Brewing Aerated Compost Tea: - Compost Council of Canada

Brewing Aerated
Compost Tea:
Factors that Impact Microbial
Composition in Compost Tea
Sonja Peters
CropHealth Advising & Research
Kelowna, BC

Dr. Elaine R. Ingham
Soil Food Web, Inc.
Corvallis, Oregon
http://www.soilfoodweb.com/

1) What is compost tea?
Non-aerated compost tea
- compost extract
- compost slurry
- compost steepage
Aerated compost tea

Aerated Compost Tea
How

2) Why use compost tea?
Tea and Health Benefits
A cup of hot tea = A cup of good health

Components of soil foodweb
Fruit crop ecology and management», Michigan State University, 2002

2) Why use compost tea?
Disease Suppression and Plant Health
Damping off
Botrytis mould
powdery mildew

2) Why use compost tea?

2) Why use compost tea?

Picture – parts of a Bob bitti
Brewing Machine

Application
Foliar sprays
Soil drenches
Seed Treatment
Aeration

Comparative Brewing Trails

Why did we do this testing?
Not a lot of research done by scientists.
A lot of research conducted by the
compost tea brewing companies and the
results are “secret”.
We think compost tea is a useful product.

Presentation Objective
At the end of this presentation you will be
familiar some of the factors that impact
microbial numbers in compost tea.
You will be able to take the knowledge
and develop a recipe to brew compost tea
on your own.

Brewers
The “standard recipe”
Bob’s Bitti 5 US gallons, 4 brewers
K.I.S. 5 US gallons, 1 brewer
Procedure
15 liters tap water, actively aerated for 1 hour, additives
Actively aerated for 21 hours (compost out after 5 hours)
Samples to SFI Canada (analysis 48 to 72 hours later)
Recipe (from Bob’s Brewers)
Composted yard waste 485 grams (Kelowna landfill)
Wormcastings 285 grams (Nurturing Nature Organics)
Humic acid 30 ml (extract, Tecologic Products, AB)
Seaweed 30 ml ( (Ascophyllum n., , Logic Alliance, NS)
Fish fertiliser 15 ml (North Atlantic fish, NS)

Standard Recipe
Bob’s Brewers
http://www.nettime.com/bobsbrew/products.html
Seattle, Washington

Compost tea experiments
Testing at Soil FoodWeb Inc., Vulcan Alberta, 2006
Date
Jan 16
Jan 23
Feb 06
Feb 13
Feb 27
Mar 06
Mar 20
Mar 27
Apr 3
Apr 7
May 29
Lab report
08-00160
08-00161
08-00163
08-00166
08-00170
08-00171
08-00174
08-00179
08-00182
08-00190
08-00252
Variation in recipe
Varying amounts of humic acid
Varying amounts of seaweed
Varying amounts of fish fertiliser
Ingredients but no compost
Compost with one ingredient only
Compost alone or worm castings alone
Varying duration of water aeration
Using different composts
Varying duration of compost activation
Varying length of brewing
Varying amounts of RootShield

Compost tea experiments
Testing at Soil FoodWeb Inc., Vulcan Alberta, 2007
Date
Feb. 26
March 5
March 12
April 9
April 16
April 24
Nov 19
Lab report
08-00358
08-00360
08-00364
08-00373
08-00376
08-00381
08-00455
Variation in recipe
Using old (2006) worm castings
Using new (2007) worm castings
Using a different worm casting products
Compost activation with baby oatmeal
Varying temperature
Fermentation – Varying ratios
Using different water sources

Compost tea experiments
Testing at Soil FoodWeb Inc., Vulcan Alberta,
2008 and 2009
Date
Feb. 25
March 3
March 10
Jan. 26
Feb. 2
Feb. 16
Lab report
08-000464
08-001078
08-001080
08-001369
08-001378
08-001387
Variation in recipe
Brewer size
Home made brewers
Varying amounts of juice and pulp
Varying amounts of Yucca
Using different water sources
Activation with Yucca

Results
1) Quality control
2) Impact of compost activation
3) Impact of humic acid
4) Impact of seaweed
5) Impact of fish fertiliser
6) Impact of brewing duration
7) Impact of a home made brewers

Results
1) Quality control
2) Impact of compost activation
3) Impact of humic acid
4) Impact of seaweed
5) Impact of fish fertiliser
6) Impact of brewing duration
7) Impact of a home made brewers

Microbial content of compost tea
prepared with K.I.S. brewer and standard recipe
Results from Soil FoodWeb Canada, Jan to May 2006
Date Bacteria Fungi Flagellate Amoeba Ciliate
(total, ppm) (total, ppm) (# / ml) (# / ml) (# / ml)
16 Jan 7552 20 13863 575
23 Jan 12032 25 4606 8318 2
6 Feb 7168 34 5753 831 4
13 Feb 6912 44 --- --- ---
27 Feb 6784 39 2772 831 0
06 Mar 8704 15 13863 575 0
20 Mar 6272 25 31644 57536 4
27 Mar 11520 28 13863 31644 4
3 Apr 5760 27 57536 4263 4

Results
1) Quality control
2) Impact of compost activation
3) Impact of humic acid
4) Impact of seaweed
5) Impact of fish fertiliser
6) Impact of brewing duration
7) Impact of a home made brewers

Pre-activation of compost
Impact on fungi, results from Soil FoodWeb Canada, Feb 2006
Amount of baby oatmeal, activation 4 days, Bob’s Brewer 15 liters
250
200
Total fungui biomass in ppm
150
100
50
0
Target 0 tbsp 6 tbsp 24 tbsp 48 tbsp

Results
1) Quality control
2) Impact of compost activation
3) Impact of humic acid
4) Impact of seaweed
5) Impact of fish fertiliser
6) Impact of brewing duration
7) Impact of a home made brewers

About Humic Acid
Article: “Effect of Humic Acids on Growth of
Annual Ornamental Seedling Plugs”
Evans and Li. 2003. HortTechnology
“Seedlings grown on [humic acid]-treated
germination papers had higher dry root
weights than those grown on [deionized
water] or [nutrient control] -treated
germination papers.”

Humic acid in compost tea
Impact on total fungi, results from Soil FoodWeb Canada, Jan 2006
Tecologic Multi-dynamic Humic extract in Bob’s Brewer 15 liters
100
Total fungi biomass in ppm
50
0
Target No humic Humic 15 ml Humic 30 ml Humic 120 ml
Standard

Humic acid in compost tea
Impact on total fungi, resuls from Soil FoodWeb Canada, Jan 2006
Tecologic Multi-dynamic Humic extract in Bob’s Brewer 15 liters
Treatment
0 ml
Bacteria
(total,
ppm)
8576
Fungi
(total,
ppm)
23
Flagellate
(# / ml)
5753
Amoeba
(# / ml)
831
Ciliates
(# / ml)
0
15 ml
10752
19
5753
1386
0
30 ml
8960
72
5753
575
0
120 ml
9344
15
5753
3570
0

Humic acid in compost tea
Impact on total fungi, results from Soil FoodWeb Canada, Jan 2006
Tecologic Multi-dynamic Humic extract in Bob’s Brewer 15 liters
Treatment
Standard
tea recipe
Humic
acid only
Bacteria
(total,
ppm)
8448
25
Fungi
(total,
ppm)
25
0
Flagellate
(# / ml)
---
---
Amoeba
(# / ml)
---
---
Ciliates
(# / ml)
---
---

Results
1) Quality control
2) Impact of compost activation
3) Impact of humic acid
4) Impact of seaweed
5) Impact of fish fertiliser
6) Impact of brewing duration
7) Impact of a home made brewers

About Seaweed
Article: “Identification of Auxins in a
Commercial Seaweed Concentrate”
Crouch et al. 1992. J Plant Physiology
“It is well documented that commercial
seaweed preparations improve plant growth.
Many of these effects have been attributed to
the presence of growth substances,
particularly the cytokinins …”

Seaweed in compost tea
Impact on total fungi, results from Soil FoodWeb Canada, Jan 2006
Turbo SE 0-4-4 ( (Ascophyllum n.) ) in Bob’s Brewer 15 liters
100
Total fungi biomass in ppm
50
0
Target No kelp Kelp 15 ml Kelp 30 ml Kelp 120 ml
Standard

Results
1) Quality control
2) Impact of compost activation
3) Impact of humic acid
4) Impact of seaweed
5) Impact of fish fertiliser
6) Impact of brewing duration
7) Impact of a home made brewers

About Fish Emulsion
Article: “Suppression of Rhizoctonia and Pythium
damping-off of radish and cucumber seedlings by
addition of fish emulsion to peat mix or soil”
Abbasi, Conn, Lazarovits 2004. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology
“These results suggest that fish emulsion has
both nutritive value for plant growth as well as
disease suppressive properties.”

Fish fertiliser in compost tea
Impact on total fungi, results from Soil FoodWeb Canada, Jan 2006
Turbo SE 0-4-4 ( (Ascophyllum n.) ) in Bob’s Brewer 15 liters
100
Total fungi biomass in ppm
50
0
Target No fish Fish 7.5 ml Fish 15 ml Fish 60 ml
Standard

Fish fertiliser in compost tea
In-house EC testing with Hannah digital pens, January 2006
Nutrifish SE 2-3-1 ( (Ascophyllum n.) ) in Bob’s Brewer 15 liters
1
Electrical Conductivity value
0.5
0
Water only No fish Fish 7.5 ml Fish 15 ml Fish 60 ml
Standard

Compost tea: nutrient quality
K.I.S. 5-gallon brewer + K.I.S compost and ingredients
Testing at Griffin Laboratories, Kelowna, 2004
Analysis
pH
Conductivity
Nitrogen (ppm)
Phosphorus (ppm)
Potassium (ppm)
Tap water
(City of
Kelowna)
7.6
0.20
0
1.1
7.9
Compost tea
(K.I.S. commercial tea)
5.6
2.70
118.0
10.3
418.6

Results
1) Quality control
2) Impact of compost activation
3) Impact of humic acid
4) Impact of seaweed
5) Impact of fish fertiliser
6) Impact of brewing duration
7) Impact of a home made brewers

Duration of compost tea brewing
Impact on flagellates, results from Soil FoodWeb Canada, Feb 2006
Standard recipe, samples collected at intervals, stored in a refrigerator
150000
Number of flagellates / ml solution
100000
50000
0
1 hour 5 hours 12 hours 21 hours 48 hours 70 hours
Standard

Components of soil foodweb
Fruit crop ecology and management», Michigan State University, 2002

Results
1) Quality control
2) Impact of compost activation
3) Impact of humic acid
4) Impact of seaweed
5) Impact of fish fertiliser
6) Impact of brewing duration
7) Impact of a home made brewers

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/
dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/r
ecycle/Tea/tea1.htm

Home Made Brewers
Impact on total fungi, results from Soil FoodWeb Canada, Jan 2006
Different 5 gallon brewer
25
Total fungi biomass in ppm
20
15
10
5
0
Target Bob's Bitti Pen. State Teaming Jaybee
Standard

http://www.simplici-tea.com/
http://www.composttea.com/

Summary of Results
1) Compost quality is important.
Quality of tea varies from each brew.
2) Activation of compost increases fungi.
3) Humic acid increases total fungi.
4) Kelp (seaweed) increases total fungi. Has EC.
5) Fish emulsion increases total fungi.
6) The longer the duration the more protozoa.
7) Home made brewers work, however, results
vary.

Overall Summary
1) There are many factors that impact
a specific microbe in compost tea.
2) Knowing which factor increases, for
example, fungi or protozoa, allows us
to create different recipes, depending
on what microbe that is needed.

What’s next
Application trials
Where is the application of compost
tea useful?

Thank you
Sonja Peters
CropHealth Advising & Research
Kelowna, BC
sonja@crophealth.com
http://www.crophealth.com/