"Deuley's Own" ACT brewer: 2nd place in S.F.W. "brew off" and homemade!

hey all,

Just wanted to share some great info with you...its a homeaid ACT brewer, makes 4 gallons and costs about $25.00 and 5 min to make. THis brewer is GREAT and produces just the right amount of air bubbles to maximize fungal and bacterial growth.

Dr. Ingram (she owns Soil Food Web) had a competition of ACT brew machines about 3 years ago and 4-5 brewers were entered. Prices ranged from about $15,000 to $25.00 . The results were judged by Dr. Ingram on Total biomass, total active fungi and total active bacteria and protozoa counts. Well, the most expensive, fancy and high-tech brewer came in first place but little ol' Deuley's came in second!!!

It's important to note the Bruce Deuley and David Hall created the Deuley's Own brewer with the assistance of Dr. Ingram's opinions and suggestions. Bruce and David are both certified under Dr. Ingram's microscopy program.

Anyway, a great ACT brewer consists of four things: the right air bubble size, the right air bubble flow, the right ingredients and a correct method of brewing. I've been using the Deuley's own for a few months now and I really love it!!! it works amazing...I just started a new brew (20 min ago) and it's already foaming like a mad dog

OK, so for those who like PDF's here the Deuleys' own directions: Deuley's Own PDF

And for those who like HTML here a website: Deuley's Own HTML

There are complete directions for brewing you own ACT along with tea ingredients...follow the brewing steps!!!...have phun!!!

Hey again!


I thought I'd post my tea mixes I like and have worked for me in the Deuley's Own:

General Inoculate

A.) Ingredients:
-4 gal h20
-8 tsp kelp liquid or soluble powder -food for the microoragnisms
-8 tbl black strap molasses
-1-2 tbl of rock dust, ceramic powder, etc (Azomite is great)
[optional]-4 tsp liquid humic acid (Fossil Fuel) -food for micros
[optional]-1/2 tsp yucca extract (ThermX70) -food for micros and surficant
[optional]-4 tbl A/EM -contains few aerobic micros so I add it b4 and after brewing (I checked with SCD )
-2 cups earthworm castings
-1-2 tbl cup ground alfalfa meal (good for fungi)
-2 oz pond water w/muck, leaf, etc (from bottom of pond) -provides Protozoa, bacteria [use a turkey baster to get h20 from bottom of pond, deep in muck...that's where the protozoa live )

B.) Method:
-put liquid ingredients into 5 gal pale
-put e.castings in paint strainer bag
-pour pond water and muck trough paint strainer bag to catch muck
-tie off paint bag and hang, turn on air machine
-brew for 6-8 hours, then REMOVE THE BAG (put the air stones from bag into bucket)
-brew for another 24-30 hours
[optional]-when done brewing add another 4 tbl of A/EM before you use the ACT

C.) Usage:
-when inoculating we are not trying to add nutrients, only "life", so you can dilute this to most any ratio but I think 1:250-1:500 is good...or you can use it straight w/o dilution


Veg/bloom

A.) Ingredients:
your choice of grow/bloom fertilizer...organic please --I'm going to use EJ Grow in this example
-all of the above ingredients
-8 tbl of EJ grow

B.) Method:
-Brew just like you did with the inoculate and DO NOT add the fertilizer yet (we need to let the micros's populate first)
-After 6-8 hours, when you REMOVE the bag ADD the fertilizer
-brew for anther 24-30 hours
[optional]-when done brewing add another 4 tbl of A/EM before you use the ACT
-adjust PH, you should use EJ ph adjuster for PH down as it's ascorbic acid

When adding the ferts add it as you normally would. We are not diluting this ACT further, it will be used "as is" when it's done brewing.

a few more thoughts,...

I'm going to check the microorganism count in ACT brews with the following ingredients:

-vanilla Deuley's own mix
-the inoclulant mix I posted above
-Deuley's own w/azomite and biozime
-The inoculant mix I posted above w/azomite and biozime and bokashi

I know a lot of ppl add fish emulsion but I'd rather not use fish...it's an environmental thing and to prevent wild animals from OD grows. Also, fish is used mainly as food but I've already got a good deal of various food stuffs in the mix.

OK here is the kelp info

It's looks like I smoke way too much herb...or I'm really LECDYSTIC It is fish emulsion that lowers fungal count, not kelp, kelp is great for all microorganisms.


Humates (ie humic acid):
They stimulate all forms of microorganisms, as does kelp...but huamtes MAY be detrimental to lactic acid bacteria, more research is needed as this is the only one I've found so far. Also the study itself seems to question it's findings (good objectivity). Also of note is this only happens at high levels and you only need a little bit of humic, less actually works better than more...so using humic acid in ACT at low levels is great. In terms of humic acid levels .005-.009% is what to strive for, but you can call it .01% [these exact numbers are based upon science but it's a LONG explanation, just trust me, it's ALL about the ice cubes [that's a hint!] . ] Also import to note is that lactic acid bacteria is mainly an EM bacteria as it's an anaerobic bacteria...but maybe it's a facultative anaerobe...I look it up later

Quote:

Research by SWEP may actually support this latter contention, as it showed humates produce a similar change in microbial profile to kelp extracts, but with a strong suppression of lactic acid bacteria and an additional stimulation of cellulose utilizers. In a sense, these materials appear to work as if they were some kind of hybrid between kelp extracts and fish emulsions, but generally at higher application rates.

[snip]

Quote:

Due to the wide range of product formulations, there is probably no single effective application rate, but again the lower application rates appeared to be the more effective.

Kelp:
is good for all kinds of microorganisms, aerobic and anaerobic:

Quote:

SWEP research has shown that these hormones also have strong effects on soil microbes. In particular, it has been shown that kelp extracts stimulate activity in fungi, yeast, photosynthetic bacteria and actinomycetes.

Fish emulsion:
is not so good ...it also works in reverse logic when it comes to it's effect on some microorganisms (eg. fungi: "cellulose utilizers"; Bacteria: "Lactic Acid")...more is bad but less is worse.
[quote]
The most significant result came from the specialized Fungi termed cellulose utilizers. A surprise because this group had been expected to be intolerant of added nitrogen. Other fungi also showed significant increases in activity. However, unlike kelp extracts, there appeared to be two critical concentrations. Fungi and cellulose utilizers responded at the lowest application rate

[c-ray]

did someone say Protozoa?

I have also read that sphagnum peat moss also has lots of protozoa and can be brewed in water for about 24 hours to extract them into the water

Hey,

thanks for the link

I actually have my own protozoa farms in my house. They are (2) five gallon fish tanks in which I put a good deal of pond scum/muck and h20 extract from the pond via. a turkey baster and bucket. To that I add Timothy Hay (aka rabbit hay) for them to multiply within and feed upon. To keep them alive and going strong I keep a air-stone machine next to the tanks and 2-3 times a day I put the hose into the tanks and bubble in a little bit of air...you don't need much as too much can hurt the protozoa.

To use the protozoa from the tanks it's the same deal...a turkey baster to extract them from the muck without disturbing the muck more than is necessary. If the muck is disturbed it will slow the breeding of protozoa.

I've been reading on advanced protozoa culture techniques and they involve adding organic powdered milk and other food stuffs for the protozoa. I just started my tanks about 2 weeks ago so I haven't had time to play with them yet in terms of diff food stuffs. There is a TON of info online about raising protozoa in fish tanks...it so easy and good for ACT I'm also thinking of adding some EM to the protozoa tanks as they will feed upon the bacteria and fungi in the EM...like 'roids for protozoa

thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by c-ray

I have also read that sphagnum peat moss also has lots of protozoa and can be brewed in water for about 24 hours to extract them into the water

Nice, I did not know this. Seems like protozoa extracted from peat would be a great addition to ACT and/or A/EM intended for plants that are grown in a mostly peat mix