Video about making compost tea

[stevelau1911]

Has anyone ever tried using compost tea for their garden?

It doesn't sound that hard to do. All you need is

-a 5 gallon bucket
-water after it has been unchloronated
-airpump with airline tubing
-compost or worm castings
-filter bag
-unsulphurated molasses
-watering can

The idea is that it helps the bacteria and micro-organisms multiply in the water which can be applied through leaves. I wouldn't mind having huge vegetables or perhaps water some onto specific sections of my bamboo groves to see if shoots come up larger in that given spot.

Unsulfurated molasses is not that expensive either because you only need a tablespoon per gallon and 1 gallon is about $16 for the cheapest brand.
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&bi ... CDwQzAMwAg

[Alan_L]

I've used compost tea before. It's worth trying, but I wouldn't buy a gallon of molasses. Just get a small bottle at the grocery store (I don't know how critical "unsulphured" is). I didn't use it the whole summer because it's a lot of work.

There are also some doubts as to whether compost tea really has any benefits in practice. In theory, yes. In actual results, maybe.

Here's one report that looks at compost, non-aerated compost tea, and aerated compost tea:
http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda%20Ch ... 0again.pdf

Its conclusions:

The Bottom Line:

• Composted mulch has been documented to suppress disease through a variety of methods
• Non-aerated compost teas may be useful in suppressing some pathogens on some plants
• Aerated compost teas have no scientifically documented effect as pathogen suppressors
• Overuse and runoff of compost teas could conceivably contribute to water pollution
• There is no “silver bullet” for plant health problems caused by poor soil health and improper plant
selection and management

[dudley]

I have not had any visible results with either worm or regular compost tea.
have never aerated either one though.

[Mike McG]

I was at a local NPSOT meeting some time ago where a couple of the nurserymen were very enthusiastic about there results using this type of "compost tea" in their greenhouses to suppress pathogens.

Mike Shoup of ARE http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com/ who does a lot of cuttings said he has had a lot of success using this on the plants in his greenhouses. He referenced Dr. Elaine Ingham http://www.soilfoodweb.com/sfi_approach1.html as one of the proponents of this. There is a lot of stuff on the web but she has an article at http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/art ... t-tea.aspx.

There is also a guy in AL http://www.captaincompostalabama.com/ who has made a business out of compost and has some info on his site.

This is one of those things on my list to try once I build a greenhouse, maybe this winter.

Mike near Brenham TX

[stevelau1911]

After doing a bit of research, I found that "worm castings" are close to the best kind of compost for making the tea and I have found where I can collect all my materials. 1 gallon of grandmas molasses costs $16, petcos 4 outlet pump costs $26, strainer bag is very easy to make with a pillow bag and be hung from a piece of wood, I already have 55 gallon barrels, and all I need is the compost now as the main ingredient for the compost tea production.

I plan on starting a worm bin with the largest tupperware containers I can find, and have one put on top of the other so that the mixture can drain whenever I moisten it. Since I've been consistently dumping newpapers and organic wastes onto my moso grove, I might be able to grab some worms from there because that area is pretty highly populated by now.

Now I just hope that I can get a decent amount of worm castings on a consistent basis so I might have to order 1 lb of red worms if necessary online. I plan on feeding them with kitchen scraps if there is enough, but mostly leafy weeds which are in abundance in the woods behind the bamboo garden. I want to get a good 3-5lbs of castings per week once the operation is started so has anyone had any experience with worm bins before?

A 10 gallon bin costs $9 at Wal-Mart, and 1 lb of red worms cost around $20 so I'm not sure if 1 bin is enough for what I am aiming for. I also have no idea how quickly worms reproduce either. Does anyone know how much worm bins usually produce?

[Alan_L]

That's quite a bit of $$ to spend on something that may or may not give you any benefits (compost tea). Why not start smaller scale? 5-gal bucket, small jar of molasses, small aquarium pump -- for $20 total or less.

It's important to use the right kind of worms or you won't get the results you want. The amount or worms is important too. Tupperware sounds way too small... maybe a storage bin like a sweater storage box is what you mean though, in that case it's probably ok.

I tried worm composting indoors a few winters ago and the bin ended up getting infected with some sort of mites -- little white critters covering everything. It wasn't as easy as they say it is.

Good luck!

[David]

I've been growing redworms for about 2 years now for our rescued two - legged turtle Tina. Say that three times real fast! I have a plastic bin with small holes drilled in the bottom for drainage buried up to the lid near our trash containers. I first tried to keep them in the basement but it attracted lots of small insects and flying things so out it went. You need two containers of about 10 - 15 gal and every 6 months you separate the worms from the compost and put them in a new batch of moist peat. You will have to sift out the debris from the castings and what is left is worm castings. They make lots of little redworms, probably doubling every six months or so.

Just a note redworms are not earth worms. Redworms are surface feeders, and earth worms are more of a burrowing type worm. I am certainly not a worm expert so you should probably research the type you need.

It's more trouble than the worm sites suggest but the soil they make looks really good. Whether or not the soil is beneficial enough to justify the effort is up to you.

I think my effort would be in promoting earth worms in the groves and garden themselves which would be a lot less work.

[stevelau1911]

I plan on waiting until around March to get worms and start composting and perhaps use the double container method to let the mix drain well. I don't want mites or white flies all over the place so I would prefer to keep the operation outdoors. I checked my moso grove, and they mostly look like earth worms since they are mostly fairly large and burrow deep, but still come up to eat whatever I throw on it. I guess if Worms produce their own weight in castings every 2 days, 1lb of worms should be enough as a start because I don't plan on using just worm castings for the compost tea. I also checked a few sites, and yea, a 10 gallon worm bin is really not enough so I'll need perhaps a 55 gallon one or larger, and more than 1000 worms to start getting some production.

I also have a large compost pile which is maybe over 3000lbs by now made from old leaves/ grass clippings as well as access to free compost, so I plan to use some worm castings as just another part of my mix, each time I make compost tea. I think a normal sized pillow bag filled with around 5 gallons worth of compost should be adequate. I also found that 1 gallon molasses is less than half the price of the 1qt size ounce for ounce so I decided to go large scale.

With a 55 gallon capacity each time, I should have enough to cover a pretty large garden as well as my potted bamboos. I might even pour some on the in-ground bamboos before shooting season just to give them another boost of energy. I guess I can do it once every 2-3 weeks for decent results.