My New project for next year:Turbo-Vortex Compost Tea Brewer

[Dim]

I've had good results with Actively Aerated Compost tea this year, and am hoping to build a Vortex brewer before spring ...

seems simple enough and am looking at building something a lot larger than the 5 gallon beer brewers bucket that I am currently using ....

I'm hoping to build something approx 50 gallons in size ....

here is the basic concept (this is using a water dispenser bottle):

http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/tw/turbo-vortex.htm

and here it is in action;



and here is a larger one (sort of size that I am looking at):

[flounder]

I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at, so gave it a google.
Now I understand what it is I can comment.
I see the benefits of compost teas as a way of adding nutrients for plants and the soil quicker than just mulching, but I can't help thinking that in the average garden, the time and effort involved would negate any enjoyment of actually gardening?
I'm not running this down as a real humbug because I use the occasional liquid slop, but it's extra work and expense to aerate the stuff and generally the soils in the UK are not too bad so the addition of aerobic or anaerobic bacterias would be negligible.
Someone now will show quadruple growth using this!

[Dim]

Someone now will show quadruple growth using this!

there is more to it though .... if you want giant veg, you have to start off with the correct variety of vegetable seed .... the seeds are often sold as 'exhibition vegetable seeds' .... I order mine from here:

http://www.giantveg.co.uk/index.php/gia ... s-for-sale

http://www.medwynsofanglesey.co.uk/shop ... cat_2.html

http://www.jungleseeds.co.uk/contents/e ... h_Veg.html

you also have to know what soil ph the vegetable prefers, when to sow, when to plant out and what ratio of NPK and minerals are required, how much sun /light is needed and at what times they need to be applied ...

AACT is very cheap to make, (cheaper than using miracle gro etc) and you supercharge it with specific nutrients .... such as seaweed extract, fish hydrolosate, humic acids, bat guano, rock dusts etc ... You can set up a basic 5 gallon brewer for under £20 (The airpump is the most important and most expensive part)....

so you end up brewing a soil innoculant that is also an excellent fertilizer that is bespoke to your required NPK ratios

I tend to veg patches for some of my clients and they are all ecstatic with this years results .... huge healthy organic veg with high Brix levels .... marrows as large as wheelbarrows,onions as large as footballs etc...

Works wonders on normal garden plants aswell .... Heuchera, ferns etc with leaves twice as large as normal ... etc etc

... It's being used on lawns in the USA, and Harvard university is now using AACT on all their lawns and plants

I'm still learning, but am learning fast

[Kristen]

Presumably the Vortex is to "pump" the liquid using air, and in the process to try to get more oxygen into the liquid than just using an air stone / diffuser? (Although I'm not sure of the need to pump the liquid? other than to perhaps as a more efficient method of getting air to dissolve into the liquid?

Way-back-when I worked on a project to re-use waste heat from an industrial process. My work was with greenhouses (using hydroponics to grow veg. heat being provided from the industrial process), but there was also a fish farming project. That required that the water [the fish were in] was pumped through a bio-filter, and it was then recirculated to the fish. The air also needed oxygenating, but pumping air into water was a very inefficient process, and was using a lot of energy. Given that the water had to be circulated, so that it went through the filter, the engineer working on that project set up pipework for the recirculation that took the water up high (about 10 feet I would say) and then down to a U-bend that went 2 or 3 feet below the tank, and then back up and into the filtration tank. I don't think this took any more energy for the re-circulation (as the effort to pump the water uphill was offset by it falling back down under gravity). He then introduced a small hole just after the U-bend at the top of the pipe work, and the negative pressure of the falling water sucked air into the water. I think I remember him saying that the circulation pump used no / little extra energy, but the oxygenation was at least as good as the air-stone method, but required no additional energy input.

So its just possible that pumping the liquid round, in that way, may be more efficient than trying to pump air into the liquid - if that is the objective?

[Dim]

Presumably the Vortex is to "pump" the liquid using air, and in the process to try to get more oxygen into the liquid than just using an air stone / diffuser? (Although I'm not sure of the need to pump the liquid? other than to perhaps as a more efficient method of getting air to dissolve into the liquid?

Way-back-when I worked on a project to re-use waste heat from an industrial process. My work was with greenhouses (using hydroponics to grow veg. heat being provided from the industrial process), but there was also a fish farming project. That required that the water [the fish were in] was pumped through a bio-filter, and it was then recirculated to the fish. The air also needed oxygenating, but pumping air into water was a very inefficient process, and was using a lot of energy. Given that the water had to be circulated, so that it went through the filter, the engineer working on that project set up pipework for the recirculation that took the water up high (about 10 feet I would say) and then down to a U-bend that went 2 or 3 feet below the tank, and then back up and into the filtration tank. I don't think this took any more energy for the re-circulation (as the effort to pump the water uphill was offset by it falling back down under gravity). He then introduced a small hole just after the U-bend at the top of the pipe work, and the negative pressure of the falling water sucked air into the water. I think I remember him saying that the circulation pump used no / little extra energy, but the oxygenation was at least as good as the air-stone method, but required no additional energy input.

So its just possible that pumping the liquid round, in that way, may be more efficient than trying to pump air into the liquid - if that is the objective?

I've been looking at several designs, and from what I understand, the vortex system produces the highest amount of oxygen in the water, (when correctly built) and there are no 'dead spots' in the vessel ... it also produces more microbes

airstones are placed in the 4 discharge pipes, and the air that is pumped in, oxygenates the water aswell as forcing the water back into the vessel .... from what I understand, if you use a T at the discharge points, and dont seal them off, additional air will be sucked in as the water is discarged

There are also many who claim that running water in a vortex pattern changes the properties of water beneficially (water becomes 'wetter') ... I'm still trying to understand that concept .... they say there is male energy and female energy (depending which way the water rotates)... in The Northern hemisphere, they set the discharge outlets to create an anti-clockwise vortex

this link explains a lot about different designs:
http://microbeorganics.com/#So_You_Wann ... Tea_Brewer

and here is a brewer using the Venturi method:


so, my design will try and incorporate both methods ... (vortex and venturi) ... plus I will add a large thermostat/heater to maintain a temp of 20 degrees C during the brew process

there are companies in the UK selling 55 gallon Vortex Brewers, but they cost approx £2.5k .... I will build one for under £250

here is an excellent pdf that goes into detail about AACT:

http://washington.osu.edu/cuyahoga/topi ... Manual.pdf

for those wanting to start brewing AACT, try the method with the office water dispenser bottle and a pump that delivers 100 litres/min of air .... (as shown in my previous post) ... the large water bottles hold 19 litres of water, so you should be able to brew 15 litres of AACT

[Dave Brown]

Seems this is playing rather than a serious requirement.

I make a form of tea from Bell Bind, as I don't put it on the compost heap. I literally put the plant in a bucket with water and a couple of weeks later have a brown liquid. The main aim is to to get back what the unwanted plant took out from the soil.

[Leigh]

Dim, maybe worth looking at Vortex pond filters to build your set up with.
Cloverleaf models have four port's, check on EBay for best prices

[Kristen]

I think that is slightly different Dave? Similarly, to you, I grow Comfrey as a high potash feed (normally steeped, like your bell-bind, to make a very stinky concentrate that is then diluted to the colour of weak tea as a nutrient feed). Comfrey has hefty roots that, apparently, are good at dredging up Potash from the depths; I suspect that is true of other deep rooted / fleshy rooted weeds, including bell bind - Nettles is the other one often mentioned for use as a nutrient Tea (Nettle Tea is high in Nitrogen)

Whilst Dim's "Compost Tea" contains some nutrients its primary role, if I understand it correctly, is as a concoction of bugs that will promote healthy soil and thereby facilitate the plants to take up nutrients more easily, and grow stronger & healthier and thereby, in part, be better able to fight off disease and bugs etc. So more Symbiosis than Nutrition I think?

[Dim]

Whilst Dim's "Compost Tea" contains some nutrients its primary role, if I understand it correctly, is as a concoction of bugs that will promote healthy soil and thereby facilitate the plants to take up nutrients more easily, and grow stronger & healthier and thereby, in part, be better able to fight off disease and bugs etc. So more Symbiosis than Nutrition I think?

in a nutshell, all decent compost has bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes ....

when you add the compost to water, and add air/oxygen and feed them with food such as unsulphered molasses, they multiply and reproduce rapidly ....

so, in essence, you are creating a highly 'concentrated' version of microbes in the compost

tests have proved, that when sprayed on the leaves, compost tea helps suppress some foliar diseases, increases the amount of nutrients available to the plant, and speeds the breakdown of toxins.

as a soil drench, you feed the soil, and not the plant ... i.e. you create healthy soil .... healthy soil = healthy plants

for a basic compost tea, all that is needed is decent compost (such as worm compost), unchlorinated water, molasses and air/oxygen ... by adding different ingredients, you can brew a fungi dominant, or a bacterial dominant tea, or a balanced tea with a combination of both

I take it a few steps further .... I add additional nutrients so as to create a 'fertilizer' ....

for example, if I need a higher nitrogen content, I may add a few scoops of bloodmeal at the end of the brewing cycle, or if I need more P&K, I may add a bat guano that has a high P&K composition... etc

for a more balanced fertilizer, I may add fish hydrolsate and seaweed concentrate .... I use many products that are bought from my local hydroponic store (Advanced Nutrients and Biobizz make some really good nutrients which are not expensive)

that's a basic summary, but there's a lot more to it and most are still learning ...(The pdf file that I posted earlier goes into much more detail)