Posted on July 21, 2007 in latest news
All gardeners should have a good tea party with all the plants in your garden at least twice a month. Plants have a special taste when it comes to tea, your usual black or green tea wont do for them. So here is your special Compost Tea recipe to keep your plants in the pink of health… rather green of health.
Requirements
- 2 five-gallon plastic buckets (1 bucket for brewing tea and the other for decanting it)
- An aquarium pump (that runs at least three bubblers/air stones)
- 3 bubblers
- A few feet long air tubing
- a gang valve to distribute the air coming from the pump to the tubes going to the bubblers
- A large stick or spatula to stir the tea
- An old pillow case or nylon stocking to strain your tea
- A pair of gloves to protect your hands.
It is very important for you to note that you should never try to prepare compost tea if you cannot manage to get proper aeration equipment (bubblers, aquarium pump, air tubing and gang valve). Although your compost will be aerated to some extent but the organisms in your compost will use that up very quickly. Thus your tea will become anaerobic with all the oxygen exhausted beforehand. Anaerobic tea stinks terribly and can really harm your plants. So, like a good host of a good tea party, make sure you have all your aeration equipment. You wouldn’t want your plants to suffer after your party, would you?
Ingredients
- Fully manure, nice smelling compost
- 1 oz. Organic unsulfured molasses
- Natural well water if possible. If not, then you can use your city water after running bubblers in it for an hour. This will help you get rid of chlorine in the water.
- Foliar micronutrients, like kelp or rock dust, for garnishing.
Procedure
- Half fill one of your buckets with compost. Make sure it is lose and fully aerated.
- Cut a long piece of tubing and attach one end to the pump and the other to the gang valve.
- Cut three more pieces of tubing long enough to reach from the rim to the bottom of the bucket.
- Connect each tube to a port on the gang valve and push a bubbler into the other end.
- Hang the gang valve on the rim of the bucket and bury the bubblers under the compost, at the bottom.
- Fill the bucket with water such that it falls three inches short of the rim.
- Start the pump.
- After sometime, add your molasses (Molasses are a treat for the beneficial bacteria within your compost. It feeds them and helps them grow well.)
- Stir vigorously with a stick. If you find it difficult to stir the tea with the bubblers within, you can remove them and stir. Then place the bubblers back into the bucket.
- Your tea would take three complete days to get ready.
- After three days, switch the pump off and remove the bubblers.
- Leave the brew to sit for about 15-20 minutes
- Strain the brew into another bucket. (You can add the remaining solid compost back into your compost pile)
- Garnish with foliar micro nutrients, like kelp or rock dust. Your tea is ready to serve.
Precautions
When you remove the aeration equipment after three days, sniff your tea. Does it smell good and earthy? If yes its ready to serve. If no then it might have turned smelly because of improper aeration leading to anaerobic decomposition that might have lead to the production of Alcohol.
If your tea smells bad, you would need additional aerating equipment – another pump with a few more bubblers. With two pumps on, aerate your tea till the smell vanishes. You can use your tea once the smell goes off.
Tea Party
There are different ways of serving the yummy compost tea to your plants. The best way is to spray your plants with it. When the tea is sprayed on the leaves, it helps -
- To suppress foliar diseases.
- Increases the amount of nutrients available to the plant.
- Speeds the breakdown of toxins.
- Increases the nutritional quality and improve the flavor of vegetables.
Have a healthy and happy Tea Party with your plants.
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July 22nd, 2007 at 6:09 am
i have a lot of tea composs..i should use it..
sipping http://www.teacuppa.com pearl jasmine tea now