I make compost tea throughout the gardening season and I use my own finished compost. The first year, I tried making the aerobic kind, using a cheap aquarium pump I bought at Pet Smart.
There’s a difference of opinion in the organic community regarding aerobic versus anaerobic teas. I’ve done a lot of reading about it, and it seems that the old aerobic tea (without the aeration) has been used successfully for centuries in Europe.
I found the pump to be a real pain, and one of the cats was positively obsessed with the bubbles. I don’t like the idea of any electrical devices outside through the night, and putting it in the basement made me nervous as well. But this cat was not going to stop trying to catch bubbles, so the entire thing was a big bust.
Since then, I’ve just prepared tea by adding compost to a bucket of water and stirring with a bamboo stick (I have a large supply of those thanks to my groves) now and then. I tried making tea bags from old socks and pantyhose, but that’s just hard. Now I just dump it all in together and stir.
There *is* scientific research out there that indicates compost tea (both kinds) really does help with disease suppression, thanks to the zillions of microbes in the tea. I just think my plants like it a lot, and I get my kicks in odd ways. Compost tea is one of those ways.
Here’s a recipe I came across, for another kind of compost tea: (I’ll be trying this the next time the lawn is mowed)
Fill a five-gallon bucket half full with 50/50 mixture of green and brown materials.
Green: anything that is high nitrogen: grass clippings, fresh leaves, weeds (full of nutrients….dandelions are fantastic!), rabbit food, fresh manure….and yes, my favorite green: human urine. (As long as you’re healthy.)
Brown: dry grass/weeds, hay/straw, composted manure, dried leaves
Mash all of that down and keep adding until half full.
Add water to the top. (Or if you’re like me and prefer rain water, try and time it when a big rain is coming…set outside to catch the water. One of these days I’m going to buy one of those rain water things.)
Let it sit in the sun for 10 to 14 days, stirring once a day. It will stink.
Stretch a pair of old pantyhose (or cheesecloth or cotton tshirt, or whatever is in the junk box) over the top of a second bucket and secure with clothespins. Pour the mixture into the bucket, remove the pantyhose, and you’ve got your tea.
Dilute this at a ratio of four water to one tea. Spray on your plants and use as a root drench. You can add orange oil, molasses and/or seaweed juice for extra oomph. I use the Maxicrop seaweed juice throughout the season. If I could only have one product, it would be Maxicrop.
I’m going to start a batch of this as soon as the kid mows our yard. If you use a lot of chemicals on your lawn, I think I’d find something else. I use nothing but myself on the lawn, though I keep intending to use corn gluten meal.
Bucket tip: if you know anyone with cats, ask if they ever buy cat litter in those buckets. I don’t, because I only use World’s Best cat litter and it comes in a bag. (It’s the world’s best cat litter, and I sometimes compost the urine clumps because it’s 100 percent corn, no additives, and the cats seem to use one box for urine and one box for poo.)
I have a lot of those cat litter buckets, courtesy of a relative who DOES use the Tidy Cat in the buckets. (They have five cats.) They were gathering in their garage, intended for the recycling bin, and I said I NEED THOSE!
These are the best buckets ever, and they’re free.
Possibly Related Posts
Leave a Reply