Brewing Teas - From Seed To Harvest - Round 1

[NebulaNuggets]

What is going on fellow brewmasters

I thought I'd share my first experience with teas as I make an attempt at going organic. After a long absence from growing I am ready to go. The time for fun and games are over, now the work begins.

Wait a second....that doesn't make sense. Organics is fun and games! So let's brew some teas.

I have gathered up all the necessary tea brewing items. Tomorrow I drop some Mephisto beans. They have been whispering to me "Brew us some Tea mofo, it's time to go!"

The tools: 5 gallon bucket (or 30), tealab brew kit
The goods: EWC, Recharge, Humic (FullPower), Barley, and maybe some fish hydrolysate or fish bone meal

I have a mess load of ingredients so if there's something I should be brewing for this AACT let me know! I'm thinking of brewing up a larger batch since theres about 100 gallons of soil to be inoculated, 8 of the 7gal fabric pots and a 50 gal which is gonna take a bit of tea.

As far as my soil mix, I went light on amendments so I could plant straight to soil in a few days. Its a locally sourced mix 1:1:1 compost, peat, aeration (pumice/biochar/black lava sand) with a little buffet of some alfalfa, kelp, oyster shell, crab meal, neem cake, fish bone meal, azomite and gypsum. Most at 1/4 strength to 1/2 of what bag says to use.

Will a 24 hour brew suffice? Am I better off brewing in multiple 5 gal buckets or one 30gal?

It's time to get growin, only thing left is to figure out which seeds to drop

 

[Eyes on Fire]

24 hours brew will work. maybe 28-32 hours maybe. but not much more than imo. the 30 gallon at once is best that way your consistency stays the same. several batchs is okay too. but make sure you have a potent enough pump. thats a lot of weight to displace with an air tube/snake.

 

[NebulaNuggets]

24 hours brew will work. maybe 28-32 hours maybe. but not much more than imo. the 30 gallon at once is best that way your consistency stays the same. several batchs is okay too. but make sure you have a potent enough pump. thats a lot of weight to displace with an air tube/snake.

I decided to just go 5gal bucket for the tea, gonna make another batch after this one. Only 571 gph on my pump, not ideal for more than 5 gal. Probably going to grab a second pump for larger batches later this week.

So this batch is going to a 50 gal pot, with about 40 gal soil and a couple inches of pumice on the bottom. A few inches left on top for mulch layer to grow over time

Tea brew recipe I threw together:

couple handful of EWC
A couple tbsp each of Fish Bone Meal and
Bio Live (beneficial bacteria and fungi)
1 pack of Bactifeed
couple ounces malted barley
a dose of recharge for good measure

I am going to brew 24 hours most likely and dilute it into 10 gallons of tea. Here's the 50 gal it's going into

So I guess I better figure out which Mephisto's I am gonna germ :smoking:

 

[hecno]

Fermented Plant Juice Calculator - This will come in handy . /www.thenutrientcompany.com when ya see this click onto it-- If you’re curious as to the NPK value of your concoction you can use the Fermented Plat Juice calculator to work out a rough estimate!

 

[NebulaNuggets]

Found some really interesting tea ideas and other good organic info here http://theunconventionalfarmer.com/how-to-make-bloom-fertilizer/

Pretty cool ideas if you haven't checked out the unconventional farmer. I am trying to find a way to get my plants through harvest without having to buy bottled nutes (other than full power and some fish hydrolysate)

Gonna try making my own fish fertilizer, but in the meantime gonna buy a good cold processed bottle of neptunes or what have you.

Anybody try making a fertilizer for bloom with stuff like mango, papaya, squash and bananas? I have a hunch this kind of organic feed will make for some tasty buds

Edit: Been thinking about insect frass and breeding cockroaches. I don't know if my better half is ok with a cockroach farm. Afraid to ask her LOL

 

[hecno]

@NebulaNuggets . TUF is a good site , I will be making the flower fertilizer soon , I have all that stuff around me . mango, papaya, squash and bananas .

 

[hecno]

Ok . Fermented Bloom fertilizer , done and a brewing . I used Banana - Paw Paw - Carrot - Pineapple - Passion fruit flowers and other flowers from around the yard .

Have to use air locks ,as way to many tiny bugs would get in .

 

[hecno]

http://www.microbeorganics.com/ --- This is part of a very good article , to big to post all of it , worth reading .
What is Compost Tea?

Very simply stated Compost Tea is a water-based environment wherein beneficial microorganisms are extracted from compost or vermicompost (worm compost) and multiplied by the millions and billions. Some form of agitation breaks the microbes free from the compost and they multiply because food, like black strap molasses, fish hydrolysate, kelp meal, etc. has been added to the water, which at least one type of microbe digests. When one or more type of microbe begins to multiply in response to the food, other microbes respond to this growth and begin to consume these initial microbes and multiply in turn and so on and so on. For example the initial microbes are usually bacteria which are food for protozoa so the protozoa multiply in response to the bacteria.

The end result is a functional feeding cycle or microbial nutrient cycle. I refer to this as a functional microbial consortia. This develops over a period of 12 to 72 hours or more and is then applied to the soil and plants. In the soil there are a number of organisms which function in basically the same nutrient cycle and zone. Once again, simply stated, there are substances released from the roots of plants which feed bacteria (& archaea), again the bacteria/archaea become prey to the protozoa and the protozoa excrete substances which are available to the roots as nutrients (e.g. nitrogen) thus creating a feeding cycle.

Other compost/soil microorganisms of great importance are fungi. Fungal hyphae, are long branching strands which grow through the soil and serve to; bind soil aggregates together, help retain moisture, store certain nutrients, provide a source of food to certain other microbes, provide pathways for nutrient and moisture delivery, decompose organic material and displace disease causing fungi. There are also other types of fungi which do not grow (to my knowledge) in compost or Compost Tea which form a direct symbiotic nutrient exchange relationship with roots.

This sort of fungi is called mycorrhizal fungi and there are many different species. The major microorganisms at work in Compost Tea are bacteria, protozoa (flagellates, ciliates and amoebae) and fungal hyphae if present in your compost. It is best to have a wide diversity of each of these microbes present. There are higher order organisms like nematodes found in compost and soil and occasionally these are extracted into Compost Tea but they do not grow nor multiply in the tea. Of course in the soil there are many other contributors to the nutrient cycle, like insects, earthworms and other animals. In its totality this is often referred to as the soil food web.

Fungal Hyphae (phase contrast)

All life is in a symbiotic nutrient cycle even down to the microorganisms contained in our gut that assist us to digest certain foods. Life, consumption, excrement, death, decomposition, life. You are what you eat and the same applies to plants.

It has been discovered that aerated Compost Tea helps to ensure the multiplication of mostly aerobic microbes which are more desirable in this application. Plus the aeration provides the agitation necessary to dislodge the microbes from the compost. Therefore most Compost Tea machines or brewers, as they are commonly known, involve the introduction of air into the water and compost.

Many Compost Tea users and producers have begun examining their brews with microscopes to see the microbes present. This ensures that they have the desired microbes in the right numbers and diversity prior to applying the tea to soil and plants. I am fairly hopeful if not certain that in the future when someone purchases a Compost Tea brewer that the kit will include a microscope. It is the identification of what is going on in this tiny universe where I find my calling.

Fungal Hyphae (brightfield)

 

[hecno]

http://www.microbeorganics.com/ --- This is part of a very good article , to big to post all of it , worth reading .
What is Compost Tea?

Very simply stated Compost Tea is a water-based environment wherein beneficial microorganisms are extracted from compost or vermicompost (worm compost) and multiplied by the millions and billions. Some form of agitation breaks the microbes free from the compost and they multiply because food, like black strap molasses, fish hydrolysate, kelp meal, etc. has been added to the water, which at least one type of microbe digests. When one or more type of microbe begins to multiply in response to the food, other microbes respond to this growth and begin to consume these initial microbes and multiply in turn and so on and so on. For example the initial microbes are usually bacteria which are food for protozoa so the protozoa multiply in response to the bacteria.

The end result is a functional feeding cycle or microbial nutrient cycle. I refer to this as a functional microbial consortia. This develops over a period of 12 to 72 hours or more and is then applied to the soil and plants. In the soil there are a number of organisms which function in basically the same nutrient cycle and zone. Once again, simply stated, there are substances released from the roots of plants which feed bacteria (& archaea), again the bacteria/archaea become prey to the protozoa and the protozoa excrete substances which are available to the roots as nutrients (e.g. nitrogen) thus creating a feeding cycle.

Other compost/soil microorganisms of great importance are fungi. Fungal hyphae, are long branching strands which grow through the soil and serve to; bind soil aggregates together, help retain moisture, store certain nutrients, provide a source of food to certain other microbes, provide pathways for nutrient and moisture delivery, decompose organic material and displace disease causing fungi. There are also other types of fungi which do not grow (to my knowledge) in compost or Compost Tea which form a direct symbiotic nutrient exchange relationship with roots.

This sort of fungi is called mycorrhizal fungi and there are many different species. The major microorganisms at work in Compost Tea are bacteria, protozoa (flagellates, ciliates and amoebae) and fungal hyphae if present in your compost. It is best to have a wide diversity of each of these microbes present. There are higher order organisms like nematodes found in compost and soil and occasionally these are extracted into Compost Tea but they do not grow nor multiply in the tea. Of course in the soil there are many other contributors to the nutrient cycle, like insects, earthworms and other animals. In its totality this is often referred to as the soil food web.

Fungal Hyphae (phase contrast)

All life is in a symbiotic nutrient cycle even down to the microorganisms contained in our gut that assist us to digest certain foods. Life, consumption, excrement, death, decomposition, life. You are what you eat and the same applies to plants.

It has been discovered that aerated Compost Tea helps to ensure the multiplication of mostly aerobic microbes which are more desirable in this application. Plus the aeration provides the agitation necessary to dislodge the microbes from the compost. Therefore most Compost Tea machines or brewers, as they are commonly known, involve the introduction of air into the water and compost.

Many Compost Tea users and producers have begun examining their brews with microscopes to see the microbes present. This ensures that they have the desired microbes in the right numbers and diversity prior to applying the tea to soil and plants. I am fairly hopeful if not certain that in the future when someone purchases a Compost Tea brewer that the kit will include a microscope. It is the identification of what is going on in this tiny universe where I find my calling.

Fungal Hyphae (brightfield)

 

[NebulaNuggets]

I went ahead and brewed up a tea with the Bu's Biodynamic Compost Tea bags this past week, for soil drench and foliar spray.



5 gallon brew with some extras thrown in the mix. A few tablespoons of kelp, a little molasses and a shot or two of fish hydrolysate.
I only brewed this tea for 16 hours. I really need to invest in a microscope for viewing the microbes

All the plants responded well, so far so good for the Bu's tea. Next tea on the list is going to be aimed at adding some nutrients in the form of P for a little flower boost. I have been looking around for some stuff to make my own flowering fert as well. Barrell cactus and Prickly Pear will be fruiting as well as other cactus and succulents here in the sonoran desert. Am having a hard time finding any info regarding the use of cactus fruit as a source of fert and the n-p-k but I may experiment a little bit