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Subject: Compost Teas: 24 hour, EM, IM, BD & fermented plant extracts

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  • From: William Kruidenier <williamk AT carolina.rr.com>
  • To: compostteas AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Compostteas] 33-gallon brewer
  • Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 12:44:37 -0400

Greetings all,

Have been enjoying the list and learning a lot. Just wanted to offer my two-cents worth on how I'm brewing tea at home for organic garden and yard use.

For a couple of years have been using a 5-gallon brewer based on Elaine's original article in Kitchen Gardener magazine 1-2 years ago: 5 gallon bucket, small aquarium pump, air stones, etc. I suspended my compost in an untreated burlap bag, added a 1/2 cup of molasses and let it brew for 48 hours or so. Very unscientific, but the resulting tea had significant impact on my garden plants as well as house plants.

I am now using a 33-gallon trash can. I purchased a Whitewater L19 diaphragm pump (rated at 2.5 cfm) and 3 six-inch diffusers from Aquatic Ecosystems in Florida. I use two nylon mesh bags I got at Wal-Mart (they're used for washing delicate items in the washing machine) to suspend about 4 gallons of compost (two gallons per bag) about half-way down into the 33-gal trash can. The three diffusers make the surface of the water look like a hurricane is approaching, so I have been running it with only two. I really think I could get by with just one diffuser based on the amount of air the pump puts out. Plus the turbulence in the water can't be that healthy for the life-forms getting thrown around so violently. (Am thinking of getting two-more trash cans and running three at a time, one diffuser per trash can, which would produce about 90 gallons of tea at a time). Because I haven't had the tea analyzed, I have no idea what the critter-count is. I work pretty diligently at creating good compost, so hopefully it's pretty good when it goes in the brewer. When I can afford to do so I want to send some to SFI for testing. I put in 2 cups of molasses and 1 cup of kelp meal to begin, and another cup of molasses and cup of kelp after 12 hours. I stopped the brew after 24 hours.

Does anyone have a general idea about the amount of air needed for proper aeration? I know I am getting more than enough with the pump/3-diffuser system I installed, and like everything I assume too much air can be harmful.

Thanks for any help,

William



  • [Compostteas] 33-gallon brewer, William Kruidenier, 06/17/2002

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