What is the point of adding amendments to a compost tea?

[IIReignManII]

I feel like this is a completely pointless thing to do that only wastes nutrients....am I wrong? I feel like you have absolutely no reason to put anything into a compost tea other than compost and sugar. I see people loading up 3-6 cups or more sometimes of dry amendments to bubble into these teas, which leaves you with a teabag full of waste. Why would you not topdress in these nutrients, and just water the simple compost/sugar tea on top of that? Am I missing something?

 

[chakup]

You too dress after brewing, brewing puts more of the beneficials into an already useable state. You can't foliar a top dress, but you can brew foliar and too dress the left overs, etc.

 

[4ftRoots]

There are two types of teas. Compost and Nutrient.

You are correct in thinking that compost teas should only be compost and sugar. I too am confused when I read those complicated recipes. I doubt it even makes a good microbial tea when all those nutrients are added...

Nutrient teas are the opposite, no microbes, just a method of extracting the soluble nutrients into a liquid for immediate feeding or foliar feeding. I'm a fan of presoaking the top dress to get the microbes attracted, but otherwise, nutrient teas are a waste of time unless your plant is suffering a deficiency.

 

[PadawanWarrior]

I feel like this is a completely pointless thing to do that only wastes nutrients....am I wrong? I feel like you have absolutely no reason to put anything into a compost tea other than compost and sugar. I see people loading up 3-6 cups or more sometimes of dry amendments to bubble into these teas, which leaves you with a teabag full of waste. Why would you not topdress in these nutrients, and just water the simple compost/sugar tea on top of that? Am I missing something?

I don't use a bag when I make teas. I throw whatever straight in and bubble the shit for 24-48 hours. Then I pump it unfiltered to the plants. I even removed the filters in the pumps. It's like a feed and top dressing at the same time. If I wanted to foliar with it, I could just filter it. I been lazy lately and only top dressing though. It's been months since I gave them a tea, but they would love me if I did. It's just a little more work.

 

[IIReignManII]

I don't use a bag when I make teas. I throw whatever straight in and bubble the shit for 24-48 hours. Then I pump it unfiltered to the plants. I even removed the filters in the pumps. It's like a feed and top dressing at the same time. If I wanted to foliar with it, I could just filter it. I been lazy lately and only top dressing though. It's been months since I gave them a tea, but they would love me if I did. It's just a little more work.
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That would make sense to throw in all the nutes you bubbled, like a topdressing and tea all in one like you said...I feel like most people Ive seen do the teabag thing then discard the bag.

 

[ganga gurl420]

I don't use a bag when I make teas. I throw whatever straight in and bubble the shit for 24-48 hours. Then I pump it unfiltered to the plants. I even removed the filters in the pumps. It's like a feed and top dressing at the same time. If I wanted to foliar with it, I could just filter it. I been lazy lately and only top dressing though. It's been months since I gave them a tea, but they would love me if I did. It's just a little more work.
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When I make nutrient tea that is exactly how I do it... all the amendments then sit on top of the soil and work as a top dress... would be idiotic to throw the stuff out!

 

[Pothead Man]

I was on YouTube researching compost tea brewers & came across Boogiebrew.net which sells a 2 part organic veganic compost tea which has everything I wanted to make the ultimate super tea & spend a ton of cash buying ingredients but Josh is the man , raised farming & knows his shit, he has the best ingredients, decent price, awesome guy based in Cali owner operated, the only thing was I had to get s Monster Gardens vinyl brew bag. I save so much time & feel very confident in using his product, My kale & tomatoes are giant beasts. I give em the 2 part base then top em off the next day or 2 w/ filtered water & molasses or just filtered water & everything is growing great I guess that’s why his motto is Boogie Brew makes your plants dance. At least check out his videos there’s a lot one can learn from him.

 

[ganga gurl420]

I was on YouTube researching compost tea brewers & came across Boogiebrew.net which sells a 2 part organic veganic compost tea which has everything I wanted to make the ultimate super tea & spend a ton of cash buying ingredients but Josh is the man , raised farming & knows his shit, he has the best ingredients, decent price, awesome guy based in Cali owner operated, the only thing was I had to get s Monster Gardens vinyl brew bag. I save so much time & feel very confident in using his product, My kale & tomatoes are giant beasts. I give em the 2 part base then top em off the next day or 2 w/ filtered water & molasses or just filtered water & everything is growing great I guess that’s why his motto is Boogie Brew makes your plants dance. At least check out his videos there’s a lot one can learn from him.

Already planned on buying some for my plants this yr. Stuff looks amazing

 

[loco41]

I was on YouTube researching compost tea brewers & came across Boogiebrew.net which sells a 2 part organic veganic compost tea which has everything I wanted to make the ultimate super tea & spend a ton of cash buying ingredients but Josh is the man , raised farming & knows his shit, he has the best ingredients, decent price, awesome guy based in Cali owner operated, the only thing was I had to get s Monster Gardens vinyl brew bag. I save so much time & feel very confident in using his product, My kale & tomatoes are giant beasts. I give em the 2 part base then top em off the next day or 2 w/ filtered water & molasses or just filtered water & everything is growing great I guess that’s why his motto is Boogie Brew makes your plants dance. At least check out his videos there’s a lot one can learn from him.

I bought some insect frass from them a little while back and got some free sample of their compost tea mix. I haven't used the tea yet since I can't really set my brewer up, but it's nice to see a happy customer using it. I love the frass though and am getting ready to flip some plants to flower soon. I plan on using it as part of the topdress on flip.

 

[Pothead Man]

I bought some insect frass from them a little while back and got some free sample of their compost tea mix. I haven't used the tea yet since I can't really set my brewer up, but it's nice to see a happy customer using it. I love the frass though and am getting ready to flip some plants to flower soon. I plan on using it as part of the topdress on flip.

I ordered the tea & he sent me a free bag of Boogie Black , I have to talk to him again I forgot what it’s used for. He definitely hooks people up

 

[gthaenigma]

Love me some frass!

 

[Pothead Man]

I ordered the tea & note I’m good no need to send burlap brew bag or boogie black since I have a bag from my first order but haven’t checked it’s used yet & I they sent them anyways so I got 2 bags of Boogie Black & an extra brew bag

 

[youraveragehorticulturist]

It used to be pretty common to see nutrient tea recipes that added worm castings or compost. Not long ago we didn't have all these easy to use, all in one dry fertilizer mixes.

Instead of cups and cups of amendments you used teaspoons of tablespoons of a bunch of stuff, and got it in a water soluble form so you could hit all your plants using less than if you top dressed. I remember following a recipe from "The Rev" (the T.L.O. guy) with a little bit of bulb food, a little fish hydro, some guano, a few teaspoons of kelp,

I think/guess the worm castings were added to help break down the amendments in the water, but not necessarily to increase the microbes in your pots.