vortex perpetual brewer?

[The Growery]

I built a 30 gallon vortex at home using a trash can and some pvc hooked up to a 240 watt air pump. I'm brewing up some tea right now and had run across Vortex's website claiming you can do a perpetual compost tea brew. has anyone done this? sounds like maybe just add some worm castings and molasses every 2 days to keep it going. only concern is wouldn't there be a lot of dead bacteria or fungi? wouldn't there be a slow buildup of ciliates? any insight is appreciated.

 

[NickNasty]

You could do it but I wouldnt. You will get a buildup of stuff in the bottom of your brewer and bacteria will die so you would contently have to add more food. Just figure out how many gallons it takes to do your garden and make that once a month. Don't use your brewer to feed, top dress your soil if you need to feed.

 

[Rising Moon]

I agree.

My buddy who I switched over to teas was having some trouble after a couple weeks of brews.

I found out he wasnt really scrubbing the bucket/air stones, and they were all slimy.

Needless to say, I cleaned all the funk, and his teas started foaming up like they should again.

 

[The Growery]

top dress with what? wormcastings during veg and bat guano for flower do you think?

would I be okay with keeping the brew around 4-5 days and feeding it on day 2?

 

[Rrog]

If you can have the soil cook for a while before you plant, you'll have microbes and nutrients already. I just amend with top dressings of EWS, teas, etc. Simple, simple.

 

[NickNasty]

top dress with what? wormcastings during veg and bat guano for flower do you think?

would I be okay with keeping the brew around 4-5 days and feeding it on day 2?

What you top dress with would depend on what your plants were in need of. If you are doing an amended soil you should have extra dry ferts and amendments laying around, use those. If you are just using bagged soil and want an all around dry fert to top dress with Roots Organic Uprising grow and bloom are good all around dry ferts. < I just did a test grow with it for my local grow shop and was happy with the results. With top dressing dry amendments they should at least last 3-4 weeks before you need to add more. I would also up pot as needed, a good rule of thumb in organics is you probably will not yield more then your pot size. So for instance if you are in 5 g pots don't expect anything over 5 oz and it will probably be more like 3 for most strains.

And you can make your brew last longer by adding more food for the microbes but just don't go pushing it because you can start to get bad bacteria growing and then the good bacteria has to compete with it.

 

[NEEDMMASAP]

I built a 30 gallon vortex at home using a trash can and some pvc hooked up to a 240 watt air pump. I'm brewing up some tea right now and had run across Vortex's website claiming you can do a perpetual compost tea brew. has anyone done this? sounds like maybe just add some worm castings and molasses every 2 days to keep it going. only concern is wouldn't there be a lot of dead bacteria or fungi? wouldn't there be a slow buildup of ciliates? any insight is appreciated.

What is that Vortex site you found ?

 

[The Growery]

aside from cost, is there anything detrimental to watering with compost tea every watering?

needmm, http://www.vortexbrewer.com/pdf/Perpetual_Brewing.pdf

 

[NickNasty]

No I doubt it but you will realize soon enough that it is not really helping to do it that often. But go ahead and try it out that way you get it out of your system and you can move on.

 

[Rrog]

I sure wouldn't. No need. I already do enough things that are unnecessary.