There are three (3) main products we use to make our Microbial Mineral Tea (MMT). Using and/or combining these 3 products allows you to make the type of 'Tea' that best suits your needs.
- Pretreated Alaskan Humus is a plant-based aerobically decomposed humus from grasses, flowers, shrubs, trees, animals, and everything, living and dying over millennia that contain an extremely wide range of bacteria, fungi, and some protozoa groups. We use this material because of the huge diversity of biology it contains. Since virtually all soils now lack fungi and protozoa groups, we use specific organic nutrients to boost the fungi and protozoa in the Pretreated Alaskan Humus to very high populations. High populations of fungi and protozoa are the most needed in soils to bring the balance back towards healthy ratios so that soils begin to function properly again. Brewing the Pretreated Alaskan Humus produces a primarily Microbial tea, but it is low in Minerals.
Note: Row crops and vegetables need a ratio of bacteria to fungi of nearly 1 to 1; yet we often see hundreds of bacteria to a few fungi when we test the biology groups. No soil will ever function properly or be healthy at these imbalanced ratios. Building up the fungi and protozoa populations to that of bacteria is crucial. Bacteria and fungi (decomposers) are the healthy stable foundation of any soil and they must be in balance.
The protozoa do not decompose plants or organic matter, they are predators and their role in nature is to eat bacteria, which they do extremely well. Bacteria are the most nutrient (mineral) dense organisms on the planet at 5 Carbons to 1 Nitrogen (5:1 ratio) yet bacteria also contain 1 P, 1-K, 1-S, 1-Mg, 1-Ca, 1-B, 1-Mn, 1-Fe, 1-Zn, 1-Cu, etc. However, when a Protozoa (predator) eats a bacteria it must excrete nearly 85% of the minerals /nutrients it receives from the bacteria. Here's why; protozoa have to maintain a Carbon to Nitrogen ratio of 30 C to 1 N yet its primary food source is at a 5:1 ratio.
For a protozoa to obtain it's 30 carbons, it must eat 6 bacteria. Now it has 30 carbons and also has 6-N, 6-P, 6-K, 6-S, 6-Ca, 6-Mg, 6-B, 6-Fe,, 6-Mn, 6-Cu, 6-Zn, etc., which it cannot retain so it has to excrete 5 of the 6 minerals it just consumed back out into the soil in order to maintain it's 30:1 ratio.
Because bacteria are feeding on the root exudates provided by the plant, the protozoa are eating and pooping right on the root system and the plant immediately takes up the excreted minerals from the protozoa waste. Nematodes eat fungi and the process is the same pattern. Nematodes release most of their nutrients / minerals from eating fungi back into the soil too. This is how biology transfers soluble minerals into plants. For this to happen properly, we have to have these organisms in place and living out their role in nature. - Organic Humates are plant vegetation-based humus sources but are derived from compression without oxygen (anaerobically) environments. Humates are usually mined from below the earth's surface where once heavy vegetation was covered by earth and with time, pressure, and heat they became a soft coal-type substance. Humates are high in carbon and a broad-spectrum range of nearly all minerals, and are a primary source from which to make Humic and Fulvic acids.
Humates can also contain biology: bacteria, fungi, and even protozoa. Many Humates have some biology but not all types. The Humates we use have a good diversity of bacteria, and a modest range of fungi, but a very high presence of protozoa. Since protozoa are very difficult to reestablish without an external source, this supply of Humates is extremely valuable for being able to rebuild the soils / plant roots with these vital predators. Brewing the Organic Humates produces a Microbial tea high in Protozoa, but lower in fungi and minerals. - Soft Rock Phosphate is a geological or mineral-based product not from plants. Its contents are about 50% Ca, 10-15% P, some K and S, and approximately 60-65 trace elements. We use this source as a mineral product that we are able to dissolve and release using Bio-plks. Brewing Soft Rock Phosphate produces a Mineral tea, without biology, which can be done in as little as a few minutes of aggressive agitation.
Bio-Phos is a 50/50 blend of Soft Rock Phosphate and Organic Humates.
Minerals are essential for all life; certain minerals are the building blocks of all cells, structures, and life forms. Other minerals are required to run the internal enzymatic functions of all cells and structures be it plants, livestock, or humankind. All life forms are built and the functions are all done by enzymes. Every enzyme requires a specific activator for it to function properly. The job of an enzyme is to take elements and build / combine them into compounds, that build the structures and run the functions within those organisms. Nothing can be made without minerals, and nothing can function without enzymes that require minerals to activate them. Once you have the structural minerals in biology or plants (their bodies) each has to have other minerals, generally trace elements so their internal function can operate properly. Dissolving and putting out minerals allows biology and plants to function properly. Minerals are not just for plants, but for microbes as well.
Combinations
Pretreated Alaskan Humus with Organic Humates and Soft Rock Phosphate (Bio-Phos) is superb for the soil, in-furrow, in drip, and as a crop residue digester to be sprayed on crop residue in the fall and disked lightly into the soil. When growing biology, we shoot for a brewing time of 24 hours with normal water temperature ranges of 60 to 75 degrees.
Pretreated Humus and Soft Rock Phosphate make an excellent foliar; Organic Humates not so much because the protozoa are not going to live on the leaf surfaces, only in the soil.
Soft Rock Phosphate makes an excellent mineral tea for foliars or drip. You can make this type of Tea in as little as a few minutes as Bio-plks will break those mineral bonds almost immediately.
Bio-plks is used in the brewing process to dissolve the minerals into solution so biology and plants can immediately use them, They also feed and grow fungi and protozoa populations that are in the Pretreated Humus and Organic Humates. Bio-plks is not food generally used by bacteria so their growth response is not as high. In most cases we do not need more bacteria, most soils have plenty of these organisms. It's the fungi and protozoa that are mostly lacking in nearly all soils.
Putting either Organic Humates or Soft Rock Phosphate down directly into the soil, preferably in-furrow, will provide minerals and or microbes to the soil and these products will release fully over about a 5 year period of time.