A foam experiment:
Brew a batch of tea with compost only. Check your results.
Brew a batch with a sugar source. Check
Brew a batch with no sugar but add Fish emul. Check
Brew a batch with no sug./fish but add kelp. Check
Brew a batch with no sug./fish/kelp but add humic. Check.
Keep doing this with every input and check your tea. If any one of them ca=
uses foaming then you have a prime suspect. Also, check your air supply. I=
have done tests with different air delivery systems (aerators) and have fo=
und that foam occurs when I have smaller bubbles and some kind of organized=
diffusion other than a bunch of air holes. I have had batches foam all ov=
er the place and on the next batch, minimal foam. I always get some foamin=
g because of the way I build my aerators. Also, check your compost. I get=
more foaming with older, mature, compost that is bacterially rich compared=
to fungi.
Here is a story with just compost and sugar. This actually happened to me =
twice. This
I brewed a batch with a 225G brewer I built for a winery. I didn't have an=
y compost so I went between the vines and grabbed 10G of compost and soil m=
ix. It had been laying around for over 2 years. I then went and got 1 G o=
f molasses. I dumped in the compost then waited about 20 min. and dumped i=
n the molasses. The surface exploded with foam. I had seen something simi=
lar about 3 years ago with the same brew container but a different aeration=
system. The brewer foamed so much that the water level dropped over 4 inc=
hes in 24 hours. I have not had a reaction that extreme since but I have h=
ad some brews that foam extensively and some that don't. I thought it was =
bacterial and when I test the foam with the microscope see far greater dens=
ity of bacteria than in the brew. I can make no statement about diversity =
of bacteria just that the foam I tested show that the foam was rife with co=
cci and rod bacteria.
Ted Peterson
EW/SOE
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff Lowenfels
To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2004 3:56 PM
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: foam
The presence of foam is not an indication of tea health or that the tea
is done. I believe we have had posts that indicate foam is very often
the product of proteins...often worm bodies in compost. I point this
out because some of you may not have a foam on your teas. That is fine,
too!
Cheers,
Jeff L
Plant a Row in your garden to feed the hungry. Join Plant A Row for the
Hungry. Ask me how. www.gwaa.org/Par/index.html
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Received on Mon Oct 25 2004 - 02:08:11 EDT