I have made a simple compost tea using chicken manure and comfrey leaves. I've been watering my figs every couple days with this mix and I have been pleased with the results so far. I am in zone 6 in Pa. We've had an extremely wet season up until about 3 weeks ago. Several of my figs had leaves that turned yellow or fell off from all the rain. Many had stunted to little growth this year. I am pleased to say that since watering with compost tea several figs have "woken up" by putting out new green looking growth.

Has any one else had similar results with compost tea?

If so, what is your preferred mix?

I use worm castings 5 gallon buck cheap fish tank pump with air stone & molasses water Let it run for two days and bam. Good: grow in a few days. Kills small pest in soil and on leaves.

Figpig_66 do you make your own worm castings or buy them?

Buy them all though I would like to try making them

Forgot that the site is only working on mobile right now. I'll be quick and add a few thoughts.

I wouldn't personally call what you did a compost tea. Thats really a nutrient extract. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with what you did, just that you were not actively brewing microbial life. Everything I have below is for AACT.

Elaine Ingham. She has everything you need.

No sugars. That includes molasses. Sugar breeds bacteria and most soils dont need that. You really want to be brewing fungi, so that means adding some kind of humus instead of sugar.

Oxygen oxygen oxygen. Spend the money and get a good pump, not some $10 special that doesn't put out enough air.

Probably one of the most under understood variables is water temperature. While colder water does hold more dissolved oxygen, it also slows down microb reproduction rates. You want your water to be aboit the the same as your environments temps - dont apply cold tea to hot plants or vice versa. Brew in cold water and you get microbes for cold weather, which sucks if it's hot out.

Most people know to brew in water without Cl. What they forget is if you are going to dilute to apply the tea, you need to do that with Cl free water as well.

A huge benefit of compost tea over an extract is the microbes are more active. Active microbes produce substances that allow them to stick to a plants leaf. That's important to fight diseases.

In that same line of thought, when making tea you need to physically get the starting microbes off the compost. Puting a compost bag in a 5 gal bucket with an air stone in the bottom and you will never get all the microbes off the compost. You need some kind of agitation to mix them up. Beyond that, air stones are so hard to keep clean that I don't reccomend them at all anyways.

Brew times vary. 24 minimun. Maybe 72 if you have a really good setup, know what you are doing, and can monitor the system for the entire time. For most novices 30-36 is the sweet spot. Ideally, to monitor the brew you need a nice microscope, which no home brewers have so keep it to no more than 48 at the longest.

Typing on a phone sucks, that all I have right now. Ask some specific questions and I will try to answer them.

WakesInc, what specific reactions have your figs had to this microbial tea? Are you making your own compost? I would assume you need to make really good quality compost to get the right microbes.