“Home Grown Farming” - With Nature

I have previously discussed the many benefits of compost tea and have also provided information sources in my links section. You can use regular compost or vermicompost, but the latter will generally be richer in micro-organisms. Pictured on the left, I am using a very simple system which cost me a total of about $20. I purchased the pumps, tubing, and airstones (not pictured) at Walmart and am using the smallest size pump for one air hose and the next larger size for powering the other two.  So here are the simple steps in a nutshell:

1. Attach three airstones to the ends of three airtubes and rest on the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket.
2. Hook the air tubes up to appropriate air pumps. If you don’t wish to use my exact setup, you can use one larger air pump if you like and use a gang valve such as is featured in this article.
3. Fill the bottom to about 1/3 full with rich fully matured compost. I use vermicompost because it is richer in beneficial micro-organisms. Also, the richer the composting materials that were used (manure etc.) the richer will be the “brew.” Make sure the compost is mature and if using vermicompost, remove all the worms as these can foul the brew.
4. Fill the container with water to within about 4-6″ from the top. Do not use tap water unless it has sat for awhile and is free of chlorine. I am using well water since the minerals should be beneficial etc.
5. While making sure that the air stones are resting solidly on the bottom, fire up the pumps. Now add approximately 1 oz of unsulfured molasses. This will provide food for the aerobic bacteria to thrive and greatly explode in numbers.
6. Continue this process for about 2.5 - 3 days and try to stir a couple of times daily (you may need to reposition the airstones). Stirring breaks up the particles and helps assure that air gets to all sections - we want complete aerobic bacteria dominance and no anaerobic sections to form. The mixture should smell pleasant, and if there is any garbage smell, something is wrong. Either the initial compost was not mature enough or else there is not sufficient air flow and circulation. Do not use a final product which does not smell fresh because the alchohol fermentation by-products and anaerobic organisms could be harmful to your plants!
7. When complete, allow the brew to settle to the bottom for about 15 minutes, and the resulting mixture can then be strained through a cheese cloth (or other suitable filter) into another bucket. Following this, the mixture can then be applied to your plant either via a sprayer and/or poured around the root zone. I plan to apply both a foliar spray and a root application. Just make sure that you use it all within about 2 hours or the bacteria will start dying off.

Compost tea which is prepared in this manner is beneficial for: 1) Providing plant nutrients in an efficient manner. 2) Building natural resistance back into plants which have been damaged from pesticide and chemical use. 3) Helping to fight pathogens in both the soil and on the plant surfaces. Also, the chitanase can help repel insects.

So are all these wonderful claims true? I suspect that disease prevention and treatment benefits have to do with the particular compost being used and also with the nature of the specific pathogen. However, I think that the nutrional benefits are more established and well understood.  I have a few diseased plants which I am going to try this brew on and I will post both before and after pictures. If you have experience in using compost tea, please comment on your results!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 7:11 am and is filed under All posts - Chronologically, DIY Plans, Worm Composting (Vermiculture). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.