I haven't seen a thread started for some good ole compost tea and since its grown in popularity and its mainly the only thing I use, I thought a topic discussing recipes, useage, methods of making and other uses for it would be a good addition.

Im an amateur at best, but since it's free so I will learn. I make two kinds the first probally the most basic...just stewed compost in a 20 gallon rain water barrel for about 24hrs or overnight, then depending on how frequent I've used in the past couple weeks I either strain it to avoid clogging my water jug and pour it around the plants, or after straining I dilute it 50/50 with rain water then once a week use it just as I would when I regularly water. So far for my experience it has worked great.

The second is by far my favorite and at the same time the worst (but still good) to make. It's messy, it stinks, stains and like an amateur as myself hard to determine that your growing the right stuff, your basically creating a nursery to grow living organisms that will be transferred to your soil to help your plants suck up the available nutrients and moisture via watering. Or, that is at best, my take on it and im sure there is more complicated ways than I'd like dive into too but that is my understanding.

Anyway here's my recipe and a sneak peak of a project im venturing into...Basically mine is just a simple a recipe to get me informed and understand it more, I use a 5 gallon bucket that idrill a hole and epoxied a airtube and diffufuser through (to conserve space), decent size air pump with a 3 way converter. My mix is just two scoops of compost (made from our and scrapes) one scoop of worm castings in a paint strainer or cloth bag, 1/4 cup of seaweed or kelp extract, 1/4 cup of black strap molasses is mix in the water to feed the micro organisms and bacteria. I place a air stone in the bag of compost and castings, one towards the opposite side and then the permanent line in the bottom. Hook it to decent air supply and let it brew for 24-36 hrs. I mix it 50-50 with rain water and pour as usual. There are many better and more effective ways to make this, hooefully soon we will get a good microscope so we can see what we are really growing, thats the only definite way to determine.

Now before this turns into a short novel, my little project. Its a giant magnetic stirrer using a d.c. motor, basic d.c. motor controller witha potentiometer to control the speed, a fly wheel with four neodymium magnets and a four inch magnetic stirrer. Hopefully since air is the only way to circulate and keep the water moving to grow aerobic bacteria and not anaerobic, and a water pump is to violent, I had a grand idea that a giant magnetic stirrer would keep the water at a constant motion and circulate the diffused air more and mabye more evenly through the water. What do you think plausible or just ridiculous lol....here is a pic of the stand and setup im temporarily using



.

It's cool!! I can't look;) Ha ha ha!! I will get back to this man! I need to walk with my little ones... BRB

My hubby is a WWTP operator so I am some what familiar with micro organisms. Well just that I don't have to grow them.

Brando13 wrote:
I have a little barrel like that in my back yard bro:) I may need details on how you make the tea with that along with photos of your setup! Ha ha ha:)



You like this one because it is messy bro:) Ha ha ha!!




I like the idea of using the stirrer bro but I think it may be over kill. I still want to see you do it:) You do know that adding an air stone to the bottom of your barrel will work great for circulating the water but if you add a PVC pipe and feed the air stone to the bottom of the pipe so that the bubbles run up the pipe it will concentrate the water circulation up the pipe and make the water flow faster. It will also siphon any dirt particles and anything else on the bottom of the barrel up the PVC tube:)

This video is a Vortex compost tea brewer but it uses the air stone siphon to get really good circulation!




You can also build a air ring like this one:)

Here's the barrel I'm thinking about using for a compost tea brewer! What do you guys think?

Here is what we have done to make our compost tea.
We started with a 5 gallon bucket but now we are brewing about 50 gallons. LOL
If some is good more is better!! *giggle*
We have a double output pump with two 4 inch air stone disks. We attached the disks to bricks and dropped to the bottom of the barrel.

We use compost, from out worm barrels along with the castings that drip from the bottom of the barrels, bunny berries, and some forest soil from out at my brothers and sugar.

Love it Panda:) Have you tested it on your plants or are you just getting started? Cool video as well! Is that your husband?

Yes that is my wonderful husband Ralph.
We have just started using the compost tea this year with the bunny poop in it. We have brewed compost tea in the past in a small 5 gallon bucket. This year we have much more gardens so a friend donated a big barrel to our cause. We are noticing healthier plants all ready!!! Wow!

I had is a 20 gallon barrel but I'd like to do something like this with:) You watering the base and the foliage of your plants with the tea?

We have just been watering the base. We did water the foliage of the broccoli that had the afid. It is doing better but still infested, just not as much.
But I swear overnight our corn went from yellow to green after using the compost tea. Tomatoes are getting a lot of lil tomatoes. Everything just looks better after using the tea. *smile*