Compost Tea with Troy Hinke - ISOS S1 #5

In Search of Soil

In this episode of In Search of Soil, we’ll get information about compost tea from soil consultant Troy Hinke.

There is a multitude of soil amendments out there just bursting out of the catalogs, and each kind promises one, two, or a few things. Some are met with skepticism, while others are met with excitement.

One of those things is compost tea. It’s one of the soil amendments that is sworn to by many farmers.

But what is it, exactly? And what does it do? It’s promoted as an everything-cure, but is that true? Today, we’re joined by Troy Hinke to shed some light on the subject.

More on Troy: http://instagram.com/livingrootscomposttea

Troy's new compost tea podcast airing Friday - What's Brewing: https://open.spotify.com/show/6IfzHSm0gJWESbiLv4Laux?si=KVx0Le55SxyhxNW71uPMjQ

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In this episode of In Search of Soil

• Diego introduces the episode’s guest, Troy Hinke (01:14)
• How can compost be evaluated (02:00)
  • All characters of the soil food web (03:04)
  • Various degrees of decomposition (04:04)
  • Nutrients in plant-available form (06:32)
• Compost feeds the organism that feeds the plants (06:45)
• What large-scale composting companies do that small-scale composters should avoid (08:40)
  • Home scale: it’s all a matter of diversity (11:00)
  • Focusing on biology means focusing on temperature and moisture levels (14:16)
• Cold composting and enabling fungi better than bacteria (15:50)
  • Provide oxygen, don’t break the fungi network (18:52)
• Good compost needs to mature, but people don’t like waiting (19:45)
• 45 days vs. 18 months of waiting for the compost to mature (22:06)
• The ease and cost of evaluating soil biology using a microscope? (24:48)
• Overapplying poor quality compost vs. applying less amounts of better quality compost (28:20)
• Law of Diminishing Returns: is there an upper limit to inoculating soil (29:58)
  • Plant succession (31:15)
  • It depends on what you want to grow in the soil (32:50)
• Equal food source for fungi and bacteria to keep the near one-to-one ratio (33:57)
• A compost that’s all vegetable waste and no woody material will be nasty compost (37:11)
  • You want different sizes of materials in your compost pile (39:02)
  • Balance the green material and brown material (39:47)
• How to know if good soil could be better soil (43:05)
• Is the presence of pioneer weeds a reliable indicator of soil conditions? (45:20)
• Liquid soil drench tea that outcompetes anaerobic microbes (49:03)
  • A forgotten compost pile turned hard clay soil to pliable soil (52:30)
• Is going purely no-till detrimental to the biology in the soil (55:10)
  • Incorporate some disturbance but not something too drastic (57:55)
• Why you should consider adding compost tea in addition to straight compost (59:24)
• Given the soil has organic matter, can we survive on compost tea alone? (01:02:13)
• Is there a difference between compost teas for the soil and compost teas as foliar feed? (01:04:45)
  • What compost tea is and what it aims to do (01:05:40)
  • Extract vs. tea (01:06:38)
  • Increasing microbe populations without adding microbial food (01:07:07)
  • (01:08:27)
• The realistic changes end users can expect to see after using compost tea (01:10:35)
  • The first application of compost tea had the most drastic changes (01:12:52)
• The plant response to minerals and microorganisms (01:15:55)
• A compost tea recipe for beginners (01:16:52)
  • Brewing too short and brewing too long (01:20:50)
• A visual cue for brewing too long (01:21:42)
  • A compost tea that smells like manure has gone anaerobic (01:23:17)
  • Cold composting and Hot composting (01:24:28)
• Another mistake about compost tea: water quality (01:26:38)
  • Brew at ambient temperatures (01:28:32)
• Chlorine and chloramine aren’t as detrimental as you might think (01:29:36)
• The best method of applying compost tea (01:31:00)
  • You can’t really dilute it too much (01:33:40)
• Is there a danger of putting too much compost tea? (01:34:04)
• Applying tea to a plant part to be eaten (01:35:50)
• Recommendation: tea to foliage or tea to soil (01:38:21)
• Can microorganisms thrive from tea brew to soil (01:39:21)
• Adding only microbe food instead of microbes (01:42:16)
• Protecting foliar surfaces with beneficial biology (01:44:51)
  • Good rates of application (01:45:44)
• Seed inoculation (01:46:27)
• Closing the episode and where to find Troy Hinke (01:49:12)