yeah figured it was best to go with something that seems to be tried and true when it came to the aeration of the 5 gallon bucket. I want to make sure things are done right in the first place otherwise why do them at all. Besides I used my aquarium pump for my new 10 gallon I got 5 Lake Tanganyika Cichlids , a long fin Plecostamus, mystery snail, hundreds of trumpet snails and live aquatic plants and grasses. Loving the aquatic plants as I love plants in general and have yet to really get any experience with the underwater variety and definitely much more cool to look at then those crappy plastic plants.
Nice job on the upgrade!! I started the same way. Bought something cheap, then upgraded to a nicer set-up.
got the pump today it is a beast and is a huge improvement over what I had. The water actually looks like it is boiling heavily lots of good airflow. Already got a porous sack with EWC and some molasses going right now. Using it on some of my patio plants and my outdoor project as a folair feed as I have some bug problems that I believe this would solve. Will use the rest as a soil soak.
Tim Allen comes to mind. ARGHOOOHH!!!! She is getting foamy my friends just checked it a few minutes ago. I must say I love this pump but she is damn loud good thing she is sequestered in the bathroom. I use one bathroom out of the 2 we have for my worm bin that sits in the tub and then I run my bucket in there and do all my dirty work as well as smoke up a nice bowl of some fine herb when I can in between all my projects.
I created my first AACT this week and I used EWC, molasses, Bonide Compost Maker (ocean kelp, alfalfa meal, fish meal). It seems to have worked well though it is apparently obvious I need more air volume in my bucket. I brewed about 1.5 gals. The question I have is thus; I have access to dairy cow manure that has been sitting for more than a couple of decades under a a large open air cover, i.e. it hasn't been rained on. For my next brew would it be beneficial to add a portion of this manure to the AACT? I started to add it this time around but was concerned about non-beneficial bacteria being introduced to the mix so I withheld it. Any thoughts on this? As I said, this manure has been sitting for at least 2 decades, perhaps a bit longer. Completely dry, crumbly, and without odor of any kind. Thanks.
Jeff Lowenfels (author of "Teaming With Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to The Soil Food Web" and several articles) runs a Compost Tea email group at Yahoo.com Tim Wilson from MicrobeOrganics.com (the site with the videos) is an active participant on that venue. Dr. Elaine Ingham (Soil Foodweb) is also very active. Tad Hussey from Keep It Simple Tea Brewers helps out. Tad has a Yahoo email group as well - Gardening With Compost Tea and a web site - Gardening With Microbes that has quality/accurate information. The email group is well moderated - no bullsh*t. No spam - ever. You'll get maybe 2 or 3 emails per day (unless you opt for the once a day transmission). Most of the active members are major players around the world at universities, research centers, etc. I've never posted there as I believe in the axiom "better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm it...... I think that anyone interested in getting real-world, viable information would benefit from hooking up and reading for a few weeks at least.
Appreciate those links. I still belong to a specialty (non-agricultural) mailing list (since 1995) that operates in the same, self-moderated manner. Priceless and refreshing (as is this particular forum) after combing general outdoor growing forums in an attempt to help new, serious growers. As someone following and practicing organic growing most general outdoor growing forums make me feel like an atheist in a Christian fundamentalist church.
No kidding! Several years ago when I began to look for information on AACT in general, I landed on GardenWeb and Dave's Garden (something like that) and a couple of local sites. Whoa! Rama-rama-ding-dong time.................. LD
low air flowHigh air flow Around 130 cfpm But I can drope that way down from there.its a Spa blower motor 2hp 240V.Runs awsome runs cool not hot and pritty quite.Made 2 batches of tea and It went great!Blower was $120 bucks i think.piping is stainless steal. 55 gallon drum. loving organics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My first AACT. Not much to look at really. I made 1.5 gals with EWC, molasses, and some kelp. The seedlings responded extremely well in only 2 days much to my pleasant surprise. Visible vigor, increased rigidity, and noticeable growth in only 2 days. Wow! You guys said it would happen and it did. I'm very impressed with my meager effort and can only imagine what will happen when I start feeding it some real air circulation. You guys rock dudes. Much appreciate all the knowledge sharing. Mania....dude you're just 'outta control' man LOL... You are definitely getting it going on man. That rig looks like a turbo charger for an inboard boat motor!!! Yikes! Peace.