compost tea Ingredients

I am going to make some compost tea. In searching for information on how to make it I have come across this list of suggested ingredients. Any comments, addition, etc would be welcomed.

EM-1
worm castings compost
ceramic powder [water soluble]
rock dust [water soluble]
sea minerals [water soluble]
liquid kelp
liquid fish
humic acids

In an effort to make this thread do more things, I'm also interested in the difference between liquifying and steeping compost tea.

When I wash out the bucket I use to spread compost, I use the now dirty water to water the garden. Why would buying a bubbler from an aquarium store, bagging up my compost and steeping it for a few days be better? Plopping the compost on the garden seems like much less work.

There's also nettle and comfrey teas that Sepp discusses in his book. He also recommends just using more or less anything green, steeping it, and putting it on the garden. In time you find your own recipe that works for you.

And what about letting the water slime over with algae and then putting algae on the garden?

Also, there's an article that says (google this:) "the jury is still out on compost tea". Any thoughts?

Thanks,
William

Mother Earth News did a great write up on compost tea one or two months back. I personally use an aquarium bubbler and just gather burdock and whatever weeds I have on hand, crush and mix into 5 gallon bucket of water. I stir twice a day and use on the third. I urinate into the mix once a day and once right before use (which I don't tell people about, they can't handle the truth), I water the tea down by at least 100%. I keep it covered and in the shade so that algae doesn't take over, that will make you hard pressed not to puke.

Gerry I would use the em1 separate and use the rest for ACT.

William, really a bucket,a aquarium pump and some compost won't make highly active compost tea. And you are right it's not worth the effort most of the time. Now let's say we have a good compost tea brewer. The benefit it has is I can take one gallon of compost with the microbes it has. Add that to water with air and a food source and now I have enough microbes to inoculate a much much much larger area than 1 gallon of compost ever could hope to achieve. It also reduces the need to spend hundreds or even thousands on purchased compost for your farm. Which may or may not have things you don't want in it. Biomass can be created out in the field or forest, most of the time it just lacks proper biology. In the end it's just one tool in the many we can choose from it just depends on which is good for you.

Why leave out the EM? I thought that it would have the widest range of good microbes to reproduce.

I left blackstrap molasses off my list. I gather that it feeds the little buggers.

I have a feeling that in the DVD "permaculture soils", Geoff Lawton explains a lot about compost brewing on large scale.
Just from a clip I saw.
W

William James, one of my favorite philosophers! On your point, you can do both. The brewing process is a beneficial bacteria/fungal reproductive bonanza (sugar+o2+poo). Essentially with the forced O2 you are creating a water-air edge that is beneficial for many good little living things, that will then reproduce further once spread onto soil. You can get a doubling every few hours in a forced air tea if you are going things right.