Does Compost Tea Work?

1. Brilliant video, well done, In my opinion!
2. Another comedy video made by our friend up in Canada. Disputing research done by people who just happened to be highly trained in the field and who are also well respected. What a joke.
3. Lots of opinions. I don't see any links to peer reviewed science.
4. good methodical testing. would be good to follow that up with a plant control. two beds with the same crops and just one with the tea fertiliser. going to watch the video now
5. i want to start by saying first off thank you for taking time and resources and investing them into a study that you have been gracious enough to share with us.
   
   there are a few things wrong with this video, and it all starts with your basic premise, that compost tea was intended for a fertilizer, this is not true. the main benefit and intent with EWC tea is the beneficial microbes. Any fertilizer benefit that could be gained is more of an added perk that is not the original intent of the process. your statement is correct, that for the most part compost tea is pointless in a garden because the organisms already exist in the soil. however there are benefits under certain circumstances that the tea would be game changing.
   
   - when indoor or container gardening in situations where your soil either does not contain a useful population of beneficial microorganisms or the scales have "tipped" and there are an inordinate number of harmful microorganisms in your root zones.
   
   - hydroponic applications, where you have an infestation of harmful microorganisms (most commonly slimes) where a tea would have a limited benefit to host on and outnumber the harmful microorganisms. depending on your hydroponic methods the usefulness varies, but there is still an application.
   
   - regular gardening methods in which soil borne harmful microorganisms have gained a foothold in your plants root zones.
   
   in situations like these having a direct application method of distributing helpful microorganisms is beneficial. and again, the fact that the tea also contains a mild fertilizer is merely a perk, not the intention.
   
   i think that your main problem here is that you were basing your theory and understanding of tea on one book, and had not done enough research into what the tea is and why its used.
6. You didn't test if it worked. A test to show if it "worked" would involve applying to plants and looking results. I have phenomenal results using Boogie Brew tea and method. healthy bacterial populations in the soil are analogues to healthy probiotic populations in your GI tract and serve more or less the same function which is disassembling harmful complex substances and extract beneficial elements. Chemical fertilisers don't have any of the genetic complexity and or the ability to manipulate matter on a nano scale as do microbes. Synthetic fertilisers is like a man-made drug. if it wasn't for the microbes the plants or life in general wouldn't survive long at all. it is a fascinating journey to explore and begin to understand the "soil food web" and how nature makes nutrients. Actually if you use both microbial activity and organically derived primary nutrients will give you amazing healthy thriving plants that put synthetically fed only plants to shame. Do some research on soil food web and try Boggie Brew compost tea. it's all about biomass and microbes, think forest floor. if your tight on funds then collect and put on your garden as much biomass as you can get, like 6-8" of settled material, use clean water, get a filter for chlorine. then you can use far less chemical fertilisers if you must. also look into no till gardening, soil fungus and plant spray inoculant made from tea, very effective, I could go on for ever, good luck
7. Not being an expert, but a user of the aact method. The question I have is that not all compost is made the same. So the quality of said compost , even using worm castings for aact which Is what I use could be different. But I can see your point that if the compost is good that the use of brewed tea might not be needed, but the issue goes on as we know many argue against your theory or tests.
8. I would say that you have made a few errors in your statements and experiments. What you describe as a compost extract is actually a non-aerated compost tea, referred to as NCT in scientific research. Compost extract or Liquid Compost Extract (LCE) are both utilized for primarily microbial content and NOT nutrient content, although as you discovered there is some residual nutrient value. If my friend Jeff has stated this in the book you said you sourced then he just got it wrong.
   
   
   
   So you know LCE is a fast extract process. e.g. we do 50 gallons in 5 minutes and use 4 times the amount of compost used in CT.
   
   
   
   You are fixated on bacterial multiplication but that is only a portion of the microorganisms extracted and multiplied in aerated compost tea (ACT - the term AACT is 100% silly - google Microbe Organics) Depending upon your compost quality/activity and the quality of your bioreactor (CT maker) you should see increased levels of bacteria, archaea, flagellates and/or naked amoebae and fungal hyphae if present in your compost. You may see lots of youtube video data on the above mentioned resource.
   
   
   
   The general idea for nutrient cycling provided via compost tea is to extract & multiply a good ratio volume and diversity of bacteria/archaea and flagellates &/or naked amoebae (protozoa). This generally requires about 36 hours of running a quality design bioreactor (brewer) and providing adequate feedstock if needed (I agree that kelp is a poor option). As the protozoa feed on the bacteria/archaea they utilize only 10 to 60% of the nutrient value for their own sustenance. The other 40 to 90% is discharged in plant available (bio-available) ionic form. This is how a nutrient boost is provided to the roots of the plants.
   
   
   
   There are hypotheses about disease suppression utilizing CT but I'm not getting into that here.
   
   
   
   Testing:
   
   You have noted, accurately, that plate culture testing is not a good choice for this application. Probably the nutrient testing is not either but I don't think you mentioned the extraction process used by the lab. Many of these are inaccurate when researching sequestered nutrients. A better procedure would have direct microscopy and microbial count.
   
   
   
   Bioreactor;
   
   I've often stated there is no such thing as bad compost tea but it is easy to make it better. I would improve your brewer by using a pump outputting around 1 CFM (or use several small pumps). I would run air with diffuser into the extraction bag and consider running for 36 hours but 48 isn't terrible. Once agitation is improved you could use up to 0.5% molasses by volume. I would say that putting the compost directly into the water and stir with whathaveyou would produce superior results to what you have used.
   
   
   
   Keep on learning:)
9. Sir, what is the final conclusion of your analysis? Which method is the best out of three shown in your video
10. do u use a 20-20-20 fertilizer in your garden!?
11. have you ever heard of boogie brew?
12. This video is funny. Each formula for compost tea is different and has vastly different effects. This is because the types of bacteria and fungus grown differ greatly based on not only the compost and food sources, but the concentration of nutrients used, the temperature and the amount of time it is grown. Aeration is usually used to culture aerobic fungi. The effect of growing a high fungal tea is to provide chitin to chitin degrading bacteria. This produces the compound Chitisan which activates the plant self defense mechanism producing class 2 and 4 chitinases. Chitinase degrades the cell wall of pathogenic fungi and insects. In high concentrations it will also cause a plant to put more energy into fruiting. Adding sugars can produce organic acids which can dramatically effect the solubility of the nutrients in the soil. The types of acids created will vary depending on the types of bacteria present, the nutrient in the media and available oxygen. The function of compost tea is determined by the type of organisms grown.
13. You need a minimum of 0.5 CFM per gallon to produce a decent batch of compost tea. However, as much as 0.8 CFM per gallon is recommended. A common fallacy is that an aquarium pump will suffice - this is far from the truth. The whisperer air pump you used isn't even adequate for brewing a cup of compost tea. This is why your lab results are so poor. Proper analysis of compost tea is done through a visual count through a microscope and not by plate count. True compost tea is an microbial inoculant. That being said, if certain food sources are added they will produce a fertilizer value in the end.
14. Won't the ants come on to the plants? As it is they will bite us also.
15. Molasses won't invite ants?
16. So compost tea doesn't increase the number of bacteria compared to what was already present?
17. I've heard mixed things about bio char as well. figured I would test it myself. i didn't have a soil test or anything. but bio char can be used to grow in. made my own in my metal raised fire pit. directly under it is ash and nothing grows. but a circle around the ash is black char, with vigorous grass growth concentrated there. somehow a tomato seed got inside my fire pit (filled with bio char) and is growing in nothing but bio char. one thing we all can agree on is that no one really knows much about the complexity of healthy soil life and it's interconnected relationships. keep the field and lab tests going everybody.
18. It has always been my understanding that it is the microbiolgy, the organisms that multiply and come to life within the compost tea. Those microbes colonize soils and make nutrients biologically available for plants to use. Nutrients that are in the soil naturally, In a balanced ecosystem anyway.
19. Science Rulz! Thanks for sharing your in depth thoughts on compost tea!!