Compost tea smells like crap.

Literally.

Brewing 2 days with a small air stone. Kellog NRich compos

It and castings with added kelp in a nylon stocking. This is my first time brewing it myself. Should I

1) scratch the brew and buy Alaskan humus and pure castings?

2) add another pump?

3) nothing. Give it more time to figure itself out.

Btw there's molasses in there too.

Regarding teas man, when in doubt throw it out. If its burnin your nose furs off man, then something ain't right. I realized it was my pump that was holding back my teas from being truly the epic teas that they are today. Might be the same for you. Not sure what kind of pump you are running though and never heard of that compost either but as long as its good and rich with organic matter it should be alright. Basically if your dissolved o2 levels aren't up to par, you might as well just be farting in that bucket.

If it smells bad it is anaerobic, which is bad. It is anaerobic due to a lack of sufficient oxygen as BB pointed out.

Your pump might not be powerful enough for the volume of tea you're trying to make. Also the nylon stocking could only be complicating things, especially if it is a thicker kind of stocking which the air bubbles aren't able to permeate so well. Air stones have a tendency to clog up with bioslime. They do work, so long as the pump is powerful enough, but you might want to check them and clean or replace the airstone after a day or two of brewing if it seems to be getting clogged up.

Try a more powerful pump, I would recommend one with a dial you can adjust the output with and also dual lines if you can get one. You might also try to ditch the stocking and just throw all your ingredients straight into the water. You can always filter it later on if you wanted to use it as a foliar spray.

Thanks for the replies folk!

I've got a decent amount on foam on it this morning but i didn't smell it...ill smell it when i come home and see if it turns aerobic. If its not looking good by tomorrow morning, I'll just dump the whole thing. I have to spend money on soil this coming paycheck so i think i'll hold off on the alaskan humus. I might consider just using the pump i have in a reused milk jug or 2 gallon juice jug.

IMHO since you are just starting out with brews, you shouldn't jump straight into a 48 hour brew because things have a big chance of going anaerobic in that time frame. You should start with lesser brew times such as 6-24 hours. It will give your tea less of a chance to go anaerobic plus you will have more biodiversity in your tea.

Thi is what you do. You started out good.. But every 12 hours add in more food just to guarantee things dont go anaerobic on you. When i say more food, yu can add stuff like molasses, earth juice catalyst, humic acids, liquid kelp, liquid fish, even floralicious plus. All will feed your micro beasties and keep things aerobic. Hope this helps..

p.s. If it smells to rotten hell, well then you should proably throw out your bew and start another

After 24 hours, it wasn't foamy at all. If it happens again my 2nd time around, should I still use it?

foam is a good indication of biological activity but if it doesnt have foam it proably still is good as long as it smells sweet and earthy. Yea use it...

Oh c'mon people anaerobic doesn't mean "BAD" per se, and whatever bacteria are added into your system will be consumed if they don't dominate, so there isn't a ton to worry about. How much are you brewing? You should be seeing bubbles everywhere across the top of your tea, no areas of stagnation if you are going for an ACT.

Oh, and technically all you would need to do is reaerate the tea for a bit for the anaerobic bacterias to be taken care of, so throwing out the tea might be a little bit of an overreaction.

but once the tea goes anaerobic, if you decide to make it aerobic again you will loose a great deal of diversity in your tea.

In general when things go anearobic it is BAD. It is true a little bit of anearobic bacteria will be consumed by the good bacteriia. It can even be food for them, a part of the soil food web, but the goal is not to brew a anearobic tea sorry.

I use the azoo 8600, shit is beast!

I took everyone's advice! Smaller container. Smells like freshly dug earth!

I brew teas for my garden and there is more to teas than just the micro herd. My garden tea is so fragrant I can smell it 100 feet away and my garden loves the shit. I wouldn't use it indoors though . Horsetail, stinging nettles are rich in silica, willow has growth hormones. Lawn clippings have lots of nitrogen .My garden already has a healthy micro herd and I feed teas for other benefits.

Da Almighty Jew said:

In general when things go anearobic it is BAD. It is true a little bit of anearobic bacteria will be consumed by the good bacteriia. It can even be food for them, a part of the soil food web, but the goal is not to brew a anearobic tea sorry.

Click to expand...

I need to correct myself because after reading the compost tea brewing manual 5th edition, anearobic teas are not Bad. They can actually be quite good for your garden. Its just that Alot of stuff is not known about them yet.