Soil Food Web Gardening with Compost Teas

NaturalFarmer

Well-Known Member
https://amalgoldnutrients.com/fish-hydrolysate/


"Fish Hydrolysate based fertilizers


AMAL GOLD ORGANIC PLANT SUPERFOOD (WET FORMULA) is a Cold Processed Hydrolysate made from 100% food grade fish protein. The protein is extracted from the frame of the fish after fillet removal. We process at a temperature of 150°F so we don’t destroy the essential nutrients, amino acids, enzymes, growth hormones and vitamins. The protein molecule is reduced to single monomer amino acids with the introduction of enzymes. The result is a 15% liquid amino acid organic food product for plants.
The process breaks down the molecular bond of the protein making it easily absorbable by plants. We process within 90 minutes of the live fish being filleted. Fresh fish retains the vitamin and mineral wealth and does not smell. Oils and solids are removed to ensure the product flows through a 200 mesh screen. It is 100% water soluble.


Fish Emulsion-based fertilizers

Emulsions are products made from fish, too. The manufacturing process, however, is a little different. Manufacturers start by first removing the protein from the fish to sell as pet food or fish meal and removing the fish oil to make cod liver oil for human consumption. (The steam used to remove the protein is from chlorinated municipal water. The chlorine concentration can be as high as 14% in the final product!) Whatever remains after the removal of the protein and oil is then boiled down at high temperatures to a 50% solution. The resulting product is then packaged and sold as fertilizer.
Evaporating liquid down to a 50% solution requires intense heat for a prolonged period of time! (350-450°F is typical) This level of heat destroys all amino acids, enzymes, growth hormones and vitamins. Salt concentrations also double after the boiling down process.
Emulsions end up being thick like molasses. They smell badly and are hard to handle. They are known for clogging sprayers and getting stuck in holding tanks. They often contain heavy metals (like mercury) and PCBs.
The effect of fish emulsion-base fertilizers on plant growth is marginal and can lead to soil contamination from the heavy metals, chlorine and salt content.


Fish naturally contains approximately 2-3% nitrogen. If a company is selling a fish product and calling it an emulsion the product has been boiled down. The result is the heat sensitive compounds from the fish are denatured (destroyed), and the product cannot get the high nitrogen content in its analysis unless they add nitrogen from another source. If that source is urea or ammonium nitrate, you have a spiked product that is NOT ORGANIC."
 

coughphee.connoiseur

Well-Known Member
Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it. Myself kinda... more so for the kids... I'm up an atom at work with my teenagers who are about to be adults.

Anyways i was wondering if anyone has ever added essential botanicals and herbal oils to compost tea? at the end .... before applying foliar and or soil drench.

for fungicidal purposes ( at least for me) is why i thought on this.

I was thinking of using what i have on hand. some clove & cinnamon oil ... maybe some tea tree, eucalyptus, lemon grass, lavender.

But i don't want to interrupt the bennies to much ... but i would imagine it would disturb it in some way.. but if population are in large amounts it should be good.

Want to know what others think who share the some cultured methods of cultivation, so i brought my question here.
 

mr. childs

Well-Known Member
Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it. Myself kinda... more so for the kids... I'm up an atom at work with my teenagers who are about to be adults.

Anyways i was wondering if anyone has ever added essential botanicals and herbal oils to compost tea? at the end .... before applying foliar and or soil drench.

for fungicidal purposes ( at least for me) is why i thought on this.

I was thinking of using what i have on hand. some clove & cinnamon oil ... maybe some tea tree, eucalyptus, lemon grass, lavender.

But i don't want to interrupt the bennies to much ... but i would imagine it would disturb it in some way.. but if population are in large amounts it should be good.

Want to know what others think who share the some cultured methods of cultivation, so i brought my question here.
i recently put lavender, rosemary, & lemon eucalyptus essential oils in my 5 gallon jugs of fpe & ffj. this year i will more than likely spray the girls with the lavender & hydrogen peroxide mix outdoors for mites. also in the water that i bubble indoors i add lavender oil, doesnt bother the bennies from what i can see, but i am also feeding barley & enzymes, along with mycos in my tea.
 

coughphee.connoiseur

Well-Known Member
Thank you for the feed back. When do you add the barley to your teas? I would guess towards the end yes? Final 1-2 hours i assume if you do.

When you say enzymes your referring to the enzymes the barley give off correct?

I like the mycos idea... haven't added to the end of brew but have made an instant tea with it as a stand alone with some agsil16h, and a little left over organic molasses (residue from the bottle)
 

mr. childs

Well-Known Member
Thank you for the feed back. When do you add the barley to your teas? I would guess towards the end yes? Final 1-2 hours i assume if you do.

When you say enzymes your referring to the enzymes the barley give off correct?

I like the mycos idea... haven't added to the end of brew but have made an instant tea with it as a stand alone with some agsil16h, and a little left over organic molasses (residue from the bottle)
i feed the barley by topdressing the soil with pond zyme, and i also use 8th of a scoop to the 3 gallon of ready to use tea jug that has water in it that i've pumped out from the bigger aerated drum, all after letting the veg boost bubble in the 3 gallon for 24hours.

beware of that ffj & fpe, shit reeks, even with the sweetness of the molasses & fruit juice & sugar to dull the funk. it gets kinda putrid at times.
 

bungholio

Active Member
Reading through the post... Half way through and cannot wait to ask...

Cocowater had come up a few times, Being too far north for any coconut trees to grow I got to think about birch tree sap.
And was wondering if any of you guys ever tried or heard of that instead of coconut water.
 

Mary's Confidant

Well-Known Member
Somewhere in the middle of this thread, there was a lot of debate about the merit of AACTs, with people posting university findings debunking many of the claims. I skipped 10 pages after that and it had all but stopped being discussed. Where are people on this? I have already built my brewer and I've been using it on my veggie garden and all my plants look healthy but I'm hoping to see more studies posted.

Does anyone have recent links with studies showing the efficacy? My teas are not a problem to brew but if it's wasted energy, I'd rather focus on other things around the garden (or perhaps increasing the size of my garden). My plants have responded well to my teas that have contained different blends of ingredients but, I could be attributing plant health to something undeserving.

Just curious where everyone falls on this spectrum.
 

Tankado78

Well-Known Member
I'm just starting to get into brewing my own teas. Both fungal or bacterial dom at times. Just trying to get the balance. Have yet to try Ffj or any other ferments. Very curious on how that works
 

freemanjack

Well-Known Member
I now only consider brewed teas for initial inoculation of new soil mixes or remedial treatment of established soils suffering any desertification. The reason for this is that I found that fully biologically active soils show no improvement with added teas over plain water with a little loam soil dissolved into it, I now just throw a handful of topsoil and another of worm castings into my water just to replicate alluvial deposits in natural groundwater. Soil is best, soil is not just compost plus amendments, it is a stratified medium needing alluvial clay, silica bearing grits, some loam mid column then humus (compost) finally mulch (dead leaves, twigs tree bark). I need zero pest control, zero 'plant food', and my soil stays in the grow permanently, i just cut the old stem out from the top of the root system and pop the new plant straight in the little hole! Light + Soil + Biology + Plant = FOR THE WIN!!!
 

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
Reading through the post... Half way through and cannot wait to ask...

Cocowater had come up a few times, Being too far north for any coconut trees to grow I got to think about birch tree sap.
And was wondering if any of you guys ever tried or heard of that instead of coconut water.
Interesting, but no, haven't heard... damn, no coconuts where you are though, not even in stores!? I would just order a case, offline, if so, it could last you a super super long time if done right (full year, easy) and pay itself off easy in quality.. aloe flakes might be a good investment too! But way to stay open minded and local / resourceful too, I respect that.. maybe give it a shot on one, if you can, the sap

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As for the tea thing, I prefer to mix best soil possible, similar to coots with my own improvements, and although I do endorse an inoculation regime, I prefer to do it well before the soil is potted and fed their fungal food and therefore way before plants are embedded.

I agree with the school of thought that compost is best. @RastaRoy spoke with some progressive folks on the matter, too, maybe he can chime in what they said..

But when you are using small pots, say under 20 gallons for example, innoculating once or twice a cycle is probably recommended if high-quality, high-humus, well-amended soil and or compost aren't readily available at the moment (for topdressing)

My 2 cents anyway,

Cheers,

DonT
 
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Greenthumbs256

Well-Known Member
So do you any of you guys still use your teas?? Thread hasn't been active since last year and I've heard of a lot of ppl no longer using teas!
 

Mary's Confidant

Well-Known Member
Even if it's redundancy, I think it's healthy practice to use a new tea every 3-4 weeks. I throw in some Fish hydrolysate, sometimes bone and blood meal as well just to give it an extra kick, or I'll cycle amendments and put crab meal, neem meal etc. I brew just over 24 hrs, usually 24-30, then apply. I don't foliar feed because I can't find consensus on it.
 
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thezephyr

Well-Known Member
So do you any of you guys still use your teas?? Thread hasn't been active since last year and I've heard of a lot of ppl no longer using teas!
I used compost teas in my 2016 season, and didn't use them in my 2017 season. Based on the difference in yields, I will absolutely be using them from now on.

I usually use worm castings, seaweed/kelp, neem meal, a little bit of clay soil from my back yard, alfalfa during veg, with a little bit of molasses, honey, and maple syrup as my carbohydrates. Sometimes I throw in some fresh lemon balm too.
 
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