Your ingredient kit has sufficient natural water treatment, vermicast and nutrients to make 4-6 gallons of microbe-rich aerated tea. This instruction sheet is for tea makers using an aquarium aerator and bubbler stone or equivalent. Check out the airlift brewer page as well.
In addition to your ingredient kit you’ll need:
a 5 to 7 gallon bucket (at least one gallon over your batch size to prevent spilling over with active foam),
An aquarium aeration pump with air tubing and air stone, and a weight (or waterproof tape) to hold it on the bottom of the bucket.
(optional) filter bag: ideally at least 400 microns, either a one-gallon as a tea bag, or a five-gallon to strain the whole batch when it’s ready. Straining is only needed for sprayers or watering cans that may plug with particles.
Cleanliness is important! After each batch, fully clean all parts used in making tea. A healthy tea will generate a biofilm on your equipment, which means it’s active and robust! But over successive batches biofilms can cause anaerobic areas which alters the microbiome and can permit unhealthy organisms to establish. Scrub surfaces clean.
Aeration is important! We are culturing aerobic, or air-loving, microbes. Inadequate aeration can cause anaerobic microbes to thrive which kill off the microbes we want, cause off odors, and can even be harmful. Keep aeration going at all times, and plan ahead so you can use tea promptly when it’s ready. Finished tea should NOT be stored. For a more robust aeration, consider making an airlift brewer.
Healthy microbes are important! Protect the vermicast from sunlight (UV harms them), freezing, and heat, and protect the active tea from sunlight as well. Apply it outdoors in the evening when sunlight is not shining strongly on the plants or soil. Be sure to use your water treatment capsule to remove chlorine and chloramine before adding your vermicast.
Make sure your bucket, filter, air stone and air line are clean and free of any detergent, biofilm or other residue.
If using a 5-gallon strainer bag, put it in the bucket before the next steps.
Fill the bucket with lukewarm tap water, leaving a gallon of extra space for the bubbles and foam of an active brew. Place the bucket somewhere out of direct sunlight where the temperature will stay reasonably stable and where spills can be cleaned up easily.
Start the air pump and once air is flowing through the stone, weight the stone on the bottom of the bucket.
Take out the water treatment gel capsule from your kit, it is taped to the package. Hold it over the bubbling water and pull the halves of the capsule apart to allow the powdered ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) to fall into the water. You can drop the gelatin capsules in the water to dissolve, or compost them. Allow the ascorbic acid to work for 5 minutes while you prepare for the next step.
If using a “tea bag” strainer, pour the kit ingredients in to the bag. Draw the bag closed and tie shut. After 5 minutes for the neutralizer to work, hang the bag from the handle or rim of the bucket so that it can float around freely.
OPTIONAL: you may also add a small amount of molasses if you wish, up to 2.5 TBSP for the 5 gallon kit and 1.5 cups for the 50 gallon. While traditional, molasses is no longer recommended for active tea brewing as the raw sugar could potentially grow up numbers of any pathogens present such as E. coli. Your kit is supplied with plant sugars in the form of alfalfa meal which are more along the lines of what the soil microbes would normally feed on, and makes for a more balanced product. For more information, see the research of Dr. Elaine Ingham et. al.
If using a whole-bucket strainer or not straining, after 5 minutes of the neutralizer working just pour the ingredient kit into the prepared water and let it bubble! You can pour the whole mix directly from the bucket without straining.
Allow the tea to brew at room-temperature (cool temps slow growth) for at least 24 hours, and for up to 36 hours. After 36 hours some fast-growing strains of microbe will begin to dominate the brew. While this isn’t a terrible thing, your tea will be most beneficial with a multi-species and multi-strain ecology.
When ready to use, remove the air stone while it's still running and brush clean under running water. This helps prevent particles from entering the pores of the stone and plugging it (or use an airlift brewer). If using a strainer bag, lift it out and allow to drain back into the tea. The tea ingredients can be composted or used as top-dressing on plants or in your garden; it is still highly beneficial!
Your compost tea is an active, living solution containing a rich mix of microbes and fungi. It MUST be used quickly before the lack of active aeration causes the aerobic organisms you so carefully cultivated begin to die. It can be used “as-is” by simply pouring or using a watering can. The particles can (will) clog sprinkler heads and sprayers. Filtering and, if necessary, using a particle-capable sprayer like a concrete sprayer will make application easy if a sprayer is needed.
Just like vermicompost, you CANNOT over-apply vermicompost tea! It is not a fertilizer in the typical sense, so it cannot burn plants: it is a potent boost of the microbes that provide plants with nutrients naturally and over time.
Remember to protect from bright sunlight during mixing and application. Apply early in the morning or late in the evening.
Soil, container, or broadcast application: full strength to 1:10 dilution
Foliar application (applying to leaves): 1:4 dilution and wet at least 75% of leaf surfaces (top and bottom).
Activating a compost pile: dilute one gallon into enough treated water to wet the pile.
Seed soak: 1 to 12 hours
Transplants: full strength or dilute 1:2, spray hole and mist root ball
Turf/pollinator gardens/ground cover: 20+ gallons per acre