Aerated compost tea for the joy of plants: rules for preparing and using fertilizer

What is aerated compost tea

Compost tea prepared through the aeration process is a natural organic fertilizer that increases soil productivity. Only on fertile, healthy soil with well-developed microflora can large yields be obtained. The main function of the ACC is to saturate the soil with anaerobic bacteria, thereby creating optimal conditions for the production of new batches of beneficial microorganisms.

The mechanism of action of such tea is similar to EM preparations that have earned a good reputation among gardeners (such as Baikal-M), but unlike them, AKCh has a long-term effect. EM preparations are applied at certain intervals, since plants need constant stimulation, and the content of microorganisms in them is limited. In the case of compost tea, the composition is many times richer; in addition, new chains of interaction between bacteria, fungi, and other protozoa are created in the microflora, contributing to the improvement and health of the soil.

How to create an eco-garden. Advice from a doctor and gardener with 40 years of experience!

The relationship between the microcosm of man and soil

Aristotle also said: “The roots of plants are intestines turned inside out.” But does everyone know how to properly feed roots or what food a person needs? What we said about plants and chemical fertilizers is also true for humans: everyone has forgotten that our ancestors lived on the shores of the lakes of Central Africa and were collectors of small animals living in nature, and now we are fed fast food.

To this day, discussions continue about the importance of microflora in human life, which were actively conducted at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. L. Pasteur, R. Koch and I. I. Mechnikov. Scientists of that time were interested in the question: is the intestinal microbiota our obligatory and vital companion or the cause of diseases and premature aging?

Pasteur, relying on knowledge of bacteria living in symbiosis with plants, suggested that the inhabitants of the gastrointestinal tract are symbionts of our body and are necessary for maintaining health. Mechnikov suspected something else: the intestinal microflora, especially the large intestine, is harmful and leads to the production of poisons and toxins that shorten human life expectancy. And he recommended taking healthy yogurt. In those years, the ideas of the primacy of man over nature and the ideas of anthropocentrism prevailed among scientists. Everyone knows Michurin's famous slogans.

100 years have passed, but if we now survey both ordinary people and educated doctors, it turns out that the majority of the population considers the normal intestinal microflora, if not harmful, then at least a deeply alien mass of microbes, where, like in a garden bed, we can plant missing bifidobacteria or lactobacilli. Some doctors advocate studying the composition of the intestinal microflora and combating dysbiosis (or dysbiosis). Others do not consider dysbiosis a pathology and prefer to ignore it. Still others insistently explain that “dysbacteriosis does not exist,” that there is no need to test stool for dysbacteriosis, since “the bacteria in the test jar will grow on their own on the table near the radiator,” and that “the basis of intestinal microflora is not classical bacteria, but bacteroids."

What if you ask agronomists and gardeners about the soil and its inhabitants? The opinions will be just as mutually exclusive.

Differences in opinions are normal, but something else is scary. We live in an age of dominance of monopolies producing drugs for treatment, with well-functioning marketing and advertising. And we hear from everywhere that both the intestines and the soil need to be treated, treated, treated. We turn to professional scientists, and they say that there are far more questions and blind spots than precise answers. For example, it is still unclear whether it is possible to change the composition of the intestinal microflora for a long time using probiotic products or drugs? There are many such questions, and, as in the time of Mechnikov, in most cases one has to limit oneself to hypotheses, concepts, personal medical experience, or simply common sense.

Scientists only agree that enough information has now been accumulated to leave no doubt that the vast majority of intestinal microflora is not parasitic, and we really need this flora, like, in fact, our entire intestine... New research has shown that the well-known lacto- and bifidobacteria make up only 1–5% of the intestinal flora, and the main role is played by bacteroids around the intestinal villi. (They are very difficult to study.) And between them and the intestinal cells there is a constant exchange of information through secretions, which changes in dynamics. The main conclusion of scientists: the activity of intestinal enzymes depends (by feedback type) on the activity of the intestinal microflora.

Intestinal bacteria also actively interact with immunocompetent cells of the macroorganism, maintaining the innate immune system in working order. The immunomodulatory function of microflora is one of the most intensively studied problems at present.

The question of the usefulness or harmfulness of bacteria inhabiting the human body, which so worried many scientists of the past, is in many ways a tribute to old anthropocentric thinking.

A person as such does not exist without his microbiota. In fact, we are part of a complex system of a macroorganism and its microcosm, and the words “useful” or “harmful”, which have an emotional connotation, are not very appropriate. From the bacteria's "point of view", we are simply a useful thermostat providing them with nutrients. Each of the components of the complex microbiota of the human intestine has to solve a lot of problems, from fighting with neighbors to sharing nutrients with the macroorganism in the name of the main goal - reproduction. The absolute harmlessness of some types of bacteria is as much a myth as their love for the host’s body.

Bacteria are guided only by biological expediency and the degree of pathogenicity, and under certain conditions and under a certain state of the host’s immune system can lead to serious diseases. However, fortunately for us, the biological expediency for the microflora is such that it is energetically beneficial for it to maintain the “walking thermostat with products” in working condition, and not to kill it in the hope of finding a new host. Even the subject of our special pride - intelligence - indirectly depends on the characteristics of our microbiota.

The digestion process of any organism is adjusted to the main sources of energy or, in other words, the food that the body most often consumes. It is well known that herbivores have a significantly longer and more complexly organized gastrointestinal tract than carnivores. The microbiota of herbivores also differs from that of carnivores in species composition and in enzymatic capacity, such as the ability to hydrolyze cellulose from leaves and grass.

Analysis of the feeding behavior of primates clearly shows that the evolution that led to the emergence of Homo sapiens was accompanied by a change in the feeding behavior of our ancestors. Due to certain circumstances, they switched from consuming leaves, first mainly to fruits, and then to almost any product, and especially meat. I must disappoint lovers of vegetarian food, but man would never have begun to speak or write books if he had not become the most terrible predator on our planet. If there were enough leaves, we simply would not get off the tree. Accordingly, both the intestine itself and its microbial inhabitants, in the process of evolution, adapted to a variety of foods rich in animal and plant proteins. The intelligence of our recent ancestors and ourselves is only a tool for better provision of such products.

Our eating behavior is partly regulated by the world biota, which, as recently discovered, is capable of synthesizing various neuroregulatory substances. It turns out that intestinal microflora is an integral part of our body, and its composition and functions are determined by our eating behavior. Even the species and quantitative composition of microorganisms in the intestines is strictly individual. And recently information has appeared that the composition of the microbiota is inherited.

The scientific and technological revolution of the last century has made significant changes in human eating behavior, which our own physiology and our microbiota cannot keep up with.

We began to consume less food, less fiber, and also fewer calories. Metabolic disorders such as hypercholesterolemia, vascular atherosclerosis, diabetes, as well as frequent allergies are the price to pay for the convenience of civilization. It turns out that our microorganisms helped a person become intelligent, so that he fed them with natural products from his garden and vegetable garden, they shout to the person: don’t eat fast foods and “jars with preservatives”, they protest, causing him flatulence, constipation and colic. But the person, zombied by advertising, forgot about their existence.

What about in nature? The collective intelligence of the ants makes them work, cut leaves and feed them to the mushrooms in the anthill; the mushrooms give the ants protein food. And the “collective intelligence” of mushrooms, through their secretions and neuroregulators, forces the ants to evolve in this direction, to create comfort, warmth, and humidity for the mushrooms. What comes first? Insects do not have anthropocentrism. They evolve together and don't invent hot dogs.

What about in the garden? You have a garbage heap where you have been throwing away weeds and tops for years. In it, both weeds and biota evolve together. In the 5th–10th year, the “burdocks” there grow to the skies, because the plants intensively feed the biota with their secretions so that they decompose organic matter more efficiently, and the biota, with its hormones, forces the plant to form huge leaves in order to receive more energy from the sun. Biota needs more carbohydrates through the secretions of roots and organic matter from leaf litter. Smart flower growers do not use “peat substrate” from the store for their pots. They look in the garden for garbage heaps untouched by humans, overgrown with burdock and nettles, and take from there soil with special active rhizosphere biota. These are those gardeners whose brains are not poisoned by “preservatives” and have preserved neurohumoral relationships with the biota of their intestines.

Why am I drawing these parallels? For gardeners to remember, if you care about your health and the health of your garden, you should not listen to advisers offering “miracle drugs” or simple primitive agricultural technologies. Start simple and learn throughout your life. When feeding yourself and your plants, don't forget that they have friends, symbiont microorganisms.

I'm waiting for spring. I know that every year, for the past 20 years, in May, 50 meters from my house, a nightingale will sing in the willow thickets on the shore of the lake, and then an oriole will cry in the crown of an old poplar. These birds have been flying to my house from generation to generation. Because I protect their nesting sites, there are no garbage dumps near the lake, no one cuts down trees.

I encourage everyone to protect the living things in the same way, both in the soil around your roots and in your gut. Let nightingales sing everywhere, orioles cry, and the earth gives birth to geniuses - poets.

Specifics of preparing aerated compost tea

The basis of natural fertilizer is compost, but well-rotted, ripened mass is suitable. The best tea is made from old raw materials taken from a compost pit or heap overgrown with weeds and weeds. In such “storages” entire systems of microorganisms have been formed, but it is necessary to transfer them into a useful solution and increase their quantity.

The next component is water, preferably spring water and in no case chlorinated. Even settled water is not suitable for preparing the elixir. It is recommended to use well, river, pond, or lake water, but not from the tap.

A compressor is used for aeration. Aquarium devices are suitable, but if you plan to prepare a large amount of solution, purchase a special kit.

The next component of tea is molasses, black molasses, which consists of 60% carbohydrates. It is obtained as a by-product of sugar production and is often used by fishermen in their feeding. Molasses is a nutrient medium for microorganisms; it can be replaced with jam or malt extract.

To obtain tea, it is necessary not only to mix the components, but also to include aeration. Only in an aquatic environment saturated with oxygen do aerobes, useful and necessary for plants, develop, and anaerobes go into a dormant state or die.

On a note! The finished infusion is used within 3-4 hours after preparation. On hot days, the solution is sold within 1-2 hours.

To water plants, two liters of useful elixir are consumed per one hundred square meters of area.

Ingredients and equipment

To prepare a compost solution saturated with microorganisms, you only need four components:

1. High-quality humus (compost). This ingredient can be taken from old compost heaps that have long been overgrown with weeds; this is where the highest diversity of beneficial microorganisms necessary to stimulate plant growth is observed.
2. Molasses, which acts as a nutrient medium for the life and development of microorganisms.
3. Water. It is important here that the water is as clean as possible. If you can use spring water, use it; river and well water will also work. Do not use chlorinated water to prepare aerated water - you will waste your time.
4. Compressor. You can use a regular aquarium compressor, but if possible, it is better to purchase a special kit for preparing ACH.

Required condition: use distilled or rain water. If using tap water, place air stones in it to remove chlorine.

Instructions for preparing AKCH

All of the listed components are prepared in advance, including a three-liter glass jar. Two liters of clean water are poured into a container, a tablespoon of molasses is added, and mixed.

After this, load the compressor, turn it on, and only after 2-3 minutes add a glass of mature compost.

Tea preparation time is 1-1.5 days (air temperature +20ºC...+22 ºC), at higher temperatures (+30ºC) AKCH is prepared faster, in 18-20 hours.

Readiness is recognized by a smell reminiscent of earth, with notes of bread or leaven, but in no case rotten. If the slightest signs of putrefactive processes appear, the infusion cannot be used. The reason is low-quality components, violation of cooking technology. This smell indicates the presence of anaerobic, putrefactive microorganisms in the tea that disrupt the normal microflora of the soil.

The solution is not tasted; you also need to work very carefully with the composition, trying not to inhale the vapors of the infusion.

Compost tea without using a pump

If it is impossible to use the pump and compressor, improvised means are used. We will have to abandon the automaticity of the process, as in preparing the ACC.

Fill ⅓ of a 10 liter bucket with the nutrient. Do not use tap water to dilute the composition. Only well, melt or spring liquid is suitable. The compost is mixed with a stick for 6-7 days. The procedure is performed 2-3 times a day.

The formation of foam on the 6th or 7th day is a signal that the plants are ready to feed. The compost is filtered through cheesecloth or a stocking is used. At the beginning of the process, humus is placed directly into it.

Application for tomatoes

Options for using aerated compost tea for tomatoes:

1. Disinfection and stimulation of seeds before sowing. To do this, tomato seeds in a bag are dipped in a bubbling tea solution for 10-12 hours.
2. Watering the soil before planting seeds, seedlings (one watering is enough), as well as tomatoes after diving and planting in greenhouses or ridges. The composition is first diluted with clean (without bleach) water 1:5. For irrigation, ACH is not filtered.
3. Spraying tomatoes (at any stage). The composition is diluted with water 1:10, filtered, and poured into a spray bottle. To improve adhesion, add 1 ml of any vegetable oil. Spray the tomatoes on the leaves. If it rains after treatment, the treatment procedure is repeated for tomatoes in the garden.
4. Tilling the soil in spring when preparing beds for tomatoes. Per hundred square meters - two liters of solution.

Advantages and disadvantages of tea

When using aerated compost tea, the ripening time of fruits is accelerated, more tomatoes are harvested, and their taste improves. ACC also contributes to:

• activation of beneficial microorganisms in the soil;
• improving soil structure;
• the diversity of groups of bacteria and fungi that form the soil rhizosphere;
• soil improvement;
• cleansing the soil of dangerous toxins that have formed and accumulated over the past years;
• improving the condition of plants, strengthening tomatoes;
• protecting tomatoes from harmful infections, increasing immunity.

Biomass useful for plants is actively formed in the soil, humins accumulate, increasing the fertility of the soil. The use of aerated tea on depleted and depleted soils is especially important. The correct use of organic fertilizer helps to increase and improve the biological components of the soil, obtaining abundant harvests and environmentally friendly tomatoes.

What is ACH

Gennady Raspopov

Aerated compost tea is a liquid rich in beneficial microorganisms that stimulates plant growth and also protects against all kinds of diseases.

Western countries have been interested in this product for more than ten years. In our country, due to the consequences of the collapse of the USSR, science, especially related to the agricultural sector, has lagged far behind. And only recently has there begun to be an interest among gardeners in using ACH on their plots.

In our country, Gennady Raspopov, a famous gardener, approached the issue of the essence of AKCH and its preparation most seriously.