Lou: FWIW, where I live in Michigan local compost is made from our collected lawn waste, tree trimmings, etc., and mixed with a little manure. (There are quite a few "brands" nowadays.) That compost is then bagged and sold for only $1.50 per 40lb bag. (Well, most of them are sold at this price.) I always get good foaming from this stuff and when I apply it directly from the bag onto the soil the plants always do very well. I know foaming doesn't prove the stuff is good but it is an indication that things probably/might be going well. The true test for me is on the fruit trees which remain disease free when I spray with compost tea made with this locally produced bagged compost. (They were always disease prone before this treatment I started about 6 or 7 years ago, but I used to have to order my compost from Gardener's Supply or some other site with good compost. Not any longer though.) So, you guys/gals might want to give store bought compost a try if you don't have your own. It is being made much better nowadays IMHO. Well, at least where I live. WAY BETTER IMHO. One thing I do notice is I have to brew bagged compost longer to get good foaming than when I use fresh homemade compost. Fresh homemade compost is hard for me to find. I mulch or chip everything into the lawn/garden and don't make piles. My two favorites are (1) Glacial Bay Compost/Manure made in Elsie, Michigan by Glacial Bay Soils and (2) Scotts Premium Humus and Manure - this stuff is $2.49 a bag though. (Both of these bagged composts are produced locally.) Or you could buy the KIS packs, like Lou recommends, which I assume are VERY good.

"Teaming with Microbes" is an awesome book, but some of the companion writing by others coming off of assumptions in the book is leading to some odd suggestions/thoughts/methods. I'm seeing a lot of talk about people who seem to think they can fertilize with their microbes. Dead/degraded/etc fungi can provide about 5% N and bacteria about 10% N. That said...a teaspoon of chemical 20-0-0 fertilizer contains 20% N...the problem is it's only a teaspoon. That's without getting into the issue that a soil "teaming with microbes" will feed off the residuals of the dead. Setting up a good microbe, fungal, etc population in the soil is nice, but there's still the issue of the most limiting factor in a garden. You still need to take care of the major nutrients...and building a good soil structure to hold onto it all. The physical structure and nutrient holding capability of the soil...and proper macro nutrients (as well as "major micronutrients" like Ca/S) should be addressed as well as (or before in some cases) you focus on fine tuning your soil for healthy microbial action. Give your microbes a "good home" and you'll spend less time taking care of it and providing inputs into it. This post was edited by nc-crn on Sun, Jan 20, 13 at 15:18

I am reposting this because it is very informative. ---- Posted by lemecdutex z15 CA Petaluma (My Page) on Thu, Sep 13, 07 at 22:17 I mentioned this on another thread, but it seems appropriate here. Until this year, we did use chemical sprays on our roses. But, after reading about AACT (Actively Aerated Compost Tea) and then getting a book called "Teaming with Microbes" I thought I'd try a test. So one portion of our field I did nothing but organic, we put down some nice compost and a good mulch, and only used organic sprays. It quickly became obvious that these roses were doing far better than they ever had before. For instance, rose midge was eliminated on the Pilgrim for the first time. Nothing else had worked for us, and we only got one bloom per year until now off of that rose. After it became clear that this was helping, we switched to AACT for the entire garden. A problem on white and light-colored roses was botrytis. That seems to have been eliminated, not even having to pick guard petals off on Iceberg anymore. We still have a light touch of Powdery Mildew, but that seems to be getting less and less as we keep using the AACT sprays, and I've even seen some cases of it being cured on leaves that had PM. Anyway, the thing about AACT is to make the compost tea based upon what type of plant you're spraying it on. There are two basic types of AACT, fungally based, and bacterial. For roses, the best it fungal (in fact, for most shrubs it is, although I suspect if you're in an exceptionally acidic area you might need bacterial, since that tends to raise the pH). There'll be some fungal and bacterial in either type, it's just which one will be predominant. The good bacteria and fungus that are in the Aerated compost tea apparently can out-compete the bad ones. The chemical sprays kill the good ones and set up anaerobic conditions where the bad ones thrive. AACT sprays should be sprayed within 4 hours of completion of the process (for us it's 24 hours from start to finish of the process, warmer areas it might be faster). Keeping the tea strongly aerated is the big deal, so that's why we bought a commercial tea maker that keeps the water thoroughly aerated (it's so strong that the water level has to be 4 to 5 inches below the top of the container or it bubble over). Anyway, I wanted to throw this out there, someone else might be interested. This is our first year doing this, and I'm happy with it. I don't know if it would make any difference on insect pests (we've had no insect problems on the roses this year), particularly the RRD mite. But, if you have a nematode problem, the fungally based compost is supposed to control the nematodes, and I think it may help on other tiny pests, like the rose midge larvae, it also seems to eliminate thrips for us (the purveyor of our sprayer said it was supposed to, and I've definitely noticed no thrip problems this year, August and September are bad months for it here, usually). Like others here, we're on well water, so I was concerned about toxins someday getting into our water table (we're in a valley with a fairly high water table on very sandy soil), but didn't quite believe the organic thing would work for a commercial site, hopefully I'll continue to be proved wrong on those original doubts. --Ron

Dear Marianne, There are many different types of compost teas out there. Some are going to be much more beneficial than others, and some have the potential to even do damage to your plants and garden, based on the types of organisms you are selecting for. This is why oxygen plays an important role in making compost tea. Most beneficial organisms prefer aerobic conditions, while most harmful organisms (think of salmonella, e. coli., etc...) prefer anaerobic or low oxygen conditions. Have you ever reached into compacted soil and noticed it had a horrible smell? This is from the anaerobic organisms that are thriving. It's the same way with compost tea. One of the first rules, if you're not going to do testing in a lab, is to make sure that your final tea smells earthy or has no smell at all. If it stinks....don't use it! As for the recommendations I've seen on this thread. Some of the teas, for example the alfalfa tea, select primarily for protozoa. You will get bacteria and protozoa, but you won't get the fungi. Fungi is particularly important because it provides much of the disease suppressive qualities. There's a lot to learn on compost tea, feel free to email me with questions, but the best starting points I believe are "Teaming with Microbes" by Jeff Lowenfels, and Soilfoodweb.com, I'll include the link to the appropriate spot on their website below. Good luck!!! Here is a link that might be useful: All about the Soil Food Web