Re: [compost_tea] Mesh size

From: David Anderson <danderson_at_backpackgeartest.org>
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 12:40:09 -0700
Lloyd Charles wrote:
>     Hi David
>             Plastic or nylon screen door mesh will do fine for your tea
>     bag

Hmm, I suppose that if I use the 20-mesh window screen for the compost
container, that it would reduce the amount of larger chunks that would
clog the filer when I add it to the sprayer. And it would just fine for
soil soak applications. I'll have to play with it some.


> and you can stitch it with your wife's sewing machine, for

It ain't her sewing machine, it's mine, LOL. Almost every man that I
know that is heavily into backpacking or sea kayaking has their own
sewing machine. We can't sew a shirt, but if you want to know how to sew
silnylon, neoprene or webbing we've got you covered.

Actually, my first design requires a fair amount of hand sewing to get
the compost chamber the right size to take maximum advantage of the
venturi caused by the aeration. Going with anything smaller than 40-mesh
wire and I will probably just use silicon or epoxy to "sew" the pieces
together.

>     sprayer filters, Elaine took us through this ages ago and from the
>     figures she gave then, anything finer than 40mesh is going to take
>     out a substantial number of the larger critters, stainless steel
>     termite mesh is about right size.

Well, that should be easier to get than ordering sample from the big
wire shops. I'll head down to the Home Despot this afternoon and pick
some up.

>                     IMHO for putting out tea with decent fungal numbers
>     you have no choice other than to move away from (or substantially
>     alter) any sort 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 water rates for coverage OR a mist blower
>     type unit where the tea is introduced thru a large nozzle into the
>     air stream for distribution.

I figured as much. But those are not within the budget of the average
gardener.

The $500 price difference between the backpack sprayer and the mist
sprayer is the difference between common acceptance and non acceptance
in the non-commercial fields.

Has there been any work done on finding out which sprayers are the
easiest to mod, and what mods are necessary? Have there been any
attempts to contact the sprayer manufacturers about making sprayers
designed for CT?


Thanks for the info.

Dave

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Received on Wed Jul 14 2004 - 16:10:00 EDT

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