Have a Compost Tea Party in Your Garden

After a wild morning at the office, a cup of tea can hit the spot and soothe those frazzled nerves. Tea warms and nourishes, plus it’s easy to make: you just steep some leaves in hot water and presto: it's tea time! The plants in your like an occasional drink of tea, too: they like compost tea. It soothes and nourishes, too, and it’s easy to make, too.

Solid compost releases nutrients and microorganisms into the soil as it breaks down. Compost tea is the same, only it works faster because the good stuff is dissolved in water. If your garden plants need a drink of some healthy compost tea, you don’t need to assemble complex plumbing and string extension cords. It’s easy: all you need is some compost, some water, and a bucket.

The Recipe

The best tea comes from the best ingredients, and compost tea is no different. Start with compost out of your bin or pile. Loosely fill about a five-gallon bucket about 3/4 full of compost. Add water until the bucket is nearly full, and stir.

Put the bucket someplace where it will stay warm, though not in direct sunlight because light would promote growth of algae that would consume nutrients. Let your tea steep for seven to ten days, stirring it every day to mix in some air.

After the bucket of tea finishes steeping, pour the liquid through a strainer into a second bucket. If you intend to use the tea in a spray bottle, use some cheesecloth or pantyhose to strain out small particles. Toss the solids back on the compost pile.

Using Compost Tea Stir a couple of tablespoons of horticultural molasses into the tea to keep the microorganisms nourished. If you use it straight from the bucket, your compost tea could be strong enough to burn your plants. Instead, dilute it with clean water, mixed at a ratio of about ten parts water to one part tea.

Pour diluted tea directly on your plants' roots from a watering can about every two weeks. If the sun isn’t high, you can spray tea directly on leaves. Some gardeners claim that regular use of compost tea helps prevent disease and pests. Even if that's hype, the stuff probably can’t hurt.

Captured rainwater or untreated groundwater will make better tea than city water. Treated water contains chlorine that was put there to kill microorganisms, which would ruin the compost tea. If you can't get untreated water, you can get rid of the chlorine. Fill a bucket with tap water and let it sit, uncovered, so that the chlorine can escape. Stir it water occasionally to speed things up, and use it to make or dilute tea

Give your plants a sip of tea, and they should pay you back by growing stronger.