Aerated Compost Tea
 

I was just wondering if anyone here uses aerated compost tea as a soil drench on their tomato plants. If you have an opinion about this I would like to hear it. If you are using an air lift or vortex tea brewer how is it going? Which brewer do you like? Do you have any special recipes for your tea. If you don't know what aerated compost tea is, its a long story so google it. Basically you are bubbling air through a mixture of water, an inoculant or organisms and food for those organisms so as to allow them to multiply and then adding them to your soil to increase the organism population in that soil. The organisms help break the soil down into nutrients the plants can utilize.

[QUOTE=lubadub;721715]I was just wondering if anyone here uses aerated compost tea as a soil drench on their tomato plants. If you have an opinion about this I would like to hear it. If you are using an air lift or vortex tea brewer how is it going? Which brewer do you like? Do you have any special recipes for your tea. If you don't know what aerated compost tea is, its a long story so google it. Basically you are bubbling air through a mixture of water, an inoculant or organisms and food for those organisms so as to allow them to multiply and then adding them to your soil to increase the organism population in that soil. The organisms help break the soil down into nutrients the plants can utilize.[/QUOTE]

Marv, It thought there were a few folks here who have used aerated compost tea in the past, but several searches here using different entry words turned up nothing, so I did what you suggested and Googled it.

[url]https://www.google.com/search?q=aerated+compost+tea&hl=en&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjupyu-7PfAhWtmuAKHczjALYQ_AUICSgA&biw=1706&bih=815&dpr=1[/url]

Carolyn

A lot has been written about aerated compost tea. The references from Carolyn are a good starting point and this one in particular: [URL]http://www.gardeningwithmicrobes.com/aact.shtml[/URL]
What I was looking for was someone with on the ground, so to speak, experience, someone who has made and used tea for awhile. Here is another helpful site: [URL]https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/gardening-techniques/aerated-compost-tea-zebz1307zsie[/URL] But what are gardeners using this technique feeling? Is it a worthwhile endeavor?

I use it and find it a very inexpensive tonic for my plants.

I don't use brand name equipment. I just use a good bucket and an old aquarium air pump.

It's hard to quantify the exact benefits because I use it alongside other soil-building and plant-strengthening methods. However I think the two things that have made my soil really good are the chicken tractor that goes onto each bed for two weeks after harvest and the aerated worm tea that I try to foliar-spray on all my plants at least fortnightly.

I prefer foliar spraying to soil drenching because I think a coating on the leaves might strengthen the plant against pests and disease.