When does the compost tea go bad??

I have some compost tea that I made with kelp, molasses, rock dust from pumice bag, rice water and some happy frog soil brewed up for 48 hours. After brewing I checked the PPM. The PPM was too high (1200) so I dilute it down to about 500PPM with dechlorinated water. So I have a lots of tea left out. Should I be bubbling them until I finish using them? Or can it just be covered up and sit like that? Do they ever go bad? Anyone has answer to shelf life of compost teas?

This is how it looks after sitting for about a week without aeration. 22010D78-60DE-443F-A1CC-3713C4348143.jpeg
 
I would toss and restart. You need to keep the mixture bubbling until you use it all. If you have some left over, water your vegetable garden with it or keep adding air to it until the next feeding.
I’m gonna try to bubble it for another 48 hours to get rid of some bad bacteria I guess and I’ll see how it looks / smell...
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
Toss that out. It’s anaerobic by now. If you want to store teas you have to keep them bubbling. 48 hrs is just about the limit; try to bubble teas 30-36 hours and serve...all of it.
Don’t worry about ppms; teas do not burn unlike synthetic nutes would. Aacts are not the same as dissolved salts; there will be a lot of particulate matter in it. That is what you are measuring; so don’t bother checking ppm or ph just bubble it and give it to them after 36hrs. Don’t dilute unless you want to stretch it out to more plants but if you do serve it right away. Anything stored needs continuous aeration. Only takes a few hours to “go bad.”
Next time don’t throw in rock dust or HF soil; rice water is probably ok but unnecessary. Use this simple old school tried and true recipe...to make 3-5 gal of tea
Clean water
1 cup WORM CASTINGS
1/2 cup kelp meal
1 tsp molasses

Optional....
1 tblspn Liquid fish emulsion

That’s it ...sorry to shout but worm casting is the most important ingredient.
 

SpawnOfVader

Well-Known Member
Toss that out. It’s anaerobic by now. If you want to store teas you have to keep them bubbling. 48 hrs is just about the limit; try to bubble teas 30-36 hours and serve...all of it.
Don’t worry about ppms; teas do not burn unlike synthetic nutes would. Aacts are not the same as dissolved salts; there will be a lot of particulate matter in it. That is what you are measuring; so don’t bother checking ppm or ph just bubble it and give it to them after 36hrs. Don’t dilute unless you want to stretch it out to more plants but if you do serve it right away. Anything stored needs continuous aeration. Only takes a few hours to “go bad.”
Next time don’t throw in rock dust or HF soil; rice water is probably ok but unnecessary. Use this simple old school tried and true recipe...to make 3-5 gal of tea
Clean water
1 cup WORM CASTINGS
1/2 cup kelp meal
1 tsp molasses

Optional....
1 tblspn Liquid fish emulsion

That’s it ...sorry to shout but worm casting is the most important ingredient.
What's the benefit to kelp meal in the recipe?

I do vermicompost, finished hot compost, emulsion/hydrolysate (if I have any in stock), blackstrap molasses and water.

Also experimenting with brewing "Roots Organic" terp tea and blackstrap molasses
 
Toss that out. It’s anaerobic by now. If you want to store teas you have to keep them bubbling. 48 hrs is just about the limit; try to bubble teas 30-36 hours and serve...all of it.
Don’t worry about ppms; teas do not burn unlike synthetic nutes would. Aacts are not the same as dissolved salts; there will be a lot of particulate matter in it. That is what you are measuring; so don’t bother checking ppm or ph just bubble it and give it to them after 36hrs. Don’t dilute unless you want to stretch it out to more plants but if you do serve it right away. Anything stored needs continuous aeration. Only takes a few hours to “go bad.”
Next time don’t throw in rock dust or HF soil; rice water is probably ok but unnecessary. Use this simple old school tried and true recipe...to make 3-5 gal of tea
Clean water
1 cup WORM CASTINGS
1/2 cup kelp meal
1 tsp molasses

Optional....
1 tblspn Liquid fish emulsion

That’s it ...sorry to shout but worm casting is the most important ingredient.
The ph and ppm does not matter at all in organic teas? I didn’t have any worm-castings available and just thought I can get by with HF since it has good stuff in it haha. I will toss it out and make a fresh batch with just kelp and molasses I guess.

On that batch I posted. I added some grow solution and bloom like less than 1 ml per gallon. Is mixing nute solutions to organic tea any good? Or does it harm the microbiology?
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
The ph and ppm does not matter at all in organic teas? I didn’t have any worm-castings available and just thought I can get by with HF since it has good stuff in it haha. I will toss it out and make a fresh batch with just kelp and molasses I guess.

On that batch I posted. I added some grow solution and bloom like less than 1 ml per gallon. Is mixing nute solutions to organic tea any good? Or does it harm the microbiology?
HF has EWC in it, so it's not bad. Straight EWC is better like Drysift said. Compost is good too.
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
What's the benefit to kelp meal in the recipe?

I do vermicompost, finished hot compost, emulsion/hydrolysate (if I have any in stock), blackstrap molasses and water.

Also experimenting with brewing "Roots Organic" terp tea and blackstrap molasses
Kelp has meager npk value which is good but the real benefit is the probiotics that are activated with hydration. That’s why it’s a staple in many aact recipes
 
Fuck that organic gatekeeper bs...brew away. You get to understand stuff by trying. Why did you learn to drive a car when you clearly had no business being behind the wheel the first time?
So stuff like GH nutes can be mixed in slightly or that’s not really a thing? Thanks for being nice to the newbie here lol
 

kratos015

Well-Known Member
So stuff like GH nutes can be mixed in slightly or that’s not really a thing? Thanks for being nice to the newbie here lol
Synthetic nutes will kill the microbes you're trying to cultivate.

Not only should you trash that tea (if you haven't already), but I would highly recommend sanitizing the bucket before you attempt to brew anything else. Use hydrogen peroxide or 91% ISO alcohol, disinfect the bucket and the air stones as well. Set your airstones up in a bowl full of hydrogen peroxide. Clean everything.

Drysift is definitely pointing you in the right direction. Take his advice, start over, and use his recipe.

As he said, castings are important but if you can't source good EWC then good compost will compensate.

When brewing a "compost tea" you're effectively growing a vast web of microscopic organisms that eat the compost+molasses, the beneficial microbes will then proceed to multiply greatly over the 24 hours of "brewing" it. The idea behind a compost tea isn't necessarily to feed your plants, its to get a jumpstart on the microbiology. Then, you in turn pour this liquid full of microbes into any soil and the microbes will go to town on any organic material within your pots.



That said, teas are superfluous IMO. Simply top dressing with high quality compost + organic amendments will achieve the same result, just over a slower period of time. Nutrient teas can cause more harm than good and I recommend against them. In organics, a religious top dress regimen is key. I top dress every 1-2 weeks, personally. Sprinkle a Dr. Earth organic amendment blend on the soil, then cover it with quality compost. Water as normal, rinse and repeat.

Should you encounter heavy feeders, Fish Emulsion (for veg) and Fish Hydrolysate (bloom) are the only products I use personally.

Less is more.
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
Synthetic nutes will kill the microbes you're trying to cultivate.

Not only should you trash that tea (if you haven't already), but I would highly recommend sanitizing the bucket before you attempt to brew anything else. Use hydrogen peroxide or 91% ISO alcohol, disinfect the bucket and the air stones as well. Set your airstones up in a bowl full of hydrogen peroxide. Clean everything.

Drysift is definitely pointing you in the right direction. Take his advice, start over, and use his recipe.

As he said, castings are important but if you can't source good EWC then good compost will compensate.

When brewing a "compost tea" you're effectively growing a vast web of microscopic organisms that eat the compost+molasses, the beneficial microbes will then proceed to multiply greatly over the 24 hours of "brewing" it. The idea behind a compost tea isn't necessarily to feed your plants, its to get a jumpstart on the microbiology. Then, you in turn pour this liquid full of microbes into any soil and the microbes will go to town on any organic material within your pots.



That said, teas are superfluous IMO. Simply top dressing with high quality compost + organic amendments will achieve the same result, just over a slower period of time. Nutrient teas can cause more harm than good and I recommend against them. In organics, a religious top dress regimen is key. I top dress every 1-2 weeks, personally. Sprinkle a Dr. Earth organic amendment blend on the soil, then cover it with quality compost. Water as normal, rinse and repeat.

Should you encounter heavy feeders, Fish Emulsion (for veg) and Fish Hydrolysate (bloom) are the only products I use personally.

Less is more.
I always love your posts. You should post a lot more, lol.
 

SpawnOfVader

Well-Known Member
So stuff like GH nutes can be mixed in slightly or that’s not really a thing? Thanks for being nice to the newbie here lol
There are products that recommend brewing before feeding (like what I'm doing with Terp Tea) but those are fertilizers with beneficial microbe cultures that will benefit from it. (I haven't personally examined the microbes/taken cultures to prove this myself)

I was top dressing this mix originally but it's way more convenient to just dump it through my drip system and flush with clean water for a bit after.
 
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