ULOG 091 - Brewing Aerated Compost Tea

I was brewing some Aerated Compost Tea today or should I say Aerated Vermicompost Tea because I was using some worm compost!

What is Aerated Compost Tea or ACT?

It's not a tea for drinking! It's just the process of steeping some finished compost in dechlorinated water (or rainwater) while aerating and feeding the micro-organisms found in the compost. The goal is to breed (multiply) three basic group of soil micro-organisms: bacteria, protozoa and fungi. Those micro-organisms are part of the soil food web participating in the cycling of nutrient in the soil. In nature, those guys are the reason why plants have food!

Check out my other post about "What makes vermicompost a good fertiliser? A little intro to the soil food web"

^{A nematode through a microscope}

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There are arguments about whether ACT is really useful, in my personal humble opinion, I do see good results and I think there is no harm in adding ACT to the garden and it is a good way to get the best out of a small amount of vermicompost available. With just a litre of vermicompost I'm brewing 27 litres of ACT which is then further diluted into 60 to 100 litres which I then use with a watering tank or in a hand spray on the leaves.

To brew some Aerated Compost Tea you need a container such as a 20L bucket, fill it with rainwater or leave tap water for 24 hours for the chlorine to evaporate. Then add some compost or worm compost, the food for the bacteria and fungi then aerate the mix. There are several ways to aerate:

some people use a stick and stir the mixture for 5 minutes every hour or so
you can use an aquarium pump with a air stone, however, due to the power of such an air pump the level of dissolved oxygen would not be high enough for a 20L bucket and there is risk of the ACT going anaerobic
you can use an vortex system like the one in my video above

For detailed info, head to Microbe Organics website by Tim Wilson, it's a bit long to read and a bit messy too but it contains all you need to know about ACT.

I also have couple of posts on my pre-steem blog:

Previously on my Ulog:

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