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Re: [compost_tea] Compost tea brewers



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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