Aerated Compost Tea

[applestar]

No, no -- please post growing tips! I want to know too!
I have been wishing for nettle, and this year, my wish was granted -- I have two volunteer nettle plants in separate parts of the garden, and I'll be collecting seeds. Comfrey advice was timely as well -- I'll be looking into that myself.

[soil]

"Very Happy thanks for the advice on the comfrey, I did a quick search of rooted cuttings of comfrey and found the bocking 14 for 2 dollar plus shipping... Laughing
big thanks for that!!! "

if your getting it from the company I'm thinking of, they are real good about there business, I ordered 5 cuttings and got 8. best part is, is its soooooo easy to turn those few into hundreds given some home propagation. not that anyone needs hundreds of comfrey plants lol! will shoot ya a pm later, so much to do today, have over 600 starts to plant for fall veggies.

applestar - good to hear, I was excited like no other when I found the patch I use now( since I moved I went 5 months with no nettles, it was killin me!!!!) hopefully you get a male and a female or you will have no seeds! I could give too much info, id rather keep this thread for ACT because its so great. but like I said if you really want to know something or have questions just pm me. it will be a lot easier.

just another quick tip for ACT, from my experiences. rotten fruit ( the stuff that fell on the ground and you were too lazy to pick up) has helped the fungi in teas. I just mash it up and toss it in. when the brew is done its GONE and the fungi LOVE it.

[GeorgiaGirl]

, I did a quick search of rooted cuttings of comfrey and found the bocking 14 for 2 dollar plus shipping... Laughing
big thanks for that!!! "

if your getting it from the company I'm thinking of, they are real good about there business, I ordered 5 cuttings and got 8.

May I ask which company this is? I have searched online for comfrey and I could only find them in 6" pots for $5 plus a heap of shipping!

[soil]

search for "bocking 14 comfrey" its the first link in google for me.

[GeorgiaGirl]

search for "bocking 14 comfrey" its the first link in google for me.

Thank you!!

[soil]

I hope I didn't kill this thread

well its raining, its pouring, its windy and I am inside brewing some compost tea.

[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2500/4009049536_162d4380e3_o.jpg[/img]

[top_dollar_bread]

I hope I didn't kill this thread

well its raining, its pouring, its windy and I am inside brewing some compost tea.

[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2500/4009049536_162d4380e3_o.jpg[/img]

nice tea
I should be getting rain, cant wait to collect
I don't think you killed this thread, by the way whats the tea made up of??

[gixxerific]

I hope I didn't kill this thread

Why would you think that?

I haven't made any tea in several weeks, it has been so wet out. It's raining now and we just got 6 inches a few day's ago.

Is there any reason to make tea if everything is always soaked? I figure it will just make everything wetter, but typing this I am thinking maybe all that rain is washing away something that I should be replacing. Any thought's on this?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Water is a component, but that's about where tea and water part ways. Sure plant's derive sustenance from H2O; we all do, but water is just the solvent and delivery vehicle in compost tea. Tea offers lots of goodies besides; humus and fulvic components, some chemical nutrition, but most importantly, a LOT of biologicals like fungii, bacteria, protozoa, nematodes (encysted form) that are how Nature fertilizes. Hopefully there are NOT a lot of the above in your usual water source

Here's another question; is there a benefit to using compost tea in conjunction with chemical fertilizers? Is anyone doing this and if so how's it going?

HG

[gixxerific]

That's kind of what I was thinking Scott. I kinda answered my own question while reading through a bunch of info I got from TopDollarBread on a PM regarding worm-castings and their benefits. I will start making tea again all winter just to feed my soil and houseplants. I will make this newer garden the envy of the neighborhood (oh wait it already is ).

Heck if I didn't than my sig would have been in waste.

[soil]

nice tea
I should be getting rain, cant wait to collect
by the way whats the tea made up of??

its actually just some wormcastings I harvested the other day, honey and chamomile extract, real simple yet effective. right now it is dumping rain and super windy. I have a small collection system setup.

Why would you think that? Confused Smile

I don't know, I guess I got impatient for someone to post lol.

Is there any reason to make tea if everything is always soaked? I figure it will just make everything wetter, but typing this I am thinking maybe all that rain is washing away something that I should be replacing. Any thought's on this?

for the main veggie garden I don't really brew teas for the winter. this time of the year is when the greenhouse is where its at. I have a 16x20 greenhouse full of veggies that are waiting for some fresh tea later today. I wouldnt really be worried about things washing away. though I'm sure it is happening, it is most likely on such on a small scale.

Here's another question; is there a benefit to using compost tea in conjunction with chemical fertilizers? Is anyone doing this and if so how's it going?

I don't know anyone using them together, but usually the most miraculous results are the ones where chemical grown plants get ACT.

[rainbowgardener]

Here's another question; is there a benefit to using compost tea in conjunction with chemical fertilizers? Is anyone doing this and if so how's it going?

HG

Seems like you spoke to your own question pretty eloquently awhile back. (8/14 to be specific) Here's a quote from you:

Just adding cow poop does little because you are killing off the best part of it with the ferts. The only biology that DOES benefit from chems is bacterial, which are nitrogen intensive!

Any chemical fertilization retards the process of better soil. Soil is succesional; first bare rock then lichens then moss them weeds then grass, on up to climax forest, right? Every plant has a specific set of parameters it does best in, tailored to the specific chemistries of that stage of soil, decided (in organics and nature) by the biology of the soil. Acididty decides how much trace and mineral element gets etched from the minerals part of the soil, and pH is decided by the fungal to bacterial ratio of our soil. When you kill the fungus and bacteria, no more etching, so no new nutrients from the rocks; in fact we have now created a soil that will lock up nutrients, which is why chemical fertilizers use such obscene amounts of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. They HAVE to.

...

When we don't feed with salts we get higher Brix levels in our food, a measure of sugar in the plant. It is interesting to note that at higher brix levels plants actually become less palatable to insects and disease and actually immune to either at very high levels. Nutrient densities increase as well, especially in root veggies. This too is succesional, but in organics we are working within the succesional framework and can get our soil right where we want it before we interrupt the succession; in chemical fertilization you are usually starting around the spot that weeds grow best and beating it down from there. You are not building soil you are depleting it. The cow poop will help, but not much. Stop poisoning it and it will...

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=90112&highlight=#90112

I know in that post you were talking about the use of manure with chemical fertilizers; in this question you are asking about the use of ACT with chemical fertilizers, but is there any reason to think that all of the above doesn't apply to ACT as well as "cow poop"?

(I had to search for the above quote, but I did the search because I remembered you saying it. Are you impressed? )

[stella1751]

Soil wrote

I hope I didn't kill this thread

Never. I'm still reading it and learning, but I have nothing to post, not anymore. The highs last week were in the 20s. My garden is dead and gone, and I won't be growing anything until seed-starting time, next March. Keep posting. We're all reading, but we're not all doing.

Lovely tea, BTW

[The Helpful Gardener]

Thank you RBG. That is indeed what I think but I wanted feedback from other folks as well. I have had some folks tell me that they DO see better results using both, but I tell them they are measuring against a poor yardstick of chemicals alone. But one step at a time. If we can get folks to compost tea we can get them to organic culture very easily; the results speak for themselves. I was showing the next door neighbor the worm castings on my garden rows yesterday; scooping them up in handfuls. Then I had him look at his garden soil. Then I was quiet...

Worm poop speaks volumes...

HG

[gixxerific]

If we can get folks to compost tea we can get them to organic culture very easily; the results speak for themselves.
HG

Very true, I haven't been on this forum very long but I have learned much. Taking what I have been doing all my gardening life minus the chemicals, plus what I have learned here, has made my 2 yr old garden something to admire in a very short time. I have a few neighbors with gardens close to me, they are all amazed at how mine is doing compared to theirs which have been going on for longer. My one friend calls me the expert gardener, yeah I wish. Still I'm the advice guy, I'm trying to change their way's of doing things.

It is only the beginning of a new era in my life. Thanks to all of you, keep tuned in for the wonders that await.....I hope at least.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Thanks Gixx. That's the sort of post I had dreams of reading when I started doing this a long time back. That you are taking it to the streets does this tired old heart good; keep it up...

HG

[opabinia51]

Here's another question; is there a benefit to using compost tea in conjunction with chemical fertilizers? Is anyone doing this and if so how's it going?

Put plain and simply; No.
Chemical fertilizers which are normally made from salt or other compounds tend to kill beneficial soil organisms because of their salt contents. In doing so, they not only break down soil structure (formed not only through inorganic and organic complexes formed by non biomolecules but, also by beneficial soil organisms and secreted muci and other biomolecules.
Furthermore, compost teas can be used simply as a fertilizers but, a better application of compost teas is as a foliar spray to re-establish healthy biota populations on the leaves and stems of the plants. This not only provides the small amounts of nutrients for the plants (and the nutrient capacity for an average aerated compost tea is actually quite large) but, it helps the plant to combat disease through the introduction of beneficial biota the the leaf surface.

Sort of a long winded answer to your question Scott.

[The Helpful Gardener]

I'll quibble that compost tea does just as much for rhizospheres as it does for phyllospheres, Opa, but other than that you and I are, as usual, completely on the same page. And folks, Opa knows soil biology pretty well. Good to see you here again...

That said I am interested to hear from folks doing both. I suspect the short term gains may be there, but I am particularly interested to hear from folks doing it a longer while. I know folks that swear by Espoma products which combine organic fertilizers with smaller doses of chemical ferts (notably they have been moving to a line of more stringently organic products, but the Holly-Tone still hits the shelves in big numbers).

While I do agree with Opa this is not a good long term solution as far as soil health goes, I know many of you are out there doing just this thing, and I am intersted to hear your results. So are a bunch of people still completely hooked on the blue goo, who aren't ready to buy into my hippy-dippy organic BS just yet, no matter how much science we throw at 'em. If we can get folks to stop using half of what they are now, that's a good start.

SO... consider this a casting call for fence sitters everywhere. Still got that secret stash of MG you only mix and apply after dark? Still using bridge products like Espoma? Tell us about it...

HG

[soil]

imo nature finds ways to survive. I doubt one could kill ALL the micro organism unless you dumped an unreasonable amount of fertilizers and that might kill the plant too. and even still I would think some would be able to adapt given the right circumstances.

that's not to say I'm all for doing it, I would rather see someone just go full organic if your going to invest time in making compost tea.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Sure soil, and I think most of us agree with you. Yet the goal remains to decrease chem fert usage and the attendant damages downstream. Making people aware that there ARE downstream damages seems like it has fallen on mostly deaf ears; as one interviewee in my friends Paul and Brett's movie [url=https://www.pfzmedia.com/#/images/stories/screen/small/HomeDepot3.jpg]A Chemical Reaction[/url]says (after being filled in on all the bad things his lawn fertilizer does) "You just want your yard to look a certain way." He doesn't care about next door, or the stream down the block, or the pond a mile away or the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico; he just wants his lawn to look a certain way.

If we can find that way with HALF of the chemical inputs, and show these folks that they can do it cheaper, better and get better long term results with compost tea, they might change. Because telling them they are killing the planet seems to do no good at all. We need to speak not our language, but theirs...

HG

[gixxerific]

Scott has is very right, I have tried to explain this to several and most people just don't care one way or another. The others that do somewhat care still look at you like your speaking a foreign language. But if you can beat it into just one person mind and they get one person the cycle begins anew.

I am certified crazy by my friends, when the Chemlawn people come by my neighbors next door and across the street I mumble or yell things at them. And sure as hell tell them not to spray my yard, especially my garden. Yeah I'm nuts. Activist even part timers always are.

[top_dollar_bread]

I usually don't mess around with ph but I decided run a few test while I was messing with my fish tank.
my tap water ph is @ 7.6- 7.8 and after brewing some fresh EWC for 24 hours I got a ph reading of 8.0-8.3...
I just wanted to ask if this high ph will affect my plants, especially my soilless container plants?
I read that a good compost tea should have a ph between 5.5- 7?? Any thoughts?

also would this high ph of water affect what microbes will thrive in my tea brewer??
I use rain water when I get some but most of the time, during our dry summers I use 24 hr aerated tap..
I can lower the ph simply by adding some homemade apple cider vinegar but I just want to know what your guys thoughts are??
will ph affect the life in my tea?
should I adjust ph to neutral before adding compost, food?
thanks

[The Helpful Gardener]

Heightening of pH is a likely indicator of increased bacterial activity. Without breaking out ALL the organic chemistry (people get glazy when I try), in a bacterial soil our dominant form of INORGANIC nitrogen is nitrate, in a fungal soil it is ammonia (trees and shrubs, most particularly evergreen needles use ammonia almost straight up, while our flowers grasses and weeds like the nitrate better). While most of the scientific papers I dug up are still thinking old school chemical culture ("low pH stymies bacterial growth and the converse is true for fungus") they are missing the inherent reality, which is this is a chicken and egg thing, with some extra factors tossed in by the plants for good measure. Bacteria and fungal growth are RESPONSIBLE for pH to a large degree by their biological functions. And just to mix it up more, add anaerobic conditions to the mix (where pH can go to 3.0, as our CO2 just became carbolic or carbonic acid) and we kill the fungal so most of our ammonia volatized to the air and we just gassed away our fertility. But the pH is low...

So long story short, we need more fungal cultures here. Good forest leaf duff, old wood chip pile (years), stump dirt, you get the idea. But you need to move this fungal. Less molasses maybe? (It can really push bacteria). The other thing to remember is we need predators for those bacteria, and protozoa are our best bet. Hay can be a good source for ciliates, but they are less active in good aerobic situations, becoming more active in near anaerobic conditions. Flagellates are your best bet; these are the guys that [url=https://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/68/9/4539?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=flagellate&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=40&resourcetype=HWFIG]keep water purification sand filters from clogging[/url]; swampy slimy soils are anaerobic soils... and when protozoa eat bacteria they excrete...say it with me... ammonia! See how we begin to move towards the ammonia (therefor fungal) dominated soils? BIOLOGY! (Pond water (not swamp) would be a good source for flagellates...) Between increasing fungal and descreasing bacterial you should move pH towards the 5.5-6.5 we'd like to see...

So THAT'S why compost works and why chemically dependent soils don't (the latter always push away from ammoniacal towards nitrate heavy, therefor always towards bacterial, therefor anaerobic conditions)... it is the balancebetween the two that is our happy place for veggies, crops and flowers... If this seems complicated, it is. Nature has taken billions of years to set up an interdependent, interlocking cycles that all try to get us to equilibrium, or [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeorhetic]homeorhesis[/url]. That we think we can do better with test tubes and fossil fuels is likely to be the hubris that destroys our biosphere unless we smarten up fast...
One garden at a time, kids...one at a time... THEN the neighbors

sorry if this loops around a bit, but THAT'S the nature of Nature; it's ALL loops... I'm sure there are questions, so shoot... but try to stay away from the organic chemistry please...

P.S. Or we can delve into the mystery a wee deeper, but it's gonna take serious thinking caps....

HG

[top_dollar_bread]

Great post scott,
But I may have missed the answer to my questions??
Will the starting water with a high ph effect what microbes will thrive in my brew?
I understand the whole pushing to a more fungal side of grows but EWC and water is usually what I feed my young seedlings. Foliar and diluted soil drench..

The ph to my water is high as it is and when I add my casting the ph goes a little higher. I understand that this may be a indicator of bacterial activity but would it be better to adjust my ph to neutral before adding compost, organic matter etc.
I ask because I read a lot of reviews that temp, time, oxygen, food ect effects the end product and or life of my tea.
My question is does the ph of water effect my brew as well??
I'm getting a reading of 8.0-8.3 with just water and casting.. I don't know but that seems high to me and I am especially worried about applying that high ph to my container plants, who are confined in a certain amount of soilless amended media.

I was thinking of using APCV (containing acid-forming bacteria) witch I believe most are dead (mother) to not only change ph but to feed the microbes in my tea’s..
I read APCV is good too add to tea’s because of trace minerals but I also would like to use it to lower the ph of my tap water, witch I believe may be too high for tea’s on certain plants..
I bubble my water to help speed de-chlorination, should I also be concerned about ph of water??

I enjoyed your post and I for one would like to dig deeper in organic chemistry..
I know our best intentions would be to make more fungal dominant tea’s but the question I'm asking is, will a high ph effect fungal growth?
Not really a question on will I be able to brew fungal dominant tea’s with a starting high ph but more of a question, will a neutral ph of water benefit, speed up or get a better fungal growth for my tea???….

Also about flagellates, you mentioned pond water as a good source… I don't have a pond but I do have a fesh water fish tank..I don't add anything to adjust the water, I got some live sand that is said to keep my water safe for fish..all I add is tap water and the fish have been living in the tank for years…
Will the fresh water fish tank be a good source of flagellates??

[The Helpful Gardener]

T$ the answer was in there but just not definitively cuz it ain't a definitive answer; it's chicken and egg. Your water is somewhat high for good fungal development, but any chemical adjustment is temporary at best as you clearly have a bacterial reaction (which would be lessened by lower pH, but for how long?) Vinegar will break down water buffering for a while, but it would eventually pop back up unless you are providing a natural system to maintain it (like using peat in the aquarium filter to maintain Amazonian (low pH) black water; more carbon, y'all!) So yes, vinegar will help fungal growth and discourage bacterial growth, so have at it. I'd adjust to 6.5 to 6.8, get some more fungal inputs and see what it does. pH may not be a SoilFoodWeb assay, but it gives us a small window into what is going on...

As for aquarium water for tea, there will certainly be SOME flagellates but likely far more bacteria as what powers a biological filter in an aquarium is mostly nitrifying bacteria. The more complete natural system would supply more variety and quantity IMO; no data to support that and I have never looked at aquarium water on a microscope, but it's a closed system. Natural beats artificial everytime...

HG

[soil]

time for another brew. heres whats in this one

rainwater
worm compost
garden compost
molasses
beer
rock dust
comfrey leaf powder

pics later

[soil]

As for aquarium water for tea, there will certainly be SOME flagellates but likely far more bacteria as what powers a biological filter in an aquarium is mostly nitrifying bacteria. The more complete natural system would supply more variety and quantity IMO; no data to support that and I have never looked at aquarium water on a microscope, but it's a closed system. Natural beats artificial everytime...

I prefer to use pond water/stream water over fish tank. I always see more diversity under the scope and always get better results. I have found fish tank water is best used as is, diluted 1:1 water:fishwater and applied. plants just love it.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Thanks for confirming my suspicions, soil. I concur the stuff is lovely for plants, but that's simply high nitrate levels (not particularly great for fish, hence the water changes), not vast reserves of biological diversity. The latter holds true for (healthy) pond water...

HG

[soil]

really what I meant was simply that compost tea made with stream/pond water has proven more effective ( for me and my puny microscope ) than CT made with aquarium water ( which is best used as is imo) that's why aquaponics works so great.

I did not mean they have anywhere near the biological diversity that compost tea does. CT is on a whole other level, that's why we use it.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Yea understood, but we need innoculant right? Compost offers some innoculants to be sure, but if we are doing just kitchen scraps and shredded paper under the kitchen sink, our innoculants developed there are likely to be pretty much bacterial, maybe a few airborne fungal spores, but it's under the sink... it's like yeast for bread; you open the little packet, add warm water and sugar and come back in two hours and WHOA! it's grown a thousand times what you left. Pond water offers more innoculation than aquarium...

Outside we get everything adding innoculum; animal feces, rotting twigs and leaves (that great "woodsy" smell in the fall is decay!), soil biologies borne and bred of the soil, for exactly the purpose of releasing and making available nutrition to plants. Sounds too good to be true? How about[url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6M-45JPGR6-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1056918208&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=fe1bf0723c2e5a00d39580b80f691d01]Phosphorus Solubilizing Bacteria[/url]that specifically release phosphorus locked in soil? How about [url=https://www.springerlink.com/content/q24452718252806u/]micorhizhal helper bacteria[/url] that help the plant and micorhizae interface and exchange nutrition? How about them [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza]miccorhizae[/url]? Where are we going to get those? Compost tea only cultures what we put in it.

Looking at soil's last recipe, there are some great ingredients to do just that. Worm compost (vermicompost) brings all sorts of goodies to the table; whatever is cultured in the worm's intestine, and that slime they make? It's a siren call to springtails, who eat nematodes who eat protozoa who eat bacteria... all releasing excreta every step of the way and that's nitrogen, folks... garden compost (done in an outdoor, open pile in contact with the ground) is exposed to all these things, so more there... Molasses gives us a bacterial boost with simple sugars...beer adds complex carbs (that need some fungal help breaking down)... rock dust adds potassium (sort of missing in the conversation so far, but necessary to plants), some sillicates (often found in cell walls in plants) and some trace elements, and comphrey has been used since the Middla Ages as a biological starter for composts. Seems like we are hitting on all cylinders here. But without the biological innoculation this stuff is almost useless. If you aren't creating the biology to unlock organic ferts, it will just sit and do very little...

So any diversity you can bring to the mix is a good thing, and the stream or pond is likely to be better...

[soil]

I'm a bit confused, inoculates? are we talking about micro organisms? I don't compost my scraps under my sink. everything is composted outside, my pile sets on fresh ground under a very old oak tree that has many fungi growing there( I have counted 5 species above ground under one tree but I suspect they are mostly decomposing fungi rather than mycorrhize), my worm bin is half buried in the ground to get those "native" microbes some soil/castings contact. and forset leaf mulch is used instead of newspaper.

I already use and culture my own mycorrhizal fungi for on farm use. been doing so for 3-4 years now with amazing success.

compost tea is not the above all end all garden cure that's for sure, its just one tool among many for a healthy successful garden. sure you only get what it gives yea, but it gives A LOT.

But without the biological innoculation this stuff is almost useless. If you aren't creating the biology to unlock organic ferts, it will just sit and do very little...

the biological inoculation is two types of compost ( three if I'm using my fungal compost ) I don't get where your going? what is missing?

once again great thread
soil

[opabinia51]

Great Thread!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Soil, nothing seems to be missing from your mix; I believe the phrase I used was "hitting on all cylinders". I was referring to doing some kitchen compost with molasses and calling it compost tea; right in name, wrong in spirit. Not pointed specifically at anyone, just making the point (as with the pond water) that human engineered inputs are of secondary (heck, make it tertiary) value compared to natural ones (mostly in response to T$ post). Also to clarify that it really doesn't matter if there aren't high levels of any particular organism if there are some; brewing tea is growing the populations (hence it's higher values than pondwater or aquarium water, as soil noted). Diversity is far more valuable than starting levels...

Again, to be clear, using Soil as a How To Do It Right example

We good?

HG

[soil]

were good sorry, at a forum I used to visit. I was constantly defending myself over the dumbest things, a bit of a bad habit this place is nice.

on another note.....I applied the said compost tea this morning, the old beer always makes the teas take a little longer.

tonight I am starting a tea that comes out with large fungal hyphae compared to my normal brews. at least from my observations in the scope.

5 gallons rainwater
2 handfuls fungal compost ( multiple year old woody compost )
1/4 cup-ish rotten orchard fruit ( today its apples and a few peaches blended to a slurry )

and if I still lived by the sea some fish hydroslate.

and once again, aerated like hell!

this will go on our fruit trees and our ornamental perennial bed before winter hits.

[The Helpful Gardener]

were good sorry, at a forum I used to visit. I was constantly defending myself over the dumbest things, a bit of a bad habit this place is nice.

on another note.....I applied the said compost tea this morning, the old beer always makes the teas take a little longer.

tonight I am starting a tea that comes out with large fungal hyphae compared to my normal brews. at least from my observations in the scope.

5 gallons rainwater
2 handfuls fungal compost ( multiple year old woody compost )
1/4 cup-ish rotten orchard fruit ( today its apples and a few peaches blended to a slurry )

and if I still lived by the sea some fish hydroslate.

and once again, aerated like hell!

this will go on our fruit trees and our ornamental perennial bed before winter hits.

Two things jump out. One, the beer thing; alcohol, even small amounts, can set back fungii pretty hard (I got that from Elaine Ingham). I have always questioned the value there, despite the long chain carbohydrates... and secondly, I was surprised to see fruit in a fungal recipe; I thought fruit=sweet=sugar=bacterial. Then I thought about it. What rots fruit? It's almost always fungal, right? What's that all about? Must do homework; does not compute... [url=https://www.youngerthanyourage.com/13/protein.htm]proteins[/url]? [url=https://thyroid.about.com/od/loseweightsuccessfully/a/highfiber.htm]Fibre[/url]? [url=https://www.thefruitpages.com/acidsweet.shtml]Acids[/url]?

So I hit [url=https://bama.ua.edu/~ksuberkp/bsc472/lectures/Fungal%20nutrition.htm]this page[/url]and I think I get it. About halfway down I see polymers can be used by some fungii as a C and energy source. Isn't pectin a polymer? Seems it is not the sugars, but the cell walls and connecting tissues our fungii are after... but mightn't that sugar trigger bacterial or even alcohol formation though? Or am I assuming again?

I actually enjoy thinking about this stuff; I know, wierd... saw the thing about anaerobic fungii, or [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chytridiomycota]chytrids[/url] at the bottom of the last link and had to know more. Seems they eat chitin or keratin, which would be great for attacking insects... And found mostly in fresh water, like ponds... AHA!

Ain't this stuff great?

HG

[stella1751]

were good sorry, at a forum I used to visit. I was constantly defending myself over the dumbest things, a bit of a bad habit this place is nice.

Soil, nothing to do with compost tea (sorry), but I know the forum you're talking about. I belonged to it about five years ago, and most of the members were dogmatic and rude, really nasty to one another. I finally quit it. I wasn't learning anything, and I was getting tired of being bullied and patronized.

When I found The Helpful Gardener, I thought I'd give gardening forums another try. This forum is NOTHING like that other one. Members discuss things as though the other member had something to share or had something he or she genuinely wanted to learn. I understand your defensiveness; I was that way too when I first started this one. I HATE it when people treat you like you're stupid

Anyway, this forum's a good 'un, with some terrific people who don't take themselves too seriously

[top_dollar_bread]

hey sltella,
I too think the helpful gardener is the greatest legit garden forum I have came across. this place is just full of organic gardeners and people that I can relate too..
I am also really happy this has know become a sticky , again great forum!!!!

HG and Soil,
thanks for the info on the water, if I had a stream near by id take some. all I got is my fish tank & I was thinking of using the tank water to replace my tap...??
is this a bad idea?
HG
this stuff is great, awesome links bud..

So what do guys and gals think of wheat grass for compost and or plant tea's?
I just planted a batch a week ago and its ready to harvest AGAIN.. this stuff grows like mad and from my understanding really good for my health.
This got me thinking about using this stuff on my plants?
Wheat grass contains all sorts of amino acids, minerals, vitamins enzymes etc etc
https://www.hippocratesinst.org/Wheatgrass/Benefits-of-Wheatgrass.aspx
any thoughts?
I'm thinking of testing strait wheat grass plant tea on some plants, also might use it as a top mulch and may grow a nice patch for greens to my compost, this stuff is just too easy to grow…

[soil]

I would just use the fish water as a soil drench, it will end up as N and a few other nutrients for the plants. maybe you can just add a cup or so to your tea batches? to introduce maybe a few different microbes that are not in your compost.

I grow wheatgrass here for morning juicing( fast breakfast with a kick), I don't think it would be cheap to grow it for compost/compost tea. I have added some leftover juice into tea batches though. usually a ounce or two of liquid. cant say it helps or if it doesn't, I haven't done it in a while as more people are using the juice here and last time was before I had a microscope.

I have used diluted wheatgrass as a foliar spray with good results (1:20-1:50 dilution). though some people say foliar spraying doesn't do anything, I have to disagree, it does something. to me it at least helps the leaf surface micro organisms. but that is off topic sorry

[gixxerific]

hey sltella,
I too think the helpful gardener is the greatest legit garden forum I have came across. this place is just full of organic gardeners and people that I can relate too..
I am also really happy this has know become a sticky , again great forum!!!!

Ditto and ditto again. 'Bout time it was a sticky.

Still reading and learning, but I have nothing to add that compares to what has been going on lately.

Carry on the great work, glad you showed up Soil to add to this wonderful thread.

I think we should all thank Stella for starting such a great thread. I already have elsewhere

[The Helpful Gardener]

Thanks for all the head swellin' comps , folks. Does a body good...

Soil, the study decrying compost tea as a foliar (and the hundreds of posts elsewhere parroting it) fail to mention one thing about the study. NO assays were done for the compost tea! There was NO quantification of biology done before hand. The other thing they did (that just ruins the experiment in my mind) was to use Nu-Film-P, a spreader/sticker made from pine resins, before spraying. This shows a complete misunderstanding of compost tea as 1) pine is a fairly powerful antibacterial/antifungal (Pine-sol, anyone?) and 2) fungal and bacterial lifeforms make plenty of their own "sticker" to begin with (polysaccharides, etc.). Just dumb.

Foliar applications are minimally using good feeding sites, but I have anecdotally seen excellent suppresion of disease, even curative powers in compost tea application. Their recipe looked good, and they were using Jim Sotillo's brewer, which is a good one, but the devil is in the details, and they got those wrong. I continue to assert that foliage application establishes biological colonies on the phyllosphere that offer both passive and antagonistic countercultures to plant pathogens (translated: critters in the tea live on the leaves, so bad guys can't, and some of our good guys even eat bad guys, so there )

HG