Thanks for the name drop, gonna check it out.
Elaine Ingham. Soil food web. Microbiologist.
Love her. Love Youngsang Cho.
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Dr. Elaine ingham. She’s an amazing source of information on the soil food web!
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Oops. I see you answered while I was typing my post. lol
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Nah I appreciate it! More Elaine, the better! 
She’s a gem.
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Thanks all let’s keep adding to this thread. I’m just want a variety of simple recipes for people to try.
Also what type of water/air pump do y’all use or recommend?
@shag shared this link diy vortex tea brewer
Another tasty bit!
Thanks @shag for sharing your research and knowledge to all of us!
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The post with Tim’s work, is gold, IMHO. Been reading him for many years now.
The most simple tea, IMHO, is just a portion of alfalfa and kelp, a teaspoon of powdered molasses.
Recently, I started to add a touch of gypsum to that, a simple over night bubble, and it foams up great.
Alfalfa and kelp, as they get wet, they release their bacteria, they are composting bacteria.
So any type of organic matter they contact, the feeding and pooping starts up. They feed on the organics, poop out plant food, that is plant root nourishment! Very quickly.
Add (at feeding time to the plant) now add some of the LAB’s you made , with a tea portion and LAB’s portion, and your roots get a very nutrient rich root bath…
I also leave huge amount of my root mass, as I reuse my spent after a cycle, medium IDK, how many cycles, but each time the roots are NOT EVER REMOVED, as they have been covered in biologicals. Why would I want to lose that?
Also, Freaking worms teach us so much, now that we lived together for half a year now, so easy to care for, and best garden buddies I’ve ever had. I fed them scraps of plant waste, and get a huge bag of EWC!
The Worms, and I, are wishing everyone a get day!
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Thanks for the tips. Yes worms are something we have been talking about starting. Biggest worry is desert temps. I reuse soil and leave roots in as well. Also heard that adding roots to a tea helps your root health also can help sprout seeds. Thanks for the alfalfa and kelp tip. Was gonna use kelp didn’t know about alfalfa. Do you use fresh alfalfa or just bought from store?
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I use Down to earth brand alfalfa meal. But any alfalfa meal or pellets should work.
It’s good stuff!
Alfalfa and kelp meal are must have’s IMO!
Also, check out seed sprout teas. I’ve been using a few drops in the water with my seeds lately and find it’s been giving older seeds a nice germination boost. Easy to make. Just sprout seeds, put them in a blender with a splash of water, blend, strain and add to your plant water.
Or you can buy malted barley (already sprouted and enzymes preserved) or malted corn.
I use barley, legumes and corn as my 3 main seed sprout teas. They are each supposed to have benefits.
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This is the pump I was gonna get.
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Hey 420noob,
like my esteemed colleague TeddyNuggets uses, Down To Earth.
I got the idea from buying a bag of Compost Starter, as I collect leaves in the fall, then as I fill the bags, I wet it down and sprinkle a /12 cup or so, as I fill them.
This spring, I can how beat down those bags are over the couple I filled without anything added.
Best of luck to everyone!!
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I would recommend this one. About the same price, but WAY more powerful. It’s the one I use.
This one is 793 GPH for $29 vs. 48 GPH for $23.
It doesn’t come with air stones but you can pick up some 4” air stones for like $5 for 2 (I’d recommend using at least 4). Or better yet just make your own DIY “bubble snake” aerator out of PVC.
Like this, but out of PVC.
Or like in this video, but smaller:
You need a larger commercial air pump like I linked to run an aerator like the bubble snake. They are a lot easier to clean afterwards vs. airstones. But I do still use air stones too. My one 5 gallon bucket I use for compost tea has six of the 4” air stones in the bottom.
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Is this something that could be added to brewing tea? Or should I run this in a separate watering cycle?
Also I read somewhere that air stones air a bitch to clean afterwards cause a biofilm forms on them. Could I run with just open ended tubes or will that not add enough mixing bubbles?
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yep!
Would not hurt anything but that stuff is pretty well digested
You can add it to the tea once brewed.
I think P knocks down microbes, but that is from memory and could be wrong
I did that with a pvc 90 to weight it down.
It is not so much about the bubbles it is more about surface agitation at least for oxygen.
You do need to stir the bottom, that is why a vortex brewer is a good choice.
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Thanks I have compost bags don’t know if that makes a difference. Ya in thinking vortex is looking good.
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I wouldn’t think you should have to stir if you use bags. I usually throw my compost in loose and it settles down in between the air stones, so I have to stir it. With a bag it’ll keep all that compost contained wherever you hang it. I used to use those free nylon socks they give out at the shoe stores. But I went to loose when I ran out. I just strain it after brewing if I am going to foliar spray.
Just make sure you have enough air to agitate the whole surface of the water. You don’t want any pockets of stagnant water. That can cause anaerobic microbes, which you don’t want.
You’ll know if it goes anaerobic though. It’ll stink like sh*t! (like a foul smell)
Btw I’m putting together that package today. I’ll try to get it out tomorrow. I’ll reach out for your deets.
Give you a few more ingredients for your teas! I think I might have enough compost left to send you at least a few cups too (you can use like 1 cup at a time)
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@DirtySlowToes
This is good advice thanks for that!
This leads us to believe that compost teas produced with sugars are less effective in controlling the fungal pathogen.
only recommend molasses (sugars) to be used in the last weeks of the growing season.
After reading what @DirtySlowToes wrote I looked into things a bit more.
My guess is that the fish liquid could be used as a food source in compost tea but should probably be used in place of sugar.
At TeaLAB, we generally use Fish Powder as a food source for our teas,
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So my nursery’s only have a fish fert 2-2-2 or do I need a fish slurry.
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I like to brew Jadam Microbial solution “teas” for my plants. It’s an anaerobic KNF solution. I take one potato and microwave it with some water for 5 minutes, take a hand full of leaf mold (just old leaves off the ground will work) and add them to a paint strainer bag with the soft potato. Smash them together and put it in a bucket of water with either sea water (I use 30:1 ratio) or sea salt (about 10-20 grams per 4 gallons) and put the lid on. Then you just leave it for 24-72 hrs until you see lots of bubbles forming, warmer the room the quicker it will happen. You have a window of about 6-12 hrs to use the solution. Make sure to dilute between 10:1 and 20:1 depending on plants life stage. Super cheap, really easy and in my experience it’s very effective.
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Maybe @DirtySlowToes will have something to say about this…
But I would assume it should be fine, it is only serving as a food source for microbes.
Some fish products are probably better than others but I think this one should be good too…
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