How to Make Actively Aerated Compost Tea

Do you want to learn how to make actively aerated compost tea? Also known as AACT? Watch along and I will teach you how!
We personally like to use worm castings in our brew, but any high-quality compost can be used. We’ll go over the benefits of using compost tea, the brewing supplies needed, the easy step-by-step process of how to make it, and also various ways you can use it in your garden.
This video was made to accompany a blogpost on Homestead and Chill, which includes detailed written instruction, more background information, photos, and more. Check it out here:
homesteadandchill.com/activel...
You can find a list of the supplies we use to brew compost tea here:
www.amazon.com/shop/deannacat...

[@DaljitSingh]

You guys are awesome, thank you for taking time to make the video(free knowledge) , spending all the time in editing and posting for us. Kudos to you 😀

[@HomesteadandChill]

Thanks for that!! I truly appreciate it

[@markcullen7834]

Your yard and gardens are amazing. Keep up the good work.

[@kristine5561]

I’m so jealous of your garden. It’s so beautiful!

[@vmiller811]

I just want to say THANK YOU! I made my first compost tea using your video--your information made it so easy!

[@freedombee9900]

Great, Thanks. I LOVE ur yard & Garden

[@erachelparri]

thank you for putting accurate info out there! this is what I've been looking for a while! I'm so happy I found you. now i'm off to build your version of the worm bin :)

[@bernatoliva7774]

Lots of knowledge there, thank you guys! Amazing garden you have here :) Keep on doing!

[@richrellihen1908]

Best tea presentation I’ve seen. Well done!

[@laurag679]

Your garden set up is beautiful 💚

[@raven7835]

Love your videos! They’re so informative. Love your blog too!

[@Vixenaustin]

That's a beautiful garden. Thank you for this video. ♥️

[@LifeGoesNorth]

Loving your content. Thank you for sharing your knowledge! 🐛

[@denisesimonik1504]

Wow! Thanks for the great information! Can't wait to get started.

[@michelledemars5938]

Very informative and well done!!I'll be trying this out. Your gardens are beautiful!!

[@dr6156]

Beautiful garden!! Lots of good info.

[@vibe7210]

Thank you for the vermicomposting series. Interested in seeing your rain collection setup if you can 😊

[@HomesteadandChill]

Thanks for your interest, we have moved to a new property and we had to pass on our tanks to someone else as they didn't fit into our new home and property set up. You can find more information about the set up in these articles: homesteadandchill.com/garden-irrigation-solutions/ homesteadandchill.com/save-water-garden/

[@damonmarshall01]

Thank you so much for clarifying my confusion between worm pee/castings/tea and how to make and use them... all in one awesome vid!!

[@AJsGreenTopics]

Great setup.

[@ebeb516]

Such a beautiful garden 🪴 🥰🙏

[@meriphiusfelamorr779]

I can't wait to try this. You folks rock!

[@HomesteadandChill]

Your plants will thank you! Thanks for watching.

[@KaribeCuebas]

Wow!! Great informative video and a beautiful garden.

[@georgewarner8003]

Amazing garden... Thanks for sharing.

[@helloween76]

Great video!! Thanks for posting this!

[@Gidget1616]

Love this! We need to do this! Thank you 😊

[@spencerbigum1309]

Best video on making tea I've found! Once I get my bin up and running this next week, I'll be gearing up to start making some tea following your process. Thank you so much for posting such a clear and helpful video to follow!

[@HomesteadandChill]

Thanks for watching and congrats on venturing into vermicomposting! Your garden and plants will thank you for it as well.

[@chrisclyde4490]

Great video guys! I always keep a lid or towel over the top of my bucket's to keep it dark for the microbial life. 🤙✌️

[@charn.3891]

Ur house and garden is so amzing.. thanks for this wonderful worm series

[@johnm5408]

Amazing! I bought the equipment from the link and followed your instructions from this post. I can't believe the results. In just three days my garden has exploded with new growth. Thank you so much

[@HomesteadandChill]

That's amazing to hear and it really does work wonders!

[@luciohernandez668]

Love these video!

[@kamarulzamanbachik9153]

Gr8 video! Tks for sharing!

[@beingbarb6380]

Very thorough, learned something new today! Thank you!

[@HomesteadandChill]

So good to hear! You'll probably love and learn from the blog too ❤🌙

[@beingbarb6380]

@@HomesteadandChill I'm on it!

[@NASATH3GR3AT]

I like you keep it up. I like how you professional with your steps and break downs 👌

[@WhiteLotusOm]

Great detailed video thank you! 🧑‍🌾

[@shnepper]

This is great! Gonna try to utilize this for the garden this year, thanks for the informative video

[@HomesteadandChill]

Your garden will thank you, have fun growing!

[@Paratrooper23]

I have been told that after you are finished brewing the tea you can return the castings right back into a worm bin. It will "merge" back into the cycle and be part of the bin until you harvest. Since you only multiply the microbes the original castings are still just what you started with. There is no loss when making the tea.

[@HomesteadandChill]

Absolutely you can do that, we usually throw it on top of a fruit tree or shrub.

[@urbangardeningandchickenke1018]

Excellent video with lot of information

[@edcglassworks5771]

Beautiful garden. I saw a few of my favorite flowers in there too.

[@HomesteadandChill]

Thank you so much!

[@LittlehomesteadintheValley]

This is awesome!!

[@KreamyKurls]

This is so fascinating. I have watched three of your videos and learned a lot.

[@HomesteadandChill]

We appreciate you watching and glad you have found our videos helpful!

[@KreamyKurls]

@@HomesteadandChill absolutely

[@petek5206]

Wow! Great video! You make great videos. This is perfect. Your garden looks incredible!

[@HomesteadandChill]

Thank you so much for watching!

[@sylviacolbert7048]

Great information. Thank you

[@waydwnbama-way3089]

Nicely explained thanks

[@LavozdelCannabis]

14:58 am I the only one who noticed those beautiful weed plants? LOL. Looking forward to improve my growing skills in an organic way!! Thank you for this video!

[@guitarguyjoefry]

New subscriber! Awesome job! Thank you so much for teaching me. I'm going to get me a tub today and get it ready for vermicomposting. I used your link for those tea aerator things and I'm getting one of those compost bins for the kitchen scrapes.

[@HomesteadandChill]

That's so great to hear, using freshly made worm compost is really one of the best things you can do for your soil and plants. The snake bubblers work great as well so you will be well on your way to making great compost tea.

[@BGN_1]

Very informative!

[@justalitttleun]

The foam is what you want the bubbler has smaller air particles which aids in the aerobic action. The snake bubbles have large holes and you can see that in the much larger size of the bubbles. 4 years late to the vid so sorry if someone's already pointed this out in the comments. You've inspired me to set a wormery up👍

[@sandywest4299]

nice video tyvm great instruction

[@64marine]

I saw one of these made on a big gardening show that used a 55 gal drum with aerating stones or a fine drill for punching holes in a 1/2" pvc pipe in the bottom to aid the organisms growth in the tea.

[@kathynix6552]

I’ve come across similar static aeration ideas to boost aeration

[@adammcdannell2347]

I made some for my weed plants and you wouldn't the difference it made!!!!

[@PlantGuild]

While this video was posted a couple of years ago it still helped me! Started my own Worm Bin because of your Setup video and this Tea video. Envious of your garden 😩

[@HomesteadandChill]

That's great to hear Jay Bob, we have since moved to a new property where we are building a new garden. Stay tuned for updates.

[@tajhotel3007]

amazing thank u for this vedio ..

[@bijoubug6535]

You are a wealth of knowledge - thank you for sharing - also we want more Aaron in the videos! ;o)

[@sino1449]

Hope you make more videos about vermicomposting .. greetings from Egypt 🌹

[@allysonvollmer7223]

Thank you!! If yall don't know they have these items listen on theira mazon recomendation page. So tired of stinky comfrey death liquid... excited to start this asap !!!

[@HomesteadandChill]

Making worm tea goes a long way towards healthy soil and plants, good luck!

[@PaulVotava]

You are a gardening sensai!

[@joanies6778]

I use the Boogie Brew + inline hose filter to dechlorinate my water in the food garden.

[@raceandreplace161]

Bit of an older video but I did a test regarding the bubbles/ foam for my MT's. If you put molasses in a bucket, add an airstone, you will get foam almost instantly, without the amendments. Very handy video for sure :)

[@valerenzia9208]

I would think that the quantity of foam might be linked to the size of the bubbles. Finer bubbles, more foam.

[@ryanlindell439]

So an aquarium guy here.... The buckets with the snake aerators are getting more agitation not more air. Aquarium air stones are designed to make tiny bubbles that help dissolve more air into the system. The larger bubbles from the snake aerators displace more water causing more agitation of the water which is what you are looking for. The aquarium air stone and its lots of tiny bubbles give more surface area for the proteins in the water to bind to creating more foam. The science behind the madness! Thanks for sharing the video! Looking forward to creating some worm tea myself now!

[@HomesteadandChill]

Thanks for the input! Also, our air stones always became quite clogged from the tea reside (even with cleaning after each brew), and gave significantly less output and air over time. Not an issue with the snakes!

[@ryanlindell439]

Homestead and Chill yeah I bet they get clogged. I’m actually making tea now thanks to you and you video. I’m actually using a small aquarium pump but small commercial grade air stones. Hope to find the snake air bubblers soon. If I was a little more tech savvy I’d send you a picture of the stones. They have been going 2 days now and working good. Look forward to seeing more of your videos on KZbin.

[@purpleluna8413]

Wow so interesting and great video very informative It sort of reminds me of Kombucha which my hubby makes but for the garden LOL

[@shannonmetzger1293]

Love all this info!! I’m looking at starting to do this. Question....I plan to use this for flower beds. Will this be just as beneficial to them as to vegetable beds?

[@chrisclyde4490]

Yes ma'am. It will be an improvement for any plant that grows in soil.

[@insAneTunA]

I have the same air pump, in fact I have two of them and each have a different capacity and I am very happy with this piston style pump. But what I want to mention is that I discovered that the fancy metal air valves leak from the factory, and the cheap plastic ones don't. And every bit of air matters. Other than that these piston style air pumps are far more reliable and use much less power compared to those membrane air pumps, or at least to my experience. But they do make a bit more noise and they vibrate a lot. I solved that vibration issue by screwing them to a piece of wood with a piece of rubber playground tile in between the wood and the pump. It is still louder as a membrane pump, but now it is much less loud as without the rubber playground tile. If you are using a larger rain barrel like me to make compost tea this style of pump with this capacity is most certainly needed. At least 35 liters per minute. I also have the 60 liter per minute pump, and I can choose to use each one of them individually or to combine them. An aquarium pump does not have the capacity and power to pump enough air at that depth of water. The deeper the water is the harder it is for the pump to pump at the rated capacity. It is the same story when you use multiple buckets. But to me a single rain barrel sounds more convenient and efficient. No hassle with multiple air stones or air valves. And you will have a more consistent end product.

[@HomesteadandChill]

Thanks for sharing!

[@xLxrth99]

good infos

[@ashleychu1959]

Hi! Huge fan of all your gardening wisdom ❤️ I just harvested my first batch of worm castings and got all set up to make aerated compost tea using the snake bubblers you mentioned in your video and when I went to connect it to the black aquarium tubing (which is connected to the air pump) I realized they are different sizes! How did you connect your two hoses?

[@HomesteadandChill]

Thanks for the kind words and we are excited for you to start making compost tea! Unfortunately the two hoses are different sizes so you need to use these barbed fittings to connect the two. www.amazon.com/dp/B07C2ZCT97?linkCode=ssc&tag=a05d7b40-20&creativeASIN=B07C2ZCT97&asc_item-id=amzn1.ideas.2V7VOB20ADC3O&ref_=aip_sf_list_spv_ofs_mixed_d_qv_asin

[@RicardoTorres-en3zn]

Thought the PVC were air lifts(if that's what they're called?). Which get some REALLY good aeration and microbe diversity, and that pump might be adequately sized for all three buckets! Still nice tho, loving all the ewc videos, thanks so much!! :)

[@ezyjack826]

love your videos. can I use the worm bin compost tea on my seedlings? ty

[@HomesteadandChill]

Yes you can, it is very mild and won't burn plants or seedlings.

[@TimTim-hs2dc]

Thank you for sharing all these information. I have also been using aerated compost tea and I must say, they are packed with nutrients. Will need to try your method will molasses. One question though, how do you decide when to use seaweed extract vs compost tea? Also, any chance you've tried how different the results are if you apply to the soil vs via foliar spraying?

[@HomesteadandChill]

We typically only use compost tea as a soil drench and don't foliar spray with it although I am sure it will provide a benefit as well. We try and feed the soil, not just the plants. As far as seaweed extract, we usually will give seedlings a dose or two of that before they reach the garden but we don't often use it to water the garden itself. We like to add kelp meal as an amendment a couple times a year.

[@ktownc936]

One tip i will share is always drop the pioe in with the air running. This will reduce anirobic biofilm formation on your bubbler pipe.

[@HerbGrowingLegal716]

Good video I subbed 👊🥂

[@falynkinsey6247]

Thank you for the information!!!! Where can we find the list of products you used?

[@HomesteadandChill]

Thanks! In the blogpost, linked in the caption above! I also have this compost supplies list, which includes many of them www.amazon.com/shop/deannacat3?listId=2V7VOB20ADC3O&ref=exp_inf_sh_mb_list_own_deannacat3_cp

[@glenn5ft19]

Hi Diana I enjoy your channel and common sense approach to gardening. Yours is the first clip I watched on making worm casting tea. I live on an island near Vancouver Canada. I have some vegetables in containers on our deck. Lettuce, peas, beets, chard, coriander, potatoes and an apple tree. I started doing some vermacultuer last year and have harvested some castings. I have just started making some worm poop soup. 20 litres of rain water, 1 kg, castings and 2 tablespoons of molasses. It is being constantly aerated and every day I use about 1/2 of it to water my plants. Each week I add more molasses and castings. The plants seem to be thriving on it. Can you think of any reason why it might not be a good idea to continue? Most of the KZbin people using worm casting tea are on much larger scale gardens and only use it once a fortnight. Thanks Glenn

[@HomesteadandChill]

If it is being constantly aerated and you are providing additional food and compost, it seems the beneficial microbes should continue to be present. We typically only water our garden with compost tea once a month or so. Some people doing more intensive cultivation (like cannabis) may use it every few weeks. But I don't see much of a downside to doing it as often as you do, although it may not be entirely necessary, it shouldn't hurt your plants much. Just be wary of worms or cocoons that may end up in your soil as we have found that a small houseplant pot can turn into almost straight worm castings with time which isn't the best for plant health.

[@shawnamatthews7788]

This is awesome. Can I ask how often you would make this?

[@HomesteadandChill]

Hi there! Once every couple of months, if all goes well (life, ya know! 😅) I know some gardeners that make it more often than that, every few weeks. Our goal is to feed the plants at least once or twice during their growing season (and we have 2 main growing seasons/crop cycles). Enjoy!

[@iliketowatch.]

Wow, you are a natural in front of the camera. I am impressed with how long each segment is (with no teleprompter). Do you write your scripts in advance or are you just winging it?

[@HomesteadandChill]

Just winging it, explaining what I know... Thank you for that compliment!

[@SalongirlGardens]

Great information, new subscriber here.

[@HomesteadandChill]

Hey! Thanks for being here, and for the feedback. Just in case you aren't aware, we are far more active with new articles 2-3x a week over on the blog than here 💚 homesteadandchill.com

[@glontcristianstefan9271]

Hello, I can't stop watching your videos. Very professional.... so therefore I am tanking you :) I have a short question regarding AACT... Does this work also in a Hydroponic System? I am thinking to link my worm bed casting with my Hydroponic System in order not to use any additional fertilizer. Can it work ? Thank you,

[@HomesteadandChill]

I am not sure about that, not too familiar with hydroponic systems in general. Best of luck to you though!

[@TakeMeHomeCountryRoad48]

use a black clip to clip the air line tho the wire also

[@jameslanza3269]

I just started a 3 - 5 gallon bucket worm bin system for the main purpose as to collect the leachate to use in my garden. You stated that the leachate could have negative pathogens and don't recommend it. I was wondering if I could use the leachate as the liquid, to make the aerated compost tea, instead of rain water? I was thinking that the leachate should have some value that can be added to and improve the mixture over plain rain water. Thanks!

[@HomesteadandChill]

Hi James, you don't want to use the leachate. It is anaerobic and good microbes need oxygen to survive and proliferate.

[@johnswarthout1962]

One more question I didn’t and can’t find where to get the tea bags for composting 😜

[@MathsPD]

Brilliant video. Thanks a million. Question-1: From experience do you swear that using aerated worm casting tea makes a difference to your plants? Have you ever tested it on half your X plants but not the other and seen the difference? I ask because I use Comfrey tea because people say its a good thing to do but I do not yet have a sense that it makes a difference! Question-2: Are worm castings any good to be added to the garden (without aerating). ie does the aerating 'super-charge' the goodness in the castings or does the aerating simply make it easier to spread the goodness of the castings more evenly? Question-3: Can you over-fertilise with worm casting tea? ie should you only use it once every x months? Question-4: What would be the minimum air flow required from a pump for one 5-gallon bucket? And what would be the maximum be? (I don't think you showed the pump - I'm in NZ so i'd purchase locally) Thanks a again. Love your videos.

[@HomesteadandChill]

1. Yes we have noticed a difference in our plants once we started using worm compost and compost tea. However, we have never done any side by side testing necessarily. 2. Worm castings are great to add to the garden on their own, we typically add a small amount to transplant holes when we are planting out seedlings in the garden. Making compost tea just makes a smaller amount of compost go further. 3. You can't necessarily over fertilize with worm castings, however, you don't want your soil to turn into only worm castings (which can happen in small containers if a few worms end up in the soil, it has happened to us in a houseplant pot) as worm castings themselves are a great soil medium on their own. When we are on top of things, we like to use compost tea in the garden on a monthly basis. 4. We use a 793 GPH air pump that does a great job, produces a lot of bubbles and activity and we can aerate three 5 gallon buckets at once. Yet, it doesn't produce too much oxygen where the tea gets splashed over the sides either. Hope that helps and thanks for watching.

[@vonniebench]

Leachate if processed okay? I let it sit for 9 days... and aerated several times during that time. Turned into a weak tea color, no smell.

[@13thDiscipleU]

How often do u feed them

[@pacoplayz1047]

like it :)

[@vasot1572]

Thank you for this useful video.. I want to ask some things just to have this clear in my mind...can keep this tea for many weeks, if I continue to aerate the water? And every time we have to feed molasses so that the microorganisms are always active? the microorganisms increase week by week? I want to try this as a nutrient solution in a hydroponics system. do you think it will work? Thank you!

[@HomesteadandChill]

The tea cannot be kept for weeks on end and should be used within 48 hours after starting it, unless of course you have a continuous brew/aerate system down and feed the tea more molasses or sugar on occasion so the microbes can continue to feed and multiply. While I am not entirely familiar with the intricacies of hydroponic systems, I believe people do use compost tea in their hydro systems. I would think adding it to your system on occasion would be more beneficial than trying to run the tea in your system on a continuous basis. With that, making a weekly, bi weekly, or monthly tea to use in your hydroponic system should be sufficient. Hope that helps.

[@patricakimmel9563]

theres a company called 02grow which makes a nano bubbler[02 emitter] which provides more oxygen to your compost tea in a few hours

[@michellekoch1961]

How often do you water, and how much? Also is the recommended pump noisy/get hot to touch? - Was thinking of setting of my Dad as I raise worms.

[@HomesteadandChill]

It isn't too noisy or hot, we typically do it in the garage. You could water as much as you want with it as long as you don't overwater the plant itself. Since our garden is fairly large, we typically only add a cup or two to summer veggies such as tomatoes, squash, peppers, etc.

[@brownble]

Thank you so much! This video was so helpful! So glad to know that not getting liquid from the tap at the bottom of my compost bin might actually be a good sign! Can't wait to make my compost tea. One question, do you have any tips for those tiny fruit flies from getting in your bin? Or are they harmless?

[@HomesteadandChill]

They are more of a nuisance than a serious problem. If you lay paper bags or burlap over the top of your bedding/compost, it may keep the gnats away.

[@kathynix6552]

Escalating gnat population usually indicates overfeeding

[@josephmichaelbrunson3331]

What do you do with the compost once you are done with this? Do you just dry them and then use them? Are they still as beneficial after this?

[@HomesteadandChill]

We will toss the worm compost on top of fruit trees or shrubs once its been used for tea. There is still good stuff in there.

[@nathanbowen8559]

I'm curious as to what kind of wood you use for your raised beds. And also do you feel that they should always be that high. Just wondering about wasted height space. Thanks

[@claireslattery1753]

They have videos about this! 🙂

[@HomesteadandChill]

Check out our video on how to build raised beds: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGG8nJ6lq6iKhKs

[@samanthapaulson3553]

What vine do you have on your archway right behind you ? And may I ask where you are ? Canada / US ? And what state or province your in ?

[@deborahapplebury4523]

samantha paulson the vine is passion fruit(there’s 2 actually) and homestead and chill is in zone 9 on the California coast

[@praveenshenoy8829]

I got the pump and the snake as listed in your product list. I must be missing something here. The 1/4" clear tubing that came with the snake fits very loose over the outlet valve though the pup claims the outlet valve fits `1/4" tubing. Is there another part in between?

[@HomesteadandChill]

You need the smaller black tubing to connect to the pump and the barb to connect the two types of tubing. Thanks for watching. Tubing: www.amazon.com/dp/B01HBSU9EA?ref=exp_deannacat3_dp_vv_d&th=1 Barb: www.amazon.com/dp/B07C2ZCT97?ref=exp_deannacat3_dp_vv_d

[@kevinhutchinson5581]

I’ve read that humic acid and sea kelp extract are also good additives for the tea. Any experience with this on top of the molasses?

[@lousielouise8716]

Yeah, these are super great food for microbes. Great as a foliar spray.

[@kathynix6552]

Your compost will already have humic acid

[@davidcarter1492]

How often to you feed your garden with the tea?

[@HomesteadandChill]

Usually every month or so.

[@PrettyAliceNight]

So you don’t dilute the tea with water before using it to water your garden?

[@HomesteadandChill]

Nope, it's already dilute enough and actually quite mild so you don't have to worry about "burning" plants.

[@PrettyAliceNight]

@@HomesteadandChill ok cool!

[@LuisCastro-ix3di]

To make the worm casting tea. How can I go about purchasing all the tools/supplies you are using to construct the bubbler????.

[@HomesteadandChill]

We linked our Amazon shop page in the caption.

[@tyler238]

Could you double brew the bags?

[@HomesteadandChill]

Theoretically you could, but I doubt it would be nearly as strong, alive or effective by the second round...

[@bonniebartlow5631]

I don’t see your air pump you use for the tea I have gone through your used items and can’t find the one you use. Can you let us know what brand? Watts? Etc. Thanks also what do you recommend for just 1, 5 gallon bucket full?

[@HomesteadandChill]

We use the air pump listed below, it has 6 valves but we typically use it for 2-3 5 gallon buckets at a time. You can likely get a smaller pump for just 1 bucket but we have been using this one for 5 years and it works great. www.amazon.com/dp/B002JLJC0W?tag=a05d7b40-20&linkCode=ssc&creativeASIN=B002JLJC0W&asc_item-id=amzn1.ideas.2V7VOB20ADC3O

[@dennisjackson7468]

Would it be good to pour this compost tea on my lawn? What do you think would be the result?

[@HomesteadandChill]

It would improve the soil health and growing lawn as well.

[@charlesrockey5203]

Omg I thought they were going to drink it lol!!

[@bkershaccount]

can you use this on seedlings?

[@HomesteadandChill]

Absolutely.

[@veronical3135]

Can the worm castings be added straight to the garden soil or pots without turning it into tea?

[@HomesteadandChill]

Absolutely, they are great as a top dress or added to holes when transplanting.

[@articmars1]

Aren't you suppose to use unsulfurated molasses? Whats the difference between that an organic molasses? Or are they the same thing?

[@HomesteadandChill]

This organic molasses is unsulphured as well, I think most molasses available to consumers is unsulphured for the most part.