Testing your Compost Tea Applicator(s), Pumps and Sprayers
Testing your Compost Tea Applicator, Pump and Sprayers is easy and can be done in a few moments. Micro organisms can be blended and killed when tea is applied on plants or leaves by using pumps. It’s important to have the right pump and nozzles or you will kill everything you grew. There are three places where [...]
Pump Batteries
The battery is the last thing people think about. In this case, I have used an 11 amp-hour 12 volt sealed lead-acid battery. It is strapped to the bottom of the applicator using Velcro bought from the local fabric store. It is recharged once a month. I used a cheap motorcycle battery charger. Any 12 [...]
Compost Extractor Attachements
I found a need to have three attachments to apply Teas and Extractions to everywhere. In the picture below, there is a normal chemical sprayer tip. Very thin Compost Tea will pass through it, but it normally gets plugged up with something. The center of the nozzle had to be clipped off with a pair [...]
Setting up the Right Hose
The hose and nozzle cannot destroy the micro-biology as it passes through. In this case, I have used a typical chemical pump up sprayer nozzle. This can be bought in any hardware store. You can buy the parts separate from the whole applicator. A 3/8 inch clear hose is used between the pump [...]
Choosing the Right Pumps
The best and cheapest pump for this application is a diaphragm pump. This is a positive displacement pump with a chamber that does not grind up the micro-organisms. A positive displacement pump causes a fluid to move by trapping a fixed amount of it then forcing (displacing) that trapped volume into the discharge pipe. Here [...]
Cavitaion Solutions
Cavitation is the formation of gas bubbles of a flowing liquid in a region where the pressure of the liquid falls below its vapor pressure or in this case (0 psi). When a pump creates cavitation, it destroys the micro-organism by allowing the internal pressure of single cell organism to explode the through the cell [...]
Building your own Applicator
The 5 gallon bucket sits on top of the applicator. Use the compost bag to wash the organisms off the compost. Add the appropriate foods and you are off to the races. The pump is located under the bucket. It is self contained. The pump is connected to the bucket by a hose at the [...]
How to Make a Compost Extraction
The easiest way to extract compost is to use a 400 um threaded nylon bag. You can buy them in any hydroponic store for about $47. Or you can make it yourself with a serger. A serger is sometimes called an overlock or babylock sewing machine. It’s a sewing machine that overcasts the raw edges [...]