Compost tea Q...

[ArtB]

I use Molasses ,fish emulsion & seaweed in my aerated tea with a bag of compost and sometimes have a slime that attaches itself to the bag & airstones. Reckon that is normal? Thought some one might know instead of wading through all the posts on tea. Thanks

[evtubbergh]

Why do you add fish emulsion and seaweed? I would add a little molasses to compost and make the tea like that. Then I would add the seaweed and fish emulsion just before use. You really only want microbes from the compost to multiply using the sugar in the molasses as food source. Other things will just complicate things during that process.

[ArtB]

That is the way lots of folks do it from what I read. Guess there is a thousand ways to do it but I did it this way last year with good results . Never had the slime form before this year though.

[ArtB]

Here is one of many.

Re: Aerated Manure Tea

Fri Jul 17, 2009 3:45 pm
I never made aerated manure tea but I do use home made tea's instead of store bought fertilizers. I live near many dairy's so there isnt a need to go out and buy manure. You just got to follow your nose and You'll be sure to find a huge pile. The reason I don't use just manure for my tea's, is simply because I prefer to compost the fresh manure before I use it for any thing. So the final product being made would be a compost tea
ok, now for making organic teas
I make my tea's in 5 gallon buckets so this is for 5 gallons of tea
1-2 cups compost/composted manure/EWC, alfalfa or bat guano
5 TBSP of fish emulsion
5 TBSP of kelp meal
5 TBSP of molasses
I let this mix brew with two air stones for 1-3 days and dilute it with another 5gallons of water before I use on the plants. The air stones are pumped with a cheap fish tank air pump and the tea can be used as a foliar spray if you add the dry/clumpy ingredients in a nylon sock. In the end you get 10 gallons of great organic tea for your plants to love.

If I were you I would add the molasses, this stuff is great for beneficial microbes and if don't have kelp or fish emulsion thats ok too. Just skip those ingredients and I'm sure the above recipe will work well.

top_dollar_bread
Senior Member

Posts: 205

[evtubbergh]

The slime could also be from a lack of aeration. You may think you're aerating but it may not be enough. Other options are a different micro-organism that you're just not used to. Unless it smells really bad I wouldn't worry too much.

[ArtB]

Thanks for your help. Smells kinda sweet & I don't measure so I might error here & there so will ad another pump and see what happens.

[ArtB]

Found the answer to my question. Aerator stones were getting stopped up so blew them out real good and all is well.