Re: [compost_tea] Mesh size

From: Lloyd Charles <lcharles_at_iinet.net.au>
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 15:33:48 +1000


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: David Anderson
  To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
  Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 5:29 AM
  Subject: [compost_tea] Mesh size


  Okay, I admit it, I'm a tinkerer and need to play with making my own tea=
 
  brewer.

  I'm not a fan of the idea of just dumping the compost in the main
  chamber, then filtering it when it is done brewing. It seems to me that
  it would only give the critters one chance to get through the mesh, and
  as soon as the mesh starts clogging, it effectively reduces the mesh size=
.
  Hi David
          Plastic or nylon screen door mesh will do fine for your tea bag a=
nd you can stitch it with your wife's sewing machine, for sprayer filters, =
Elaine took us through this ages ago and from the figures she gave then, an=
ything finer than 40mesh is going to take out a substantial number of the l=
arger critters, stainless steel termite mesh is about right size.
                  IMHO for putting out tea with decent fungal numbers you h=
ave no choice other than to move away from (or substantially alter) any sor=
t of conventional field sprayer, and get to a system that will easily pass =
lumps of gunk up to grain of sand size - that means BIG nozzles and high wa=
ter rates for coverage OR a mist blower type unit where the tea is introduc=
ed thru a large nozzle into the air stream for distribution.
                  Of course once we get our soil fertility and health up to=
 where it will support high brix in the growing crop then the need for leaf=
 coverage will disappear to a large extent.
  cheers
  Lloyd Charles
          


  Should I be looking for an aperture of 53u (270 mesh) to account for the=
 
  diameter, or 220u (60 mesh) to account for the length?

  Go big !! 40 mesh first - certainly no finer than 60

  I guess a related question would be, at what mesh size do I have to
  start being concerned about sprayer clogging? And which backpack or
  smaller sprayers are the best for using with ACT? What features should I=
 
  look for?

  make sure that you have a slightly finer filter going into your sprayer t=
ank than any inline or nozzle filters - so - 60 into the tank = 40 on the=
 nozzles, 40 into the tank = 20 at the nozzle, etc






Received on Tue Jul 13 2004 - 21:00:11 EDT

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