Re: [compost_tea] Continual or sustained brewing

From: Jason Austin <jason.austin_at_shaw.ca>
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 10:49:54 -0800

Anthony wrote:

> snip .. I am of the persuasion that provided the movement within the
> extraction bag/container is suffice, most of the extraction of
> organisms and nutrients will occur well before the hour is up and more
> than likely within the first few minutes. snip ............


That is interesting Anthony. Bob and I had an offline discussion
recently about continual or sustained brewing brewing - that is where
the farmer applies CT all day from the one brewer. I am of the
opinion - and I think Bob agrees but I'll leave him to speak for himself
- that continual or sustained brewing is feasible and your results
reinforce that belief as I'll show below..

Typically in conventional CT brewing, all the ingredients are placed in
the brewer at the beginning of the cycle; and we know there will be a
drop in DO fairly early on because of the bacteria bloom as is shown on
both your graphs.

We know also (from Elaine I believe) that a problem with sustained
brewing, is that over time the diversity of the bacteria is lost.

The question is to apply this knowledge to a sustained brewing approach.

My circumstance is different from many of you because I have a large
brewer (400 gallons) on a small acreage (5 acres of which about 4 is
farmed) so I apply about 100 gallons an acre. Because of this I try
to have my tea as both ACT and a nutrient source for the plants, so I
make mine with ground kelp and alfalfa meal (see the reported benefits
of a simple alfalafa tea by itself at
http://www.nurserysite.com/clubs/peninsular/tea.html ) I call the
result NCT (Nutrient Compost Tea!)

To use a human analogy, when we invite guests over for dinner, we don't
arrange for them to arrive just as we get home from work. Instead we
have them come later so we can heat the house; lay the table; prepare
the food etc. And when they come we rarely put everything on the table
at once - we serve the various courses over time - perhaps the soup;
then the main course; then desert; followed by coffee. And if our
guests bring a bunch of kids to be with ours; we may serve them in
sittings; serve the kids first then the adults - in other words a
sustained meal.

I believe the same approach can (should?) be used in brewing - the only
difference is we hope the bacteria will breed like crazy and that our
guests don't :-P

I am going to change the way I brew, to a more sustained style that aims
for a steady growth instead a bloom and bust cycle. (I will refer to
the quantities of my system which is a 400 gallon brewer and a 100
gallon sprayer.)

1. Prepare the environment for the bacterial and fungi before I
introduce the compost. Warm the water, have it aerated and the food
source in first. (Unlike mollassess, the dry alfalfa and seaweed I use
are not an immediate food source for the bacteria, and need to be
softened and broken down a little first. So I will brew them in warm
water for a few hours. As a bonus, there was speculation on this list
last year that there is protozoa in the alfala which may be beneficial.)

2. Introduce the compost but in a smaller quantity than I normally
use. Anthony's results above show the bacteria are extracted quickly,
and also it is a lot easier to handle small loads of satuarated compost
than one big one! What seems like a manageable quantity of compost
going in doubles in weight coming out.

3. During the 18-24 hour brew cycle:

            - drip feed soluble food sources like mollasses to avoid a
growth bloom.
             - change the compost at various intervals both for
convenience and to maintain diversity
             - add dry foods at various intervals

4. When the tea is ready, withdraw the first 100 gallons.

5. While the sprayer is being filled:
            - change the compost again. This, I believe is the key to
sustained brewing - to maintain the diversity of the bacteria in the brew
            - add presoaked dry food (in my case)
            - continue the drip feeding of any soluble food

6. While the CT is being applied:
            - continue the drip feeding of any soluble food
            - have a water filling system with an automated shutoff
like a toilet cistern. If the water inflow is measured correctly the
brewer would be filled again by the time the sprayer comes back for the
next fill. Ideally the incoming water would be prewarmed so as not to
create a shock in the brewing system.


The key, I believe, is moderation, and to avoid:
    - excessive food
    - excessive compost (because of the practical problem of handling
it, and also there is potential for it going anaerobic if it is in too
long and exceeds the capacity of the brewer to keep it aerated)
    - excessive bacterial bloom
    - excessive change in the brewing environment like introducing a
large quantity of cold water. Better to refill at a steady rate with
warm water.

In my case I am withdrawing 25% of my brew each time I fill up and my
turnaround time to fill and spray the 100 gallons is about 20 minutes.
I might need to increase the drip feed to the brewer once I start
drawing down.

If you are tempted to ask the obvious question - why would I want to
apply more CT when I seem already to be at over capacity for my 4 acres
- well .....
    - I stopped using fertilizer two years ago (other than for some
potted trees). The alfalfa and kelp supposedly are excellent as
nutrient foliar sprays and I want to see what I can achieve with my NCT
    - I know I am not being scientific and my tea has not been tested
(the Canadian lab is not up and running just yet) so I figure I will
overcome shortcoming in my tea by applying in quantity
    - and the best reason - as far as I know, no one else is trying this!

I'm prepared for the long haul and don't expect to turn my place into a
Findhorn garden over night - but I am happy with the results from 2003
which was my first year with my NCT. I am also bringing in as much wood
chips and garden waste to compost as I can, to increase the organic
level of my soil. So give me a few more years to overcome the 46-0-0
that was applied around my holly trees for quite a while and maybe the
fairies and elves will return :-)

The most noticeable benefit has been the obvious drought tolerance my
trees showed during our dry summer here in BC last year. My biggest
mistake was spraying CT during blossom time in my plum and apple orchard
- my fruit set was down by 75%. (I think there is a movie called Dumb
and Dumber ???) And I lost a bee hive that was in an area that got a
lot of CT - you never know with bees but they had been there for many
years, and were there when I sprayed, but not there a few weeks later.


Jason




Received on Sat Jan 10 2004 - 15:38:40 EST

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