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barbararose21101

No Tea

barbararose21101
9 years ago

Challenge that could be solved by CB2's brewing style:

I transplanted a Tibetan Tree Peony yesterday. It was taking up too much real estate and not blooming. It was severely cut back top and bottom. I'm sure it wants a fresh dose of soil Life.
But I'm not brewing presently. And, I just buried the worm beds in a fresh layer of horsemanure.

Option: Remove a cupful of VC , dilute and apply promptly.

What would you do ?

Comments (20)

  • chuckiebtoo
    9 years ago

    Exactly that. Maybe several cupsful. Or sprinkle the VC around the base of the tree and water it in slowly.

    The thing, though, I keep running across on the forum: All the "trouble of brewing"...or "it's a lot of excessive work to aerate"' or "takes too long". and I say....
    ........"HORSE HOCKEY!" (which I've lost my supply of and hunting REAL HARD for a new source).

    It takes 5 minutes to begin brewing tea and you ain't gotta watch it like cornbread in the oven.

    It is, matter of fact, the least work-intensive thing we do worming....if we do it the easy way.

    For easy-way lessons, send 8 dollars to my paypal acct, OR...read my posts with regard to compost tea. It's all there.

    cb2

    Moderation, Diversity, Patience, Irrational Faith

  • PRO
    equinoxequinox
    9 years ago

    To provide vermicomposting material for the other side.

  • barbararose21101
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    CB: That's easy for you to say and do. You set yourself up for your way. If I listed the steps I'd have to take to start another brew, I would appear to be arguing. I don't have the space or dollars to do it your way. I am learning a 5 gallon bucket protocol and intend to resume brewing when the garage will be warm enough, in the spring.

    It is raining hard here today.

    I'll give the peony some VC when it isn't raining so hard.

    BTW I saw your post on the Yahoo site and Ingham's parallel post. ; )

    I appreciate both your & EQ's replies.

  • PRO
    equinoxequinox
    9 years ago

    Snail mail, fax, text, e-mail, TV, land line, cell phone, internet, too much. Tell me I am perfectly fine not knowing what is on Yahoo and I do not have to go there. I'll just pretend it is on radio.

    All Your Hockey Are Belong To Us.

    Raining here today too. I wonder if my worms were not trapped if they would wander.

    Good use of our new italic ability.

  • barbararose21101
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks to the brew-in-fish-water suggestion,
    I'll have some sorta tea . . . in a day or two.
    To keep it simple, I won't add anything.
    I'll have to read CB's posts to see how he gets castings into
    the neck of the jug.

  • chuckiebtoo
    9 years ago

    ".....to see how he gets castings into the neck of the jug".

    reference material attached:

    cb2

    Moderation, Diversity, Patience, Bagless Brewing

  • hummersteve
    9 years ago

    I guess Im lost , still have a flip phone and didnt know till the other day when my sis showed me I can get on the net with my basic phone-- Iphones, tablets, apps all greek to me, I can barely do this.

  • barbararose21101
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Well wouldn't you know he'd have a funnel and a scoop that were "just right". Alternatively I can put some castings in a gallon bucket with the water from the fish tank, rescue the cocoons and then pour the water with castings into the jug.

    I have some jugs from apple cider with wider neck & handle:
    I can coax an airline into the handle to the bottom of the jug.
    When the line is aligned to the side of the jug, there are no dead spaces. I can/could show this, but, Unfortunately the labels won't come off that brand of cider. I'll do what I can anyway.

    I put in a marble. Flow did not move a marble. I put in a wood bead, it got stuck in the handle. The wood shavings from horse manure , i.e. the un decomposed bedding, danced throughout.

    More when there is more.

  • chuckiebtoo
    9 years ago

    OK, OK.....actually I only use the professional funnel when in a presentation mode in front of a group of people I don't want to think I'm some kind of cheap, country rube.

    Actually, my normal funnel usage comes from...as all other aspects of my wormin' operation possible....discarded trash I don't want to see floating in the Pacific Ocean when making my maiden voyage to Hawaii in the yacht in my bucket list.

    Pic attached:

    cb2

    M, D, P, Hoarding

  • chuckiebtoo
    9 years ago

    What kinda bubblers are you using b'rose?

    cb2

  • PRO
    equinoxequinox
    9 years ago

    That looks like a small version of the original Tupperware Rocker Scoop. It does not have the back splash plate of the larger size. Either that or you have huge hands and tiny milk cartons. Looks like an automotive funnel.

  • barbararose21101
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Because when I bought bubblers I didn't know about Air, I have 4 of the smallest bubblers, all with single outlets: I have 4 sizes of airstones. I put the 5" disc airstone in the fish tank yesterday.

    I put a 3" disc in the bottom of a gallon pitcher: presently it is bubbling ( with 1 c finely sieved . 1/8 " screened castings, cocoons removed );

    A cider jug with an airline & no airstone , placed via the handle is bubbling with equally fine castings but I can't rescue the cocoons. I realize the cocoons may not need rescuing if the "remains" return to the bin.

    I took pictures but they are not particularly informative. Specifically, the cider jug reflected the light and didn't show the flow.

    I gave the peony LOTS of VC, and it's raining, so I think tea would be redundant and wasteful at this point. I didn't add any food for microbes. The fish poop is a little bit of food, right ?

    Wildly imagining, maybe someday we'll have a tester we can put in the brewer that counts the microbes, measures the oxygen, and asks for molasses.

    cb: how long do the bubblers last ? ie what is the life expectancy of the air pumps ? Is the space you brew in heated ? Or doesn't it get cold in Texas ?

  • chuckiebtoo
    9 years ago

    ""cb: how long do the bubblers last ? ie what is the life expectancy of the air pumps ? Is the space you brew in heated ? Or doesn't it get cold in Texas ?""

    I've had my 3-2 hose aquarium bubblers (WalMart $9.79 each) since 2001. Remember distinctly because I bought them on 9/10.

    Life expectancy? In years, probably 50. Hours of operation, probably 8000 (based on wild guess & about 3 hours/week....and I dechlorinate all the water my wife uses for houseplants). All in all, they are incredibly inexpensive.

    It can be heated, but I don't brew tea a lot in inclement weather. Inclement weather where I live is below 60 for me. When tea is sprayed in cold weather or too dry weather the biology dies off lots quicker. Best time to spray: mornings when its damp.

    cb2

    btw...one of my early-on oops brewing experiences

  • barbararose21101
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you for reassurance that the air pumps are long lived.

    Yesterday I used the 2 gallons of tea that had fish water but no molasses to transplant a lilac bush. I added almost a quart of biochar to the tea, dipped the roots in the mix, put the plant in the hole, poured the tea & char on the roots, filled the hole.

    This plant is annoyingly vigorous and didn't need any of the luxury treatment, but it was the best use of the moment.

    Amazing oops. What is going on ? was it just that the container was too small or is all that foam from some proportion of something added ?

    I've had teas that look like boiling water and teas with soapy looking foam. (Buckstarchaser elaborated on some of these variables . . . )
    but without a microscope I feel I don't know
    what is going on.

  • hummersteve
    9 years ago

    Looks like the "blob" via steve mcqeen.

  • PRO
    equinoxequinox
    9 years ago

    filled with archaic scientific equipment and machinery of unknown origin and purpose. Strange non-chemical smells fill the air.
    chuckie Boo! 2 was working when his eyes beheld an eerie sight.
    For his bubbling tea from his pail began to rise,
    It did the mash, It did the monster mash.

    From her laboratory in the castle east
    near the garden where the roses bloom
    barbararose21101 was busy warming a bottle of biochar tea
    for Rocky who was just seven hours old. In just a bit
    this is one lilac bush that would be truly beautiful to behold.

    Out from his really cold science lab, pskvodrac's voice did ring
    Seems he was troubled by just one thing
    Opened the door and shook his fist and said
    "Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist? "

    It's now the mash, it's now the monster mash
    The monster mash, it was graveyard smash
    It's now the mash, it caught on in a flash
    It's now the mash, it's now the monster mash

    Now everything's cool, pskvodrac's a part of the band
    And my Monster Mash is the hit of the land
    For you, the living, this mash was meant too
    When you get to my door, tell them equinoxequinox sent you

    Then you can mash, then you can monster mash
    The monster mash, and do my graveyard smash
    Then you can mash, you'll catch on in a flash
    Then you can mash, then you can monster mash.

    A work in progress. Feel free to fix or add.


    If I was on the rack I would scream the bubbles are probably high concentrations of dissolved organic matter (including proteins, lignins, and lipids), tiny particles, dissolved salts, proteins, fats, dead algae, and a bunch of other bits and pieces of organic matter.

  • chuckiebtoo
    9 years ago

    OH NO YOU DIDDNNTT!!

    Don't get me started with a poetry competition!

    Very good, EQ2. Timely too.

    cb2

    Moderation's prudent
    Diversity's smart.
    Patience is fine,
    but....worming is art.

  • barbararose21101
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Equipped with a jug and a little air pump,
    Chuck bubbled some poop from some worms.
    He added a little hydrosolate ?
    and a lot of molasses
    when suddenly arose
    a bubbly blob.

    The blob blew and blew
    overflowed and flowed over
    over the jug and the pump.

    From his lab in the cold
    Paul called out his Trouble:
    "What's with the mold in the frig
    but not in the bin?"

    Chuck's monster mash
    Is a Halloween smash.

    EQ's pome is a gauntlet
    thrown.
    Brrr in the maritime west
    waits in the rain with no more tea,
    willing to join in the fray.

    Where is Pete ?
    What's Buck Up to ?
    Whaddya say Otis ?
    Is Carlos in Danger ?

    Pomes are art. Worming is art.
    Until it is Science.

  • 11otis
    9 years ago

    WOW! I'm always in awe of people who could write like that.
    Very good EQ2 and BBRose. Hats off to the both of you..

  • mendopete
    9 years ago

    CB2, your frothy "oops" tea looks like many of my past brews. I often describe it as a giant root-beer float. I used to think that the foam meant that the tea was done. I've changed tea recipe's, use less molasses, and stopped getting "boil-overs". Other than the mess, do you think frothy tea is good or bad?

    Very nice vermin-prose EQ2 and Barbara.

    Happy wormin'

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