Gardening is a fun and relaxing activity. You get to grow different plants, provide for them (soil and water), and look after them while they grow. The overall process can be time-consuming but once your plants grow, it will provide you with a sense of accomplishment. To ensure your plants grow to their full extent, they require healthy soil that is filled with nutrients. Compost tea for plants can be a great idea to provide your plants with a boost in their nutritional intake.
More importantly, DIY compost tea can be made relatively easily. But, before we get into that, we need to understand what compost tea really is.
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What Is Compost Tea?
Compost tea is essentially a sort of tonic for your plants that houses all of the good types of microorganisms. These are also referred to as microbes and include:
- Bacteria
- Fungi
- Nematodes
- Micro Arthropods
- Protozoa
All of these are extracted from compost. This is usually done using a brewing process that extracts all of the microorganisms mentioned above from compost.
The brewing process results in a liquid that is essentially referred to as compost tea. When you add compost tea to your soil, it can make your plants grow to their full extent. In simpler words, it is the magical supplement that makes your plants appear greener, healthier, and produce tasty fruits and vegetables.
If you’re wondering about the brewing process, you shouldn’t be worried. It is, in fact, a fun process and you can do it by yourself but it will be shared later.
For now, you need to know about the different types of compost tea. It will also allow you to know what type of compost will be best suited for your plants.
Types Of Compost Tea
Compost tea is primarily of two main types. There are other types as well, but the main ones include:
- Aerated Compost Tea or Aerobic Compost Tea
- Anaerobic Compost Tea
The other not so common types include:
- Plant tea
- Manure tea
- Commercial microbial tea
- Compost leachate
Here is a breakdown of each type of compost tea to provide you with a detailed insight into each type.
Aerated Compost Tea
Aerated compost tea is also referred to as aerobic compost tea. Some people also choose to call it actively aerated compost tea, which in my opinion is the term that best describes it.
It is essentially an ordinary compost tea that is exposed to significantly more oxygen. It works by letting the microbes consume oxygen at a much faster rate. This results in the compost having a greater concentration of the good type of microorganisms, which is certainly a big reason to consider using aerated compost tea.
Making aerated compost tea is an easy task and can be done by making use of an aerating pump. It produces a bubbling effect in the compost tea (liquid) and provides it with excess oxygen, thus successfully aerating your compost tea.
Anaerobic Compost Tea for Plants
Anaerobic compost tea has essentially a lower number of good microbes due to less or poor exposure to oxygen. This is due to the fact that most microbes require a decent exposure to oxygen to propagate.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean anaerobic compost tea is of no use for your plants. Your plants can still benefit from anaerobic compost tea.
The microbes that you obtain from anaerobic compost tea can decompose organic matter at a faster rate. This provides your plants with plant-safe nutrients.
The primary difference between anaerobic compost tea and aerobic compost tea is the time it takes to make them. Anaerobic compost tea takes a good week or two to prepare whereas aerobic compost tea can be made within just 24-48 hours. For this reason, people often prefer aerobic compost tea.
Plant Tea
Making plant tea requires no compost. Instead of using compost or soaking it, you essentially soak plants and let them sit for a good 24 to 48 hours. This allows the fermentation process to provide effective results and extracts the microorganisms from the surface of the plant.
But, only those plants are used that have nutritional benefits. For instance, comfrey and nettle plants are used most often. They can provide your soil with essential nutrients like phosphorous and potassium.
Manure Tea
Beware, it can get stinky. Manure tea is one of the most common fertilizers that has been used for hundreds of years across the world. It is essentially a mixture of manures stored in a permeable bag. 600 microns would suffice for your plants.
All you need to do is place the stored mixture of manures in a water bucket for one or two days. Within 48 hours, the good kind of microorganisms will become part of the manure tea, which you can then add to your plant soil.
Commercial Microbial Tea
As the name suggests, these aren’t your homemade all-natural compost teas. In fact, they are pre-made mixes that you can prepare by just adding water to them.
They contain a blend of only the good kind of microorganisms which you can access by adding water to the mix. Although many people prefer homemade compost tea, they do not realize the actual benefit of commercial microbial tea.
It has a lower to no presence of bad bacteria. Due to this, you do not have to worry about your plants going through issues that they may be exposed to due to bad bacteria.
Compost Leachate
Composite leachate and your ordinary compost tea may appear the same. But that is not the case. Compost leachate is made water interacts with worm compost or compost bin.
It essentially works when water leaches through the compost and drains. The drain is then collected, which results in compost leachate. It contains many nutrients that any plant can benefit from.
Is Compost Tea Good For Plants?
Compost tea is very beneficial for keeping your plants healthy. It essentially serves as a booster that allows your plants to fight against pest attacks and show resistance to plant issues.
There are many ways in which your plants can benefit from compost tea. Here are some of the benefits to consider when thinking of using compost tea for your plants.
- It enhances the tendency of your soil to consume water. With a good compost soil, you will likely water your plants with less frequency.
- It helps loosen the soil. This allows your plant to consume air and water more effectively.
- If your soil is sandy, adding compost tea to it will allow it to retain water efficiently. Due to this, even sandy soil will require less water.
- To tackle pest attacks, plants are often sprayed with pesticides and other chemical based products. They can take a toll on your plant’s health, but all of this can be avoided with a good compost tea.
- Adding compost tea to your plant’s soil will improve the overall health of the soil. It will utilize nutrients much better and, in most cases, you may not even need a fertilizer.
- Your plants will also grow healthy roots if treated with compost tea. Healthier and deeper roots will allow them to preserve water better.
- If sprayed on plants, the good microorganisms will occupy the surface of the leaves. This will make your plants less prone to plant diseases and complications.
How Do You Make Compost Tea?
When it comes to making compost tea, many people resort to buying pre-made compost mixtures from their local stores. While that works out for some people, many prefer to make their own compost tea where they can fine-tune it to get the result they expect.
When making compost tea, you can either take compost and put it in a bucket filled with water. Let it sit for a good 48 hours and that is all you need to do. The only downside to this is that it may have a certain odor.
Or, you can simply make an aerated compost tea. As mentioned earlier, it is exposed to a lot more oxygen and requires a little more effort. But, the added benefit is that you get significantly higher concentration of the good microorganisms and less odor or smell.
Our Compost Tea Recipe
Here’s how you can make a DIY compost tea. It is not only fun, but also relaxing and a nice way to escape from your hectic routines.
To get the best results, make sure you aerate the compost tea and add the vital supplements.
Materials
- Water bucket (5 or 6 gallons would suffice). Fill it with water and allow it to sit for 24 hours.
- Fish tank aerator.
- Compost tea brewing bag (5 or 6 lbs. storage capacity).
- Aquarium thermometer.
- Backpack sprayer.
Ingredients
- Compost – A handful would suffice
- Garden soil – A handful would suffice
- Straw – Two handfuls
- Leaves – 4 or 6 (Make sure they’re from a healthy plant)
- Fish hydrolysate – A cup would suffice.
- Seaweed extract – A cup would suffice.
If you’re not sure where you can find fish hydrolysate or seaweed extract, you can head over to your local garden centers. You will find them easily.
Step By Step Instructions:
Step 1 – Grab the water bucket and fill it with water. Make sure your water bucket has a capacity of 5 or 6 gallons at minimum.
Step 2 – Once your bucket is filled with water, add the fish hydrolysate and seaweed extract to it. Let it sit in the water while you prepare your compost tea brewing bag in step 3.
Step 3 – Grab the compost tea brewing bag and add compost, garden soil, straw, and leaves in it. Once you have added all the ingredients, tightly tie the bag. This will ensure your ingredients are secure and in place.
Step 4 – After preparing the compost tea brewing bag, place it in the bucket of water that you filled earlier. Make sure the bag is inside the water completely.
Step 5 – Time to grab the fish tank aerator. Turn it on and place it in the bucket.
Step 6 – Let the aerator sit in the bucket for a good 24 to 48 hours. Our recommendation would be to let it sit for about 36 hours. But make sure you keep an eye on the overall temperature. For a good brew, the temperature should lie within the range of 68 – 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step 7 – Once the 36-hour period is passed and your compost tea is brewed, you need to dilute it in parts. A 3 to 1 part water ratio is recommended to ensure better results and allow your plants to grow healthy and to their full extent.
Step 8 – After you’ve diluted your compost, grab the backpack sprayer and fill it with the freshly made compost tea.
Step 9 – Start spraying and provide your plants with the perfect aerated compost tea that you just made. To ensure the best results, you need to spray them in the morning or in the evening. This will prevent the leaves from any burn damage they may be prone to if you spray them mid-day.
Our Recommendations
To ensure your newly made compost tea is up to the mark, you need to observe the following conditions.
- Make sure the temperature lies within the range of 68 – 72 degrees Fahrenheit. If you fail to achieve this temperature, you can buy a small water heater if you do not have one already. You can find it at your local stores and is easily available so you do not need to worry about it.
- To further improve the compost, you can add proteins and microbial foods to it.
- Ideally, we recommend you brew the compost tea for a good 36 hours. It will provide you with the results that you intend to achieve. But, if it still isn’t what you need, you can further increase the brewing time. Instead of 36, you can brew it for 48 hours. It is completely safe so there’s nothing for you to be worried about.