Make HUM tea at home?

Hello friends, i have been using HUM team from cutting edge solutions but i was wondering if there was a way to make it at home. my plants love it but i am spending over 80$ a month on the stuff and i still wish i could buy more. Any advice? Thanks again

:Bump: I'd like to hear about this too!

its a compost tea. There should be plenty of info out there on making compost teas.

Yes. This cut and paste from another board:

Recipes:
There are many recipes available for making AACT. All involve the use of high quality compost. I'll focus on the 5 gallon size, though recipes are available in larger quantities. However, ingredients do not increase in direct proportion to the size of the tank, so please contact me directly if interested in recipes for larger brewers. Recipes are directly related to the amounts of dissolved oxygen in your brewer. As you add more food sources for the microbes, you need to add more air to ensure the tea stays aerobic (above 6 mg/liter dissolved oxygen).

Here's a recipe from Dr. Ingham of Soil Food Web Labs (www.soilfoodweb.com):

5 gal brewer
1 lb. compost
½ cup of humic acid
1 to 3 T. of kelp
1 tsp. of non-sulfured, blackstrap molasses
In our brewer, we use:
1 heaping cup of compost (approx. 1 ¼ cups)
½ cup of our foods (proprietary blend comprised of sulfate of potashmagnesia, feather meal, soymeal, cottonseed meal, mycorrhizal, kelp, and alfalfa meal)
1 T. of Tera Vita SP-85 Humic acid (optional for increased fungal growth)

We use volume instead of weight as a measure for our compost, as weights will fluctuate based on moisture content of the compost. We also don't use molasses because it is difficult to package and ship and also creates bacterial blooms, rather than slow growth of organisms, which may rapidly lower the dissolved oxygen levels in your brewer. However, it is a perfectly acceptable food substrate that tends to feed the bacteria in your tea. With all these ingredients, it is much better to start using less foods rather than more. If not looking at your tea through a microscope, I would use a recipe that has been tested and err on the side of too little foods, rather than too much.

Another thing to consider is that you want to maximize your biological diversity in your finished compost tea. We use 3 types of compost in our food kits:

Alaska Humus (brought down from Alaska, contains excellent biological activity and diversity, see Humus Compost | Jacksonville Garden Fertilizer | Soil Fertility at Alaskahumus.com or Alaska Salmon Fishing Lodge, Lake Creek, Alaska - Guided Alaska Fishing Charters - Alaska Magic Fly-in Fishing Trips and Cabins for more information)

Vermicompost (Woody materials, vegetable food scraps, cardboard, and newspaper that has been composted by worms.) I recommend this material over thermal compost for people who like to make their own compost, as vermicompost tends to be the most consistent material since the worms take care of the composting process for you)

Fungal compost that is mostly comprised of woody materials. We add food resources for the fungi and strive for the highest active and total fungal content we can achieve.

Brewing Temperatures:
There are a couple of schools of thought regarding brewing temperatures. One is that since the microbes in the tea will grow and reproduce most efficiently at 68-70˚F., this is the temperature at which you should brew your tea, regardless of the current soil or air temperature where youâ??ll be applying the tea. The theory is that since you are using the shotgun approach to growing microbes, whatever microbes are unable to adapt to the conditions will either die or go dormant, becoming food resources for the other microbes in the soil. Since soil and air temperatures will change throughout the seasons and even from day to night, these organisms are highly adaptable and you will get your best results with this approach.
Another theory, and one that Dr. Ingham subscribes to, is that you want to brew at the ambient temperature you will be applying the tea. Therefore, if you are applying your tea as a soil drench on 60 degree soil, youâ??ll want to brew at 60 degrees. You may need to extend your brewing cycle a bit for the colder temperatures, but this method will select for the organisms that will be most successful at the current temperatures in your soil and you wonâ??t suffer as much organism loss.

I believe we need much more research to determine the most effective brewing temperatures for AACT. However, since I havenâ??t seen conclusive data either way, I tend to lean towards brewing at ambient temperatures, though this requires a bit more knowledge about your brewer and brewing cycle, as you will need to adjust your brewing time based on the temperature.

Application:
AACT can be applied in a variety of ways. One benefit of AACT is that it can't be over-applied, as it is comprised of beneficial biology and any biology that cannot survive will just go dormant or die and become food for other microbes.

Typical application rates are 20 gallons/acre for soil drenches and 5 gallons/acre for foliar applications up to 5 feet in height. Water is merely a carrier, so the tea can be mixed at ratios up to 5:1, water to tea, in order to get an even application across your property.

Depending on the size of the area you're spraying, you can use anything from a watering can to a backpack sprayer or larger. Make sure to avoid any pumps with an impellor or pump where the tea is being sent through something that could shred the fungi. Many people use the handheld pump sprayers or a pump backpack sprayer. These have been tested to not damage the biology, provided you don't over pump and hold the nozzle too close to the surface of the plant.

Make sure there is not a 90 degree angle in your nozzle tip. You can only use a hose-end sprayer if you donâ??t have chlorine in your water supply. Think about the passage that the organisms will take from the brewer to the leaf surface of your plant and be as gentle as possible.
Other resources for information on compost tea are:

Keep It Simple, Inc. â?? My company which produces compost tea brewers, composts, and other biological amendments (humic acids, seaweed, etc..) Keep It Simple Compost Tea Brewers and Composts

Soil Food Web, Inc. â?? Soil Testing labs established by Dr. Elaine Ingham. Check out the â??About Usâ?� section and click on â??Sustainable Approachâ?� for more information on compost teas and the soil food web. You can also purchase â??The Compost Tea Brewing Manualâ?� by Dr. Ingham through this site. Soil Foodweb

Microbe Organics â?? Tim Wilson in Canada has a site that is more focused on the microscopic aspects of compost teas. You can view his microscope work and also purchase his DVD if you plan on looking at your tea under a microscope. Microbe Organics

Teaming with Microbes â?? Excellent book by Jeff Lowenfels on organic gardening using beneficial microbes. I highly recommend this book to everyone, you wonâ??t be disappointed! We have it available at a very competitive price on our website, when ordering other products.
Since this is a relatively new technology, there is a constant stream of new research and information relating to aerated compost teas and biological gardening practices. Itâ??s also important to test your soil and evaluate your garden or pumpkin patch to determine what deficiencies may exist.

If interested in not poisoning yourself or contaminating your meds, read this entire article:
Is Compost Tea Effective? - E. coli and Salmonella warnings