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Adams County

is their a book on recipies, for spring , summer ,fall and the ingredience,if so thanks Bill

12/19/2008 12:09:41 PM

Seattle, WA

Bill,

In regards to recipes, there's a couple different schools of thought. In some instances, you may want to make a tea that is dominant in either bacteria, fungi, or protozoa.

However, in nature, all 3 types of microbes work together to decompose organic matter and cycle nutrients for the plant. Therefore, when someone like Dr. Ingham refers to AACT or actively aerated compost tea, she's talking about a tea that has all 3 types of organisms present, in good quantity, and with good diversity.

The only book I know of that has recipes is the Compost Tea Brewing Manual by Dr. Ingham. However, if you were going to invest in a book, I'd get "Teaming with Microbes" instead. It's got more of an overview into organic gardening and how compost teas fit into the greater gardening picture. After all, it's only 1 tool in your arsenal.

If you scroll back through some old posts, you'll see some recipes listed on here. I know I've posted one from Dr. Ingham as well. The trick is to balance the amount of foods your adding for the microbes, relative to the amount of starting biology (compost), and how much aeration you're able to provide to keep the tea aerobic (oxygenated) while the organisms are growing. As they grow faster, they consume more oxygen, which causes the dissolved oxygen levels in your water to drop dramatically. Once you have a recipe that works well for your brewer though, you're all set!

~Tad

12/19/2008 2:24:57 PM

Adams County

thanks Tad

12/19/2008 9:12:45 PM

Gold Hill, Oregon

when would you want to apply a tea that is dominant in bacteria? when would you apply one that is dominant in fungi? and dominant in protozoa?

1/2/2009 3:11:06 AM

Gold Hill, Oregon

i should get me one of them books.

1/2/2009 3:12:54 AM

Seattle, WA

If you did a biological soil test, you could determine deficiencies and add biology accordingly. Other instances are when you have 2 species of plants that have different biological needs and you want to favor one over the other. An example would be an oak tree (highly fungal) with grass growing around it (more balanced bacterial and fungal, but slightly bacterial).

1/2/2009 2:09:00 PM