Compost Tea Recipe

 
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Andrew
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USE ONLY DECHLORINATED WATER.

DO NOT OVERFILL YOUR BAG(S). THEY NEED TO BREATHE.

Recipe per 5 gallons:

1-2 cups of vermicompost
1-2 cups of finished compost
1/4 cup biochar
1 cup blend (30% kelp meal, 30% alfalfa meal, 30% bone meal, 10 %calcium carbonate) (any organic 4-4-4 blended fertilizer works great here!)
1 ounce of molasses or (2 tbsp) brown sugar
1-2tbsp L'Ocean Fish Amino Acid (FAA) or Fish Hydrolysate
60-120g of SEA-90 ocean minerals - can replace with 1/4 cup of rock dust (azomite, greensand, glacial rock dust, clay)

OPTIONAL added in SEPARATE bag at 12h:

1/2 - 2 cups of insect frass (we prefer black soldier fly)

To make a super compost tea:

2 cups vermicompost
2 cups finished compost
2 cups ground oatmeal or other flour
30g SEA-90 (optional)
2 tbsp L'Ocean FAA or Fish Hydrolysate
2 tbsp of biochar (optional)

Blend items together adding dechlorinated water until the media is the consistency is thick enough to stop a bullet. Perform the squeeze test, place some in your hand and squeeze, no water should drip from your hand. If it does, add more vermicompost or more oatmeal/flour.

Place the items into a lasagna dish or small dish like this and cover with a cloth so it is covered but can breathe. It will get very warm! After a couple of days it will cool back to normal and there will be a significant amount of visible filamentous bacterial and fungal growth.

Use this in place of your vermicompost and compost in the above recipe.
TomF
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I was out of town for this webinar but just watched it now after getting back home. Good stuff Andrew. I will share a link to Troy Hinke's video series that Living Web Farms put up on YouTube who is the fellow Andrew mentioned at Living Roots Compost tea https://www.livingrootscomposttea.com/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... pomzwJ5VPA

Some things to highlight that Andrew mentioned and Dr Elaine Ingham really emphasizes.

Cleanliness- Make sure your brewer is cleaned right away. Bio films can build up in a brewer, especially if there are corners and pockets where still water may form and any biofilm can start to build up and create anaerobic conditions that you DO NOT WANT. Aerobic guys are what you want to grow and you do not want anaerobic conditions as these conditions are where the pests and pathogens thrive. So cleanliness is key.

Water- Be sure you have good water. Most city water will chlorine or chloramine in it. If you are using water from your tap you can neutralize the chlorine and chloramine with Humid acid. Add a few drops per gallon, Just enough to turn the colour of the water colour a wee bit.

Pressure- Microbes can handle up to 80 psi but after that they will get destroyed. In a brewer like Andrew shows, it is a gentle stream. Elaine talks about bottom up aeration and generating a gentle rolling boil as Andrew mentioned. Also try to avid corners. It is when pressure is high and the microbes hit a surface that they go splat and their little bodies explode. This will also create bio films. So gentle pressure and avoid biofilms.

Anaerobic conditions- if you go overboard with the foods, especially the bacterial foods (simple sugars) you will create a massive party for the bacteria and they will explode in population and that can create anaerobic conditions by the growth consuming all the oxygen in the water. (when O2 goes below 6PPM) This will kill your fungi and good aerobic bacteria (bad smell Andrew mentions) this is what you want to avoid. If you are not monitoring it, after the anaerobic conditions have settled down and the party is over, the oxygen levels in the tea may become aerobic again but all the good guys are gone.

When brewing a tea, they are best as a foliar spray as all the new growth of bacteria and fungi will have created glues they use to stick to organic materials (why biology does not wash through your soil, like chemical fertilizers) So when sprayed on all surfaces of your foliage, they will cover the plant and stick on contact. If you have created a wide variety of bacteria and fungi, the plant will select for the ones it wants to have or multiply by creating exudates on the plant surfaces to support the biology it needs, just like the root exudates. So again here diversity is key, Key in your compost ingredients and key in you teas. This biology covering the surfaces of your plants will outcompete pests and pathogens that may come in contact with your plant and prevent colonization. Just like your own body with a healthy microbiome and healthy immune system.
Willow
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Andrew - Just wanting to make sure we can still create/use compost tea without a brewer...
Angela Gold
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Thank you so much Andrew and TomF for all this amazing information!!

I have tried to get all the basic ingredients but I can’t seem to find Sea-90 or FAA. I would really like to do the spray so I don’t want to do rock dust. Where can I find these? I am in Abbotsford.

I can find organic liquid fish fertilizer. Can that be used instead of FAA?

Also, if I were to simply water the plants, how much should I use for shrubs, trees, flowers, and veggies?
TomF
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Angela, a simple sprayer used for fertilizers or whatever that you can pick up at hime depot or other hardware stores are OK. This if for foliar application of a compost tea. (Be sure there are no filters that may be smaller that 400 microns (.4mm) or it will not let limit microorganisms like nematodes and larger protozoa.) If I take off the spray tip I can use it as a bit of a controlled soil drench or inoculate a seed bed before planting but I can also just use a watering can for a soil drench.

I got a 2 gallon one from Home Depot. https://www.homedepot.ca/product/hdx-7- ... 1000755741 It was only 30$ or so but it is not a well made, durable item. The hose that inserts into the can did not fit and I had to cut down the connector on the can until the threads caught. the pump handle is flimsy and flexes a ton and it is a bit of a POS and must be used with great care, I feel, if I want to get good use out of it. I don't know if it meets the standard of "Buy good stuff once."

Andrew, for a good quality, durable sprayer, backpack style, that has good components and is readily cleaned, is there a local supplier in the lower mainland? I have been looking at the sprayers from Rittenhouse like this one.
https://www.mkrittenhouse.com/ca/chapin ... ayer-61800
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