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

["Scott Alexander" <daylily AT bigpond.com>]

Armed with my new dissolved oxygen meter, thermometer, and pH meter, I began
another brew Sunday 12 noon. I was going to experiment a little with this
one by putting in a bag (made from shade cloth) of 10 kg of fungal dominated
material [forest litter, turkey's nest compost (this native turkey which
makes a big nest of forest litter and the composting process hatches the
eggs), and soil and some of the mulch above it which had lots of fungal
threads through it].
I also put an onion bag each of  alfalfa and organic mulch hay (taken from
the garden & it had lots of springtails in it) in the tank.
To the 700 litres of water, I added 3 litres of humic acid, 1 litre aloe
vera juice, two tablespoons of saponin powder.
The dissolved oxygen was 8ppm (I had been oxygenating the water for a 18
hours beforehand and also heating it to 24 Celsius) when I added the compost
and liquids and it dropped to 7.6 ppm and remained at that level until 10 am
Monday.

At 10 am I added the next lot of material ( a big bag of 20 kg of bacterial
dominated compost, worm castings and two whole daylily plants including the
soil around the roots), 2 litres of molasses, and 3 litres of a blend of
fish, kelp, and fulvic acid.

The above is almost the same proportions, mixtures etc as the brew which
gave me 1300 total bacteria and 8.55 total fungi  after 48 hours (except
there was about 5 kg more compost).

Now here's the problem. I had to switch off the pump and oxygenator for 10
minutes while I added the extra compost and when I measured the D O levels
again it was minus 2.  This was checked by an observer who also had a D O
meter. I had expected the levels to climb but now, 21 hours later, it is
still around the minus 1.8 - 1.9 level.

There is a good head of foam, the pH is 7.6, and the temp. is at 22.5
Celsius  AND IT SMELLS OK (the air temp was a chilly 6 celsius so I put my
hands in the tea to keep them warm while I contemplated my dilemma :-))

What is going on? Was this happening before as well  - only this time i have
a D O meter?
When CT assays are done, are anaerobic organisms counted as well?

Its 9.30 am and I will go back to the farm and remove the composts & hay and
continue the brew and see what happens next.

LEAF SAP pH
Is there anyone in the group who is famaliar with these levels. We tested
leaf sap pH on a few daylilies and found that all were around the 5.6 to 6
pH. I was told they should be around the 6.4 to 6.6 level.

Scott Alexander
Maleny
Queensland
AUSTRALIA