There is a misconception about Compost Tea, people think that compost tea is nothing but when compost solids are leached into the water, water absorbs their nurtients and micro-ogranisms and then the soilds are removed from the water leaving the compost tea behind. Well, this is not compost tea, this is simply leachate.
Some people think that Compost Tea is useless and only harms the plants while on the other hand, some people believe that compost tea is an easier way to nourish the plants and soil.
Well, when you do not follow the proper process and just do things unknowingly guess what’s gonna happen? It’s only gonna cause harm. First, you should know what is compost tea and how to really prepare it and then use it, you might then see different results.
Table of Contents
What is Compost Tea?
There is little difference between Leatching and making tea. To make Compost Tea everything remains the same but you also add the process of brewing into it.
You first mix the compost in water and also Aerate the mixture to make sure that there is enough oxygen for the micro-organisms to stay healthy there. The end result of following this process will leave you with Compost Tea that will not harm the plants.
Benefits of Compost Tea over Compost
Here are the following benefits when you using Compost/Manure Tea over using Compost or Manure in Solid Form.
- You will end up saving Compost/Manure: Compost tea required much less Compost in preparation, so you’ll save a lot of Compost or Manure, whatever you use.
- Tea is faster than Solid Compost: When compost is distributed over the land in solid form, it takes a lot of time in reaching the plant’s root systems. Instead, when Compost Tea is used, it takes much less time in providing plants with a boost of nutrition as the water mixes in the soil very easily and reaches the depths in the ground.
How to Create Compost Tea?
The process of creating compost is very easy and can be done at every home. All you need to do is have proper materials and follow the process given below
Material Required for Making Compost Tea
- Water
- Compost/Manure
- Air Pump (used in a fish tank)
- A good strong stick to stir the mixture
- Unsulfured Molasses
- 2 Buckets
- A Cloth to filter
Process of Making Compost Tea
1.) Take Water as per the Requirement
The first thing you have to do is take water as per the requirements of your garden and plants. In this blog, we’ll use 22L (6 Galon) of Water for preparing Compost Tea. You can adjust the usage ratio of materials as per your requirement.
Remove Chlorine from the Water
The first thing that you have to do is remove chlorine from the water, to do that, just put the water in the sunlight for a few hours. Chlorine is harmful to good bacteria in your compost.
2.) Put an Air pump in the Bucket
You can use a normal air pump which is used in an aquarium. This pump will aerate the tea and provide the micro-organisms with the oxygen they need while it’ll be in the process of brewing.
3.) Add Compost and Molasses to the Bucket
Add one-fourth of the quantity of Compost into the water and turn on the pump.
Also, add 1.5 Ounces of Molasses into the bucket. molasses will provide the bacteria and microorganisms with the food they need to survive the process of brewing.
4.) Filter the Compost Tea
Within 3 days your Compost Tea will be ready. Just use a cloth and another bucket to filter the solids from the tea and here you are ready with your compost tea.
Things you need to take care of in the process of making Compost Tea
- Make sure you add Unsulfured Molasses so that bacteria don’t die of sulphur in the molasses.
- Also, stir the mixture every 10-12 hours to maintain a similar state everywhere in the mixture.
How to use Compost Tea
The micro-organisms will soon starve for more nutrition so it’s very important to use the tea as soon as possible.
Just put the tea in the sprinkler and you can sprinkle it all over the leaves and all over the plant. if you are using a sprayer, you will have to go through cleaning and filtering the tea too much so that it doesn’t block the sprayer holes. Instead, it’s better to use a normal water sprinkler and spray it over your plants as soon as you can.
