My soil hasn't seen fake fertiliser in the 20 years I've lived at my property. I must have good compost, as everything is strong and pest resistant. I only compost on the ground in piles, using plenty of carbon with green waste and woodchips. It's packed with worms. Cover crops really help the soil too.. the Daikon radish is my favourite. It's roots can grow 50cm, boring into the ground. You can grow it alongside crops, so it can transfer those nitrates to your crop. I never pull clover, since I noticed the plants next to it grew better. That pretty pink and white clover, fixes the lawns and puts on a good show with the wild fusias. Nature knows what it's doing.
What sort of rate/Ha and concentration of extract to H2O in the sprayer are we talking here. Defiantley something I'm interested in as we're moving away from Conventional Ag to Regen Ag. I'm trialing home made seed dressing on ag scale here and have found that one of the best so far is made from using the liquid strained from soaking seeds for 18hrs. The theory being that the seed releases a lot of its enzymes, stored bacteria and goodies to prime soil for growth tip emergence and you're stripping that from those seeds and priming the desired seeds you're dressing. I noted a 15-20% increase in root mass and rhyzo -sheath on seed dressed with this at a concentration of 1:10 with rain water and applied at 20l/t of seed. I'm going to try your compost extraction technique and add a litre of the concentrate to my mix at 1:20. Thanks for the great video, much appreciated.
@Verney Teabag, this is amazing about the seed dressing. Definitely not the first time I am reading about such, though I had a slight variation in mind. How about, you let the seeds sprout, then use brown sugar to pull the microbes and enzymes from sprouted seeds? Kind of like in the same fashion as other bio amendments in KNF.
I’ll give it a go this spring, making my microbes now, have applied nematodes with a diaphragm pump but the company that I bought them from said most people us the centripetal pump and they live though it.
400 micron mesh bags are available for 30 pence. Half the size of the one shown, but good enough. I like this method, saves me putting into the washing machine and setting it to delicate.
Hi Daniel, great approach and good presentation! Improving & checking while making compost and compost tea, is hopefully the way to get back to living soil. I just started "my journey" and like your work!
Thanks for clearing this up! He shows a good method for making good compost extract! I like the way they care about compost, compost extract and compost tea!
I use a gentle bubble or agitation on compost & vermicompost to create an extracr an drench seedlings (pots or trays) before plant-out on a small scale growers group market gardens. I always use coolish water & let the bubbling/agitation occur in a cool/shaded area & apply right away.
very helpful sir , i often wondered how would you replace nitrogen on real farms ,i make compost myself but how would a guy with 100 or more arcres get microbes into the soil [in order to use less chemical], this looks like it might work .
We built a metal cage, suspended it under a gantry crane, and put it into an IBC container filled with water. Then used the same paddle mixer, and now we can have 600 litres at a time. You can then extract several times into the 600 litres to increase the amount of microbes in the mix. It won't replace all fertilisers. IF you grow intensively and use fertilisers already, you need other inputs. I would rather use manures though. Stabilise manures with effective microorganisms first to limit leaching.
Thank you for sharing THE KNOWLEDGE! I am not sure if I am going into right direction as I would like to apply this method to my vermicompost to extract all the biology. To my understanding it will work too BUT only with fresh worm casts due the highest bilogy activity. Am I wrong? Also, I would like to ask if you know how to store extract for a long term to keep biology alive? I've seen few commercial products selling worm poo extracts in bottles and saying that all the biology is undamaged and alive. I like experimenting with my own tools and hence I prefer to try first and buy late in case of failure 😂😂😂 Thank you for reading!!!
@@danieltyrkiel6438 Thank you, but will this increase the population of microbes in the same way that a 24hour aerated bubble tea brew would do, or does it only separate the microbes from the compost?
I do an extraction of vermicompost using a gentle, by hand agitation. Dunk & agitate every 15 min for about 2 hrs. I use coolish water & do the agitation in a cool, dark basement & drench seedlings ASAP. I plant out early mornings/late evenings. At planting, I pour/water the seedlings with any remaining liquid from the drench & throw some spent vermi muck from the compost screen bag in each hole. But, I am not using mechanization. Clogging equip never an issue on a smallish scale.
Well done Soil Ecology Lab. If you are starting with 15 litres of BioComplete extract how many litres of BioComplete tea can you brew from that and how many acres / hectares can you spray / inoculate? Best wishes, Dave K
Do you have any concerns about microbial degradation going through pump agitation or higher pressures in your sprayer? Is there a maximum pressure and certain types of pumps that work better?
I have been making compost for several years now & I think it's good because the way the plants respond to it but I don't have a microscope to see the bacteria , nematodes & fungi populations, can you recommend a decent affordable microscope for someone like me ?
The specifications are here th-cam.com/video/kSLWx-u_b1I/w-d-xo.html. The condenser is really import as it the light source. There's a channel called 'microbe hunter', his a good guy with a PhD. He has a number of videos on choosing a microscope.
We would use up to 70 litres of compost extracted per hectare, but for seed application, we're still working it out. At the moment we're using 10-50ml of extract per litre of water to be used for coating seeds, so very little...
If you figure out how to put biota in a dormant state then it can be stored for ages under the right conditions for ex. dark and cool place otherwise extract has to be used on the same way as a tea straight after it's been made. I can only think of it theoretically for example put extract into the fridge to push biota for self preservation and then close the bottle/jar with lid to make conditions even worse to push the biota in the dormant state BUT it's ONLY my theory. Sorry for my English but I hope you caught the idea
You may be able to avoid a lot of straining as worm castings will break up into fine particles. The sifting step comes earlier though so it's a trade off
This is different from compost tea though because compost tea is to propagate the bacteria by adding food and air. I don’t see why you couldn’t add a bubbler to your product with some food and increase your bacteria
Usually when making compost tea, you sacrifice the diversity of the microbes for a higher compost amount. Compost tea shouldn’t be used for seed inoculation it should be used for spraying the surface of leaves that protect them from leaf pathogens.
@@thetransplanter3337 Perhaps. He apparently has microscope work indicating the survive the initial agitation in significant enough numbers to be useful. Will they ALL survive? Likely not. All a large scale farmer needs is for enough to survive to decrease/eliminate use of fertilizer, pesticides & herbicides. Such is farming at scale. Remember, they are growing crops. Further microscope work from soil samples at various points in the growing season indicating at what rate they survive & thrive post application is needed. Some studies use end of season crop yeilds v control a plot to determine if the applied biology had any effect...which it apparently does.
@@flatsville1 This violates a fundamental prociple of sutainable soil management: Add soil organic matter to nurture microbial health. Removing the microbes from their source of sustenance and placing them in unenriched soil is an early death sentence for them. The health of the soil is at stake. Your baseless theory is unwelcome.
@@thetransplanter3337Are you under the mistaken impression that a covering of physical compost is the only way to create/nourish microbes? Physical compost is only one of several microbe transfer methods. Sustainable farmers & ranchers have been spraying extracts, compost teas & other liquid biology into & on the soil where it thrives just fine. This is not new. I take it you have never planted out large acreage using mechanization or even watched a farmer disc & drill seed. Warching a video of the process may help you understand the complexity of large scale farming with mechanized equipment. Again, the point is to spread some biology to lessen fertilizer, herbicide & pesticide use using available configured equipment. Farmers/ranchers are putting in crops for production. If some microbes die in the process, that's expected. They are not curating individual microbes. Numerous studies indicate seed coating or spraying into the furrow at planting boosts yeilds & does improve soil life in fields based on yeilds in studies. It works. When you can figure-out how to make & spread 4 in of physical compost on site for each farm (were talking tons & tons & tons) for a 200 ac wheat, corn or soybean field, disc & drill the crop without making a shambles of the process, let us know. This ain't backyard or market gardening. This is large scale ag.
"Look for the simple answers!" Amazingly practical. VERY well done. Many thanks. RSA.
Bill Gates !!!
Very interesting. You're the first that I've seen to use robust mechanical agitation. Seems much more practical than messing around with bubblers.
Yes, but although it can get messy, I always keep my towel with me ;)
My soil hasn't seen fake fertiliser in the 20 years I've lived at my property. I must have good compost, as everything is strong and pest resistant. I only compost on the ground in piles, using plenty of carbon with green waste and woodchips. It's packed with worms. Cover crops really help the soil too.. the Daikon radish is my favourite. It's roots can grow 50cm, boring into the ground. You can grow it alongside crops, so it can transfer those nitrates to your crop. I never pull clover, since I noticed the plants next to it grew better. That pretty pink and white clover, fixes the lawns and puts on a good show with the wild fusias. Nature knows what it's doing.
Yes! You guys are awesome! A major improvement in the extraction process that simplifies and quickens the whole process.
Thanks. I’ve been looking for a way to scale compost tea production for quantities needed on a large farm. 🙏
What sort of rate/Ha and concentration of extract to H2O in the sprayer are we talking here. Defiantley something I'm interested in as we're moving away from Conventional Ag to Regen Ag. I'm trialing home made seed dressing on ag scale here and have found that one of the best so far is made from using the liquid strained from soaking seeds for 18hrs. The theory being that the seed releases a lot of its enzymes, stored bacteria and goodies to prime soil for growth tip emergence and you're stripping that from those seeds and priming the desired seeds you're dressing. I noted a 15-20% increase in root mass and rhyzo -sheath on seed dressed with this at a concentration of 1:10 with rain water and applied at 20l/t of seed. I'm going to try your compost extraction technique and add a litre of the concentrate to my mix at 1:20. Thanks for the great video, much appreciated.
So far we've been extracting 70 litres of compost per hectare and adjusting the total water volume to suit the sprayer
@Verney Teabag, this is amazing about the seed dressing. Definitely not the first time I am reading about such, though I had a slight variation in mind.
How about, you let the seeds sprout, then use brown sugar to pull the microbes and enzymes from sprouted seeds? Kind of like in the same fashion as other bio amendments in KNF.
I’ll give it a go this spring, making my microbes now, have applied nematodes with a diaphragm pump but the company that I bought them from said most people us the centripetal pump and they live though it.
400 micron mesh bags are available for 30 pence. Half the size of the one shown, but good enough. I like this method, saves me putting into the washing machine and setting it to delicate.
Hi Daniel, great approach and good presentation! Improving & checking while making compost and compost tea, is hopefully the way to get back to living soil. I just started "my journey" and like your work!
That is compost extract not tea
Thanks for clearing this up! He shows a good method for making good compost extract! I like the way they care about compost, compost extract and compost tea!
Great stuff! appreciate this. The video is very informative and not tedious to watch. Very good work. Thank you.
I use a gentle bubble or agitation on compost & vermicompost to create an extracr an drench seedlings (pots or trays) before plant-out on a small scale growers group market gardens.
I always use coolish water & let the bubbling/agitation occur in a cool/shaded area & apply right away.
As long as your microscope shows that you're extracting microbes, then all is good!
Great video and great work
ok, so do you have to use only the 5 gal of concentrate or should it be mix with a water ratio?
This is Amazing information!!!
Very helpful video. Thanks!
😇well now. the shortest video with the most actionable i have seen for the longest time....mygreathanks and blessings
very helpful sir , i often wondered how would you replace nitrogen on real farms ,i make compost myself but how would a guy with 100 or more arcres get microbes into the soil [in order to use less chemical], this looks like it might work .
We built a metal cage, suspended it under a gantry crane, and put it into an IBC container filled with water. Then used the same paddle mixer, and now we can have 600 litres at a time. You can then extract several times into the 600 litres to increase the amount of microbes in the mix. It won't replace all fertilisers. IF you grow intensively and use fertilisers already, you need other inputs. I would rather use manures though. Stabilise manures with effective microorganisms first to limit leaching.
@danieltyrkiel6438 Do you dilute it for a foliar spray? How about for a root drench?
Brilliant! Thank you.
Would compost made from calves bedding (manure)work? have a rest from a few years back
Thank you for sharing THE KNOWLEDGE!
I am not sure if I am going into right direction as I would like to apply this method to my vermicompost to extract all the biology. To my understanding it will work too BUT only with fresh worm casts due the highest bilogy activity.
Am I wrong?
Also, I would like to ask if you know how to store extract for a long term to keep biology alive?
I've seen few commercial products selling worm poo extracts in bottles and saying that all the biology is undamaged and alive.
I like experimenting with my own tools and hence I prefer to try first and buy late in case of failure 😂😂😂
Thank you for reading!!!
Interesting. Will the same principle apply to worm castings when making worm tea?
Yes it will.
@@danieltyrkiel6438 Thank you, but will this increase the population of microbes in the same way that a 24hour aerated bubble tea brew would do, or does it only separate the microbes from the compost?
@@pilkyish This is only an extraction process. It's designed to take the microbes off the compost and put it into water. Not increase their numbers.
@@danieltyrkiel6438 Thanks for replying.
I do an extraction of vermicompost using a gentle, by hand agitation. Dunk & agitate every 15 min for about 2 hrs. I use coolish water & do the agitation in a cool, dark basement & drench seedlings ASAP. I plant out early mornings/late evenings. At planting, I pour/water the seedlings with any remaining liquid from the drench & throw some spent vermi muck from the compost screen bag in each hole.
But, I am not using mechanization. Clogging equip never an issue on a smallish scale.
Nice appraoch, might have a go at this
Well done Soil Ecology Lab. If you are starting with 15 litres of BioComplete extract how many litres of BioComplete tea can you brew from that and how many acres / hectares can you spray / inoculate? Best wishes, Dave K
I'm not sure. We've mostly worked with extracts, and teas were only used to bump the numbers of protozoa.
My brain just learned something 👍
Do you have any concerns about microbial degradation going through pump agitation or higher pressures in your sprayer? Is there a maximum pressure and certain types of pumps that work better?
We only had access to the stock Chafer sprayer with max pressure of 5 bar. Checking at each stage with a microscope showed no losses.
Great video! Thanks.
١٢ لتر ميه نقية من الكلور +الكمبوست تكملهم ل ١٥ حجم يعني ٣ كيلو تقريبا وبعدها قلب بالمقلب ١٠ دقائق لتجانس الخليط
I have been making compost for several years now & I think it's good because the way the plants respond to it but I don't have a microscope to see the bacteria , nematodes & fungi populations, can you recommend a decent affordable microscope for someone like me ?
We use OMAX sold by Amscope.
The specifications are here th-cam.com/video/kSLWx-u_b1I/w-d-xo.html. The condenser is really import as it the light source. There's a channel called 'microbe hunter', his a good guy with a PhD. He has a number of videos on choosing a microscope.
Thanks! Very interesting.
What happened to the microbes that you squeezed by hand? Did they get harmed or just not as many came off?
We ended up with brown water with little microbes ending up in the extract.
nice to see this video, could be possible know the ratio of application with this high concentration? :) thx so much
We would use up to 70 litres of compost extracted per hectare, but for seed application, we're still working it out. At the moment we're using 10-50ml of extract per litre of water to be used for coating seeds, so very little...
You got me at 0:24 I was like "wtf is he doing?" XD
Being thorough XD
How long can you store the extract?
you don't store the extract. just apply.
If you figure out how to put biota in a dormant state then it can be stored for ages under the right conditions for ex. dark and cool place otherwise extract has to be used on the same way as a tea straight after it's been made.
I can only think of it theoretically for example put extract into the fridge to push biota for self preservation and then close the bottle/jar with lid to make conditions even worse to push the biota in the dormant state BUT it's ONLY my theory. Sorry for my English but I hope you caught the idea
Do you think the plaster mixed will work on worm tea? Cheers m8
Worm castings, yes
You may be able to avoid a lot of straining as worm castings will break up into fine particles. The sifting step comes earlier though so it's a trade off
I would love to hear opinions on using 95% oxygen to bubble microbes. What could the higher purity of oxygen be doing to the microbes?
Not sure... If you had nitrogen fixers in the initial mix, they surely won't fix any in the brew ;)
This is only an extract. If i want to make a tea then how do i go about using this tool for that?
You can use the extract as the start for your tea, but you need a bubbler for it.
ThanQ
This is different from compost tea though because compost tea is to propagate the bacteria by adding food and air. I don’t see why you couldn’t add a bubbler to your product with some food and increase your bacteria
Usually when making compost tea, you sacrifice the diversity of the microbes for a higher compost amount. Compost tea shouldn’t be used for seed inoculation it should be used for spraying the surface of leaves that protect them from leaf pathogens.
High like it
Why on earth would you want to remove microbes from compost? Separation from their sustenance...pointless! Just add the compost to the soil.
It's a matter of scale for those planting acreage. Spraying an extract or seed coating allows them to stretch the biology using mechanized equipment.
@@flatsville1 ...AND DEPRIVES THE MICROBES OF THE SUBSTRATE (COMPOST) UPON WHICH THEY DEPEND ON FOR SUSTENANCE.
@@thetransplanter3337 Perhaps. He apparently has microscope work indicating the survive the initial agitation in significant enough numbers to be useful.
Will they ALL survive? Likely not.
All a large scale farmer needs is for enough to survive to decrease/eliminate use of fertilizer, pesticides & herbicides. Such is farming at scale. Remember, they are growing crops.
Further microscope work from soil samples at various points in the growing season indicating at what rate they survive & thrive post application is needed.
Some studies use end of season crop yeilds v control a plot to determine if the applied biology had any effect...which it apparently does.
@@flatsville1 This violates a fundamental prociple of sutainable soil management: Add soil organic matter to nurture microbial health. Removing the microbes from their source of sustenance and placing them in unenriched soil is an early death sentence for them. The health of the soil is at stake. Your baseless theory is unwelcome.
@@thetransplanter3337Are you under the mistaken impression that a covering of physical compost is the only way to create/nourish microbes? Physical compost is only one of several microbe transfer methods. Sustainable farmers & ranchers have been spraying extracts, compost teas & other liquid biology into & on the soil where it thrives just fine. This is not new.
I take it you have never planted out large acreage using mechanization or even watched a farmer disc & drill seed. Warching a video of the process may help you understand the complexity of large scale farming with mechanized equipment.
Again, the point is to spread some biology to lessen fertilizer, herbicide & pesticide use using available configured equipment. Farmers/ranchers are putting in crops for production. If some microbes die in the process, that's expected. They are not curating individual microbes.
Numerous studies indicate seed coating or spraying into the furrow at planting boosts yeilds & does improve soil life in fields based on yeilds in studies. It works.
When you can figure-out how to make & spread 4 in of physical compost on site for each farm (were talking tons & tons & tons) for a 200 ac wheat, corn or soybean field, disc & drill the crop without making a shambles of the process, let us know.
This ain't backyard or market gardening. This is large scale ag.