Re: [compost_tea] newbie recipe questions
Hi Mark -
First of all, let us not be using up our forest floor resources. We have too
little healthy forest left, let us not destroy it.
So, a mix of good aerobic thermal compost (DO NOT USE CEDAR GROVE PRODUCTS,
THEY DO NOT MAKE COMPOST), with good aerobic worm caste, in about a 50-50 or
25 - 75 mix. Ask the folks selling you the compost for DATA to document that
the composts have good organism numbers.
Think through the information on what foods grow what kinds of organisms. To
help you figure this out, you might want to buy a Compost Tea Brewing Manual.
Too many thing sto consider there for me to go through them, so, please, buy
the manual. Available from: www.soilfoodweb.com
I like the humic acid, oatmeal mix alot because you need fungi. Molasses can
help fungi at high concentrations, but the humic acid or oatmeal are better
fungal foods.
Consider molasses if your first brew is lacking bacteria. If the bacteria
are fine, you don't need the molasses and don't add it. The Pennsylvannia
recipe is a bacterial tea recipe, and you need more fungi than what you'd get
with that recipe.
As I said in the last e-mail, the compost needs to be contained, or you end
up filtering if you are going to spray the tea. If you aren't going to spray
the tea out with a sprayer, then free in the machine is fine.
Use a cheap nylon stocking or a paint strainer bag, or a laundry bag. You
want large enough holes to let the fungi through, but not the larger things
that will plug your sprayer nozzle. Filtering tea often results in loss of
the fungi.
OK?
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand
Received on Wed Mar 12 2003 - 17:42:33 EST
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