admin | 
06 5th, 2010| 
Yesterday evening I started brewing a batch of AVCT (aerated vermicompost tea), my first batch this season.
At 7:15 this evening I realized I’d better get a move on with the tea spraying. I grabbed my sprayer for the first time this year, opened it, saw the residue at the bottom and said, “Oh crap!” I’d forgotten one tiny detail: I can’t use this sprayer. Doh! This sprayer was used to spray mancozeb and other heavy-duty anti-fungal chemicals on my roses last year. Putting my microbial-rich tea in that would be an exercise of stupidity since it would kill them. So, I need a new sprayer. Dang it!
Well, spraying was out. So I had a choice: I could let the tea brew another day or I could apply it as a drench. I chose drench. I used a 1:5 ratio so my 3 gallons of tea would make 18 to apply. I added a couple of additional substances (like liquid kelp) and carried it out to the garden in 2 1/2 gallon batches. It took 7 trips like that. That might not sound like a lot, but my garden is far away. And each trip it seemed further. Next time I’m going to be smarter and take the tea and a hose out to the garden and do my diluting in situ. That would save a lot of time and effort. I didn’t have that brilliant idea until after I was done tonight, of course.
I didn’t have enough tea for all the plants, so only my roses got it, and I didn’t have enough for any roses outside of the rose beds. But those roses got 24 ounces apiece, except for some really small minis which got 12 ounces. If I could have, I would have given them each quite a bit more, at least a gallon apiece.
I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to do the foliar spray I’d planned on, but this tea and effort was not wasted by any means. It feels good—very good— to have it done now. Next time, hopefully, I’ll do the foliar spray. Just have to remember to get a new sprayer first!
