

this is enough to treat over a hectare but i use it about 3 parts water -1 part tea sometimes neat, your not adding nutrients as such but an army of micro life to cycle the nutrients in the pot. you cant over apply an AACT as the micro organisms will battle it out themselves it the soil and the plant will call on whichever it needs at the time. nutrients can be added with it if required.

happy brewing!

[Randalizer]

How do I Zimbra and thank you for the kind tips! This will be a grand experiment for me as I have never done anything quite this involved.

What I have done is to mix green sand and Hi P bat guano in a jug and allow to sit (at least a month) with a screen over the jug to allow air in. No sour smell. When I fertilize I add various things (depending on what week of flowering me girls are...I have a SOG so am harvesting every week), including maxicrop, Hi P fish emulsion (not much), micro herd powders and molasses. Ideally I bubble for 24 hours prior to applying but often don't.

So the new plan is to have the green sand and the Hi P bat poo bubbling merrily away, then add a bit of the above as well as some comfrey and other goodies. I fertilize every week so hopefully it won't sour on me. If it does I may design a two stage system as I like the green sand to soak a while so it has a chance to break down quickly once it is appled.

When I am done with a particular batch, there is a lot of filtered residue left over. I just throw this into me compost tumbler when I whip up a new batch.

Picture is of me two compost tumblers. I use the big one to mix a load of custom compost mix (and store it) for me flowering room and the small one is for my veg compost mix.

[I Zimbra]

good luck with it Randalizer, just a quick question, what's in green sand? I had a quick search as I've stumbled across it a few times in peoples soil recipies and all it says is it's used for casts

[Randalizer]

Thanks I Zimbra. I'll post results here. Also, another reason I have such a large tea tank is that I anticipate a lot of plants in the next few months.

Green sand (glaucomite), according to Jorge Cervantes is:

"An iron-potassium silicate mined from seabed deposits of shells and organic material rich in iron, phosphorus, potash (5 to 7 percent) and numerous micronutrients."

I'm probably going to give it up as it is a limited resource (so not very organic then) and is very slow releasing (hence soaking it in water for a long time). I got it as my grow shop had some and I thought despite what the literature said, it must be useful if the shop is selling it. I've also got other compost sources to play with so ...

It will be a bit before I phase it out.

[Nausicca]

I like Bob Cannard's voice, thats all i came here to say :3

Edit, i found a video concerning him here:

god i wish i was a woman so i could marry him and cook hsi veg and listen to him talk 24 hours a day..... ok now ive scared myself Edited September 10, 2008 by Nausicca

[Randalizer]

I've always liked his carrots.