Re: [compost_tea] Searching for basic instructions on compost tea brewing

From: jim allAn <jallan6977_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 16:54:56 -0500
   Most here would say that is not tea but leachate.  The compost
sounds good to me for leachate.  It should do a job.

On 15 Nov 2004 at 22:13, Stephen wrote:

>
>
> Hello,
>
> I am a newcomer to this direction of making compost tea.  I have been
> making hot compost for a period of about 4 years now. 
>
> My compost is primarily a manure compost using goat manure, and
> browned alfalfa stems, coffee grounds, and kitchen fruit and
> vegetable scraps.  The manure/dried alfalfa blend is 80 - 90% of the
> mix, the coffee grounds are 5 - 15% and the remaining scraps fill the
> remainder.  My typical compost cycles are that the pile hits a 140 -
> 150 degree F for a period of 4 days then cools to 120 - 130 then I
> remix and let it heat up again for a period of 1 week, then mix every
> week for about 4 weeks until the pile does not reheat above 80
> degrees anymore (Usually 5 - 6 weeks).  At that time I sift the
> compost through hardware cloth or expanded metal. 
>
> This weekend for the first time I attempted to make the compost tea. 
> I had some rainwater that had settled in barrels and I placed a
> burlap bag filled with compost into the water for a period of about
> 1 - 2 hours until the water was a deep brown. 
>
> Am I going about this in a reasonable strategy?  How many times can I
> reuse this bag of compost until I should empty the contents and
> refill it with fresh compost?  If I use municipal water - can I
> assume that the chlorine is evaporating sufficiently while the
> compost tea is brewing or should I let the chlorine evaporate (and
> for how long) before adding the bag?
>
> What are the advantages / disadvantages to using compost tea over
> straight compost on the plants? 
>
> I average about 4 - 5 cubic yards of compost every 6 weeks so I am
> just trying to calculate the best allocation for my recources.
>
>
>
>
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>

> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

>
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>




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Received on Tue Nov 16 2004 - 18:42:50 EST

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