Single Riser Vortex Tea Brewer

[Plantaholic12]

JRinPA asked for a thread on my tea brewer.
Reminded me of " got any photos of your grandkids " kind of request.
Got any coffee?

When I started the current garden ( twenty years ago ) I dug up the yard and found clay. Mostly red but some blue\grey. My previous garden was in black granite loam and I knew I was in trouble. I ran across a potting mix manufacturer about a mile away from the house and based my raised beds on the products I could buy at the potting mix factory. The Willamette Valley ( where I am ) is a nursery wonderland, can't swing a rake without hitting a pile of used pots.

Problem that I found was that the potting mixes were soil-less. They had a compost from a regional dairy co-op ( they ran a co-gen plant and compost facility ) and I figured I'd mix the poop and the potting mix for my raised beds.
Then my research found a Oregon State University professor that was developing a business based on compost tea. Seemed like a good way to put live microbes in my potting/poop beds.

Now "compost" as an ingredient for a nutrient booster is like wheat in a bread recipe, I'd like a more defined ingredient. Your compost and my compost and Fred's compost might be different. Then I found a web site using ( and giving a recipe for ) compost tea based on worm poop. Just worm poop and some other named ingredients like molasses and fish hydrolysate ( cold pressed fish rather than boiled fish ) and kelp.

And the recipe was for your typical 5 gallon aquarium brewer. Not big enough...more research...30 gallon brewer ( $4000.00! ) and up. Small African country brewer. I can go big!!

So I found a company selling tanks with a cone bottom...and upped the aquarium air pump to a hydronics air pump and learned about vortex brewing for air mixing and started down the slippery slope...

DSCF1739.JPG

DSCF1741.JPG

The air pump pumps into the bottom pipe which forces air up and across the tank and forms a vortex which soaks the poop in the bag and the mirobes are mixed with the water/other ingredients.

DSCF1740.JPG

After 24 hours the "tea" is drained off and applied to the garden.
My water is from the well in the yard.

Any questions?

Tom

[Setec Astronomy]

I guess i haven't been doing this gardening thing long enough, I thought this was going to be something for, you know, drinkable tea, not compost tea.

[Cole_Robbie]

I guess i haven't been doing this gardening thing long enough, I thought this was going to be something for, you know, drinkable tea, not compost tea.

I once talked to a guy who worked for a beneficial microbes company making products for plants and he swore that he drank an ounce of his product every day.

[Cole_Robbie]

JRinPA asked for a thread on my tea brewer.
Reminded me of " got any photos of your grandkids " kind of request.
Got any coffee?

When I started the current garden ( twenty years ago ) I dug up the yard and found clay. Mostly red but some blue\grey. My previous garden was in black granite loam and I knew I was in trouble. I ran across a potting mix manufacturer about a mile away from the house and based my raised beds on the products I could buy at the potting mix factory. The Willamette Valley ( where I am ) is a nursery wonderland, can't swing a rake without hitting a pile of used pots.

Problem that I found was that the potting mixes were soil-less. They had a compost from a regional dairy co-op ( they ran a co-gen plant and compost facility ) and I figured I'd mix the poop and the potting mix for my raised beds.
Then my research found a Oregon State University professor that was developing a business based on compost tea. Seemed like a good way to put live microbes in my potting/poop beds.

Now "compost" as an ingredient for a nutrient booster is like wheat in a bread recipe, I'd like a more defined ingredient. Your compost and my compost and Fred's compost might be different. Then I found a web site using ( and giving a recipe for ) compost tea based on worm poop. Just worm poop and some other named ingredients like molasses and fish hydrolysate ( cold pressed fish rather than boiled fish ) and kelp.

And the recipe was for your typical 5 gallon aquarium brewer. Not big enough...more research...30 gallon brewer ( $4000.00! ) and up. Small African country brewer. I can go big!!

So I found a company selling tanks with a cone bottom...and upped the aquarium air pump to a hydronics air pump and learned about vortex brewing for air mixing and started down the slippery slope...
DSCF1739.JPG
DSCF1741.JPG

The air pump pumps into the bottom pipe which forces air up and across the tank and forms a vortex which soaks the poop in the bag and the mirobes are mixed with the water/other ingredients.
DSCF1740.JPG

After 24 hours the "tea" is drained off and applied to the garden.
My water is from the well in the yard.

Any questions?

Tom

Your build is really cool. A person could tinker with a tea recipe for a lifetime. A previous winner of the world's largest pumpkin contest was a tea afficianado and had a nice web site that is unfortunately not up any more.

Does it bubble over? I was also thinking that whatever beneficial microbe product a person put in there might grow. Have you tried any fulvic acid products?

[Stitchingmom]

I thought this was about TEA!! -Cindy, the Tea Snob.

[Setec Astronomy]

I once talked to a guy who worked for a beneficial microbes company making products for plants and he swore that he drank an ounce of his product every day.

I have heard stories like that about chemical company salesmen.

I thought this was about TEA!! -Cindy, the Tea Snob.

Ha! I wasn't the only one, thanks for making me feel better.

[JRinPA]

Sorry Cindy, this is not your typical Earl Grey. It's better. Earl Graywater!
Questions:
So you keep the worm castings in a closed bag so that it doesn't get everything dirty? That, I have never done. That may explain the whole nomenclature of calling it "tea" which I've never really understood or accepted. I always just put a couple scoops in the bucket, as I recall, and added water and other stuff and bubbled it. Then slowly drained off from the top.

How often do you use this tea versus just using water? Do you water with it directly at the plant base or spray it on the foliage?

[Plantaholic12]

The worm castings are from a local worm farmer, UPS delivers a plastic bag. The poop goes in the bag hanging on the brewer and then into the vortex.

I pour the 24 hour brew at the base of the plants.

[bower]

Your plants are a testament to how much they love that.

[JRinPA]

I'm surprised that you don't have your own vermicompost bin. It is not for everyone though, messy work, one more thing to worry about. If you have a local source, best of both worlds, really.

I like that setup.

[Cole_Robbie]

I'm surprised that you don't have your own vermicompost bin. It is not for everyone though, messy work, one more thing to worry about. If you have a local source, best of both worlds, really.

I like that setup.

On a related note, mealworm frass is supposed to be excellent for plants, too. I still want a mealworm farm.

[Setec Astronomy]

On a related note, mealworm frass is supposed to be excellent for plants, too. I still want a mealworm farm.

Ah, mealworms, used to get them from the pet store when I was a kid, to feed to salamanders and iguanas, which sometimes didn't last as long as the mealworms. I remember being freaked out when I left a plastic bag of mealworms in a desk drawer and forgot about them, only to find out they had turned into beetles in the bag.

[JRinPA]

I have tried the mealworm farm, small scale. They are too cannabilistic for me. I made a stacked dish flow through, but when it gets too dry and ignored, boom the adults are eating the worms. I was just trying for fishbait, and really, they don't work that well anyway, since they don't get large unless you use special chemicals to keep them from pupating.

I was getting good stuff at a farm about a half hour away. When covid hit all went nuts with prices and availability. The only thing I have going now is the euros/redworms and the BSF larvae. BSF larvae I was able to keep in the basement overwinter, so that worked well to get them going earlier in the summer outside.