Soil Food Web Gardening with Compost Teas

I'm really more into soil biology now and finding this thread is great. I'll sub up and look for some of the publications you guys are reading and start from there.

the only book i know of so far is teaming with microbes.. Does anybody know of anymore books?

Teaming is the best and most read-able book of its kind that I've found. It seems to put the big perspective in place for people.

trichome fiend said:

...I've been so lucky as to be able to Q: and A: the author/owner of http://microbeorganics.com/ ,here is his response.

If you are wanting to make compost tea = ACT. The easiest and an effective way is to use whatever compost or vermicompost (ewc) you are using at 2.38% of your volume of water [eg. 5 gal X 2.38% = around 1/2 cup) and 0.50% black strap molasses (20 ml or around a tablespoon + a teaspoon), then brew that for 24 hrs to 36 hrs. If your brewer is homemade, let your nose and gut be your guide. If you wish to put in some alfalfa meal there is nothing wrong with that but whatever you add put it at the beginning of the brew. Alfalfa meal maximum 0.25% ( 10 ml; 2 teaspoons)
Fish hydrolysate 0.063% (2.52 ml or 1/2 teaspoon). You can also use soft rock phosphate at the same rate but lately I've learned it can contain polonium 210 so up to you.

Efficacy is dependent on compost quality.

I would not use liquid kelp weekly but that is your choice. Follow the instructions on the bottle.

I would use humic acid a little under what the instructions say.

I use fish hydrolysate diluted according to manufacturer when I think it seems needed but it depends on your whole growing regimine and I don't know that.

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GREAT POST tricky!

the guy that runs that site is my idol kiss-ass thats one of the many places to read about real "soil".


i always add everything at the begging of brew. it just seemed logical.

AGAIN: the QUALITY of your tea relies on the quality of your compost/ewc !!




soil

Rrog said:

Teaming is the best and most read-able book of its kind that I've found. It seems to put the big perspective in place for people.

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your right , thats a very quality read!

once a man reads that book , his whole outlook on dirt changes.... it goes from a pile of dirty dust , to a pile of living goodness. ..... then you start accumulatin bugs you never seen or heard of an instead of freakin out , your tryin to figure out a way to feed them!



just for everyones info , all microbes/fungus good and BAD will thrive off the extra carbs put into the tea/dirt , so the only way to test your teas without a scope and a degree is to just go by your nose and try not to brew for more then three days , and the key thing is to have plenty of air. there should be no "dead spots" in your brewer. all water needs to be moving an the surface of the brew needs to look like a volcano about to erupt. (the more air bubbles popping on the surface= more air getting into brew)
i have ran teas for a couple weeks , but i dont recommend unless you read one of those full books about teas.



soil

wyteboi said:

once a man reads that book , his whole outlook on dirt changes.... it goes from a pile of dirty dust , to a pile of living goodness. ..... then you start accumulatin bugs you never seen or heard of an instead of freakin out , your tryin to figure out a way to feed them!

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I agree completely. I've also come to appreciate adding materials like Crab Shell to specifically feed predatory helpers that seek and destroy nasty critters that would like to harm our plant. I feed the herd that feeds my plant and I also feed the guard dogs

Rrog said:

I agree completely. I've also come to appreciate adding materials like Crab Shell to specifically feed predatory helpers that seek and destroy nasty critters that would like to harm our plant. I feed the herd that feeds my plant and I also feed the guard dogs

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i feel the same way. i also breed fish and the females must be thrown away , so some go into the worm bin , some into the compost can , some get fed back to the fish an the rest get thrown out in the outside compost. (i know your not supposed to put meat or dairies in the bins , but i use EVERYTHING, yea too much meat or dairies will stink , and oils can cause probs , but if you limit those things , your bin will eat the funk off them.)

i put a whole bag of bad onions in my bin a while back and it stunk for a week or two , but thats the worst thing thats ever happened to my bin.

i been working on my soil for 3 or 4 years now. (building my own) and i just FINALLY got to where i can plant and use only water till the end. pretty happy about that one.





have any of you guys ever seen root porn that looked so good , that it looked fake ? i posted a couple pics on here a couple years ago that were amaZing! (Rrog , i think you were around...)

reason i ask is because i have never seen anything like it again , and just because i am me i want to know what caused that. its not that big of deal , but its one of those things that really bothers me because i want to see it again , even though the plants are healthier now, then they was with those wild roots.

i mean the whole pot , top to bottom was solid white/clear and the holes in the bottoms had 3 or 4" of roots growing out in a mass as big as the hole, and they was not sitting in anything ...... just the ground/table.

i'll try to dig up the pics, and maybe get an opinion or two as to why it did that. (it was 4 or 5 pots like that , not just one.)



Have a great day guys soil

I don't recall your root pron, but I personally haven't seen a root ball in a while. I let the microbes eat them. I keep watering the herd (now I plant clover on top to fix Nitrogen and keep the AM Fungi network in tact). I don't disturb the soil.

Rrog said:

I don't recall your root pron, but I personally haven't seen a root ball in a while. I let the microbes eat them. I keep watering the herd (now I plant clover on top to fix Nitrogen and keep the AM Fungi network in tact). I don't disturb the soil.

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yea i dont disturb anything myself , but a couple years ago when this happened , the roots were coming out the holes so thick , i had to pull one out to look at it. (the plant forced me , i had no choice)

Rrog said:

now I plant clover on top to fix Nitrogen and keep the AM Fungi network in tact

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your not talking "mulch" are you ? also , is this in pots or ground ?

i use mulch (trimmings, peat, ect...) to keep the top of the pot as full of life as the bottom , but if your not using mulch , what are you useing as a "cover" ? that does sound a bit better then just mulch.



soil

I sew clover seeds on the top of the MJ buckets. Microclover is the best size but hard to find. Clover is just one of many helpful companion plants. Sometimes called a Living Mulch

at what stage of the MJ plant growth do you sow the clover seeds?

Really, any time is fine. I planted the clover while the micro-herd was in full swing taking care of a couple of male plants. I didn't chop the males until the clover was established. That way there's no time when active roots are not present in the soil. If there are no active roots, the AM fungus will die off, leaving spore for the next time roots show up. So these pails have nothing but clover, and the undisturbed soil will receive MJ seeds soon.

After I plant the seeds, I'll leave the clover, assuming it's not too overgrown. Again, MicroClover is more desirable than what I have

i agree teamin with microbes is a great book. I just want to learn more so i was wondering if there were more books out there you guys know of.

I also use plant trimmings as my mulch for cannabis. what i do actually is put cut up fan leaves and such into my brew. let that bubble with everything else a couple days. and just water it onto my soil. I was always worried about putting dead leaves on my soil but now that i know it acts as a mulch, food for microbes... Its definetly a good idea.

Almighty, that book is such a great summary that before I suggested another book, I'd go back and re-read Teaming again. That's what I'm doing and I took a lot of notes. What's cool about his thread is the question and answer orientation is started with. What would be great is if you had a question or were vague on a concept. Then we could all bat it around.

Nice quote there from Teaming With Microbes

I see many of his posts look like ripped quotes

after dealing with fish for all these years , then adding teas into my mess , i have learned that they just dont make air pumps like they used to. i've got one late 80's pump left that still barely works , i've got 10, 2005 or newer pumps in the junk pile. (and dozens already thrown away)
If your looking for a air pump for teas or anything else i cannot recommend ANY pump with a diaphram in it. Over the years , they have made the parts so much cheaper (on purpose of course) that they just dry rot within a matter of a year or two. I finally got one with a piston that will not go out for years. (45 bucks off ebay , and i believe its 53 liters or mililiters per minute.)

plus its commercial grade so it will run multiple buckets, tea brewers, fish tanks, ect... the downside for some will be that it is loud but i am very used to loud.


im babblin again .... i'll clear my head of all the pot cells and we'll make this thread interesting.




soil

I agree. Piston is loud but dependable. I have two and built thick MDF boxes for them.

here's a great compost tea brewer:http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lane/horticulture/documents/25gallonRubbermaidbrewerplans_2_.pdf i use a 2.5 bushel tub to brew in. works great!