Compost Tea 2.0 Solar Powered

Years ago I bought a small solar panel and charge controller but they sat around and I never put them to use. I want to make compost tea on a regular basis and I don't want extension cord to a fish tank air pump for the 48 hours or so you need to bubble it. So I went to an auto parts sore and got a deep cycle battery and a battery box. I found a device called "Power Bubbles" for keeping fish alive on your boat when you are fishing, It runs on 12 V DC and uses very little electricity. I hooked up the solar panel to the charge controller and the charge controller to the battery. Power Bubbles came with clamps to connect to the battery terminals. Everything fits in or on the battery box. Power Bubbles can drive two tubes with air stones, so I was able to use two 5- gallon buckets.

The picture at the top shows some compost tied into a piece of cheesecloth but I also have recently made a worm bin. My neighbor told me that the CVS sells red wigglers as bait so I went over there and found the fridge that contained containers of red wigglers. I had an old plastic storage bin and some nylon screen and drilled holes in the bin, lined it with screen and fillied it with compost from the regular compost bin, rice hulls and worms.

The worm bin sits on top of a 5 gallon bucket.

When you water the bin to keep it moist, it drains worm compost tea. I added that to my solar powered compost tea bubbler along with some molasses and kelp.

Solar powered compost tea. I have made one batch and am working on the next. The bubbler has been going 24 hours a day for several days now.

Adventures in the Rhizosphere

I was digging up summer plants in order to plant winter plants and almost everywhere I dug I found these networks of mycorrhizal fungi. This was very exciting to me because I have been reading Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets and he was talking about the benefits of mycorrhizal fungi and mycelium in general.  Mycorrhizal fungi play an essential role in the soil by closely associating themselves with plant roots and helping to break down organic matter in the soil and transporting water and nutrients from other parts of the soil to the plant.  Plants are supposedly much happier when growing with these mycelia.  You can buy innoculants, but where did mine come from?  I think it came from my compost tea, but I am not sure.  While trying to figure it out, I stumbled upon this slide show about the rhizosphere, a universe of amoebas, bacteria, plant roots, fungi, mites, bugs and more.  Very happy to be building a thriving ecosystem in my dirt.

{Memo to self: Garlic is planted in rear garden, south western most section before the asparagus.  Facing south, left rows are Metechi (marbled purple stripe garlic) next rows to right are Early Italian Purple (artichoke garlic).  To the right of that is elephant garlic.  Facing west, the rear asparagus bed has shallots in the right hand section where the asparagus did not make it. Also, in the right hand side of the bed that had peppers and arugula in it, next to where the tomatoes were I planted  Korean Red garlic.}

Free Junk For My Compost Trunk

We collect chicken poop from the coop, along with the pine shavings we use for the floor. I add stuff from the garden and our kitchen food scraps, but it is never enough to fill up our "roll your own" barrel compost system. Fortunately, this world is full of free compostables. For instance, the Peet's at the local stripmall has big bags of used coffee grinds and filters for free if you ask for them. Another source of free compost materials is the horse manure pile at Helen Putnam Regional Park. You just have to remember to bring some containers when you go there for your walk.

By the way, shortly after watering with compost tea, I noticed a burst of healthy new growth. Not too leafy and floppy either. It was hotter so it is hard to say for sure, but I'm guessing it helped. Here is a picture of the new growth on the Japanese cucumber plant.

I am brewing up a second batch of tea right now. This time I am adding kelp powder which is supposed to stimulate the growth of fungi. I will also be patient and brew it longer. I will keep you all updated on this exciting project.

Compost Tea

Now that we have a compost system and a new batch of compost, I want to use it, but all the garden is in cultivation, so I don't want to mix it into the soil. Someone suggested I make compost tea, so I looked it up on the google machine.

I had most of what I needed, buckets and compost, but I didn't have an aquarium bubbler or tubing. I took a stroll over to my local stripmall and found a big chain pet store that had what I needed.

I followed the instructions I read at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and I was all set. Here is my first batch of compost tea bubbling away.

I just watered everything with it and the weather's getting hotter so we shall see what happens.