compost slurry?

[ParadiseLS]

I have a plan to do compost extract, except without the extracting. I'm just going to drop 50G of good, screened compost into water in a hydroseeder, let the agitators do their magic to mix it up and then spray it onto the lawns. i'm also going to use a smaller backpack-type sprayer tank and put molasses and hydrolysates in with water, and siphon it into the hose of the hydroseeder so they are mixed into the compost slurry, in proportion, as it is being applied.

it seems this is going to work well and produce a high quality inoculation (as long as the compost itself is high quality!). am i missing anything?

[phasthound]

Originally Posted by ParadiseLS

I have a plan to do compost extract, except without the extracting. I'm just going to drop 50G of good, screened compost into water in a hydroseeder, let the agitators do their magic to mix it up and then spray it onto the lawns. i'm also going to use a smaller backpack-type sprayer tank and put molasses and hydrolysates in with water, and siphon it into the hose of the hydroseeder so they are mixed into the compost slurry, in proportion, as it is being applied.

it seems this is going to work well and produce a high quality inoculation (as long as the compost itself is high quality!). am i missing anything?

IMHO, this will provide you with very few microbes and some foods for them, I wouldn't think it will produce a high quality inoculation. There are better ways.

[JDUtah]

what does 50g mean?

[ICT Bill]

I have seen this work very well, you will have to screen at 1/8 minus to not clog, 1 to 1 1/2 yards per 750 gallons of water works great

the biggest issue is laying down the existing turf and you have to come back and rake otherwise it will die under the compost

this is an excellent tactic for hydroseeding

IMHO extracts are for soil and AACT is for foliar feeding or disease suppression, extracts bring most of the goodies from the compost in spore and dormant form as well as nutrients from the compost along with it, may of the folks that have been doing this along time in landscaping prefer extracts for turf and landscape. They also are easier to apply than top dressing

[ParadiseLS]

Originally Posted by ICT Bill

I have seen this work very well, you will have to screen at 1/8 minus to not clog, 1 to 1 1/2 yards per 750 gallons of water works great

if you were thinking of 1.5 yards, presumably to make 1,000 gallons of slurry, how much area would you expect to be able to cover with those 1000 G? (p.s. i will be making half that with turbo turf hs-500)

[ParadiseLS]

regarding microbe foods, would i extrapolate from a common AACT recipe and use the proportionate number of microbes for my coverage area, or would i expect to use more/less foods in a light, mixed slurry versus AACT?

e.g. 50 gallons AACT: 1-1.5L molasses; 0.1-0.15L fish hydrolysates

if i'm making 500 gallons of thin/light slurry, would i expect to use about 12.5L molasses and 1.25L fish hydrolysates, which is proportionate to a standard AACT recipe?

[ICT Bill]

1000 gallons will typically cover 10,000 sq ft but that is for hydroseeding, you will get much more coverage than that as a turf application
Save your money on foods, the compost has plenty of microbe food in it, they want organic matter

if you add foods you will get a bloom of microbes that will rob nutrients from the turf until the bloom ends and they are released

a couple of folks have "brewed" our tea, it becomes so microbial that it actually turns the turf white until they all die off and the nutrients are released, then it is the greenest green you have ever seen (i should be a poet) but it is a bit of a scare until it does

[OrganicsMaine]

Bill, how long does it typically take for the lawn to green up after going white?

[ICT Bill]

Originally Posted by OrganicsMaine

Bill, how long does it typically take for the lawn to green up after going white?

depending on soil temps a week to 10 days

[ParadiseLS]

I want this compost to sit in my tank for up to 10 hours. i know that with extracts, it's considered ok to store it for awhile, like even a week or so. whereas with teas, you're recommended to spray within 4 hours.

how long do you think i can have this stuff sitting in water?

i'm worried about the aerobic bacteria, the flagella, nematodes, etc. sitting in the water all day.

maybe it would be better to run a smaller tank, have a nurse tank with water so i can make 3 batches throughout the day that will each only sit around a few hours.