The correct way to make an actively aerated compost tea AACT

MistaRasta

MistaRasta

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, I'm a little new to using tea's and have a couple of questions.


First off, I run 3 gallon batches at a time with the following ingredients:
1 cup ewc
1 cup forest humus
3 Tbs alfalfa meal
1Tbs kelp meal
1 Tbs molasses


this is all ran for about 36 hours. And I can't get my count up




for some reason I can't get my ppm's past 250.
i know ppm measurement isn't necessary but it gives me a base to start from. can anyone give me a good recipe to boost my microbes?




I should also note that I'm using ro water. Should I start using tap?
 
xmobotx

xmobotx

Active Member
1 cup EWC is about right ~18 TBS
3.8 TBS molasses
maybe {if you must} 1.5 TBS of kelp meal

to your 3 gallons of water/24 hours is fine

are you getting enough air in there?
 
MistaRasta

MistaRasta

Well-Known Member
xmobotx said:
1 cup EWC is about right ~18 TBS
3.8 TBS molasses
maybe {if you must} 1.5 TBS of kelp meal

to your 3 gallons of water/24 hours is fine

are you getting enough air in there?
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so it seems that I'm not using enough molasses...
maybe that's why..

i should be getting enough air, I'm running two air stones on a 25 dollar pump.
maybe it's too much air? I've read that too much air can result in microbes getting killed off.
 
May11th

May11th

Well-Known Member
Id up your calcium too, like everyone else said ppms mean nothing but mine measure 600 when I do a mild tea w tap water.
 
May11th

May11th

Well-Known Member
Id suggest using 40lpm or higher in a 3 to 5 gal bucket. Small bubbles are bad for microbes, cuts the poor guys.
 
xmobotx

xmobotx

Active Member
ummm, idk about all that but;

what are you using to find "ppm?" typically you want to know your dissolved oxygen to determine suitability of your air input but I still don;t think "ppm" readings from your finished product would be a valuable metric.

also, inputs like alfalfa, kelp or, fish hydrolysate will slow the process & now you;re looking for 36 to 48 hours of brew time ~all to accomplish the same end as your 24 hr time w/ EWC/compost & molasses only
 
May11th

May11th

Well-Known Member
Its not very valuable but I like seeing lower readings and when you do the same tea over and ober you really collect data of what it does at different times and different temps. I find my ph at 7 right now and my ppm at 829-854 with a 1 cup ewc,1 cup molasses, I/2 cup high p bat quano and 1/4 cup oystershell flour and 1 teaspoon of humic acid, at room temp of 65 . At 75 this measured 752. I think its fun to collect numbers.
 
MistaRasta

MistaRasta

Well-Known Member
xmobotx said:
ummm, idk about all that but;

what are you using to find "ppm?" typically you want to know your dissolved oxygen to determine suitability of your air input but I still don;t think "ppm" readings from your finished product would be a valuable metric.

also, inputs like alfalfa, kelp or, fish hydrolysate will slow the process & now you;re looking for 36 to 48 hours of brew time ~all to accomplish the same end as your 24 hr time w/ EWC/compost & molasses only
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Ok, I'm not really sure if I'm on the same page with ya. I guess I'm trying to make nute teas to feed maybe 3 times during flowering. How do I go about this? I'd like to add some guanos and alfalfa but don't really understand the process of giving it to my plants. It seems as if you're saying putting alfalfa in my tea won't help?

im just confused. Somebody help me pleeeease
 
xmobotx

xmobotx

Active Member
either make a nute tea or a compost tea not both

a nute tea should be a prep of soaking say a cup of alflalfa or dandelions or comfrey or like a 1/2 cup of dry amendments like kelp or the recommendation of soluble preps like fish hydrolysate {nute teas are the organic equivalent of feeding salt-based nutes as a soluble prep} ~they don;t really need to be bubbled, you are essentially making an infusion {tea}

a compost tea has the purpose of multiplying microbial activity & isn't a "feed" component of your regimen but an effort to help colonize the soil {"tea" is the established name for this but not as accurate as above}

soluble preps have a tendency to negate those lifeforms & are a means of applying NPK to organics

compost tea is more in the camp of living soil {feed the soil not the plant} & a better way to provide your "nutes" is in natural forms {such as mulching w/ dynamic accumulators and EWC or a living mulch where something like clover provides your N}

anyway, if you combine the concept of nute teas w/ the concept of compost tea, you minimize the benefit of the compost portion.
 
MistaRasta

MistaRasta

Well-Known Member
xmobotx said:
either make a nute tea or a compost tea not both

a nute tea should be a prep of soaking say a cup of alflalfa or dandelions or comfrey or like a 1/2 cup of dry amendments like kelp or the recommendation of soluble preps like fish hydrolysate {nute teas are the organic equivalent of feeding salt-based nutes as a soluble prep} ~they don;t really need to be bubbled, you are essentially making an infusion {tea}

a compost tea has the purpose of multiplying microbial activity & isn't a "feed" component of your regimen but an effort to help colonize the soil {"tea" is the established name for this but not as accurate as above}

soluble preps have a tendency to negate those lifeforms & are a means of applying NPK to organics

compost tea is more in the camp of living soil {feed the soil not the plant} & a better way to provide your "nutes" is in natural forms {such as mulching w/ dynamic accumulators and EWC or a living mulch where something like clover provides your N}

anyway, if you combine the concept of nute teas w/ the concept of compost tea, you minimize the benefit of the compost portion.
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damn, I've been doing it back-assward this whole time. I think it's time I refreshed my knowledge and hit the books.
so what would you think about putting a minimal amount of castings in there with my alfalfa and kelp? Do you think it'd be pointless?

was also wondering your stance on the general organics line? I was thinking mixing up some of this and trying it out..
 
May11th

May11th

Well-Known Member
Please stay away from bottled nutes as much as possible. Gandalf does a all purpose tea and he has some of the best flowers in the site. Do qhat your plants ask. Start out w a good soil then add to it qhen you see them wanting some tea.
 
MistaRasta

MistaRasta

Well-Known Member
May11th said:
Please stay away from bottled nutes as much as possible. Gandalf does a all purpose tea and he has some of the best flowers in the site. Do qhat your plants ask. Start out w a good soil then add to it qhen you see them wanting some tea.
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will do. I usually run a personalized version of super soil but wanted to be more diverse with the all around
uptake of nutes being used. I'm not a complete noob, I've been growing organics for a couple of years now but just started getting into tea's. I'll probably just stick to the dry amendments and feed the soil aact teas. No need to over complicate it :)

as as far as general organics go, I have some left over pretty much full bottles from a couple years ago and don't want to waste them. I'll save them for the veggies in the spring :D
 
RedCarpetMatches

RedCarpetMatches

Well-Known Member
All you really need is to knock your 'cooking', or should I say composting, soil up with a simple compost tea. Like Ham said, just some good compost and molasses. If you really want to take it to another level, look into living mulch. It will maintain your bacteria/fungal levels. Kelp and alfalfa teas are all you need for veg...just water if you have established soil. Teas are fun and useful when needed, but like the great Rrog says, get your vermicompost right.
 
MistaRasta

MistaRasta

Well-Known Member
RedCarpetMatches said:
All you really need is to knock your 'cooking', or should I say composting, soil up with a simple compost tea. Like Ham said, just some good compost and molasses. If you really want to take it to another level, look into living mulch. It will maintain your bacteria/fungal levels. Kelp and alfalfa teas are all you need for veg...just water if you have established soil. Teas are fun and useful when needed, but like the great Rrog says, get your vermicompost right.
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awesome, that's actually exactly what I've been doing for a little while and the results
are night and day. Alfalfa and kelp really are the way to go, I swear I could almost compare the growth to hydro
with the addition of alfalfa in my regime. Matches, If you noticed, I posted a recipe earlier that I use exclusively in veg that contains EEC, humus, kelp and alfalfa. What are your ratios? I think I'll start upping the alfalfa, I've never seen any damage done other than When I put directly into my soil.

I was was going to start using teas in flower but I'll just stick to the dry amendments. I'll definitely keep using them in veg,
maybe with the addition of some rabbit poo.
 
May11th

May11th

Well-Known Member
I want some rabbit poo too lol I think it would be cruel for me to own it for I cant give it attention, he would be caged up all his life and thats not nice .
 
A

anzohaze

Well-Known Member
Just let the rabbit run wild in the room and train it. Eat from this cup drink this water and p
poo in the soil diff plant every time lol that be cool
 
MistaRasta

MistaRasta

Well-Known Member
May11th said:
I want some rabbit poo too lol I think it would be cruel for me to own it for I cant give it attention, he would be caged up all his life and thats not nice .
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Ha, I'd rather just source the poo from a friend or store or something before I'd get into that responsibility.
 
xmobotx

xmobotx

Active Member
general organics appears to be another case of "organic" is the brand/name & it doesn't really state that it's organic

it's similar to make alfalfa or kelp {or whatever dynamic accumulator} tea these kinds of infusions really are a tea & that way, you know it's organic, you know what went in to it {especially if you grow it yourself} ~these kinds of feedings are still a soluble nute "NPK" type solution but definitely a step up from a bottled product intended for a store shelf.

you can't go wrong tossing some EWC in it but, you may get more benefit from mulching w/ your EWC or using it to make a "proper" ACT minus the amendments

the manures should go in your compost pile &/or worm bin
 
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