Making Actively Aerated Compost Tea AACT

After reading of actively aerated compost teas, I have decided to try the proces for myself. It is a way of building the soil without having to create and move large volumes of compost - so it is a possible future answer to large scale farming as an alternative to chemical fertlisers.
Here is a description from Soil FoodWeb International's New Zealand site:

Compost Tea Information

The two key reasons to use compost tea are:

1. Impart microbial life into the soil or onto the foliage fof plants
2. Add soluble nutrients to the foliage or to the soil to feed the organisms and the plants present.

What is compost tea?

Compost tea is a liquid produced by extracting bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes from compost.  Compost tea production is a brewing process that is as simple to master as making a home brew.  Just like perfecting your home brew, brewing compost tea may at times seem frustrating.  However, if you concentrate on what you are doing and choose a suitable compost tea brewer that meets your specific needs, then creating a compost tea that will improve the health of your plants is relatively easy and well worth the effort.
If you want to introduce a highly beneficial group of bacteria and fungi, protozoa and possibly nematodes, buy good compost that has these organisms, and make Actively Aerated Compost Tea.  There are a number of compost brewers available to choose from in the market.  When purchasing a tea machine, you should ask the manufacturer to provide information on oxygen levels during the tea brewing cycle (the brewing process has to be aerobic) in addition to a standard food web analysis (molecular analysis of diversity, and total and active bacteria and fungi, and protozoa, present in the tea made under standard conditions).
The benefits of using a compost tea that contains ALL the food web organisms are:

• Improved plant growth as a result of using beneficial organisms to protect the plant surfaces.  The organisms occupy infection sites and can also prevent disease-causing organisms from finding the plant. 
• The tea improves the nutrient retention of the soil thus stimulating plant growth.  If your soil can retain its nutrients it helps minimise the need to use fertiliser.  A healthy soil is less likely to leach its nutrients into ground and surface waters. 
• Increasing the nutrients available to the root system leads to a stronger healthier plant.  The predator-prey interactions increase the available nutrients required by the plant and enables it to absorb them in the correct dosage at the time the nutrients are required.
• Compost tea assists in reducing the negative impact that chemical-based pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers have on beneficial micro-organisms in the ecosystem.
• Improves the intake of nutrients by increasing foliar uptake.  The beneficial micro-organisms increase the time the stomata stay open, while at the same time reducing evaporative loss from the leaf surface. 
• Reduces water loss and improves the water retention of the soil thereby reducing the need for frequent watering. 
• Improves tillage by building a better soil structure.  Only the biological components in your soil can build its structure, and ALL the organism groups in the food web are required in order to have this occur.  Thus your soil must contain not only bacteria but also fungi, protozoa, nematodes and micro arthropods. (Please be aware that the plate count method on its own does not supply you a complete overview of your existing soil foodweb.)

Deciding to make a start, I put a plastic drum in the narrow space connecting between my house and garage, which I grandly term "my conservatory", and filled it with rainwater - to avoid chlorine. First I created an air bubbler with calf tubing with holes along one blocked-off end, to sit at the bottom of the barrel, and an electric air mattress pump. I have suspended an old pillow case with good quality compost I have made from garden waste, and worm casts (with some worms) from my compost tumbler (which is fed with vegetable scraps and lawn clippings).

As I expected, the pump only lasted a few hours before a pivot began to seize. I read that the aeration should not be interrupted, but it was several hours before I realised I had a much better solution - if only I had thought of it sooner. I connected the tubing to my air compressor, reduced the pressure to minimum, and now I have an air bubbler which can easily go for the required 24 hours, and indeed the compressor motor hardly ever starts up. It is important to fasten up a loop of tubing high in case of pressure loss, and backflow of water.

It is best to keep the tea at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, but I have not yet worked out this little problem. Later today I intend to put the tea on areas of vegetable garden using a watering can (low tech!).
Now I need a microscope, to see the differences between where the compost tea has been used, and where it hasn't. 

The idea is that true fertility is in the soil life of algae, protozoa, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, arthropods, etc. As each of these levels consume the other, nutrients are released. This sounds much more suitable to me than the New Zealand system of having rock phosphate mined in Morocco, shipped to NZ, treated with sulphuric acid and spread over the land with spreader trucks or top-dressing planes!