Last week I posted a video on my easy compost afternoon tea formula . earn this sinewy plant food at menage requires petty infrastructure and zero toll :
I bed that it ’s not the “ recommended ” way to make compost tea ; however , it feeds the soil famously as my corn testifies .
That corn eat nothing but my compost tea . I ’ve been asked about the “ recipe ” but it varies from lot to batch . That said , here is a close approximation even though I ’m often change the fixings and sum .
Easy Compost Tea Recipe
Tools required:
Barrel or bucket
Strainer
Clothespin for your olfactory organ
Ingredients:
Manure ( can be substituted with various plants , compost , pee or fish gut )
Compost ( optional )
Urine ( optional )
Moringa or alfalfa ( optional )
Weeds ( optional )
Epsom Salt ( optional )
Fish Guts ( optional )
First , discover some manure you know is free of pesticides . Put 2 - 3 shovelfuls in the bottom of your drum and then fill the barrelful another 2/3rds with water . budge the manure up so it does n’t spring arduous lump . Fresh is much better than dried . I ’ve used Gallus gallus , moo-cow and rabbit manure at different time , all with good success .
Substitutes for Manure
If you do n’t have manure , deputise something else that is eminent in N . In a tropical clime , a bucket of moringa leaves is great . If you be further north , Medicago sativa is fantabulous . In the absence seizure of either of these plants , search for a nitrogen - fixate species . Peanut hay , leucana , etc . are all rich in nitrogen . Compost is another choice ; however , it ’s not usually all that high in nitrogen . Urine works excellently though you ’ll want about 3 - 5 gal of it for a 55 congius drum of compost tea leaf , so lead off bring through it up now . Fish guts are very adept but reek to eminent heaven and attract the vulture . I use them anyway .
Now that you have your base N mix , append some mineral diversity with other things you may have rest around . Tithonia diversifolialeaves are great as are thistles and other weeds . Everything from pokeweed to mulberry works ; just recognize that if you have more stringy folio they wo n’t break down quick . Softer is good .
Epsom salt are a expert addition if you have them . I usually be sick in 2 or 3 cups in a barrel for atomic number 12 and atomic number 16 .
Finally , fish gumption are terrific sources of prolificacy but they do sense amazing . I partake how I make homemade fish photographic emulsion inmyCompost Everythingmovie . It ’s fill with minerals .
After you have your ingredients and water in the barrel , let it rot down for a couple of hebdomad . conjure up smartly when you think of it , though it ’s going to work no matter what you do .
Putting it to Use
Once my compost tea is all rotted down and seem like coffee in the barrel , I dim into it and pour it out through a strainer into another container for longer - term warehousing .
This is where you put the clothespin on your nose ( extra points if it’sa Planet Whizbang clothespin ) .
I leave the last foot or so of Camellia sinensis in the original barrel , then start a new batch while retaining that morsel as a “ starter . ” Because that stuff is already filled with bacteria , it gets the next rhythm going a good deal faster .
If I ’ve added a bunch of material to the mix , I dilute it out before I water any of my plants . If it was already a “ thin ” batch , I just use it as - is .
I irrigate by filling watering fundament and walking down the wrangle of plant , soaking the soil between them . It also works well as a foliar provender but may postulate thinning to avoid damaging more tippy plants .
Objections and Cautions
But await , David The Good – is n’t this “ easy compost afternoon tea ” stuff totally anaerobiotic and therefore EVIL ?
Yes , it ’s completely and utterly malevolent and I am a terrible person and a horribly irresponsible gardening source for partake this method acting .
“ give out with your acedia … bosom the power of anaerobic compost tea … yessssss … yesssssssss ! ! ! ”
I started doing this as an experimentation . I do n’t like running aquarium heart . I ’m not interested in filling ladies ’ stockings with finished compost and plunge them like teabags . I need fertility for the garden and I do n’t require to operate that hard for it .
The experimentation knead incredibly . Plants love it . I do n’t handle if it ’s “ wrong ” – it work out !
CORN !
NOTE : I do n’t use this compost tea to H2O plants I ’m going to straight eat . I stick to Zea mays , beans , fruit plants and young vegetable that are getting establish . Getting it on the boodle ? No . Bad idea .
More on Composting
There ’s an entire chapter of my bookCompost Everything : The Good Guide to Extreme Compostingsharing methods for stretch compost , of which this is one of my favorite . If you only have a little material to bulge out with , make it into some easy compost afternoon tea and load it over a big expanse .
Compost Everything , by the way , keeps drive great reviews :
I did n’t come up with all of these systems myself : all I did was pay attention to what the Creator had already design and then start put those observations to work in my garden .
If swamp slime is smashing for the garden , why not make it in a barrel ?
If a little sourdough starter can be extend a long way and billow many loaves of bread , why not take a little of the previous wad of compost tea and add it to the next one ?
If trees fall to the ground in nature and turn into great soil over clip without turning or proper ratio , why should I irritate sour so hard on my compost piles ?
If you do n’t own the book , I highly urge it .
( Of course , I wrote it , so I would . )
It ’s alsoavailable in audiobook data format , interpret by me .
trance you all tomorrow , folks . You ’re the best .
UPDATE: I made an ad!
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