Ambient temp 59
Pile core temp 156
The pile is looking good and steaming away.
I checked my worms yesterday and I do believe they have multiplied. They look happy and well fed. Can't wait to use their "contributions" to make some tea.
Castings Teas suppress disease and pests on vegetation and will boost the crucial microbial activity known as the Soil Food Web (SFW) which is so crucial to organic soils. Perhaps the most widely used and known use of teas is to suppress/eliminate black spot and powdery mildew on roses. By spraying Castings Tea on the surface of leaves, you are doing two things. First, you coat the leaf with millions if not billions of microbes all competing for a food source. Some, for instance protozoa, eat bacteria which may be eating decaying plant material. Others eat other microbes and their wastes. In the end, there are not enough resources for the harmful molds and fungi to flourish. In addition, you are also coating the leaf with a protective surface that protects the leaf cells from attack by foreign spores or airborne microbes. Finally, by inoculating the soil with Castings Tea, microbes break down nutrients for uptake into plants thereby increasing plant health and the plant’s own disease resistance/suppression.
Ingredients:
4-8 cups castings
¼ cup sulfur free molasses
4+ gallons Chlorine free water
Note: If you have chlorinated water, fill your pail and let it sit overnight uncovered, and the chlorine will evaporate.
Tea Brewer components:
Min. 5 gallon plastic pail, bucket or barrel
Air pump with air stone or some other air dispersal device
In a 5 gallon pail, fill with 4 gallons or so of warm water with the molasses. Turn on the pump with the hose and stone attached before placing the stone into the solution. Leave the pump running when removing the stone from the brew to keep water from entering the stone.
For best results, use the ‘open brew’ approach by placing the castings directly into the water.
Brew until a noticeable frothy slime (“bio-slime”) develops on the surface of the water and the smell of the ingredients is very weak or no longer present. The absence of molasses odor indicates that the microorganisms have consumed the ingredients! Once the food is gone the populations will begin to decrease. On warm summer days, you can begin a brew in the evening, and the tea will be ready for application the next morning.
Spray the tea onto foliage, stems, roots and surrounding soil, or simply pour it onto you plants and vegetation. Spray early morning or in the evening or in the shade, not in the sunshine.
When you are finished, use the left over castings for your soil amendment needs.
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