Re: [compost_tea] free suspension vs chambred extracxtion.

From: Robert Norsen <bnbrew_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 18:51:34 -0700 (PDT)

Ted, I read your entire post. A good description of development Your experience is familiar.Years of try, test, improve, try, test, expose to users, listen, improve, try, test again. We both eliminated water pumps in favor of moving water with air - combined with aeration. Better than water pumping. We did not come to the same brewer design
 
 Among many designs I also tried a simple system that brewed TEA in an unconfined compost system. Made good bacteria and good fungal counts when you dip out with your test bottle. Then, to get that liquid thru an application system, it must be filtered. Some form of mesh or area of small holes. With all that fiber and particulate in the TEA the mesh that starts out to be 20 or whatever you choose, when the compost residue builds up on the screen the effective mesh size is reduced by the crap on the screen. Start with 20 mesh. Withing a few seconds of filtering the effective size is down to 80 or 100 mesh. A thick blanket. The same problem as is present with the Soil Soup bag but at a different stage of the operation. The TEA brewed OK but - what do samples show after passing to the application system - what is the test there? - after the delivery filtering process sample after a third of your ACT has been filtered, when the filter is "loaded"?
 
In the "fee compost" system at the end of the brew cycle the fitering starts. Dink around with 50 to 100 gallons to get it thru a constantly loading up filter is a nuisance. . Dink around when you need to get 500 or 1000 gallons to the application system with a tractor and crew or helicopter standing by is not acceptable. Or put the system out at a pivot where the flow to the irrigation system must be constant. A filter that loads up with compost debris is not acceptable.
 
That is why after testing the 'free' concept several ways and times we stayed with a system that seperates the trash while it extracts the microbes. Before it grows the bacteria. Before it grows the fungi. Bob's air driven chambered extraction systems clean the compost more thougholy in a highly active chamber that confines the compost debris to the chamber, brews the bacteria and fungi in fast flowing , highly aerated water, delivers ACT clean ready to apply without filtering.
 
Whenever applicators intend to apply any ACT, applicaters need to eliminate the fine screens that were intended for chemical solutions and change from chemical sized nozzles to TEA sized nozzles. The larger droplets will also offer the microbes a better chance to survive in their new home - on the leaves and in the soil.

Are chamber systems slow to clean up? In actual field use, Bob's 500 g cleans up in 15 minutes. Dis-assemble, clean all parts and 500 g tank, re-assemble, ready to go again. 1.8 seconds per gallon. How does that compare to dinkin with a filter cleaning the filter then cleaning the compost residue from a tank?
Is it better to
Get a free brewer but buy advice? Or buy a brewer that comes with advice?
You decide. And let me know? Bob PS It is Sunday !!
 
 
Ted Peterson <ted.peterson_at_tcsn.net> wrote:
Here is the continuation of my post.
 
>From Last post:
 
I broke the problem down to these basic things:
 
1. What was I trying to do? ( Deleted, please go to Teds original post for his message.)





Received on Sun May 16 2004 - 23:36:32 EDT

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