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New Hampshire, USA

to a 2gal pail of water?

8/16/2010 12:35:15 PM

Fresno, CA

Are you talking compost tea you brewed yourself or some kind of commercial liquid product? My understanding of home-brewed aerated compost tea is that you don't need to water it down at all, you just spray or drench it at full concentration. You can pretty much use as much as you want as often as you want and it doesn't hurt the plant.

8/16/2010 1:30:54 PM

New Hampshire, USA

This is tea that came out from my electric composter so it is not aerated.

8/16/2010 1:41:48 PM

Fresno, CA

By electric you mean you have a simplici-tea (keep it simple) or a soil soup brewer that plugs in? If so, those have air pumps that keeps the brew aerobic. I'd just use it straight unless you want to thin it out to spread over a much larger area than you can otherwise. I have a non-commercial brewer that uses an aquarium pump and air stones but its similar to the commercial ones. I asked the same question on the forums when I started using it last year and other growers said they just use their compost tea without dilution whether spraying or drenching. I have been doing just that weekly with no problems. Some growers spray compost tea more often that without diluting. The contents of the tea will be mostly microbes and water. I don't think there are enough nutrients in there to cause any problems.

8/16/2010 3:31:35 PM

New Hampshire, USA

No this a device that converts my vegetation into dry compost in 2-3 weeks and it also collects the tea that is produced!

8/16/2010 3:56:06 PM

Fresno, CA

Oh sorry - thought you meant a brewer.

8/16/2010 5:44:41 PM

Redmond, Washington; U.S.A.

EndlessTrail I agree with everything you said. I also have been brewing aerated compost tea for several years now. Last year my uncle shorty brought me over some of his worm tea. He composts food scraps and newspaper and such in his basement. This year I have been using it in my hose end sprayer. I fill it 2/3's up for each plant. I let it dilute with h2o and fill to the top before spraying it evenly on the tops and bottoms of all of the leaves + root drench. diluting the worm tea was recomended to me. good luck this year.

8/16/2010 7:49:38 PM

Redmond, Washington; U.S.A.

I don't know. but for 2 gallons of worm tea. i'd say like a cup or so. Just a guess since I haven't used your tea. Try it out on some peppers or tomato's first to make sure its not phytotoxic.

8/16/2010 8:04:10 PM

Owensboro, Ky.

123, sorta skaird about the tea that is collected...I might be way off course, but the drainage from a non aerated system is prbly anerobic, and would contain lots of badness!!! Keep us posted on how it works!! Scott

8/16/2010 11:56:53 PM

New Hampshire, USA

ok will do.....

8/17/2010 2:23:03 PM

Colorado Springs, Co ([email protected])

i agree with peace,wayne on this one. That substance is called leachate and 8 times out of 10 is not good stuff. i would not use it.

8/17/2010 2:29:08 PM

Fresno, CA

I have a circular compost bin that rotates on a base with wheels. It doesn't have electricity though so different from yours. The base also collects 'tea' from the bin and has a spigot on it for releasing it into a container for use in sprays or drenches. I have never used the 'tea' from this base for the same reasons Peace, Wayne and Will Wright mentioned. Not sure it would be any good with no aeration. The companies that make and sell this bin model market it as a composter and 'compost tea maker'. (http://www.abundantearth.com/store/enviro-cyclecomposter.html). I just figure I'm better off using my aerated compost tea brewer which only cost about $20 to put together with parts from Wal-Mart (Deuley design). Not losing anything on the composter bin either, a friend bought it for me at a yard sale for $5 and I wasn't planning on using it for tea.

8/17/2010 4:01:02 PM

Seattle, WA

Unfortunately there's not better terminology, which can make it confusing.

Compost Leachate - These teas is sometimes referred as "worm tea" as it is the liquid that leaches out of the base of worm bins or compost piles during the composting process. Leachates will consist primarily of soluble nutrients, but will contain some small amount of biology. This can serve as a good food substrate for the biology in your soil. People that I know that are using this are diluting it at very high rates (50:1) because of the potential to burn your plants. I don't have much if any experience with it.

Aerated Compost Tea (AACT or ACT) - This process involves adding oxygen to the tea and a food source for the biology in the compost. By creating optimal conditions for aerobic microbes, AACT allows you to multiply the biology in the starting compost by over 10,000 times. Many plant pathogens are anaerobic and prefer low to no oxygen conditions. By making sure the tea and the compost itself are well oxygenated and highly aerobic, you can potentially eliminate 75 percent of the potential plant-disease-causing bacteria and plant-toxic products.

For the past 5 years, AACT has become the standard within the organic industry in regards to compost teas. It's currently being used by golf courses, vineyards, farmers, and homeowners as a means of growing healthier plants.

Hope this helps!

~Tad

8/17/2010 4:23:47 PM

New Hampshire, USA

Put 10 gallons of diluted tea on the patch today, we will see in the morning howcit does!

8/17/2010 9:53:32 PM

Redmond, Washington; U.S.A.

Tad. Thanks for the info on the tea's. Ryan E

8/18/2010 10:46:01 AM

New Hampshire, USA

I read 8 parts water to 1 part leachate, no harm unless you have meat or dairy in the compost from what I read!

8/18/2010 11:00:35 PM