You pointed out a good thing :
Compost tea CAN be a source of fungi and bacteria. would not take a chance to spray it on my plants. Why not just top dress with dry compost ?

Lots of discussions about how to make and use it over on the Composting forum. Organic Gardening forum too.

But it is always used in a diluted form. For root drench I dilute it in 1/2 - to the color of normal iced tea or just a bit darker. For foliar feeding and spray I cut it again so that it is the color of very weak iced tea.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ - Aerated Compost Tea FAQ

That's a most interesting link Dave! I think I will give it a try.

Lindalana, if you have any Horse Tail around, it can be made into a tea and used as a preventative for Septoria and Early Blight. I made some the other night - and then it rained so it's still sitting in my pressure cooker on the stove......

Linda

Linda, would you remember which kind of horse tail do you have? I have some in my pond, but am not sure which one. I might have to grow some deliberately now.
Dave, thanks for the link! I am going to be using it for foliar sprays and some respected sources suggest using undiluted if problems are severe. But yeah, I probably will dilute and pour with my gardening can, I do not have sprayer that is good enough not to damage microbes.
Seysonn, here is link that might answer some questions and there is more links in it. I am intentionally brewing batch of very active bacteria and fungi in attempt to help biology on my community plot. Since I am newbie I am using very specific proven brewer and compost sources. It seems to me that there is a lot of different ideas what can be counted as compost tea and how it is different from aerated compost tea.

Here is a link that might be useful: Compost tea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum_arvense

Equisetum arvense is the horsetail variety that grows here. It seems to like the builder's sand that is all around the house. Since it is so difficult to eradicate, I am happy that I finally have a use for it, as well as adding it to the compost pile to add some silica there!

I also have a huge Comfrey plant which is said to be excellent for the compost, and a tea can be made from that, which is beneficial to our plants.

Linda

I have been mixing a few scoops of homemade compost and water in a big pail and watering my plants with it over the past few weeks. I have not gone through the trouble of aerating it...they seem to be responding well to this compost tea.

and some respected sources suggest using undiluted if problems are severe.

I guess if the problem is already so severe then using it undiluted can't make anything worse. But as with any foliar spray, when done improperly it can easily do more harm than good.

And keep in mind that particle size in application plays a big role in effectiveness or the potential for damage. With no sprayer and just a watering can it isn't really foliar application anyway as it just runs off and drips on the ground so why not just use it as a root drench. That way you don't have to dilute it so much. Twice the bang for 1/2 the work.

Dave

My point was that if we are worried about splashes from the soil on the plant causing soil born bacterial diseases; we keep trimming lower leave not to touch the soil, then why one would want to spray plants with a tea made from soil ?
I understand drenching but not foliar spraying.

Just a question .

Seysonn,

Your response seems to indicate that you have no experience with compost or compost teas.. Please take no offense =)... Compost tea is NOT made from soil.. It's made from compost.. Which in turn is made from organic material - "browns and greens." I'm not going to get into making compost as that will take the focus away from the OP..

Perhaps you're confused as many people will use a handful of native soil as an inoculate for the bacteria involved (Psychorophilic, Mesophilic, Thermophilic and Actinomycetes bacteria) in the process of breaking down the organic matter.

To answer your question:
Properly made teas will combat bacterial and fungal diseases (by way of beneficial bacteria/fungi), not foster their development..

Mike

This post was edited by michael723 on Thu, Jul 17, 14 at 16:14

Seysonn, the way I understand how it works. One uses very good quality compost with lots of active microbes in it, adds some food for them and air bubbles to multiply ègoodè microbes, i.e. mostly aerobic ones.
Foliar application is not that different from where you would use Daconyl for example. Daconyl works by attaching to certain receptors on tomato leaf and when pathogens come in they are unable to get attached. Thus Daconyl is great as preventative but not as curative.
Brewed aerated compost tea has a group of beneficials that works on same action, some good microbes do get attached to receptors on the leaf which prevents pathogens from attachements. Second large group works on basis of using food which is avail on the leaf surface, so when pathogens arrive there simply not enough food for everybody and as such pathogens do not have easy way to multiply itself. Third group which is from same food chain as pathogens simply eats them, i.e. good microbes eat bad ones. Am sure there are more ways how it works but I am a newbie and microbiology is not my strong suit.
I do believe that similar forms of plant protections and not chemicals as we use now will be developed- recognized more and more in the future.
Dave as usual was correct, watering can does not work well. Got myself inexpensive Solo sprayer, hoping it works well enough.

Posted by michael723 6 (My Page) on
Thu, Jul 17, 14 at 16:12

Seysonn,

Your response seems to indicate that you have no experience with compost or compost teas.. Please take no offense =)... Compost tea is NOT made from soil..
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Thank you, you made my day !!

Compost IS a kind of soil. What is soil ?

Soil has two origins: (1) Inorganic; from mother Earth's rocks. (2) from decayed organic matter/origin. This can be from natural composting or can be done in your compost bin (= compost)

Perhaps I offended you? I'm Sorry as that wasn't my intention.. But I'm not going to argue with you or join in on your game of semantics ...I will simply say this: Organic matter (or humus) is an ingredient of soil, but in and of itself it is Not a "kind" of soil..

Maybe you'll understand it like this: a cheese pizza is made up of dough, sauce and cheese right? If I took a handful of mozzarella and threw it on a plate would it be a pizza? No, right? Because mozz is a component of pizza, but in and of itself it is NOT pizza.. Just a plate of cheese..

FYI: The definition of compost-
" a mixture of various decaying organic substances, as dead leaves or manure, used for fertilizing soil." (Dictionary.com)

Definition of humus:
the dark organic material in soils, produced by the decomposition of vegetable or animal matter and essential to the fertility of the earth.

Now let's give Linda back her thread.. We've caused enough distraction..
Sorry

This post was edited by michael723 on Fri, Jul 18, 14 at 7:05

Oh, seysonn and michael, thanks so much for asking questions and answering. Until very recently my knowledge about this topic was minimal. Hopefully will make some other people rethink their gardening practices.

Not to jinx myself but significant improvement noted in fungal bacterial spread at my community veggie gardens. 2 applications of aerated compost were foilar and one soil drench with mycorrhiza. 2 days later after last Compost application after the rain applied actinovate foliar.
So far so good, has been for about a week. Noted more blooms, top growth all clean and deep green.