Re: [compost_tea] Practical Questions

From: Robert Norsen <bnbrew_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 18:17:14 -0800 (PST)


Kathern Kelly and or carol burns <fscb_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
Under very warm conditions an air driven brewer - a brewer where air forms the pumping action as well as the aeration, the evaporation cooling will hold very close to the atarting temperature even in very warm conditions. When the temps are very low it is best to start with warm water - 80 to 90 F for the aeration cycle to get rid of chlorine. The brew start temp will then be about 80F.

If the ambient temp is down around 45 to50 starting with 85+ F water will result in 55 to 60 F tea at the end of the 24 hour cycle. A little cool but works. A small immersion heater electric or warm water coils or gas fired heating systems are possible. Holding 70 + - F is enough.

About filters. Our experience is tht you can get good cover and enough atomization with nozzle tips that are large enough to avoid most - maybe all filters if you take this precaution: Tea makers all collect some silt in the bottom of the tank. This silt is rich in fungi. good brewing should keep this dilt in the system as much as ossible so the fungi will be in the liquid tea. but the silt will give you fits witn fine nozles and plug filters so a fine filter becomes MUCH finerwhen half plugged with silt.. So yes it will take out much of whar you wanted.

Do this. Shut off the action in the brewer for 10 + - minutes before you pump out the tea. let the heavy silt settle these ae the little rocks you don't want. then take the tea from a few inches above the silt. You will lose far less fungi in that bottom stuff than in a filter.

Don't throw the silt away!!! Put it back in your compost or where you want high fungal mud.

( Plug) I will tell you about our air driven aerator / brewer on bnbrew_at_yahoo.com

Bob

I'm from the group in the KC area who are trying to
figure out the best current practices for compost tea
so we can use them in our vegetable operations, and
we've come across a couple of areas we are wanting
more information:

1. When we spray compost as a soil drench or as a
foliar spray, do we need to take out the filters so we
aren't screening out the fungi? (For example, our
farm uses a Fimco 14 gal sprayer, which has 2 pretty
standard sized screens.) Additionally, most of us
generally run anything we are going to spray through
something like a pair of pantyhose, to avoid plugging.
Will this capture the fungi we worked so hard to
grow?
2. In the Kansas City area, we benefit from the
southern heat and the northern cold, which means that
we'd be brewing compost tea in 100 degrees plus as
well as days that get into the teens. How will this
affect the microorganisms? Can we brew it in the
shade (90s) or will we need to find a cooler spot?
3. Elaine mentioned some research that was being done
on e. coli as it moved through the digestive tract of
earthworms. Has anything more been done on this so we
have some research to defend us if/when we get into
trouble with our organic certifying agency for using
vermicompost?

Thanks, much. This list is incredibly informative and
I'm glad you all are here as a resource!

Katherine Kelly
Full Circle Farm


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Received on Wed Jan 22 2003 - 21:29:06 EST

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