Re: [compost_tea] Compost tea brewers

From: Jason Austin (jason.austin@shaw.ca)
Date: Sun Mar 09 2003 - 20:01:06 EST


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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