From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Utah

I am new to growing pumpkins and I was going to try a compost tea until I started reading about human patogens and e coli etc. Are these real dangers? Can they be avoided? Am I better off just going with out?

1/24/2008 7:22:01 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Dr. Elaine Ingham has found that if the brewer has enough Dissolved Oxygen at the right time in the brew cycle, then e-coli cannot survive. Of course just starting with properly made compost delivers a clean tea too.

Bad compost (e-coli tainted) brewed improperly will grow the pathogen into a problem.

1/24/2008 9:59:22 PM

Seattle, WA

Good question! Tremor is right, you need to make sure that your oxygen levels stay above 6 mg/l at all times during the brewing cycle. There's a couple of ways to do this, you can get a dissolved oxygen meter which will allow you to test yourself and also experiment with different recipes, or you can go with a commercial brewer maker that has done the testing for you.

Starting with a compost that has not contained any food waste, or using a good vermicompost will take care of the issue of e. coli.

Even with the best compost, you can still brew anaerobic organisms that will not be beneficial to your plants. Essentially, with a brewer, you're trying to create the optimum environment for your beneficial aerobic organims. If your brewer is anaerobic (all the O2 has been consumed), then now you're selecting conditions for the organisms you don't want.

The key with homemade recipes is "less is more." Don't add too many nutrients/foods for the critters in your compost as that will cause they to reproduce too quickly and turn the tea anaerobic (sometimes in a matter of minutes).

I say give it a shot, you'll find the benefits far outweigh the time and energy in making good tea.

Best non-scientfic test is the "smell test." Good compost tea does not stink or really have much smell at all. Maybe a slight earthy smell. If it smells like vomit, urine, alcohol, or any other nasty smell, then you know you've created an anaerobic tea (they're the ones that produce those gases).

Good luck!

1/25/2008 12:35:30 PM

Pleasant Hill, Or

Any recommendations on where to find an affordable dissolved oxygen meter? I did a quick internet search and found them to be very expensive. $400 was the cheapest I found.

1/25/2008 3:35:19 PM

Seattle, WA

I don't know of a cheap one, you may want to look on ebay. Make sure it has a feature that allows you to hook up to your computer and record intervals, it makes life sooooo much easier!

1/25/2008 6:55:47 PM