thanks for your amazing posts not just in this thread. You seem like you have a wealth of knowledge that you aren't afraid to share with the masses and for that myself and I'm sure the rest of riu community is truly grateful, thank you
i have been reading teaming with microbes and just finished the chapter on teas. Do you think the info in this chapter is outdated?
here's a bit of what was said
"Actively aerated compost teas contain lots of bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and protozoa because that’s what’s in compost. What makes these teas such a good soil food web tool (besides the high concentration of microbes) is that you can tailor-make AACTs to feed plants according to their specifi c needs by adding certain nutrients (see Rule #10). Use Rule #10, which applies equally to compost, mulches, and soil, when you make compost tea, and it evolves into Rule #11: by choosing the compost you begin with and what nutrients you add to it, you can make teas that are heavily fungal, bacterially dominated, or balanced. For many, the brewing process grows into a hobby in and of itself, not unlike making beer.
Appreciate it friend, nothing special, just a guy who's gained lots of experience learning things the hard way and also knows how difficult it is to sort through good and bad information.
While I don't believe the chapter is completely "outdated" perse, the information itself is lacking context.
Compost tea can in fact have the bacteria, fungi, nematodes, etc. in it, however this is dependent on the compost itself having these things in it. The word compost is as ubiquitous as organic, in the sense that it can mean many different things. Compost technically involves anything decomposing, however as a result of such a ubiquitous term not all compost is equal. There is a huge difference between the compost that comes from a worm farm fed nothing but comfrey, scraps from your farm, neem meal, and OSF and compost that is one of us taking a shit in a pile of peat moss. While they're both "technically" compost, they are certainly not equal in terms of quality, texture, nutritional content, etc.
So, with that in mind, one's compost tea can only be as good as the compost being used to brew the tea.
What's more, AACT is only truly useful if you're attempting to "jump start" a new batch of soil. Consider this. Let's say you have the best quality compost in the world. You've already mixed it in your soil, and have turned and watered the soil daily for a few weeks to get the microbiology going.
If your soil already has life in it, dumping an AACT is redundant.
Not only that, but this becomes an even greater issue when you start adding things like Alfalfa Meal, Guanos, and so forth to your AACTs. There's a big difference between top dressing with amendments, and brewing them into teas.
Top dressing = the microbes in your soil are decomposing them at their own rate, at their own pace, and are providing things according to what the host plant determines it needs via signal in the rhizosphere sent out in the form of terpenes.
AACTs = immediately available nutrients. The oxygen from the air pump/stones, molasses, and organic inputs are making the microbes multiple at an abnormally fast rate, yes? So, this means said microbes are also consuming the food at an abnormally fast rate.
This means that all of the nutrients from the organic inputs are now immediately available, because the microbes in your AACT have processed the organic inputs and not the microbes in your soil. AACT is akin to hydroponics in the sense that it removes the microbes in your soil from the driver's seat and instead places you in the driver's seat. I'm no prodigy, that is why I love organics, because I'm not in charge. This is why I'm against AACTs. It puts me in charge, and tends to wreak havoc.
If you need AACTs to make your living soil work, your soil was never alive in the first place.
To encourage fungal growth in compost teas, add kelp, humic and fulvic acids, and phosphate rock dusts, which not only provide the fungi with nutrient value but also give them surfaces to attach to while they grow. The pulps of fruits like oranges, blueberries, and apples will also help fungi grow in compost teas, as will aloe vera extract (without preservatives) and fi sh hy drolysate (which is essentially enzymatically digested ground-up fi sh—bones and all). You can buy fi sh hydrolysate at some nurseries or make your own by adding papain (aka papaya peptidase) or kiwi (which also contains the appropriate enzymes) to a blend of fi sh to enzymatically digest the bones. Yucca and zeolites are also good fungal foods and do not support populations of bacteria"
was just thinking of making a tea for my flowering ladies(3 weeks) and wasn't sure what to put in, was going to use kelp, rock phosphate,molasses and ewc as stated above in the book not sure if i should put anything else in it you think that's not a good idea? I have only been doing organics for about a year and have only made 1 tea
but it smelled like a latrine so i haven't done another one...lol
once again thanks kratos for you wealth of knowledge
Malted Barley meal is a great way to add fungi into the mix, using mychorrizae is also a must.
One thing to consider, is certain species of plants prefer fungi dominated soil webs and others prefer bacteria dominated soil webs. Cannabis tends to do best in bacteria dominate soil webs.
Again, keep in mind, the host plant will communicate its needs to the microbes in the soil web.
If a plant does best in a fungi dominated soil web, the soil web will account for this and will acclimate to it all on it's own. The same is true with bacteria dominated soil webs.
Consider that the host plant transmits signals to the microbes in the soil web via terpenes in the rhizosphere. The signals that a blueberry plant sends will differ from the signals that a cucumber plant sends, and that of a cannabis plant, and so on.
All that our job is to do is to provide food, water, and oxygen to the soil microbiology.
We do not do a thing for the plants, the soil takes care of the plants, we take care of the soil.
If your AACT smelled like a latrine, you likely didn't have enough airstones/oxygen going into your tea.
However, why the need for a tea in the first place? You can just top dress with those same ingredients and get better results, because the soil will be in charge of things and not you. You can top dress with kelp and crab meals in flower, then cover that with EWC, and water with fish hydrolysate until the top dress begins to decompose.
I mean this respectfully, and not sarcastically. Are you brewing a tea because your plant actually
needs it? Or just because you feel like you have to do something for the plants?