Fertilizing with Compost Tea

Fertilizing with Compost Tea is one of the best ways to get nutrients to your plants. It a safe way to feed your garden all year long. Apply compost tea every two to three weeks. When growing vegetables that are considered heavy feeders, apply it once a week. You can’t over fertilize with tea!

How to Make Compost Tea

Compost tea is made by steeping compost, manure or other organic nutrients using non-chlorinated water. First, you place a shovelful of the compost or manure into a sack or cloth bag. Second, you hang it from the side of a container on the inside. Third, the container can be as small as a 5 gallon pail or a 55 gallon drum. Fourth, you fill the container with non- chlorinated water. If you have a well great! The water has to be filtered if it is chlorinated. Fifth, place at the bottom a small electric fish tank pump to aerate the water. Let it “cook” for 24 to 48 hours maximum. The tea is ready to be apply with a hand sprayer. You can dilute it down approximately to 10 times its content. Read the blog on how to make compost.

Difference between Oxygenated and non-Oxygenated

Oxygenated compost tea produces beneficial bacteria versus non-oxygenated produces unhealthy bacteria.

The old popular version was simply to just soak the compost or manure in water for a few days. This type of tea produces unhealthy bacteria that is toxic. Aeration is needed for good bacteria to grow. The good bacteria will be present only on the surface of the container, as this is where the oxygen is available.  

Healthy bacteria once applied to the soil, feeds off the organic matter. The organic matter will then decompose releasing the nutrients into the soil. The nutrients are then absorbed by the roots of the plants. 

Fertilizing with compost tea increases the microbe population of the soil and feeds the natural cycle of the multiple organism that inhabit the soil. See video on applying compost tea. 

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