Compost Tea – Tea Time For Your Garden
Anthony Tripodi
If you would like a nice garden, you’ll need a bucket of water
and some garbage. That simple recipe is all you need to grow
healthy, beautiful plants all summer long. But before you start
floating a tin can in a some water, you need to know that there
is a catch. The trick to this recipe is that you have to
compost your garbage first. Compost and water are the only
ingredients you need to create a powerful plant supplement
known as compost tea.
Compost in the garden will improve your soil which in turn will
reward you with strong plants that are better able to fend off
droughts and diseases. Compost improves soil structure and
drainage. It can also be used as a fertilizer or a mulch and it
enhances the soil’s ability to absorb water.
Compost tea provides the same benefits to a plant as compost
but it doesn't stop there. Not only can compost tea can applied
to the soil around plants like regular compost, but it can also
be sprayed on the leaves. When sprayed directly on the leaves,
it increases the amount of nutrients available to the plant and
helps fight foliar diseases. It will even increase the
nutritional value and improve the taste of vegetables.
There are many different ways to make compost tea but most
recipes can be summarized by saying, if you steep compost in
water you get compost tea.
Using rain water is the best way to make compost tea but you
can get by with tap water if rain is scarce. Tap water usually
contains enough chlorine in it to kill off all of the
beneficial bacteria so it’s best to let it sit for a few hours
before using it.
The quickest and easiest way to make compost tea is with an old
sock filled with compost. Throw it in a bucket and let it sit
for a day and you’ve just made compost tea. Sure there are more
complicated ways to make the tea more effective such as using
air stones or fish tank bubblers to feed the mixture enough
oxygen but the old sock in a bucket method works just fine.
Some people add molasses to the mix and there are many other
secret home recipes. But you’ll do fine by using a sock filled
with compost and a bucket of water. And actually the sock is
optional if you have no plans on using a sprayer.
When applying compost tea with a sprayer you have to worry
about clogs. Attach some cheese cloth or a piece of panty hose
to the sprayer’s intake with some rubber bands and you should
be fine.
If you need more than a few buckets of tea, then an old fish
tank or a plastic storage bin would make a great container for
brewing compost tea.
After you’ve brewed a few batches and are happy with the
results why not try aerated compost tea? You’ll need to feed
your mixture a constant supply of oxygen so a bubbler or air
stones will be required. You need to keep it aerated so it
doesn’t grow any harmful pathogens. Some popular ingredients to
add to bubbling compost tea are alfalfa, fish emulsion, powdered
seaweed, corn meal, green sand and more. Don’t use manure.
Manure tea shouldn’t be used as a foliar spray especially if
you’re growing vegetables and who wants manure floating around
in their bucket anyway.
Ask a weekend gardener about compost and chances are they’ll
tell you it’s powerful stuff with a lot of uses. But ask a
serious gardener about compost and they’ll probably tell you
that it’s the most important ingredient there is when making
compost tea.
About The Author: Anthony Tripodi is the webmaster of
http://WatchItRot.com. For more information about Compost Tea,
visit http://www.watchitrot.com
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