Sustainable
Living Through Organic Gardening
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Compost Tea It is sometime hard to make as much compost as you need. To extend the reach of your compost some of it can be used to make actively aerated compost tea. It is a very good method of putting more micro-organisms into soils. In fact. compost tea, if used as a soil drench, can get micro-organisms into the root zone faster than a mulch of compost. It can also be applied as a leaf spray inoculating leaves with beneficial microorganisms. By out competing disease organisms for leaf space compost tea offers protection for the plant. Both soil drench and leaf spray are easy to apply and can be put right where they are needed to protect the plant. Compost teas are made by adding compost, as well as selected nutrients, to dechlorinated water and aerating the mix for 12 - 24 hours. The active aeration, with an aquarium bubbler or commercial brewer, keeps the compost teas aerobic and thus safe. It is best to put the compost, 4 cups for 5 gallons, in a porous bag, such as queen sized pantyhose, before it is put into the de-chlorinated water. Chlorinated water will need to be bubbled for 1 - 2 hours, to drive off the chlorine, before the compost is introduced. All materials must be free of preservatives, which are intended to kill micro-organisms. Nutrients can be added to encourage different organisms. Molasses (sulfur free) and fish emulsions feed bacteria, 1 - 2 tablespoons in 5 gallons will help establish bacterial dominance. For fungal growth add 1 tablespoon of liquid seaweed, humic acids, fish hydrolysate (Drammatic liquid fish fertilizer, Wm Dams) and phosphate rock dusts. The final variable is to maintain the tea, while it is bubbling, at about room temperature. An electric brew belt from the wine making shop can keep the tea at a stable temperature. Compost teas can be used on lawns, vegetables, or annuals, which prefer a bacterial dominated tea; and trees, shrubs, perennials, which prefer a fungal dominated tea. It is safe, easy to apply and you can never apply too much. It can be diluted 10 to 1 with non-chlorinated water. The microbes in compost tea can be susceptible to the suns ultraviolet rays so it is best to apply it before 10 am or after 3 pm. No one ever fertilized an Old Growth Forest. It grew and was nourished by the complex of the soil food web. At the food web’s base are the billions of bacteria and fungi, making humus, the super plant food, from organic matter. You can make sure that your garden has a complex microbiological population by using actively aerated compost tea. A more complete discussion on compost tea can be
found in “The Compost Tea Brewing Manual” by Dr. Elaine Ingham. “Teaming with
Microbes, A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web”, by Lowenfels and Lewis has a
good chapter on compost tea. |
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