Compost Tea: Liquid Gold for Your Garden!

 

By now, we all know without a doubt that organic is the way to go.  Who wants to eat food grown with nasty, cancer causing chemicals?  No thanks!  Here is a great organic recipe to ensure your garden flourishes! This Compost Tea recipe will provide many amazing benefits, including:

 

Helps combat plant disease

Provides beneficial soil organisms

Increases plant growth

Provides nutrients to both plants and soil

Degrades toxic pesticide and other chemical residues

 

Compost Tea can be used either as a foliar spray or a soil drench. Making the tea can be as easy or complicated as you want, depending on your time and resources.

Let’s start with an easy-to-make brew.

 

You’ll need: 1 medium plastic bucket, chlorine-free water, mature compost, old towel, stirring utensil

 

Steps

1. Fill ⅓ of your bucket with mature (older) compost.

2. Add water to top of bucket. Stir till compost mixed well with water.

3. Cover with towel to keep out bugs.

4. Let steep for 3-5 days, stirring daily.

5. Strain liquid and keep. Add solids back to compost pile.

 

Your Compost Tea (that remaining liquid) is now ready to use should be used quickly for best nutrient absorption (within a day or two). For foliar spray, first it must be diluted using a 10:1 ratio of chlorine-free water to tea liquird. It may help to add a few drops of biodegradable dish soap to about a gallon of tea to help the solution adhere to leaves. The solution can also be used undiluted in soil by pouring around the base of plants as a root drench.

 

Watch as your plants thrive, as the Compost Tea helps suppress foliar diseases, increases the amount of nutrients available to the plant, and speeds the breakdown of toxins. You'll be enjoying the benefits yourself soon enough!