permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Anyone on this list tried aerated compost tea?

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        [compost_tea] Worms in tea
Date:   Thu, 17 Jun 2004 07:36:38 -0000
From:   sstidham2002 <sstidham@mindspring.com>
To:     compost_tea@yahoogroups.com

I made my first batch of ACT
I have two fish tank aerators that I bought on the recomendation of
another compost tea board before I found this board. I was reluctant
to even try it because of the stated need for 15 litres a minute of
air which I was sure was beyond my capacity. I aerated the water to
blow off the chlorine and dumped a shovel full of good compost into
the 5 gallon bucket and felt guilty when I noticed a few worms sank
with the rest of the compost. I let it brew for 4 days sniffing a
couple of times each day to see if anarobic problems were developing.
When I pulled the air stones I was astounded that the worms were not
only still alive, but had grown. Does this suggest that there is
sufficient aeration to make decent tea? Could worms survival in tea
be a leading indicator? I have never seen it mentioned.

--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech