SCORE! Got a poop tea machine!!!

skeeter9

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I'm so excited! My brother has grown an amazing tomato garden for the past several years, but due to life changes (in other words his 4th divorce!) he no longer has a place to grow anything, so he gave me the poop tea machine that he made! It awesome - a 30 gallon garbage can, an aquarium pump, a fitting in the side of the can with a valved hose to extract the tea, some tubing at the bottom for the pumped air to oxygenate the tea, a hose attachment with an automatic float to keep it filled at all times, and some kind of pipe inside with a bunch of holes drilled in it so that the extraction hose never gets clogged. He used it for several years and never had any problems with it. I started it up on Saturday with some composted manure and a bit of molasses and I'm heading out right now to give my plants their first dose! Way too fun!!!!!! :watering
 

lesa

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That is a great score!! Have you fed your plants "tea" previously? I'll be anxious to hear your results!
 

skeeter9

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No, Lesa, I haven't fed any poop tea to anything this year, so I'm curious to see the difference as well. Last year I only used the anaerobic tea, which was fine, but I expect the aerobic tea to be much better!
 

thistlebloom

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That's an exciting score Skeeter! Some people get excited over espresso, or chai tea, but us gardeners? heck no! Give us a double double pooptea please! :D
 

skeeter9

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Heck yeah, Hoodat! From what I understand, rabbit berries make great poop tea! This thing would be great for that.

You are so right, Thistlebloom! Who but us gardeners would be excited about poop tea??? We really are a "special" bunch!! :celebrate
 

Smiles Jr.

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Ooooooooh! I have wonderful dreams about dark brown tea.

lesa - I have used cow, sheep, rabbit, and chicken manure tea for many years with very good results. But I always make it in a very weak solution. I use about 5 lb. of manure (one shovel full) in a 5 gal. plastic drywall bucket and 4 gal. of water. I let it sit in the barn for a few days (sometimes a few weeks when I forget about it) and then I pour all of it into a stainless steel strainer. My strainer came from a junk pile many years ago. I have found out that it had been a water strainer in the water pipe at the sewage treatment plant. It's about 18" diameter and 18" deep with teeny tiny holes in it. About a million of 'em. Anyway, I hang it by rope from a tree branch and pour my mix into it. The strainer volume is about 6 gal. so it allows me to dump all of my 4 gal. of witch's brew into it at the same time. I also put an old bed sheet around the outside of the strainer for a final filter because I do not want any foreign seeds in my mix. My tea comes out without any seeds, sticks, straw, or other solids. I pour the 4 gal. of full strength tea into a plastic 30 gal. drum and fill it with water. Stir well and it's ready for use. I put the drum into a little wagon and pull the wagon down the rows in my garden with a siphon tube allowing the weak tea to run while I pull the wagon. 30 gal. is usually just enough for each of my veggie gardens. I do this about three times during our growing season. All of the stuff that is remaining in the strainer goes on the compost pile. I hose off the sheet and hang it up in the barn to dry. Most of the time I have a mix of cow, rabbit, and chicken manure in the tea. It works great for me and the plants seem to love it.
 

lesa

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Very interesting, Smiles! I have to say, I fertilize the garden in the fall and winter (with chicken poop) and never add anything else- during the growing season. My garden is very lush and productive...I wonder what it would be like if I added some chicken poop tea??? You've got me thinking! I don't think I would have to strain, since there are no seeds, etc. in the chicken poop.
 

Collector

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That is a major score! I need to investigate manure tea a little more so I can get started using it. I already have plenty of the main ingriedient LOL!
 

skeeter9

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Last year I just used the anaerobic kind - I took a woven feed sack and put a bunch of cow and horse poo in it, then tied it off with baling twine. Then I stuck it in a 5 gallon bucket, filled the bucket with water, put the lid on, and let it steep in the sun for a couple of weeks. Then I diluted it down quite a bit and watered my tomatoes with it. It worked great, but I'm expecting even better results with this aerobic tea contraption.
 
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