Re: Microbes...you gotta see this one !!!

OhioGardener 5/19/2019, 9:17 am

has55 wrote:How many beds do you have in your garden?

Five. Three are 3.5' x 14', one 3.5' x 17', and one 3.5' x 10'.

has55 5/19/2019, 9:19 am

how are you spreading your teas?

OhioGardener 5/19/2019, 9:30 am

has55 wrote:how are you spreading your teas?

Depends (no, not those!). If doing a soil saturation, like I did early this spring, I use a water can with a rosette head to cover & soak the soil. If applying to the plants, I use a tank sprayer so it can get both the top & bottom of the leaves. In the years since I've been using compost tea, the incidents of insect infestations has dropped to near zero and vegetable production has increased significantly.

has55 5/19/2019, 9:52 am

OhioGardener wrote:
has55 wrote:how are you spreading your teas?

Depends (no, not those!). If doing a soil saturation, like I did early this spring, I use a water can with a rosette head to cover & soak the soil. If applying to the plants, I use a tank sprayer so it can get both the top & bottom of the leaves.

Thank you.

In the years since I've been using compost tea, the incidents of insect infestations has dropped to near zero and vegetable production has increased significantly.

Wow, that's awesome.

How often do you put down the sprays or soil soakings?

OhioGardener 5/19/2019, 10:27 am

has55 wrote:
OhioGardener wrote:How often do you put down the sprays or soil soakings?

I try to apply the compost tea monthly, from spring seeding through harvest. This year I have had a little extra use of it - I added Biochar to the beds, so I made a lot of compost tea to activate the Biochar before incorporating it into the soil. Then I did another soil saturation of compost tea about a week after adding the Biochar to ensure there was a lot of microbial activity with the Biochar addition. This year I am considering adding EM-1 to the mix, but still considering....

has55 5/19/2019, 12:02 pm

thank you.

OhioGardener 5/19/2019, 12:30 pm

An important thing to remember when using a tank sprayer to apply compost tea is to ensure it has large enough filter and spray head to allow beneficial fungi through. Most sprayers sold in the big box stores are designed for a fine mist to apply pesticides, herbicides, etc., and they will shred any beneficial fungi that is in the compost tea. One designed as a concrete sprayer works great, such as the Chapin 1949 Concrete Sprayer.

has55 5/19/2019, 5:18 pm

that's a good sprayer. Reminds me of the firemen sprayer we saw on TV in our youth days.

OhioGardener 5/19/2019, 7:01 pm

has55 wrote:that's a good sprayer. Reminds me of the firemen sprayer we saw on TV in our youth days.

has55 5/21/2019, 3:03 pm

After watching the below youtube video, I decided to move away from my 40 yr old sears sump pump because it was too weak for spraying my compost tea. It works with a short 25 ft hose but limited me to selected areas. because I had a large volume of water to spray, I had to do it in short time intervals with a smaller volume of water because the garbage can was too heavy to move around once filled with water.
I bought the Wayne transfer water pump. So far I like it, it's well built, but have not used it. I will try this afternoon or Wednesday. I'll put up an update.

OhioGardener 5/21/2019, 3:29 pm

It will be interesting seeing your results, Has55. I am in the process of building a new compost tea brewer to replace my aerated one with and airlift design (called a Microbulator by Tim Wilson), similar to the one in this video. I picked up a free 35 gallon brine tank from the local water softener guy, and I'm fitting it with the 1.25" pipes to create the uplift. I have an EcoAir5 Commercial Air Pump that should give it plenty of air, and I have a tank concrete sprayer to spray the finished compost. I hope to get everything finished within the next week or two.

has55 5/22/2019, 12:15 am

OG, Keep us updated.

has55 5/30/2019, 12:11 am

I enjoyed ths one. Each time I learn more info. The food increase by 300 to 1000%.

OhioGardener 6/7/2019, 6:36 pm

Has55, I found out how not to build a compost tea brewer! I rebuilt my old 15-gallon air bubbler compost tea brewer, to turn it into a airlift-type brewer. This was a fairly simple change, just replace the 1/2" PVC tubes with holes drilled every 1/2" that provided the bubbles, with the 1.25" PVC used by the airlift design. However, the airlift design did not work as well with that little 15-gallon brine tank. Apparently because the tank was rectangular instead of round, it caused the water to form waves which not only resulted in splashing a lot of the water out of the tank, but it also resulted in a lot of the compost and alfalfa meal sticking to the side of the tank just above where the water waves were hitting. As an engineer often says, it worked as designed, but not as desired.

If I can find a 15-gallon round tank, I may try replacing the rectangular one and see if it works better. Meanwhile, I'll stick with the 30-gallon one that did work well. Meanwhile, I made a short video showing how it didn't work as planned....

has55 6/11/2019, 2:59 pm

OhioGardener wrote:An important thing to remember when using a tank sprayer to apply compost tea is to ensure it has large enough filter and spray head to allow beneficial fungi through. Most sprayers sold in the big box stores are designed for a fine mist to apply pesticides, herbicides, etc., and they will shred any beneficial fungi that is in the compost tea. One designed as a concrete sprayer works great, such as the Chapin 1949 Concrete Sprayer.

Do you wash this sprayer insides out by hand after spaying the tea?

can you make a video of you applying your tea with this pump?

Does it have a filter?

do you use a special nozzle for spraying or does it have just one type of nozzle?

**Kelejan** 6/11/2019, 3:12 pm

"SAVE OUR FUNGI" from being shredded. Would you like to be shredded?

has55 6/12/2019, 1:05 pm

Kelejan wrote:"SAVE OUR FUNGI" from being shredded. Would you like to be shredded?

I thought about the shredded fungi Jeff'seff's book, but decided to use the power pump for large area anyway. I know plenty microbes survived because I can see the change in the plants. But I decided to cut that application to once a month and used the concrete Chapin sprayer as Jeff suggested for the small areas. I won't dilute the five gallons of compost tea. I waiting for OG to answer m questions before moving forward.

OhioGardener 6/12/2019, 9:05 pm

has55 wrote:
Kelejan wrote:"SAVE OUR FUNGI" from being shredded. Would you like to be shredded?
I thought about the shredded fungi Jeff'seff's book, but decided to use the power pump for large area anyway. I know plenty microbes survived because I can see the change in the plants. But I decided to cut that application to once a month and used the concrete Chapin sprayer as Jeff suggested for the small areas. I won't dilute the five gallons of compost tea. I waiting for OG to answer m questions before moving forward.

Sorry, Has55! I did a detailed reply yesterday, but it seems to be gone now. I don't see it anywhere. I'll re-do the reply soon. As far as shredding the fungi by spraying, I am not too concerned about that. Mr. Tim Wilson did a video a few months ago showing how the fungi survived a impeller pump, strainer, and sprinkler system, so I feel fairly confident they easily survive my tank pump sprayer. If you haven't seen the video he did, you might find it interesting.

OhioGardener 6/12/2019, 9:29 pm

has55 wrote:
OhioGardener wrote:An important thing to remember when using a tank sprayer to apply compost tea is to ensure it has large enough filter and spray head to allow beneficial fungi through. Most sprayers sold in the big box stores are designed for a fine mist to apply pesticides, herbicides, etc., and they will shred any beneficial fungi that is in the compost tea. One designed as a concrete sprayer works great, such as the Chapin 1949 Concrete Sprayer.
Do you wash this sprayer insides out by hand after spaying the tea?

can you make a video of you applying your tea with this pump?

Does it have a filter?

do you use a special nozzle for spraying or does it have just one type of nozzle?

Yes, I wash the sprayer insides out after spraying tea each time. I add a few drops of Dawn detergent to the tank, fill about half full of water, and shake well. Then I pressurize it and spray some of the soap solution through the nozzle. Then I empty the tank and rinse well. The final step is adding some water and pressurizing so the nozzle can be cleaned of soap.

I don't have any way of making a video right now, since I don't have a tripod or a way to mount the cameara. But, I do have a 14 year old neighbor boy that is always looking for something to do, so I may see what I can do.

The sprayer has an in tank anti-clog filter, which lets pretty good sized particles through it. But, I use a 5-gallon paint strainer to filter the compost tea when I drain it from the compost tea brewer, so there isn't anything to clog the sprayer when I pour it into the tank.

The sprayer came with two fan nozzles - a .5 GPM and a 1.0 GPM. I used the .5 GPM fan nozzle, and it did a nice job of applying the compost tea.

I hope I covered everything...

has55 6/12/2019, 10:56 pm

OhioGardener wrote:
has55 wrote:
OhioGardener wrote:An important thing to remember when using a tank sprayer to apply compost tea is to ensure it has large enough filter and spray head to allow beneficial fungi through. Most sprayers sold in the big box stores are designed for a fine mist to apply pesticides, herbicides, etc., and they will shred any beneficial fungi that is in the compost tea. One designed as a concrete sprayer works great, such as the Chapin 1949 Concrete Sprayer.
Do you wash this sprayer insides out by hand after spaying the tea?

can you make a video of you applying your tea with this pump?

Does it have a filter?

do you use a special nozzle for spraying or does it have just one type of nozzle?

Yes, I wash the sprayer insides out after spraying tea each time. I add a few drops of Dawn detergent to the tank, fill about half full of water, and shake well. Then I pressurize it and spray some of the soap solution through the nozzle. Then I empty the tank and rinse well. The final step is adding some water and pressurizing so the nozzle can be cleaned of soap.

I don't have any way of making a video right now, since I don't have a tripod or a way to mount the cameara. But, I do have a 14 year old neighbor boy that is always looking for something to do, so I may see what I can do.

The sprayer has an in tank anti-clog filter, which lets pretty good sized particles through it. But, I use a 5-gallon paint strainer to filter the compost tea when I drain it from the compost tea brewer, so there isn't anything to clog the sprayer when I pour it into the tank.

The sprayer came with two fan nozzles - a .5 GPM and a 1.0 GPM. I used the .5 GPM fan nozzle, and it did a nice job of applying the compost tea.

I hope I covered everything...

Yes, sir , you did. Thank you.

has55 6/12/2019, 10:57 pm

Chapin 1949 Concrete Sprayer.
Where did you buy it?

OhioGardener 6/13/2019, 8:19 am

has55 wrote:Chapin 1949 Concrete Sprayer.
Where did you buy it?

I bought it from this company - they had the best price, and had free shipping:

https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/chapin-concrete-sprayer-1949

has55 6/13/2019, 10:08 am

OhioGardener wrote:
has55 wrote:Chapin 1949 Concrete Sprayer.
Where did you buy it?

I bought it from this company - they had the best price, and had free shipping:

https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/chapin-concrete-sprayer-1949

I looked at them last night.
Thank you.

has55 7/18/2019, 6:59 pm

OhioGardener wrote:
has55 wrote:Chapin 1949 Concrete Sprayer.
Where did you buy it?

I bought it from this company - they had the best price, and had free shipping:

https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/chapin-concrete-sprayer-1949

Used this sprayer last evening, it works so well. There was even spray pattern on the leaves and it seems the amount of compost tea went farther. I made five gallons and sprayed 2 gallons from the bucket. When I went back to get more I decided to empty the content from the bucket instead of dipping it out like I did the first time. There was some residual particle left at the bottom of the bucket that got past the paint strainer that I used inside of the bucket during the brewing cycle. It seems like some of these particles got in the spray tank and plugged the nozzle.
OG, have you experience this and do you have any ideas on how to prevent it? It seems I need to strain the tea, but my concerns will I be separating the microbes from the tea. Or should I just continue dipping the tea out?

OhioGardener 7/18/2019, 7:39 pm

has55 wrote:Used this sprayer last evening, it works so well. There was even spray pattern on the leaves and it seems the amount of compost tea went farther. I made five gallons and sprayed 2 gallons from the bucket. When I went back to get more I decided to empty the content from the bucket instead of dipping it out like I did the first time. There was some residual particle left at the bottom of the bucket that got past the paint strainer that I used inside of the bucket during the brewing cycle. It seems like some of these particles got in the spray tank and plugged the nozzle.
OG, have you experience this and do you have any ideas on how to prevent it? It seems I need to strain the tea, but my concerns will I be separating the microbes from the tea. Or should I just continue dipping the tea out?

I had this happen once when I tried to squeeze the paint strainer to get more liquid out of it - it apparently forced some of the compost particles through the strainer cloth. When the nozzle got plugged, I just unscrewed it, tapped it on a solid surface to knock out the material, sprayed a small amount of liquid out of the spray wand, and then put the nozzle back on and continued spraying.

When I put the 5 gallon paint strainer on a clean 5 gallon bucket and drained the compost tea from the tank into the bucket, then just lifted the strainer out of the bucket without compressing it, it never plugged the sprayer nozzle.

I have contemplated making a screen "filter" out of a piece of window screen so that it is about 1" long and put it over the tube in the bottom of the sprayer tank, attached with a small stainless steel screw clamp. Haven't done it yet, but if I experience more incidents of the nozzle getting plugged, I'll work on that. Based on what I read on Tim Wilson's page, I don't think it would damage the microbes very much.

A screen filter shaped like this, but without the rim so that it can be clamped over the pickup tube:

Microbes...you gotta see this one !!! - Page 11 Screen10

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