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[compost_tea] Re: Compost tea brewers
Jason-welcome to the group. We share a similar climate and soil it
seems, as I'm over in Surrey, BC.
I'm also a newbie at this, you'll find not too many people are old
timers at such a new idea as aerated teas.
With our wet climate, I'm hoping the apple and plum trees, as well as
jap. maples, will really benefit from the teas. Disease problems
threaten to make these plants impractical, at least from a commercial
viewpoint--scab, canker, black knot, verticillium, our wonderful mild
climate is great for plants and so many disease organisms.
Just my tiny bit of experience having a 22 gal machine now, I'm very
happy with the somewhat smaller capacity. Many machines don't work
unless totally full, so you make 100 gal, or whatever, for e.g. every
time. This can be quite a bit of tea to spread unless you have very
good spraying machinery. On the other hand, I can make consecutive
brews for up to 6 days a week, which saves a bit on totally
sterilizing the machine between brews, and do the spraying each day at
a more leisurely pace. I guess I like the versatility of a bit smaller
capacity machine. This 22 gal of very high quality tea is enough to
drench the better part of an acre of soil, or several acres of
foliage, tho I'm starting out with much higher rates on my own acre.
And of course there's the upfront cost of that bigger brewer.
Just saying that for smaller acreages you might find a smaller brewer
is a good value, and versatile.
Like you, sure would like to see that hardpan disappear thru CT use.
I was just thinking about how impractical it would be to subsoil, as
well as probably only a temporary solution with our climate and
soil--wouldn't the iron, etc. just reform and require subsoiling again
and again?
Good luck over there--Glen
--- In compost_tea@yahoogroups.com, Jason Austin <jason.austin@s...>
wrote:
> Thank you all for the number of replies. As I said, I am a newbie
at this.
>
> To answer some of the questions, I have 5 acres. On this I have 110
> holly trees, 150 apple & plum trees, 350 trees in a tree nursery,
and
> some vegetable crops in between. My soil is sandy loam in most
parts.
> Half the property is flat with deep soil, and the other half is on
a
> gentle south facing slope with hardpan at about 3-4 feet.
>
> I live on Vancouver Island on Canada's west coast. I have an
irrigation
> pond and usually I last the summer with that, some summer rainfall
plus
> well water. These last two years though have been dry, particularly
> last year and I have had to limit the amount of irrigation.
>
> Some of the holly trees are getting scale, and this last year there
was
> a very bad infestation of leaf miner. Most of the holly trees are
> planted (by a previous owner!) in the area with the hard pan. I
thought
> of using the high bacterial CT as a folia spray to control the scal
and
> perhaps deter the leaf miner. I thought of a deep fungal drench to
> improve the soil; to build up the water retention capability of the
> soil; and who knows - over a very long period maybe to start
breaking
> down the hardpan. I was planning on using a lot of the CT for the
soil
> drench, hence the 100 gallon brewer even though I have a small
acreage.
> Maybe I am going too big, I don't know. If there is not much
> difference in cost I would rather have surplus capacity.
>
> I hear the messages that the main advantage of buying a
preconstructed
> brewer is that a reputable manufacturer will have done the testing
so
> the cost of testing is reduced or avoided. I will be contacting the
> manufacturers.
>
> On the other hand, unless I am mistaken, a preconstructed 100 gallon
> brewer will cost me at least $C5,000 and I can buy a lot of parts
for
> that. I plan to use a 100 gallon sprayer on a three point hitch on
my
> tractor. It occured to me that if I build both, it may be possible
to
> combine the brewer in the sprayer - ie have one unit that both brews
and
> sprays - but I am not discounting the costs of experimentation!
>
> So those are my thoughts just now. If there are any other words of
> wisdom I am all ears <grin>.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Jason
> Victoria, BC
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