Compost tea in sprinkler system

10 years ago

I have been practicing organic lawn care for a few years now with awesome results. And, as many males understand, there is always some tinkering to do with any project we pick up.

My latest "thought" is to investigate the possibility of using my underground sprinkler system to apply compost tea...

The thought started with some applications I saw with syphon brass fitting you put on you spicket that would syphon from a 5 gallon bucket of tea and apply through manual sprinklers.

I was thinking of trying to utilize a similar set up using the valve that you would connect to blow out your sprinklers for the winter.

I have also begun reading a little about CU developing their own compost tea brew setup and running it through the campus' sprinklers. That system, while awesome, would be a little more work for the average enthusiast, but definitely something to study.

Does anyone have any information they can post, or links that would be helpful in this matter?

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Comments (5)

dchall_san_antonio
10 years ago
Since you have been organic for awhile I don't think you are going to see any benefit to compost tea. At least I didn't. Once you get all the microbe populations churning in the soil, adding more microbes from compost tea doesn't help. ...and especially with tea brewed in the summer heat. Water above 75 degrees F barely holds enough oxygen to support life. Since the entire purpose of compost tea is to multiply the number of microbes in the tea, warm tea is a waste of effort.

But I like your idea of adding nutrients through the sprinkler. The other problem with compost tea is getting it filtered enough to not clog the nozzles.
srgunmas
Original Author
10 years ago
I suppose I should have mentioned something before too.... :P

We actually recently moved to a new house, so the entire organic process will need to start over for me again.

And I do understand that eventually organically we get to a point where the benefits of compost tea are certainly limited if not non-existant. However, I'm also thinking that it would be an interesting way to apply fertilizer too. Hydroponics apply fertilizer in the same manner, sort of.... where they will take straight granulated fertilizer and mix it proportionately with the irrigation. At least, that is what I've seen in some large scale tomato/cucumber operations where the seeds are planted into volcanic ash blocks.....

It just seems to me that the irrigation system could be used so much more efficiently than just to spray with water.... Compost tea, liquid organic fertilizers, etc. Just a thought....

What I'd really like to do is get more background in the ideas that the University of Colorado has in the system they are using. Even though it's a robust operation, I think it can be tweaked for the home lawn enthusist.....
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Thank you both for your replies. I am leery about making manure teas, so I usually just stick with the plant stuff. David...I am trying to resurrect a portion of my lawn that has died. Large bare spots with compacted soil. I have applied various grains (alfalfa, cornmeal, soybean) but the St. Augustinegrass is not creeping into the bare spots. So I came to the conclusion that I must not have a good microherd/good soil - hence the mushroom compost and tea (made with vericompost, mushroom compost, alfalfa pellets, molasses, seaweed, and a handful of garden soil). This weekend I filled the bare areas with a blend of builders sand, mushroom compost, and peat hoping that a substrate will build to support the grass stolons. I do let the tap water off gas for a few days before brewing compost tea - I was wondering if running my sprinker system (fed off tap water)will hinder the growth of microbes in the soil. I did read here on the forum that water emitted through sprinklers has time to off gas before hitting the soil. What do you two think? Thanks in advance for any insight!
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Hi dchall, I'm over in College Station. No, I hadn't found the FAQ yet (I don't think so anyway... Read so much lately!), but I will certainly go hunt it down. On my first couple of posts, I was definitely fixated on NPK... Within a couple of minutes of my reply wondering if I should wait for the soil test, I found an article that turned on the protein/carbs light for me though exactly along the lines of what you are saying. Although the light is on, it's flickering a little still though.... :) I see time after time where people are comparing the NPK of grains/meals. My current assumption is that the NPK of grains is still relevant b/c the microbes I'm trying to feed w/ protein/carbs are releasing it into the soil as they work on digesting the grain (along with lawn clippings, etc.)... So I may still have a little brain fog, but I'll keep researching and put NPK on the mental back burner. I homebrew beer and there is a hops shortage this year, so I decided to plant some several weeks back. I dug up a new planter along the side of the house where I was seeing the yellowing the most. The grass is pretty well rooted. Not terribly deep, but certainly not above ground. (That weekend I would have been happy to have had such a bad problem that all of my roots were in a thatch layer!!! My back still hurts from removing all that grass!). So I do have room for improvement on the root depth, but I THINK that I have caught on to all of this in enough time to not be as bad off as I could have been and can continue to wean it off of water. I had reduced watering last year to about an inch per week, but I did it cold turkey. I've turned off the automatic sprinklers several weeks ago and am trying to just water when the soil is drying now. On the homebrew topic, I read last night that spent grain (barley) is high in protein (but most of the carbs are pulled out in the brew process). I sometimes spread those out on the lawn (blindly thinking "this decays, it's probably good for the lawn"). I'll have to start doing that more regularly. I don't make enough to cover the whole lawn, but it's nice to learn that it is a safe supplement.
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neilaz
10 years ago
Check this link. It will have what you need.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fertilizer systems
srgunmas
Original Author
10 years ago
Wow, that is almost actually is exactly what I was looking for....

I'm surprised a little that something like this isn't something that is standard in normal irrigation systems..... just seems to logical to not have it everywhere....
Thanks Neilaz!
PRO
Beringer Fine Homes
7 years ago
Hello srgunmas, I came across this searching for compost tea irrigation. Did you get your system up and running and do you use fertilizer tea in the injection system? I was thinking the exact same thing to distribute fertilizer through the sprinker system.

Compost tea in sprinkler system

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Compost tea in sprinkler system

Comments (5)

dchall_san_antonio

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