|
Hi Essie,
How tall is your brewing tub?
What are your intended crops?
The recipe sounds light in the molasses, 20-25 gallons should
get about one and a half to two cups, I believe.
Tea is roughly ready when you can't smell the molasses
anymore.
For more finely tuned info, use the Force, eh?
;-)
I sometimes think the right thing to do with my life is get
Elaine-trained and poney up for the big epiflourescent croboscope, but I would
probably just spend the rest of my life grooving on the
microherd.....:-)
It would be quite interesting to do rock dust milk
experiments, making tea with colloidal dust like you are doing. I'll be
interested to see how the tea turns out when it is ogled under the eyes of the
wise....
Good teamaking,
Frank
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2002 10:44
AM
Subject: [Compostteas] First Two
Teas
Well, Folks - I'm new to the list and to compost tea
making. I just finished up my second batch and intend in a month or so
to send samples (of a fresh batch, of course) to Elaine, but for now I'm just
trying to get the hang of managing things.
Using a 50 gallon plastic
wide tub that had originally contained fruit syrup, I put in the following
ingredients:
1. Approximately 7 lb. mature compost that is largely
leaf-based.
2. Approx. 3-4 lb. worm castings (and I tried to pick out every
single worm). I put the compost and the castings into a nylon mesh
laundry bag. The mesh was fairly large and the bag was much bigger than
the supply of compost and castings.
3. Water from a mix of azomite, granite
meal, colloidal rock phosphate, and greensand in water. I mixed the water and
minerals in a 5-gallon bucket and let the minerals settle to the bottom. I
poured the cloudy water into the tea tub.
4. Approx. 1/4 c. unsulphured
molasses.
5. Approx. 1/16th/cup maximum wettable kelp powder.
6. Approx.
1/16/cup maximum humic acid
7. Approx. 20-25 gallons (total) water from the
well and from the rain barrel.
Using a Tetratec DW96-2 pump and 10
bubblers (2 fairly coarse, 2 fairly medium, 6 fine), I invoked the presence of
microorganisms and plugged in the pump.
Looks like a good bubble
mix. Foam starts after 24 hrs and increases a little. I let the
process continue for around 48 hours, then apply it. I'm working on the
application method. I'm trying to become comfortable with a backpack
sprayer (as a home gardener, I don't need a big rig) but in the meantime I'm
just applying it with watering cans. I do realize that's not ideal and
gives me a soil drench and a top-of-leaf application, but one does what one
does and I'll become more competent with time.
So, my questions
are: What do you-all think of my ingredient list? How does one
know that one's tea is ready? Those are my basic questions.
I'm assuming that the tea will have a robust fungal content because of the
leaf content of the compost, and that it will also have a robust bacteria
content because of the worm castings. Testing, of course, will confirm
that. Also, I was considering adding aragonite to the mineral mix, but
decided to hold off on that.
As said earlier; I do plan to have the tea
tested, but I think it's too early in the game for that and I want to become
more proficient at making the tea before I spend the money for the
testing.
Thanks for your feedback.
Essie Hull
Long-Term Organic and Early Stage Biodynamic
Gardener in central NH
(warm end of Zone 4) USA
We trust in the
Great Presence that surrounds, guides and supports us.
We also trust
in microbes, worms, intention, unseen forces, compost,
love and diligent
care.
|
