Making Compost Tea: How To

Compost tea is the key to maintaining a healthier garden. It's easy to make and provides your plants with all the nutrients and essentials for a beautiful, healthy garden. Compost tea can be used as fertilizer, and it can also protect your plants from disease. It's important that your plants get all the nutrition they need to grow and live to be healthy. Compost tea is used as a liquid version of the compost, which makes it faster and more fortifying to use. The nutrients it provides will be used up by your plants right away. Using compost tea benefits both your plants and the environment, by keeping both of them healthier. For the best results, compost tea should be applied at least once every two months. To keep your plants healthy and growing.

There's such things as fancy "Compost Tea Makers", but if you'd like to brew some on your own without spending all the money, here's what you'll need:

-Two five gallon buckets.
-An Aquarium Pump
-1 gang valve
-Un-sulfured Molasses
-4 ft. of aquarium air tubing.
-1 gallon of mature compost.
-3 bubblers.
-Sprinkler.
-Cheesecloth or An Old Pillow Case To Strain Your Tea.
-Water.

1) Fill one of the containers half-way with a variety of compost material. *Be sure it's loose and mixed together well.

2) Cut 1 ft. of the tubing. Attach one end to the gang valve, and the other to the pump.

3) Cut 3 pieces of tubing. (1 ft. long each) Connect each tube to the gang valve, and attach a bubbler to the other end of each one.

4) Set the gang valve on the rim of the bucket. Place the bubblers at the bottom of the bucket, under the compost.

5) Fill the bucket with water that falls 4 inches short of the rim. After Filing, start the air pump. *this rid of the chlorine in the water.

6) Add 1/2 a cup of Molasses *feeds the beneficial bacteria in the compost.

7) Let the mixture set for 3 days, then it should be ready.

When The Tea is Done Brewing:

1) Turn the pump off and remove the tubing and bubblers.

2) Let it sit for 15 minutes.

3) Strain the brew into the sprinkler (straining it into another bucket first would be more convenient, but not necessary) and water your plants with the tea. Compost tea should be applied either to the soil or to the plant foliage.

Be sure to give the roots a good drink! It is important to nourish the soil. As it gives the plant and roots all the nutrients they need, and help prevent plant diseases. The tea applied to the soil will take impact on the root zone, and affect the growth of the plant.

Happy Gardening!