[compost_tea] My homemade brewer and such

From: J+K Delvas <greenthumbs_at_cheqnet.net>
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 17:51:12 -0700

In case anyone is remotely curious, this is my homemade brewer, compost and
microbe foods.
I got most of my components from www.aquaticeco.com

I use a 3.25 lpm Whitewater Linear Air Pump. For diffusers I use 2, 12"
Sweetwater medium pore diffusers. Bubble size for those is 1-3 mm. I connect
the air pump to the diffusers with 1/2 inch pvc. The diffusers have 1/2 NPT.
The compost goes into 2, 30 inch long mesh filter socks. The tank is a 50
gallon root beer concentrate barrel. The CT is really moved well with the
air alone. Good agitation through the compost in the mesh socks.

The water starts out warm and is kept that way with a 300 watt submersible
heater that is mounted to the airline pvc in the tank. The whole thing comes
apart super easy and cleans up quick.

This year I used a combination of Alaska Humus, and vermicompost from Orner
Farms. My microbe foods were Humic acid, fulvic acid, liquid kelp, and some
liquid fish. I adjusted my hard water pH with Phosphoric acid. After the
brew was done I added Nufilm and preservative free Yucca.

Never had my TEA tested. But it seems to work just fine. All my plants were
very healthy this year. I applied the CT every 14 days from beginning to end
of season.

Approximate cost of my stuff,

Air pump $170.00
Diffusers $30.00
PVC and fittings $5.00
Barrel $5.00
Mesh socks $16.00
AH and Orner compost $120.00 (1/2 for shipping)
Kelp $60.00 2.5 gallon
Humic/fulvic 2.5 gallon $50.00
Liquid fish $30.00 1.0 gallon
Phos acid $15.00 quart
Yucca $30.00 quart
Nufilm $40.00 1 gallon
--------------------------
total $571.00

John

Oh yea, I started out spraying with a 25 gallon, battery powered sprayer
from Northern tool. But I found that dropping a submersible pump into the
brew tank and spraying with garden hose and regular nozzle was much easier.
Can get some pretty good size chunks through the regular old garden nozzle.


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Received on Sun Oct 05 2003 - 23:34:47 EDT

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