Question about compost tea.

Stange to my viewpoint that one would walk away from the word and design that is well proven and has been well proven for many years.

Any moving part you add to a compost aerobic tea brewer will immediately defeat the whole purpose and be very difficult to clean and keep clean. Impossible to keep clean is more to the point.

Even if you would screw up miserably a rebuild of this brewer would cost about ten dollars. You would never be obligated to any specific company for any of it's parts. All of its parts are simple as apple pie.

If you want to root about in the second hand market check your local
supplier of nebulizers and oxygen supply for human use. When their small compressors fall below medical standards there is a lot of life left in them for projects like a tea brewer. With the insurance support for medical use I doubt that they would fix the nebulizer compressor. I think they would be working throw away stuff.










w

This message was edited Dec 5, 2009 4:53 PM

Doc, you the MAN!!!

Doc, I have a question, I made a batch of compost tea, it is still in my laundry area brewing, I made it saturday and I still have not used it yet since it has been raining constantly for 2 days now. Today it will be sunny and tomorrow as well but saturday and sunday it will start raining again, my question is how long can I keep it brewing, I just don't want it to go bad? I did add a little more molasses yesterday to make sure the microbes had more stuff to eat.

Also I tested my raise bed dirt yesterday to see the ph I have a little electronic device that tells you the PH, also the moisture level, acording to the readings it said that my PH is about almost 8, on the alkaline side, how can I rectify it? I have some peat moss, would this help make it a little more acidic and how much to add? Since I have things planted in my raise beds could I use it as a side dressing to try to bring more acitity?

Thank you so much for all your help, I concur with skwinter you are definetely the man!

I have a Koi pond, built like a swimming pool. I clean out the filter once a month with a back flush. I went to a pool supply and purchased a hose that would connect to the back wash drain. Now I can spray all this wonderful many gallons of fish water on some of my and my neighbors front scape. I need a longer drain hose so I can get it further in the back and the front. We built this home 8 years ago and last year is thr first year for using the Koi water. What a dummy.

I would spend the twenty five to thirty five dollars to get at least one good soil test. With that test should come simple advisement for ammendment if you really need to take ammendment action. You will then know if your testing devises are on the money or if you need to learn what the variances may be. Ask at any good garden center where and how to get good basic tests. Our's are ten bucks purchased from our State
Farm Agents office.

Merry Christmas Doc. Happy New Year also. Getting ready to start growing my worms for worm castings. I have ground up vegs fermenting in one pot. I found an old blender on the top shelf of the pantry. I now remember why it is there, It sucks as a blender. I need to go to goodwill and see if I can get a cheap food processor. By the time I got the vegs processed, they had to much moisture and my kitchen was a mess. Nasty.....

I need my molasses which I will get on Monday. Store is a long trip away. I have 8 large bags of leaves on the side yard and I think I will get at least five more,. The HOA landscapers will be here Monday. I will deliver them black bags and they can fill them They usually use burlap tarps. I need to come up with an idea on how to get my leaves smaller. Then I will get my worms. I am so excited. Then I will get started with my tea. See what you started doc. Love you anyway. Thanks a bunch.

I think of compost, worms and soil building as an activity I can carry out at least until I can no longer get around my gardens. I've been working the present property for about forty years and other places for another ten or so. So if I infected your brains to the extent of altered normal judgement good! Most others will soon figure you to be out of your gourd at the least. LOL

Doc, they already think I am out of my gourd. I live in a neighborhood with a bunch of females, a few neighbors exempt, that would have a breakdown if they got their nails dirty. I wish I was a fly on the inside of their car when they drive by so I could here what they are saying. But then they send their gardeners down to talk to me to see how I did whatever. My answer is always, compost, worms, mulch and many hours of hands on love. I have the passion, they do not. They want the look of my garden but you cannot buy that look, that look only comes with a gardeners passion and love. End of story.

When you can no longer get around your garden, call me and I will push or drag you. I say drag because sometimes when I get really tired at the end of a long gardening day, I do start to slightly drag my left foot. That is when I know I have to quit and go in and read the paper. They should open an assisted living home for gardeners. So when we get to old, some young person could push us around the garden. Have a great day.

Ha ha............my wife has been all over the ball park up to Director of Nursing in homes her entire professional life. We have seen small gardens at the homes from time to time. She retired some years ago but continues to go in three or four days a month to pinch hit.

The best garden in an old folks home I have seen was a super raised bed. It was built up so those in wheel chairs could motor along the edges and pull a weed or pinch off a flower. Tomato plants, spring onions, little neck squash, peppers, carrots and minty herbs they can smell and make a tea with were most popular items. They love pumpkins if space permits.

We have a nursing home accross the street from us. Several gardeners including myself have helped them for years. They have an activities director with a modest budget for gardening. My major contribution has been lots of aerobic manure based compost tea. That can not be over applied and contains no chemicals which are not permitted anyway.

After all is said and done gardening is more by the helpers than the clients. Rarely is there anyone who has grown anything. Rarely there is one willing and able to really do much. It almost always gets a pix in the local paper when carrots can be pulled or a squash comes off. No trouble getting a pix in paper because the home spends big time advertising bucks.

We have had similar experiences with our Rescue Workers. They could but do not raise anything on the acres of ground they own. The same is true of our County Home. The commissioners lease out the ground to neighboring farmers. Seems to me the jail's trusties could be directed to grow food for the county institutions.

IF my mother ever agreed to some kind of assisted living/ nursing, she would be thrilled to have access to a flower bed with a few small weeds, and yellow leaves to tend to, now and then.

My DH thinks all gardening is hard work and you can only relax when you sit down. I bet your wife has stories to tell. I spent everyday for just about 6 months when my mother was in an assisted living facility. Just in those 6 months I came home on a daily basis with very happy tales and very sad tales.

My DH's father was in an assisted living facility in Beaumont, Texas. He was always a gardener. So when we came in the spring we hired some laborer to help us dig up an area in the patio area and we planted tomatoes. We were back in June and the tomatoes were doing beautiful. The facility was very happy. We got DH's father in his wheel chair and we spent some time with the tomatoes and he even ate one. When we came back the next day we told him we would take him back to see the tomatoes. He said, Why, I saw them yesterday. So I see what you mean.

Have a great day. I have to spend tomorrow getting the house back in order. Next week we are suppose to be back in the 60s. I am now going on the net to find some new violas seed and a new rose. After getting the house back in order I have to plant my tomato seeds and get them started. I got two mini greenhouses for Christmas from myself and I am going to try them in the house. Wish me luck. A few years ago I ordered a new viola and I paid $5. When I opened the envelope, it had 10 seeds. I was furious.

Have a great Monday.

Unfortunately Sally, by the time they arrive at Assisted Living they do not give permission because they really have no idea what is going on the majority of the time. My sister and I interview many homes and looked at all the different programs they had for our Mother. When she got there she would not participate in any program. So when searching the most important factor is cleanliness, good support from staff and medical personnel. Then you need to visit every day because if you do not, your relative is ignored. Not on purpose. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. The staff is totally over worked and they have multi tasks to perform. I was so lucky. The first day Mother was there the daughter of her room mate took me aside and gave me all the rules, and who to trust and how to get what my Mother needed. That was a God sent blessing.

Sharon, thank you for the information, it is a big decision, thank heavens for you and for me for people who've been there, (and I don't mean to digress from the topic of the thread)

Sharon.............that is a pretty good basic understanding of the nursing homes and similar places. Your suggestions are very much on target. My wife does indeed understand to the point we have remodeled and added to our home creating the possiblity of staying out of the homes for we elders. I understand that average cost for such homes is $75,000.00 a year. My guess is that it would average much more in the major city areas.

I am in a major city area- the rate for basic 'assisted living' (own BR and bath, all meals etc) is quoted to me around 4 000 a month, up for more space and some services. Dementia assisted living may be a whole different scale, I don't know.
The biggest problem I see is lack of an option whereby a senior can do things for herself whenever capable, yet have support available quickly when she can't. and lack of social contact in a single fam home suburban set up.
We might take this to another (Caregivers?) forum.

im really charged by all the posts on aeobic worm tea.. thanks to all!!
its raining/snowy here in utah..but.. this season im going to get my 55 gal
compost tea into the areation mode..
i have aquarium pumps..and i have 2 worm bins going now..
i just got some of the euroepean worms..bigger..but i guess they survive colder temps
to the red wigglers..so im hoping to keep some in the house over winter..but then get a
big area for them this season..
my garden does great with my compost tea ive always made..but i think what you all
are talking about in aeobic tea makes even more sense..
question..??? keeping the temp @ 76 ish.. during the summer i dont think i would need
to put a heater in there would i??? i know in spring i will..
thanks .. love all your comments and insights>>>

I don't know Provo............you do. The question is difficult to answer from afar. A decent heater (fish tank large size) has a thermostat. It will turn on when needed and stay off if not needed. If you think your temperatures in the tea will exceed 76 degrees you may be should be thinking shade. Much over 80 degrees and you will be killing some most valued bacteria. Getting a white barrel might be helpfull in reducing the temperature in the tea.

docgipe..thanks.. ya..in august its pretty hot here..
i can easily put them under some trees then to keep from cooking the tea..
i have my own..some ..not alot worm castings.. do your recommend any
that are for sale..here ,ebay..etc...?
i have big gardens..and i can go thru alot of fertilizer in the growing season..
looking foward to trying this aerobic tea..
thanks for your insight... :)

The best of both worlds are before you. You report that you have some worm castings. You are speaking of needing a lot of fertilizer. You are speaking of making aerobic tea. The first issue here is that finished aerobic tea has no NPK fertilizer value. In the aerobic tea process you are greatly increasing the bacteria and fungi in their live numbers. It is this aerobic tea that delivers its content live to the soil. The contents of the live living tea go immediately to work on your soil's organic content to produce the natural NPK. If you still need fertilizers you would need about a third as much pounds of organic low number fertilizer like 4-2-4 or even lower numbers. Chemical man made fertilizer will cripple or even kill your soil biology. You need to go one way or the other. Don't try to mix the products. One builds the soil the other will grow things but errode and kill the basic biology the organic system is trying to build up.

If I were approaching your need with the facts you have provided I would purchase a bag of aerobic tea quality compost. I would mix into the compost a blend of about 1/3 worm castings and 2/3 tea compost. If you can get some raw manure early in your season till that in but not more than an inch over all the soil. That would give your tea something to work on. I would also use myccrohizae. You need to go to Google seeking any or all of these products.
All of my known suppliers are in the Northeast. You are in the far Northwest. I can't help you from experience in that part of the country. One supplier whom I like a lot is ABRICO arbico-organics.com or you may Email at her desk jennnnifer@arbico.com She is quite familiar with the national market and may have all of your needs.

Following whomever's advise provided by persons suggesting the equipment you plan to use you will end up needing about four cups of compost and two cups of castings to make 35 - 40 gallons of aerobic tea.

From this point on you should follow your prime equipment advisor who knows his or her system. I only know the system I have worked with. Your procedures will be somewhat different than if you were set up using the equipment I understand.

docgipe, in Las Vegas it will be difficult in the summer to keep the temperature below 80 because that would be our lows. Inside, where my worm bed is now would be 80 degrees. What would happen if I added cool water a few time a day. OR, I could remove some of the liquid already in the pot and freeze or refrigerate it to cool it down. My worms have been in their bed for two weeks and they are very happy. I added more rotten food today and they were actually jumping out of the peat moss running across the bed to get to the side of the new food. LOL. They got to the new food before I got it covered with new dirt. I dug in the other side where I first placed the original food and they was still food there. 50 gallon container with 2000 worms. I am planning on having two, same size but got a lung infection so I am on sick leave from my gardening by demands from DH and DR. So I only got one completed. And I got my red worms from Uncle Jim and they are beautiful. Thank you so much for your hand holding.

Please read the last paragraph of my last post again. You need local experience and help.

docgipe, thanks again for your insights..
as for fertilizer source..yes..i use organic fertilizers..
blood meal,feather meal,rock phosphate..
i grow alot of pumpkins..so im always looking for a good moderately high
potash fertilizer..
it will be fun this spring/summer/fall with system i will set up.. :)
thanks for the heads up with not just using worm castings in the tea..
i reread some of your posts.. thanks..
i have composted alot over the yrs.. leaves,straw,manure.. i think if i ever left here
i would hire several trucks and take the soil ive made.. LOL :)
i do have a few friends with horses..and rabbits..and i use manure from those sources..
great to see posts and everyones experiences..
and thanks to those that have put alot of time into the science and practice..
i know im going to enjoy working on this.. and hopefully even better gardens..
thanks..

I emptied a bottom container in the freezer this evening. All my scraps go in there to freeze to facilitate deterioration. I hope this is right. My worms are still dancing on their hind legs saying, " Hello Mother, Hello Mother......Hsve a great night and day.

Question--I make compost tea but just I'm reading for the first time about both aeration and adding molasses. An article about growing roses in this month's OG magazine says that brewed tea gives amazing results but said it is not for veges as there is a risk of e coli from the brewing.
Does anyone know anything about this?
Thanks,
Tamar

Tamar.................e coli is in everyone's gardens. The healthy management of the soil keeps things in ballance. When you aeriate the brews you expand the population of that brew equally. That is one of the few incorrect statements I have ever heard sourced to OG. There is a risk of e coli from any form of poor soil management. To bad............they are usually providing complete and good information.

Thanks!

Tamarmays..................one of your neighbors is North Country Organics. They make tea quality compost and have bacteria and good guy fungi as an additive to Compost Tea brewing. They also have trace minerals and suggested start up procedures. Their site is full of basic information about brewing aerobic teas. No baloney here. They know what they are doing.

I personally have been brewing with a smaller version of their present Bobolator. I advise folks to start with known good and proven quality basic materials. Put the left overs in your compost piles. You will have the best right in your piles and soil in one application. This way your costs might be twenty five cents a gallon the first year. Next year maybe a dime using your own compost....and for ever more!

I am wondering if you can use gray water to make compost tea. I have heard of people using it to water their plants etc... so if I was to let the gray water sit for lets say a week, would this water be pure enough to not kill the microbes from the worm casting tea?

not sure in what sense you mean "pure grey water" is your water chlorinated?

Sallyg, grey water is the water that is left behind after taking a bath or a shower ( some people place buckets underneath the shower to catch as much water as possible before going to the drain) or the water that your washer machine drains out after a load of wash etc... I have seen and heard some people saving water this way to water their plants, trees etc... and as long as you don't use harsh chemicals the plants don't seem to mind it.

Your knowlege is fair and safe when using Gray Water on soil to water plants is generally correct. Over use of any principle or practice could just as well give less than desirable response. To make a point one person might use two tablespoons full of non-detergent dish washing soap while another member in the family may use a quarter of a cup full in the same load of dishes. One might be OK the other might be to harsh. Who determines what Gray Water is? Is there any known standard?

You need to do a bit of reading up on aeriobic compost or worm cast teas, what they are and what they are not. What makes them effective and why it's commonally available information. That information should come from proven sources of organic principles.

I understand your point, I guess it all depends like you said in how much detergent or type of detergent is used in the water etc... or how much is too much.

I first heard of the greywater concept from the Dervaes( the family in pasadena that grow everything organically in their small house). They seem to use greywater method to water fruit trees etc... and in fact are installing a greywater line to capture all the water and use it.

As far as what determines what gray water is, for what I have read so far, the water flushed from your toilets for example and water mixed with particles of food from your disposal is not considered graywater as it can not be used safely to water plants etc... I am not sure how many types of graywater there are though.

I will research it a little further though but since I live in the rainiest city in the US, water is nothing but plentiful here, sometimes we get too much if you catch my drift. I was mainly curious as I know people that live in places where water is scarce.

This will likely raise some hackle but just what would be the difference between human manure and any other manure? Many areas have social laws governing generally a non use factor even on gray water.

Where I live I can not even get commercially composted sewage. They haul it all to the landfill. They were even stopped putting it on our coal mine reclamation strips. It has been said some of it sneaks it's way back to employee gardens. That of course would be denied.

Meanwhile back at the ranch..........Penn State University... they apply municiple sewage to approved farm use and some public acreage. That is only an hour from where such use is prohibited. Everyone knows that "certain items" in Happy Valley don't stink. ]:o)

Doc, the Las Vegas golf courses are watered with Gray Water. There are signs warning not to drink the water.

docgipe I am not sure if I am qualified to really give you an answer on this subject, but here is what it might be, and like I said this is a coplete guess on y part so please let me know if you don't agree. I am wondering wheter the fact that human and animal feces ( such a dogs o cats) are not appropiate for the household compost could be related to the types of foods we consume, most dog, cats etc... are carnivorous, and humans also digest tons of meat producs as well,except of course vegetarias and such, while cows, pigs, chickens have a different source of food and also digest it diferently.

I have seen some gadgets on the iternet that you can purchase and they will compot dog or cat feces but not sure how they work and whether or not you are required to purchase some sort of enzyme that will break it down eough for you to use in the garden.

I don't really need an answer. My questions are to hopefully have others realize there are many laws and opinions on manure. Go to your local zoo and support it buying Zoo Poo composted of course. Go to your still existing circus and offer them a few bucks to clean up. You will buy the privilege and get some ripe goodies. They even loaded my trailer two summers ago. Not purchased it has to be taken to the landfill and that costs time and money while wasting a good product.

carminator, back to the question of whether you can use grey water to make "tea" , you'd have to try it and see. I have used grey water before, and it can get kind of rank. Not to be used around edibles. In your area, I imagine you have enough rainfll to keep anything bad from accumulating (salts, grease) that might be in your grey water.

I have never seen the suggestion that grey water should or could be used in tea making. I'm absolutely sure it would not be used in the making of any form of aerobic teas.

Like I said I am merely curious, and thank you docgipe, after searching on the interenet, I also have not seen any mention at all about using grey water for the use of aerobic tea making. I am also not sure if using it to water plants would do more harm than not.

The Dervaes did mention watering all their fruit trees with the grey water, but I really don't think they use it to water their veggies plus they use very earth friendly soaps to wash.

I am having a hart time locating a good place that sells manure, my question is did the zoo sell the composted manure to you, I don't mind paying some $ for it if it is good for my veggies. I hate to have to go to Lowes or Homedepot and buy the expensive stuff to fill my beds with, and was hoping for a place that would sell by the truckload already composted so I would not have to wait a year before planting anything.

carminator, you may not need as much manure as you think for your beds. You should find a place that caters to landscapers, a "garden center" or "garden yard" that offers wood chips, mulch, gravel, soil conditioners, etc. They usually also have "compost" and it can be bought by the scoop, yard, or truckload. I get mine for about 10-15 dollars a yard. It is perfect to plant into directly and if you want to introduce some good bacteria, worms, microbial activity then just a bag or two of commercial manure (Black Kow) will do that.

As for gray water, it has been the general premise over the years not to use it on food crops due to the bacteria that may contaminate your food. Even in shower water there is dead skin/bacteria, etc, and if stored in containers it'll really set up a terrible environment for it to prosper. And if using washing machine water be especially careful if you wash diapers or other baby clothes, fecal matter in the water would be a terrible thing for us to ingest.

In the Orient the use of humanure has been in existence for thousands of years. However, the locals can handle it due to having the bacteria in them to co-exist with it; foreigners would suffer from it. It is along the same lines as Mexicans being able to drink their water but someone from another country would suffer Montezuma's Revenge. Ugh!

Hope you have a great garden this year!
Shoe