[compost_tea] CACT and Idea for non-tested brewing approach

From: chris reid <reidchris_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 14:07:53 -0500

After having read Bob's post about continuous brewing (I think I got the
gist Bob but need to reread to get it all), and having been poking around in
the archives, I am puzzling over a couple of ideas for different ways of
making tea and hope those with some insight or lots of brewing and testing
experience will give some feedback as to whether this is all winter snow
storm thinking or perhaps there are some possibilities here.

I found an old post from Elaine that as I recall talks about diluting a brew
that's gone anaerobic with very cold water. How much cold water (percentage
of total brew) would it take to bring enough oxygen into the brew to help
it? Would it make sense to remove some amount of tea (since there will be a
ton of B reproducing like crazy - reduce that number some) AND add the cold
water? And when I say "add cold water", I'm thinking serious gallons of
water here, maybe up to double. (Be kind - I have no concept of what it
would take -- just want you to know I'm not thinking a couple of quarts of
ice cubes). I guess the amount it would take to turn the brew aerobic would
depend in part on the water temp and in part on how much food was there --
if lots of B food, maybe it would only postpone the inevitable of going
anaerobic again.

I'm wondering if you could preserve the F by adding oxygen to
rescue/preserve the aerobic condition, and who cares if a few B and F are
lost in the process? Better than losing all the F, and the B will be bahck,
sure as Schwarzenegger. So, could this work? Could enough oxygen be added?
Or could it only work in cases where the food was almost run out anyhow?

Stepping away from rescue mode and retiring the firefighting stance for a
moment, I'd also like to ask if it would be possible to modify the concept
of CACT to brewing ONE batch of tea.

I'm wondering if we could create a foolproof (hah!) tea making method by
gradually adding more and more water as the brew progresses.
        This might work best in a Bob type brewer where the container size and brew
size can be varied.
        The idea would be to add the water in steps, diluting concentration
successively as the organisms grow and thus adding oxygen, cooling the water
temp
        Would it help to avoid anaerobic crises?
        Would it be a deliberate way to cause and assist the brew to run out of
food before it runs out of oxygen?
        Make a safer method for the home user who is less likely to test tea?

The value of the method --if it can work -- may be for small-volume brewers
and home brewers who are not able to test. Logistically, it might be a bad
idea for those who are going to transport and add water carrier on site. I
haven't seen a drip irrigation operation so can't envision the implications
for them.

I am wondering if this technique might prove to be a fudge factor that helps
to increase the chances that the limiting factor in critter growth would be
food, and not oxygen, and thus make for a better biological balance in the
tea than trying hard to produce a highly concentrated tea and risking
periods of anaerobic brew time?

Paul Sachs was experimenting with stepped additions of food, rather than
adding it all at once. This would seem to make sense where B is concerned,
as a way of slowing down the B reproduction and giving the F a chance to
grow.

Do I understand it right that what we usually try to do is cause food to be
the limiting factor by limiting food? We have anaerobic conditions if
there's too much food for the amount of oxygen and available -- in other
words, if oxygen becomes the limiting "ingredient", Why? because of high
water temps or inadequate pumps reducing/not optimizing oxygen available or
number of B reproducing rapidly or both).

I realize this does not address the amount of inoculum that the compost
represents.
***
This idea I guess is a kind of "broken cookie" gambit. Did anybody ever
tell you as a kid that the broken cookies are all the same to your stomach
and taste as good? Well, idea being, we are going to add a water carrier to
this tea for application anyhow, so why not add oxygen as an ingredient in
the form of water? The tea will "taste the same" in the soil regardless of
how many gallons of water carry it there, or when the carrier is added.

If we can reduce the likelihood that an anaerobic tea will be produced by
the novice tea maker without access to DO and disinclined or unable to use
lab testing, then it will be much more widely accessible.

So, even if the theory is all wrong, the last sentence contains what I
consider to be a good goal... I have a feeling Elaine is going to tell me I
have no concept of how much oxygen the biology can demand when it's growing
rapidly, and that she will recall folk tales of the little Dutch boy trying
to hold back all the water of the sea...or perhaps she will next send me to
a lake with a cooking utensil (slotted spoon)...

Chris Reid




 

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Received on Tue Jan 13 2004 - 15:38:51 EST

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