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Author:  tnassar [ Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:01 am ]
Post subject:  ACT

Anyone ever overfeed their ACT and messed it up, and is there a way to tell if the tea is dead?

Tom
Omaha, TX

Author:  CaptainCompostAL [ Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:14 am ]
Post subject: 

Sure many times!

I have either placed too much molasses in my tea or added to many extra protein and carbohydates as microbial foods in the brewing tea.

If the tea stinks too bad, you may have not given the tea enough oxygen. Maybe you need more aeration bubbling tubes, or maybe the tea is too thick with compost.

The key with ACT is the pleasant wine or yeast smell or the bubbling foam action on top of the tea. Making ACT is like cooking. It is part experimentation, part science, and part art! Mainly just have fun doing it!

Keep in mind that ACT is a powerful aerobic biostimulant as both a foliar and soil application. However there is nothing wrong with using a very diluted slightly stinky aerated tea, or very diluted non-aerated tea as only a soil drench.

I only use ACT recipes as both foliar and soil drenches. I don't trust strong anaerobic teas on my crop foliages. Only on the soil to feed beneficial soil microbes and earthworms.

Happy Gardening!

Author:  tnassar [ Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:45 pm ]
Post subject: 

Thanks for the info Captain!

Author:  tnassar [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:30 pm ]
Post subject:  smelly ACT

If you over feed your tea, is there any hope for it, or do you just start over?

Since you mentioned it having a yeasty smell, I decided to sprinkled a little yest in the bucket before I start over.

Author:  CaptainCompostAL [ Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:51 am ]
Post subject: 

Keep in mind that tea that is too stinky or too strong, is still ok, if used very, very, very diluted as a mere liquid fertilizer for only soil drench applications, or as a nitrogen/microbial activator for hot active compost piles. That way if there is any potential mild toxins or pathogens left in these style teas, there is no harm done in how it is used.

However aerated compost tea recipes (ACT) are designed to be much more than a mere liquid natural fertilizer. ACT is a powerful biostimulant.

Just like regular mature compost, a good aerobic ACT is first a food source for aerobic microbes and earthworms and a soil conditioner and disease fighter. The beneficial organisms digest the proteins and carbohydrates in the compost or ACT, and convert it into soluble available nutrients to plants, at a controlled rate, at a timing when the crops need them.

Unlike mature compost, a good aerobic ACT can do this even through the foliage cell membranes of crops via foliar applications!

To me ACT is not the same as an anaerobic or non-aerated compost tea, nor herbal tea, nor grain tea, nor manure tea, nor any organic tea used for gardening made from protein and carbohydrate food sources.

You can still feed plants like a fertilizer with inferior style tea recipes and applications, but the number one job of any sustainable or organic farmer is to feed and condition the soil, and feed the beneficial aerobic microbes and earthworms in the soils first.

Happy Gardening!

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