Microbes - Fungi and Bacteria in Compost Tea

Hi RIU, my local hydro shop recommended that I make simple compost tea using EWC, liquid hydrolyzed fish, and molasses. They also said I can throw in a hand full of living soil. They recommended to water using this compost tea every week or two. Aside from the fact that I may decide not to use compost tea and just top dress, I have a couple of questions about their recommendation and what they told me.

Questions:
1. They said I need to include liquid hydrolyzed fish in order to produce a “fungi” dominate tea. If I just used molasses, I would get a bacteria dominate tea. They explained that the fish mainly feeds the fungi and molasses feeds the bacteria. Is this generally true?

2. If the hydrolyzed fish is needed to make a fungi dominate tea, is there an alternative to using liquid hydrolyzed fish as it is way to stinky to use in my tent?

3. If I decide to make and use compost tea, is the recipe they recommended okay?

Thanks for reading!

According to http://microbeorganics.com/, molasses and fish hydrolysate feed both bacteria and fungi.

[...]
3/ black strap molasses (BSM) feeds both bacteria/archaea and fungi equally well contrary to what the A(A)CT aficionados were saying. The story was that BSM feeds only bacteria. This led to all sorts of misconceptions, even including ones made by USDA and Canada Agriculture scientists who declared that using molasses in ACT could lead to e-coli contamination. It is utter nonsense. Besides the testing I have done and ratifying assays carried out by KIS, it is common knowledge amongst many mycologists like Paul Stamets that BSM grows out fungal hyphae just fine.

4/ fish hydrolysate feeds both fungi and bacteria/archaea again contrary to the story at the time that it is mainly a fungal food. (I’m glad to see that story has now changed)

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PubZombie said:

3. If I decide to make and use compost tea, is the recipe they recommended okay?

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Basic recipe is compost and molasses, also taken from Microbe Organics. You can add a little bit of other things, i quote the website:

A. [vermi]compost – 2.38%

B. unsulphured pure black strap molasses - 0.50% [but you can use a maximum 0.75%]

C. fish hydrolysate (high quality) - 0.063%
Do not use chemically deodorized liquid fish!

D. kelp meal - 0.25% max. [Less is more!]
NOTE: This is a maximum amount of kelp and you can experiment using less. This is using regular grade kelp meal for livestock. If you have soluble kelp, I recommend using smaller amounts. As noted earlier kelp meal can initially delay bacterial multiplication and fungal growth in ACT.

E. soft rock phosphate granules/powder - 0.063% Consider this optional. In the past 2 years I’ve become more aware of the possibility of polonium 210 and lead content in soft rock phosphate which is radioactive. This varies depending on how it was mined and where. If you wish to use this in ACT check all available data. Look for heavy metal testing
We grind up the granules into a powder with a coffee grinder

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So C-E are optional, most important ingredients are compost and molasses.

Thank you JHake for making it easy to understand. Great to hear that the fish hydrolysate is optional. Also, thanks for letting me know that I should add a small amount of Kelp. I’m definitely more excited about making and using ACT now. Thanks again!

Regarding other thing you said, i tend to just top dress the compost/EWC and water it. I do believe compost tea can work, but once used to populate a medium with microbes, i believe it's better to let them develop in that medium. I mean, there's no need to use it every week, at least in my opinion and experience. I'm still a novice grower though, so take my info just as an opinion.

JHake said:

Regarding other thing you said, i tend to just top dress the compost/EWC and water it. I do believe compost tea can work, but once used to populate a medium with microbes, i believe it's better to let them develop in that medium. I mean, there's no need to use it every week, at least in my opinion and experience. I'm still a novice grower though, so take my info just as an opinion.

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I’m definitely weighing the need to use ACT, especially on any regular basis. Your comment about letting microbes developed in the medium makes a lot of sense, given you have a healthy microbe population.

I’m gathering everything I need for my first fully organic/living soil grow, which I plan to start as soon as my tent frees up in about two weeks. My goal is to keep it very simple and develop a process that will take me from start to finish with as little work/input as practically possible. I did buy BuildASoil 3.0 mix to get started, along with their Craft and Bloom blends, which I plan to use very sparingly as a top dress and soil drench. They can also be used in teas.

I‘m sure I’ll have a lot of questions! And I’m just excited about moving away from using traditional liquid nutrients and everything that goes along with that.

Tea is easier than top dressing if you have a ton of plants. Or if you're working with short, young plants in small pots. Or if you want to foliar spray some tea for possible fungus/disease prevention.

Top dressing compost is easier with big lots, especially if your plants are like manicured or lollipop-ed. Compost top dressing on top of your dry amendment nutrient top dressing is cool too.

Trying out nutrient tea and compost tea is kinda fun for messing around with too. Its OK to have a little fun with this hobby.

youraveragehorticulturist said:

Tea is easier than top dressing if you have a ton of plants. Or if you're working with short, young plants in small pots. Or if you want to foliar spray some tea for possible fungus/disease prevention.

Top dressing compost is easier with big lots, especially if your plants are like manicured or lollipop-ed. Compost top dressing on top of your dry amendment nutrient top dressing is cool too.

Trying out nutrient tea and compost tea is kinda fun for messing around with too. Its OK to have a little fun with this hobby.

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Good point on top dressing a large number of plants, especially small ones! That would be difficult or at least very time consuming. I’m lucky because my next grow will be two plants in a 2x4 tent so no access issues. And I’m sure I will brew up a few compost and nutrient teas along the way.