Farrfighsr
Member
Can i use the same potting soil with worm castings to make basic compost tea. I was also gonna throw some nopales cactus cuttings into it along with some leaves from trees in my backyard? Would this work?
Compost tea help
- Thread starter Farrfighsr
- Start date
Richard Drysift
Well-Known Member
That will make an organic mud but not really a tea. Microbes are the active ingredient of compost tea but there are alternatives to EWC; you can bubble things other than worm castings to get there like composted chicken manure, or dried bat or seabird guanos. It has to be composted first which is where the microbes get into whatever organic material you decide to use but honestly worm castings are the best choice be it bagged or fresh; fresh is always better of course. Forget the cactus; throw that in a compost pile. If you've got some leaves that are well composted already I have read that you can use them to brew up a tea but never actually tried it. Even kelp meal has probiotics if you bubble it....
Farrfighsr
Member
What if i just used say soil with worm castings and some vegitable peels. Then after i brew it drain all the water. Would that work? Ik it would be harder but if i could pull it of would the water have good enough nutrients?
Thai_Lights
Well-Known Member
How about you get some molasses with castings and brew that? You can also add kelp too....
Rasta Roy
Well-Known Member
Nooooo. It's called compost tea...Not uncomposted matter tea. Let those peels sit in a compost pile for three months then you can throw them in.
If your soil says it has worm Castings, I would bet it's a handful at best, and the microherd is probably long gone.
Get a bag of compost. Or worm castings. Or composted cow manure. Add molasses.
natureboygrower
Well-Known Member
1 cup good quality compost(or ewc)1 tablespoon molasses(i use organic blackstrap,not grandmas) per 5 gallons of h20.36-42 hours.Done
Richard Drysift
Well-Known Member
The water will just be a muddy vegetable peel slurry containing almost nothing beneficial. Now if you composted the veggie peels in say a worm bin and then bubbled the finished compost with a source of sucrose like molasses & then you got something that will really make plants happy.
A teaspoon of worm casting has like millions of microbes in it. That's what you want to give to your plants. Nutrients are in the soil already you don't need to add them but it's through microbial activity that feeds your plants. That's how an organic tea works.
iHearAll
Well-Known Member
If you wanted to dissolve the water soluble from it, you could, in fact there are teks using a liter of soil in pantry hose bubbled in 5gal of water. The catch is you add your own microorganisms and molasses. If you want to save time but spend more upfront until you can culture your own probiotic bacteria I would suggest probiotic tablets in pair with agricultural molasses. You could easily use 2-5 tablets and 2-5T of molasses in 5 gals of aerating water with said liter of soil aerating for UP TO 72 hours. But stay around 24-36 hrs in your case.
GrandfatherRat
Active Member
Your questions indicated you need to read up on basic concepts-- how soil works, what compost tea does, and how a microherd will benefit your soil. It's better to understand these concepts as much as you can, rather than just blindly follow a list of directions or a formula. The difference comes when something goes wrong-- knowledge gives you the know how to correct issues and solve problems, rather than weather them. A good start would be Tim Wilson's page, here: http://www.microbeorganics.com/
You might also check out the book 'Teeming with Microbes'.
greasemonkeymann
Well-Known Member
you are totally right there, in fact, well shit, not to split hairs, i guess its actually a billion of microbes in a teaspoon (who's REALLY counting THAT?), and like meters of fungal strands, webs and filaments
just mindboggling to think of.
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DonTesla
Well-Known Member
What's your goal, with the tea, first off, if you don't mind? The leaves may be better used as mulch assuming their thrip free, and the cactus you speak of is an excellent growing aid, an aloe Vera cousin I use as well, many times more potent than aloe, but i wouldnt use it in a tea, I would use it separately In a drench and foliar, perhaps to rinse your tea off if you're really gonna use molasses. I would opt for a non gluey sugar more like succanat personally
Remember..Bacterial teas come from vermicompost which can be made in under 2 weeks if you have worms and fruit/veggie scraps but its best when refined longer and actually improves in quality when sealed/ bagged, for up to 4 months
Fungal teas come from thermophillic or natural outdoor compost with a base of wood/chips and can take a couple years to make without heavy boosters like alfafa or nitrogen sources. Short cuts include feeding organic ground oats to soil and harvesting mycelium rich soil to use as a brew.
The latter is what will help flowering occur, boost yields and allow the dusts and harder rocks to utilized when it matters. Myco fungi is another big one to not overlook, in this regard.
You might want to check out the unconventional farmer as well
. Any questions feel free to ask here or pm or on our thread in the organics section, can't miss it The who's who of organics are also chiming in (see above) so you should be well taken care of I'd assume 
Holie214
Member
I have a tumbler composter that I put all kitchen scraps, shredded paper, coffee grounds, dryer lint and some green yard waste. Usually, I just add it to the hole when I plant something. For the indoor grow, I can bubble this with some organic molasses and use it as teas instead of putting it in the soil when I start? Is that right? What kind of ratios? I am worried about the bugs that may come in with it if I mix it with the soil.
SouthCross
Well-Known Member
Planted seeds in promix today.
First watering was compost tea. 4 gallons soft water, 4 cups worm crap, 4 tablespoons black strap molasses. One tablespoon liquid fish.
Bubbled, and mixed around every time I got chance or remembered. Chucked an arrow in a cordless drill. Mixed it with the vane side.
Total brew time on this batch was around 18 hours. I care more about the fertilizer ratios then the mystical microbe population...nobody can prove.
First watering was compost tea. 4 gallons soft water, 4 cups worm crap, 4 tablespoons black strap molasses. One tablespoon liquid fish.
Bubbled, and mixed around every time I got chance or remembered. Chucked an arrow in a cordless drill. Mixed it with the vane side.
Total brew time on this batch was around 18 hours. I care more about the fertilizer ratios then the mystical microbe population...nobody can prove.
DonTesla
Well-Known Member
Nobody can prove, i think you might have some reading to do, amigo, lol. Fungi grow slowly, one cell at a time in single file, and don't multiply like bacteria .. And seedlings don't need fertilizer or tea in the beginning but then again I wouldn't use promix either or molasses but to each their own
Those teas are not made as fertilizers as much as they are inoculation brews of massive micro-populations that in essence free up natural fertilizers (meals, dusts, minerals, etc) already inherent in the mix
Rasta Roy
Well-Known Member
Put your compost in a tub with drainage holes so the water will pass thru, dump hot ass water on it, this would kill the bugs before you bring it indoors!
But for the tea I would do 2-4 cups of compost, with 3-5 tbsp of molasses in five gallons of water for 24 hours.