Compost Tea Lab aerators? other recommendations?

I'm buying an aerator for making weed/compost tea in a 5 gallon bucket.

Has anyone tried one from this company?

Compost Tea Lab

https://www.composttealab.com/

https://www.composttealab.com/store/p4/Basic_Compost_Tea_Brewer_Kits.html

I’ve had a 50gal batch bubble snake from TeaLab for over 6yrs and 1000’s of gallons brewed, and it still seems good to go. My extracts and teas have been looked at by Soil Food Web grads who were impressed, even though they did invest in a conical brewer because they sell teas and at scale are likely worth it. The main key seems to be an ample aerator, and a vessel with minimal straight sides where stuff doesn’t circulate. It is also usually better to err on the side of a shorter brew and less food.

thank you Ben!
that's exactly what I was needing to hear.

Is your 50 gallon brew done in a barrell?
I was hoping we could keep up with a 5 gallon amount more easily and just keep making it more often.

Not sure if a five gallon bucket qualifies as ' minimal straight sided'?
...maybe it's small enough to not matter?

Just want to say that Tea Lab is a local business for me and the owner, Luke, is a great dude. They do very good work and have great customer service.

s. lowe wrote:Just want to say that Tea Lab is a local business for me and the owner, Luke, is a great dude. They do very good work and have great customer service.

thank you s.lowe!!!
that is very reassuring as I hesitate to buy online from a company I've never used before.

I made 2 of different sizes many years ago. I haven't used them forever and can't locate the pipes than fit into the bottom and come out the top of the bucket but I took a photo of the rest. It's pretty straightforward and they worked great. I'm sure at the time it was much less expensive than the one in your link but likely not the case anymore. Not if you factor in labor at least.

Thanks Les!
Where did you find your pump...is it from 'compost tea lab'?

I'm hoping to give targeted individual plants a nutritional boost mostly with plants and compost gathered here along with some rock dust but I've never used an aerator before.

My attempts at stirring a bucket of greens repeatedly has been disappointing  and not something I could keep up with for feeding larger gardens.

did you use it for green matter or compost, etc ?

Judith Browning wrote:Thanks Les!
Where did you find your pump...is it from 'compost tea lab'?

I'm hoping to give targeted individual plants a nutritional boost mostly with plants and compost gathered here along with some rock dust but I've never used an aerator before.

My attempts at stirring a bucket of greens repeatedly has been disappointing  and not something I could keep up with for feeding larger gardens.

did you use it for green matter or compost, etc ?

Hi Judith,

It was so long ago I'm not sure where I bought the pump. Probably at a gardening/brewing store or online. I might get one here if I need it today.
https://vivosun.com/search?q=air%20pump

The pump I have is the ecoplus commercial air 3 - 35 watts

There are a bunch of different thoughts on aerated teas. You could really go down a rabbit hole if you wanted.

I used fresh worm castings with a bit of kelp powder and molasses and usually brewed around 12 hours at room temp. I imagine there are a plethora of recipes out there nowadays.

The key for the homemade aerators was finding a way to cut the thinnest slits as possible in the bottom tubes where the air comes out. You can see the slits in the photos. I used this saw and t it worked well.

IRWIN Marples 7.25-in Dovetail cut Pull Saw

Judith Browning wrote:thank you Ben!
that's exactly what I was needing to hear.

Is your 50 gallon brew done in a barrell?
I was hoping we could keep up with a 5 gallon amount more easily and just keep making it more often.

Not sure if a five gallon bucket qualifies as ' minimal straight sided'?
...maybe it's small enough to not matter?

I brew compost teas in a 50gal water barrel that is more ovular or egg shaped than the straight sided one I used to use.  In addition to fewer straight lines where aeration and circulation are reduced, these also have screw on lids, so it can be filled with compost tea or extract in my truck and transported to a higher point, then gravity dispensed via a garden hose with a valve. This has allowed me to cover several acres without a heavy and expensive sprayer. I will also gravity feed a tea or extract from this barrel to an IBC in my truck, dilute it 5:1 or so and irrigate trees getting established. I have also experimented with putting a mesh sack of rocks in the flat bottom of the brewer to mitigate dead zones, but haven’t analysed the results with a scope or scientific methods. I think the 50gal bubble snake and the pump TeaLab recommends is ample either way, as it makes a roiling boil akin to a river rapid that really mixes everything and keeps it in suspension well. I do at times get some blockages of the outlet from sediment when I turn off the pump.

Thanks for explaining Ben!
I'm eyeing our water barrels that are the egg shape you mention...most are larger than I would like for brewing tea, the smallest is 20 gallons.

I think I've seen smaller though, maybe 10 gallon pickle barrel shape with lids at a local feed store or maybe a junk store.
Will start looking before I order the aerator...our five gallon buckets are old and on their last legs anyway and 10 gallons would not be too much tea to have at a time.

I bought the 5-gallon kit from tea labs 4 or 5 years ago. I brew a few batches per year and everything is holding up fine. The aerator produces such a vigorous bubble that I wouldn't worry at all about too much stagnation in a straight-sided bucket. In fact, the pump moves so much air I've figured I could upscale and put the thing in a 55 gallon drum. I haven't tried it, but it looks viable. Four gallons of tea diluted for foliar application goes a long way.

I've never tested my teas, so my continued use of them is faith-based.

a question from the kiddie table: can I expect much more from an aerated tea than from an anaerobic one?
Like Judith, I use 5 gallon buckets to make anaerobic comfrey tea every two or three weeks and dilute it to water on the ground. Maybe I'll throw some rabbit turds or other weeds in too. I could potentially scale up a little but probably not more than 10 gallons at a time. The plants seem to like it, but I don't have any firm evidence!

I would not discount the potential value of an anaerobic tea if you have seen it help, but it does seem riskier to me in terms of human and plant pathogens. Pathogens tend to thrive in anaerobic conditions, and beneficials in aerobic environments. This is why we provide drainage and passive airflow in Johnson Su Bioreactor compost, which produces the highest diversity of microbes of any method I know, and the vast majority are beneficial, and most of the rest innocuous.

The attached Compost Tea Manual by Dr Ingham has been helpful to me. She does mention the highest diversity teas likely do have short periods of lower oxygen (that creates an ecological edge in time and O2 concentration), but this is hard to quantify and prescribe for without the increased risk of pathogens. She also found extracts have the highest biodiversity, as aerobic teas increase microbe numbers but select for those thriving in hyperaerobic conditions of a bubbling brew. In nature I can only think of a few environments with similar hyperaerobic conditions, like cascading streams and ocean surf (obviously salinity makes a difference there). Aerated compost teas’ main benefit over extracts is the glue like glomulin produced which helps it stick to where it is applied. So the main uses of teas are foliar applications in spring and an autumn application to leaf litter and perennial stems.

That is what I use aerated compost tea for once each spring and fall, and maybe in between for any sick plants I want to revive. I use compost extracts otherwise for soil soaks, seed and transplant root inoculation and on biochar. I do use the bubble snake aerator to keep the extract mixed and aerobic while I apply it, and I figure it helps knock a few more microbes into suspension.

thanks Ben!! that was really useful.
It turns out what I have been calling anaerobic is basically just herb tea. Chuck the comfrey in the bucket for two weeks, it's not bubbling but it's not anaerobic either. in fact it makes a nice big scoby-like puck on top.

According to the manual, compost tea is not for me!! Just speaking practically, I don't make enough compost for these efforts (I get a trash can's worth about twice a year), so I'll keep on making manure extracts and herb teas.

Ben, thank you very much for the download....took up my afternoon and I'll be rereading it.

I'm even more enthused to try an aerator on a small scale this spring.

Our compost is really only a moldering pile of kitchen scraps and leaves and weeds and the pee bucket (no manures) that we do not turn.  We start a new pile in different areas and just leave them all in place to plant in eventually.
So, no appropriate compost as she mentions but I'm going to take a risk and buy some good compost (or worm castings?) just for this...molasses, kelp, comfrey and the few other things mentioned I always have on hand anyway.

I'll compare the recipes at the Compost Tea Lab also.

What is used to clean the reservoir and the pump tubing itself between batches of tea?