How long would a dustbin sized fermentaion take in cold weather? Possibly forever. The idea of these gardening teas is to wash the microbes off of the compost and feed them in a warm environment to multiply them by 1000x. I have put in fresh seaweed, rotton tomatoes, some grass clippings, few handfulls of chicken manure pellets, a bucketful of worm casts, urine, a couple of whole oily fish cubed, and about 300g of molasses raw sugar and a small air pump and sir stone, and filled the whole thing up with water until about 3 inches from the top. A 30-gallon tank could use as much air as you can get. When the bacteria and fungi start to multiply, all their offspring need air too. It is not very hard to run out of oxygen. It's quite a thick mixture, and fairly difficult to stir, if this makes any difference to fermentation, i don't know? Something's wrong. It should not be thick. The thing is, it's quite cold here in Britain (Kent, England) at the moment, only around 10C or so. I'm guessing this would slow down the microorganisms and make the whole process last a long time? That is a problem. 10C is a bare minimum where the microbes start to come alive. Even warming it up by 5 degrees would really help. I've had this going for about 5 days now, and it doesn't look as though any of the solid matter is breaking down at all. If you get it just a little warmer, 24 hours should be the maximum time to leave it. Longer and you will lose oxygen and kill the beneficial microbes. Is the idea to wait until all or most of the solids are turned to a liquid mush? You know, rotted out more or less completely? I've never seen this before. Again, the idea is to wash off the microbes. Once that's done, you can remove the compost solids and put them back into your compost bin. New to all this organic growing, but very keen to learn. I put up a website for a guy who didn't have time (at the time) to put it up. Click here to see how he made his compost tea maker.

I posted this last year to show how Chaulker-Scott oftentimes goes WAY overboard in her assertions. There are more examples but this is one that is fairly typical IMHO. As to Chaulker/Scott - she makes many overblown statements in her myth papers IMHO. From the old post: One example deals with her conclusion that bone meal is detrimental to plant growth due to its inhibition on beneficial fungi growth. The detailed study below shows some basis for her conclusions but the bonemeal was not nearly as detrimental on beneficial fungi as she opines IMHO. In fact, in one test bone meal was beneficial for fungi innoculation! Plus the fact that bone meal can help grow plants in and of itself. Well at least it has always helped me in my gardening as well as millions of other gardeners. Look at the last paragraph and see where bone meal, peat, mineral soil and innoculated fungi WAS NOT detrimental to fungi innoculation. So sometimes bone meal might reduce fungi development, sometimes increase it, sometimes nothing - but to say that it prevents fungi innoculation is way overblown IMHO. This is typical of Chaulker/Scott IMHO. Not that bone meal is required, this is just an example of Chaulker/Scott's exaggerations. Do not believe, at 100 percent, everything you read from her myth papers IMHO. Quote: Mycorrhizal inoculation of organically grown tomato plants Siri Caspersen Department of Horticulture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 55, SE- 230 53 Alnarp, Sweden Improvement of plant nutrient uptake and protection against root pathogens by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) might contribute to a reduced utilization of soluble fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture and horticulture. For organic cultivation of glasshouse crops, regulation of nutrient supply and of the balance between nutrients is a major challenge. Common nutrient sources are green and animal manures together with plant and animal residues from the food industry. The recommended soil nutrient levels for glasshouse cultures are gerally high and based on easily available nutrients extracted by water or weak acids. Thus, for P in particular, luxury levels are common in the soil and the risk of P leakage is evident. When tomatoes are cultivated organically in the same soil for consecutive years, root pathogens may also become a problem. Root colonisation by mycorrhizal fungi in combination with the use of slowly soluble P- sources might be desirable both for bioprotection against root diseases and for a reduced risk of P leakage. However, establishment of mycorrhizal root colonisation is difficult due to the normally high soil P concentrations in combination with a widespread use of peats, which have a low P- fixing capacity, for pH regulation and for soil structure improvement. The aim of the presented work was to investigate the influence of organic and slowly soluble fertilizers and of inoculation with AMF on mycorrhizal root colonisation and on plant growth and nutrient uptake of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cv. Delito) plants grown until planting stage (six weeks after sowing) in soil- or peat- based substrates. In sterilized soil: sand (1: 1, v: v) amended with apatite and bonemeal, we observed a strong plant growth response to inoculation with an isolate of Glomus intraradices. Plant growth was lower and the mycorrhizal response stronger in pots where the slowly soluble Psource apatite was added alone in comparison with pots where apatite and bone meal were added together. Mycorrhizal root colonisation and sporulation were reduced by the addition of bone meal. The positive response of plant growth and nutrient uptake to mycorrhizal inoculation in the soil: sand was probably related to an increased P uptake of the mycorrhizal plants. The effects of inoculation with Glomus intraradices (BEG87) and addition of bone meal and/ or blood meal were investigated for tomato plants grown in a substrate containing mineral soil and peat (4: 1, v: v). Root mycorrhizal colonisation was high (60- 80%) in pots containing either bone meal or blood meal or none of them. When both fertilizers were present, however, AM fungal colonisation was reduced. Inoculation with G. intraradices increased shoot dry weight in comparison with the uninoculated plants for all fertilizer combinations, and in particular for blood meal alone where no growth response was observed for nonmycorrhizal plants. It is possible that an AMF- mediated increase in plant the uptake of P was necessary for a positive effect of blood meal on plant growth. As the mineral soils in the substrate had been partly sterilized, however, introduced microorganisms were probably quite important for the mineralisation of bone and blood meal, and effects of other microorganisms associated with the AM fungus on plant utilization of the organic fertilizers can not be excluded. End quote.

It depends. In some soils kalium washes out about as fast as nitrogen, and needs to be added regularly. Liquid seaweed is great for the roses, but needs to be added several times a year in soils where nutrients easily washes out. A foliar spray is not enough at all, it needs to be added to soil in sufficient quantities. Your soil will hold nutrients better if you add seaweed meal (ground dried seaweed) and other solid organic fertilizers like chicken pellets. Some chicken fertilizers are composted before pelleted and have a higher kalium ratio than others. These are probably the best for your soil. Any solid, fertilzer with about as much kalium as nitrogen will be good for your soil. I prefer the organic ones.

Brandon, Speaking as a 'compost geek' regarding huge piles - there's a commercial composter about 60 miles from me who owns a cattle feed lot. His piles are at least 30 cubic yards each - takes 3-4 dump trucks to move it, which is how he turns the piles. Piles cannot be too large if you use tractor hydraulics, but in my not-so-humble (IMNSHO?) opinion - larger sacrifices quality because control is more difficult. Dusty doesn't care about compost quality because his compost just gets spread on pastures (he knows better than to spread raw stuff), and he has it 'coming out of his ears' (so to speak)... For 'home' composters, materials being about 'equal', timing of turns (due to buildup of CO2) is relative to depth of pile, but not to width/length. Doesn't hard freeze often (or for very long) where I live, but 34F now - don't spend as much time outside at a time - but do turn my piles in this temperature (and lower), since they stop decomposing if they don't get turned 'on time'. So I suffer because of my wholesale schedule. Consider yourself blessed if you can wait until spring to turn a pile. When I composted in S. Dakota I learned (from the Standing Rock Sioux) how to build a simple 4-sided (hip) "teepee" with two 2x4 lumber and plywood sheet. To set over a pile, to keep heavy ice/snow off of the pile - and used the technique when I lived in Ohio - but don't need to do that in Texas. The contraption looks like the 2-pole (drag) carrier that Indians used to haul stuff behind their horse. As I remember, those were put together teepee-style to protect 'outside' stuff from bad weather. For a square or rectangular pile, every other top-to-bottom piece needed to be inverted. Lashed together with rope. In zone 6 or greater, you can probably get away with just using a tarp. I spent a year with the Sioux on the reservation near Mobridge - and if material was ANY kind of organic refuse - it got composted. My piles still heat as hot as I want 'em to get in winter - for as long as I want them to stay hot - since ambient temperature is not a major factor - very limited 'air flow' in a 'tight/moist' pile - but a deep layer of ice/snow is way too much trouble to 'fight through'. True, original pile material does cool down when turned/screened in cold temperatures, but when remade as a 1st turn, given adequate energy/food for prolific reproduction of thermophyllia (to produce a 2nd heat), the time difference to heat again is only a day or two - and gets just as hot as in summer. Microbes don't care what the outside temperature is - they make their own heat. All depends on how the piles are constructed. Mine are self-insulating, and capped/covered in cold weather. No air flow needed at all for effective decomposition. It's humans that don't like handling tools cold weather - me included. After the 1st turn (2nd heat), no additional reheat is needed for a finish-to-harvest a pile. Mesophilic microbes decompose material fastest at F-temps of under 104 degrees. Last turn (before harvest) phycho-microbes operate best at F-temp range of 55 - 75. It's all a matter of knowing what the microbe cycles are supposed to be - and working with them - not 'against' them, 'cause they are the ones doing the actual decomposition work - not humans. Robert