Compost Tea - 4 Times a Year?

[pakin]

HG recommends fertilizing Feb., June and September. But Dr. Elaine Ingham's followers spray compost tea four times a year? Do you know the time schedule for the four sprays on pastures?

Pat Akin

[Bluestem]

On a hay field you would spray once in the spring when the soil is warming up, and after every cutting. You could follow this pattern on your pasture. I'm guessing, on a well managed pasture you could cut the spray to one or two per year, once soil health is back.

[Kathe Kitchens]

What type of liquid fertilizer do you recommend? A combination of compost tea and nutrients or a particular name brand?
Kathe

[pakin]

Kathe, HG recommends molasses as the most for your $. The liquid is about $1/gal and you can use as little as one gallon/acre.

Compost tea, with additives, @ 20 gallons/acre, is about $10/acre--depending on the cost of your additives.

With each you have the cost of water added and a sprayer to apply. But these two methods seem to be the more used liquid fertilizers...

Pat Akin

[Kathe Kitchens]

Pakin,
Thank you. I'm well versed in all those and have been for a long time.
It always amazes people what a difference just adding molasses at a gallon an acres does to the soil. I've been a big time advocate of that for a long time and believe fully that it is one of the best soil amendments for the money. I put it on my soil at least once a month and I'm pretty sure it is a large part of what keeps fire ants out of my yard - and has for the last ten years.

Regarding the fertilizer, I wasn't clear about who I was addressing - Bluestem - as he is an award winning hay farmer. So tell us, Mark, what fertilizer you'd recommend or nutrition combination? Please, share your methods!

Kathe :D

[Bluestem]

I hate to type and we could talk about this for hours. So I may be brief here. 95% of growing award winning hay is attention to detail. Blue ribbon hay can be grown with a little management. I plant crimson red clover in Sept. This will keep weeds in check and add a little nitrogen to the soil. Let the cows graze it during the winter, or mow it. Spray aerated compost tea at soil warm up, this year I am trying 20 gallons acre for the first spray, 5 gallons/acre there after. In my compost tea I will add products not easy to find. AGGrand makes liquid fertilizers, 4-3-3, which I use with every spraying. A liquid bonemeal, which I use in the spring, a liquid lime which I use in the spring and a 0-0-8 which I use in the Fall. I am drifting away from molasses. I am not sure its that good for the microherd long term. But I may drift back. This year I have also added Mycorrhiza to my spray. We still have a lot to learn about the soil micro herd. If we can figure out how to work with them, agriculture will move ahead.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Take a look at

http://www.rossfarm.com and

http://www.compostteatexas.com/

Betsy Ross sprays her 500 acres of pasture in the spring at 20 gallons per acre and at 5 g/a for 3 more sprays during the season.

There's a low-till, Panhandle, cotton farmer who sprays molasses at 1 gallon per acre 4 times a season. He's stopped irrigating his crop because his mycorrhiza are holding the water for him.

[Robert D Bard]

I am trying various combinations but I use 1 gal/100gal
of spray of seawater (best source of 92 trace minerals,
amino acids, enzymes, and bacteria from the ocean)
and liquid humates. The first spray this year we added
1 gal/acre of molasses but it was a pain in the neck.
There are so many fines and little chunks that we
stopped up the sprayer screens and had to clean
them 2 or 3 times per 200gal of mix.
I haven't purchased yet but Rem Cor in Howe has new
sprayer tips that will not plug up as much and wind
will not be as big a problem. They (2 left and right)
push the liquid down and out with less getting up in
the air and drifting back on me - thank God I am
not using toxic chemicals, can you imagine what
gets into farmers lungs and on their bodies? The
spread is 24 ft.
Question - compost tea when made is considered a
concentrate, so why would you delute by 3 or 4 to
one and then put 20g/a when you could delute by
2 and put 10 g/a and save work?
Charles Walters has a new book on restoring land
and health from the sea using sea water.
Robert D Bard

[Bluestem]

Not sure if I understand your question. Your dilution rate would depend on your sprayer. My sprayer will put down 10 gallons acre at a set RPM. In my 100 gallon spray tank I mix 50 gallons of tea and 50 gallons of water. This gives me 5 gallons/ acre of tea sprayed. At 10 gallons/ acre I do not dilute. 20 gallons/acre requires me to change my setup, different nozzle,RPM's ect. Hope I kind of hit the question.

[Robert D Bard]

Your explanation is the same as mine. I was given
advice from a friend that has been doing compost
tea for some time. Her procedure was to make tea
and dilute it by taking 1 gal of tea to 3 gal of water
and putting 20 gal to the acre and arguing that her
way will not burn the plants, but my way of 1 gal
of tea to 1gal water + a few additives was to strong
and that I would burn the plants. My question is -
did I miss something? I believe my way is the same
concentration with less work (filling the 200 gal
spray rig 1/2 as many times).
Robert D Bard

[Robert D Bard]

I have 250 gal of aerated compost tea that I was
supposed to put out on my hay guys meadows
today and he has never got back to me. Is there
any one who wants 250 gal of tea? I sprayed my
land last week and it doesn't need any more for
a while.
Robert D Bard

[Bluestem]

Aerated compost tea should not burn plants at 100%, at least thats been my experience. Your additives may(you did not state what they were). The fewer times you drive thru a field the better If you still have that tea do not let it go to waste. Dump it on the worst piece of ground on your place.

[Robert D Bard]

I have tired various amount of molasses, but 1
gal/acre the "stuff" was plugging up screens and
nozzles 3 to 4 times with 200 gal spray rig. I just
tried putting the molasses in the compost tea and
there was no plugging at all. and nothing in the
bottom of either tank when i was done.
Robert D Bard