I need to make a compost tea, But I don't have the money for quality pump. I just spent over 1000 dollars putting this grow room together and I'm broke. What I do you have is a top fin air 8000. Dual hose. 7 Watts. Biggest 1 you can get the pet shop. I realize it's not big enough for a 5 gallon bucket and I plan to get a quality compost tea brewer as soon as I can afford one. For now, is there anyway to use this pump that I have? Maybe i can make the container smaller? 1 gallon milk jug?
Yep. Just do a 1 gallon brew and dilute just enough to give a nice dose to all your plants. Just don't over do it on the ingredients and you'll be fine.
Yeah, I do about 5 litres and my hefty aquarium pump is fine. A stir a few times during the bubbling doesn't hurt. Your trying to get aerated those clumps of material that can settle out at times. Having a bubble emitting ring with holes all around it is good as well. If you can have only one set of holes (I use drip emitters as bubblers, they have predrilled holes), have that set go down instead of up. This creates more turbulence and less chance of dead spots.
Hey Irie I think you'll be a lot happier with a 2-3 gal mop bucket and using 1 gal of H2O. I've tried the gal milk jug and you're just not gonna be happy with it. Spend $3 at the Dollar Store (or $1 at the Dollar Tree), get the 2-3 gal model. You'll be more happier. Peace and go Team Microbe!
I used a bucket that can hold about 2 and a half gallons. It is the Bucket that my neptunes harvest crab shell came in. I only put 1 and a half gallons in it in case it bubbles up. It's been brewing for about 5 hours. Would you recommend that I go back and add more water?
nope, not needed methinks. As well you want to try to keep temps stable for the microbes. Adding fresh water might upset the temps. You can dilute after it's done activating the microbes. Again, try to keep temps the same.
Weedroid, That I can do! Here's a couple pics of what I worked up. I drilled a bunch of holes in some black air tubing, made 2 circle with t-splitters (one big one small), and stuck them to the bottom of the bucket with suction cups. I had two pumps so I hooked them both up. One was a 4 hose 7W. The other was a 2-hose 2.5W. I tossed in a stone as well. Then I put a heater and a floating thermometer. The brew is 1/2 cup EWC, 1/2 cup of compost, 1/8 cup alfalfa, 1/8 cup Dr. Earth veg fert, 1 tsp mollasses. I'll probably brew it for around 18 hours. Then I'll mix the 1.5 gallon brew with 3.5 gallons of distilled water. This will be a soil drench, not a foliar spray. I still don't have a sprayer. Im spraying my neem, silicone with a cheap $2 spray bottle. I have read that it isn't gonna cut it with the teas. My plants are beginning veg stage.
Did I over do it? Please tell me before I put this on my plants. I thought I used small enough amounts.
Irie67 You'll be fine. Anyone could take any recipe (formula) and pick nits. What's more important is doing what you're doing - getting some skin in the game. Personal observation about where your garden is heading is the best 'rule of thumb' to use in organic gardening in general. Works for me anyway. LD
Irie as others have alluded to, at least you're 'cooking with gas' now . You're trying, your're pushing, you're scaling to the next ledge man!!! So listen bro, as for foliar spraying with a $2 spray bottle - there isn't anything wrong with that. What you need to do is just ensure the particulate from the tea doesn't clog the nozzle. So here's what you do. Get a turkey baster and a pair of your ladies hoisery, or a pair of yours if you wear them , place the hosiery over the tip of the baster, squeeze the bulb, insert in the tea, realease the bulb. Do this until you have 3-4 ozs of liquid. Strain it twice or three times if you have to. Now you have enough tea to foliar with. This usually requires a couple or three vessels to put the tea from the baster bulb into so you can isolate the strained from the non-strained. Make sense? Once you've done this spray those plants until they can't stand up, ensure your fans are going, the air is circulating well, and walk away. That's it. Whatever tea you have left drench, drench, drench. Your plants, perhaps like mine and others, need a solid drenching at least once a week. Soak 'em down. You're gonna figger it out man. It'll all be good. I promise
Thanks for all the help. I am very happy to be getting some skin in the game. Im getting ready to go spray and drench now. My wife is pregnant so im gonna be in twice as much trouble for using her turkey baster, but sometimes you have to take one for the team(Team microbe). Besides, Im always in trouble.
LD, Im sure that I don't have the best recipe at the moment. Im working with what I have at the moment. I'd like to add some humic acid, but I don't have any. I will, it's on my list of shit to get, but Im broke from building a $1000 grow room. Anyways, thanks again.
Funny that you say this. Im in the process of schooling my little brother at the moment. He's lost, but he'll get there. He'll have a screen name on GC soon.
Real kewl Irie. Raiding the wife's kitchen is yet one more step to be an organic terror-IST. LOL! Just wait until you move to the stove and oven for cooking up concoctions. Nothing like the smell of burnt egg shells in the morning LOL! You just thought you were in trouble for a turkey baster LOL. And hey, first congratulations on you all soon to be a parents, and the other thing, if the wife's pregnant I'm pretty confident you could outrun her . Use anything and everything in the kitchen! It is a rite of passage ......
Thanks for the congrats. It'll be our first. She's only 9 weeks prego, so I'd say she's still pretty quick on her feet. I think as long as I don't make a mess in the sink cleaning the brewer, I'll be fine. She hates it when I leave microbes in the sink
Holy shiy! 24 hours later and talk about a growth boost. Im pretty damn happy with the tea results. I checked last night after about 7 hours and they were reaching towards the sky. Checked this morning, they had grown at least an inch. They were growing very slowly previous to this tea, due to me being an organic novice and fucking them all up. Now, They're back! Hell yes. Also, one of them started showing male pre-flowers, so I pulled it. Could the tea have gave it the boost it needed to show it's sex?
