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Stanwood, Washington

Is there any drawbacks to adding some ferts to your compost tea before you apply it. I don't want to over water early in the year and wondered if I could Add my fish fertilizer to the teas after its done brewing and put it all on at once.

4/22/2013 9:50:01 PM

Rhode Island

no prob with adding fish or kelp type organic ferts after the brew is ready to apply.

4/23/2013 8:17:49 AM

Seattle, WA

I would politely disagree. My experience with adding finish to a brew at the end of brewing cycle causes dramatic dips in dissolved oxygen levels. My preference is always to spray it without additional inputs.

4/23/2013 6:57:31 PM

Muddy Waters

Sounds like Captain is soil drenching & Tad is spraying,Two different applications. My 2 cents is it can be a little stronger on a soil drench & I would go real easy on adding too much, spraying on young leafs.I just jacked mine high with nitro & soil drenched all my compost piles and I will do this twice a year to speed up the breakdown cycle.I will also add higher amounts of manure to compost so it will be perfect next year.

4/24/2013 7:40:38 AM

Rhode Island

tad12
i guess in a shitty soil soup system there could be a disolved oxygen levels problem. but only if your mixing that soil soup with a paddle or stick.
in our system there is maximum air flow into the mix so a lack of oxygen is not even a consideration.
pap

4/24/2013 6:20:50 PM

Seattle, WA

Pap,

You're missing my point entirely. Adding fish to an aerated compost tea that is "finished" before application will cause your dissolved oxygen levels to drop dramatically in a period of minutes.

Have you ever tested your system with a dissolved oxygen meter or are you just guessing? What is "maximum air flow" even mean? Ever looked at it under a microscope? And I never said your system was shitty, calm down.

Regardless of a soil or foliar application, the fish will cause the brew to go bad very quickly. You can email Tim Wilson at [email protected] if you want documentation of this affect as he is the one who discovered this.

Keep in mind that all of this is under the assumption that the "finished" tea actually has a lot of microorganisms and it's just a bucket of brown water.

4/26/2013 1:41:32 PM