How do you know if the tea is any good?

[lrodptl]

Originally Posted by Tim Wilson

Nevermind the efficiency of the brewer, quality and amounts of inputs, length of brew.

With no microscope and assuming a powerful air diffusion around 36 hours is a good estimate; It should no longer smell like the food sources (molasses etc) and should not smell foul but more like earth or mushrooms.

Tim,that's about as simple as I could hope for. Using my setup,it seems to still smell like the fish hydro after 48 hours.

[phasthound]

Originally Posted by lrodptl

Barry,I could provide all that but Harvard made it sound so simple,by switching from a basic Scott's program to their formula. They showed a root system that had at least doubled in 6 weeks. They have hundreds of acres,all getting various types of use,various soils,locations,exposures etc. I live nearby.
Personally I have been using tea for 3 years and using tupersan for crabgrass control and Ringers Restore and Mother Nature's cuisine as a fertilizer. I'm 12 years into this home and I've switched from the Scott's program to organic twice before. I have a sandy soil and the problem areas that get overrun with crabgrass without prevention is sunny 80-90% of the time is the heavily used back yard. Grass type is KBG. I aerate and overseed every year. Other parts of the yard that are shadier and less used do much better,though the perimeter is lined with pines and I'm always battling moss. The only recommendations of consequence from the soil samples from UMASS is lime,along with fertilization numbers that could never be provided organically. Organic content of the soil has tested adequate.

It is unfortunate that Harvard presented tea brewing it so simply.

It sounds like you are doing a lot of good things and the biggest problem is due to heavy usage. Are you able to discontinue use long enough to allow KBG to develop mature roots & rhizomes? I prefer to use a mix of tall turf type Fescue, rye and KGB.

[Tim Wilson]

Originally Posted by lrodptl

Tim,that's about as simple as I could hope for. Using my setup,it seems to still smell like the fish hydro after 48 hours.

I have been having great success using only 2.38% [vermi]compost and 0.50% black strap molasses.

I would not use much more than 0.06% fish hydrolysate and do not use humic acid in ACT. Use it separately.

All of the following were made with the simple recipe above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZz7v...Uv-tDEakbHK18=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR7ZT...Uv-tDEakbHK18=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGpq2...Uv-tDEakbHK18=

[phasthound]

Excellent work Tim!

[Smallaxe]

Originally Posted by phasthound

It could be as simple as the microbes being killed by his application method. There is no way to answer the OP's question without knowing the history of his original turf management program compared to his current program. Soil test results before & after, turf type, SOM, irrigation, fertilizer, etc are all part of the equation. Photos before & after would be helpful. ....

Absolutely!!! It's not like a paint job... Oil or Acrylic...

[Lawn132012]

Got to watch out for that tea. If bad compost it will actually harm the lawn. Had a long conversation with a guy from SumaGreen Turf on this one. I am very happy with the trials I am getting with their Turf product and the cost is very good per application (30 cents).

We had a good conversation about the compost tea and their product is microbes but they also won an award from Popular Science with their product last year for best green technology. I tried it out on new seeds comparing it to what I have used and the difference is easy to see what was better. Honestly at the cost I was happy if it performed the same as what I was using. Not only did it outperform it is used with no fertilizer which is a cost savings of its own but more importantly for us no law restrictions or licensing to use the product.

[Rick13]

Irodptl,

Did you ever figure out why your grass wasn't growing with compost tea?

Did you send a sample to get checked out? Curious if you found anything to improve your process.