Cool projects you got happening here grow! Really interested in this one.
Is this the recipe you used in your post above?
Might need to try mixing up something similar too. You said it smells yummy:) How do the plants seem to like it?
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That’s the recipe! Kinda just a mix of stuff I had on hand that I wanted to experiment with in a ferment. I don’t have any cannabis growing right now but I’m letting the tent go crazy (as you can tell). I ended up chopping a bunch of the beans down as they really start to sprawl quickly and get bleached as they climb anyways. I keep telling myself to be patient and let these flower before I plant more weed but like… how? 
I’ve only used a small amount of that flax ferment in the tent so far (with the bokashi) but so far everything seems happy with the soil. I really need to get a test done to see where I stand but I have some mental block about taking from such a relatively small pot.
I just looked under the scope and 
. It’s all fungus. Like, at 40x I can see multiple clumps, 100x many span the entire field of view, and at 400x I’m scrolling through big nets of hyphae. The bacteria fill the gaps, but if I didn’t know this was tea I’d guess I was looking at leaf mold. Not seeing nematodes (yet) but the flagellates are waking up as well as the amoebae. Also seeing very few ciliates which is promising for the effectiveness of the brewer.
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whoa dude. that brew is serious looking.
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It definitely meant business!
I ended up using the tea at about the 26 hour mark. Fully undiluted, strained through a paint strainer bag. By the time I used it I was seeing a shitload of flagellates, fungi, & bacteria. All sorts of all three. I was also seeing 1-2 nematodes per slide (they appeared to have lips a la bacterial feeders). Amoebae numbers could have been a lot better for sure. I think next batch I’ll either let go for longer to see if that helps, or add some of the CoWoCo castings as I know that material has plenty of amoebae from previous microscopy. Overall I’m really pleased with the quality of the brew. Ciliate numbers remained low throughout the entire process, even using a non-aerated bag to hold the inoculant.
Improvements will be made to the brewer before I run it again. I mainly need to seal up the hole in the shelf to prevent it from rotting out super fast, as well as add security to the lift tube and jug. It’s supported but jostles and I’m fairly confident over many cycles it will begin to cause unnecessary wear and tear on the shelf and PVC joints. I’d also like to improve the lid to better contain any foam. The last improvement I can think of offhand will be to the angle of return from the downspout. It works and makes a vortex but it could be much less messy and more streamlined.
The final addition I may make down the line would be a magnet or pair of magnets on the airlift tube. I think it would be fun to experiment with and I already have one neodymium magnet. One more, strap those two around the airlift tube and off we go. But first the base improvements 
Updates soon!
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I got sick of the beans. I’m pretty sure the seeds I got were infected with mosaic virus. No matter where or how I’ve grown them, indoors or out, they get the mottled & misshapen leaves with splotching. They still produce, but not a single plant from that batch of beans ever looked happy.
All the leaves/stalks/pods were chopped and used to mulch where soil was shallow or visible. I drizzled a little LABs on each clump with the intent of keeping any opportunistic anaerobes at bay.
I also caved and started soaking some of the Forum Stomper F2s Sebring distributed. It just felt wrong running the tent without some cannabis roots! They’re an Auto-Fem and the plan is to NOT let it take over the tent. I’m thinking that back right corner where the beans were especially thick is a good spot. In the meantime I dropped some more companion seeds in, including more marigold, flax, buckwheat, sunnhemp, corn flowers, and probably a few others I forgot. I intend to prune back the Forum Stompers as they grow and treat it just like one of the other plants, trying to keep it in balance with the entire pot.
The gourds may be showing some hunger for nitrogen so that’s something to keep an eye on. Same for the fox glove.
Last thing… I was trying to account for the variety in here and what all is missing… I came up with 14 types, plus one unknown:
-johnny jump-up
-borage
-amaranth
-chicory
-sorrel
-lady phacelia
-fox glove
-parsley
-dwarf alyssum
-gourd
-basil
-carrot
-marigold
-sunflower
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Awesome!
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Aerated tea was added 7 days ago. Plants are showing some thanks in their new growth. The forum stomper is also peeking out with some true leaves. A few days ago, after letting the microbes from the tea settle in a bit I sprinkled on a mixture of malted barley and some wheat bran bokashi. I also planted various seeds from families that are missing, namely flax, grass, buckwheat, clovers, and a few more flowers.
Old growth looking deficient
New growth looking v happy
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Way to go!!!
Thanks for sharing. 
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Made some updates to the tea brewer. Extended the return tube and improved the return angle as well. Modified the spout by removing some of the pvc to make it gurgle and burp less. It makes the return flow with less mess. Also added another strap higher up the return tube which makes the entire set up way more stable. Needless to say I was happy to see a much stronger vortex formed 
Last thing I want to do is the magnets, then I’ll be done modifying this thing for a while, just keeping notes after each batch as to possible improvements & changes. I already have one strong neodymium magnet I could use so basically $20 plus a few pieces at the hardware store and I could experiment with that. Still need to finish reading the research and see if I could possibly filter the precipitate before adding the tea materials (from the bit of reading I’ve finished, it is supposed to affect the formation of calcium carbonate precipitates in the bulk solution. In untreated experiments, the crystallized material is much smaller versus the magnet treated water which produced larger bits in the bulk tank as opposed to the sides of the container, like you’d find in a shower. I need to see how big “big” is and if I can actually remove this material or not).
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Upped the light intensity some today and snapped some progress pics for reference later. Forum Stomper is about 7-8 days above ground. Everybody seems decently happy except the gourd.
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Your updates are a total joy to behold!
Thank you!
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Thanks man! I’m really looking forward to all the flowers coming soon 
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Wow!!! Beautiful
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Awesome man, also doing a living soil myself and got a few good tips.
thx!
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I didn’t realize I didn’t post anything about the new brewer setup and the latest brew… I winged the recipe and it came with good and bad effects.
The recipe was something like this:
-5 gallons water, vortexed for an hour to remove chlorine, then vitamin C powder added to neutralize chloramine (probably an overkill).
-CoWoCo Castings
-Local Castings
-Local fungal expansion
-small scoop of insect frass
-small scoop of kelp
-tablespoon of sea90
-4 Tbsp brown sugar
-2.5 Tbsp protein hydrolysate
-20ml fish hydrolysate
The good:
The biology developed extremely quickly. I ended up using it at maybe 9-10 hours. At that time there was an absolute boat of everything on every field of view. Flagellates and amoebae, both naked and encysted, were everywhere. Multiple germinated fungi spores per field of view at 100x with some nets already developing. The big missing element was nematodes.
The bad:
I had no choice but to stop the brew on account of the ridiculous amount of foam coming off the top and spilling. This is when I did the “emergency” scoping and was both relieved and stunned to find so much good activity so quickly. I really wanted to push this one further but unfortunately if I went to sleep with how it was going there wasn’t going to be anything left in the morning. I might learn just how much lift I get from this pump though 
Conclusion
I’m fairly confident both effects were caused by the protein addition. That leaves me omitting the protein until I figure out how to deal with the foam. I see the advantage at this point to using a vessel that can seal and making a burping mechanism so air pressure doesn’t build up. Otherwise I’ll likely use some of the extra pvc to make a very long spout so it actually goes under water. It may be that the splashing is accelerating the foam. There’s this other part of me that really wants to open Craigslist to see who’s gonna provide me with a big conical tank with a lid
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Gonna be honest, in a 20 gallon pot it feels like total shit pulling two cups of material out. But to channel Paulie Walnuts “waddayagannado?” I picked out the worms and as much root material as I could before shipping it off to Logan Labs for the complete with extras tests.
It was super easy pulling the material out though. No tool required, just plowed my hand in almost to my wrist and scooped out some soil. Very light, with decent moisture throughout so hey… at least there was a silver lining to the destruction.
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Don’t feel too bad. I usually add a couple cups of vermicompost back to the beds with my amendments. Definitely worth it in the end. 
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For sure. I’ve got some of the CoWoCo still I think I’ll drop that in there to ease my pain lol.
There is so much biodiversity, I was waiting for David Attenborough to start his monologue.
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