Compost Tea

So you've been gardening for quite some time and your garden is coming along nicely but has not turned out as grand as you would like. You may already use manure and fertilizer to help you produce a bigger and quicker harvest but sometimes a regular fertilizer is not enough.

Making a compost tea can really help speed up vegetable/fruit growth and produce a bigger crop for harvest. A basic compost tea is made up from adding compost to water and using aeration to breed bacteria that are beneficial to plants.

The benefits of using a compost tea on your garden are

- Increased Harvest

- Larger produce

- Help plants resist disease and pests

- Used by many professional gardeners to grow Guinness book of records size pumpkins and other giant vegetables.

So now for a compost tea recipe that I currently used and have success with

Equipment needed

- A Bucket ( size depending on how much compost tea you plan to make)

- Aeration Device ( simple aquarium air pump will work fine , used to force air into the mixture)

Ingredients

- 9 Litres of Water

- 1-2 Cups of homemade or bought compost

- 2 capfuls of seaweed fertilizer

- 2 capfuls of fish emulsion

- 2 capfuls of liquid humic acid

- 3-4 tablespoons of Molasses

Method

1. Fill the Bucket with water and setup your air pump

2. Add Compost to the water and mix

3. Add all other ingredients, make sure to mix the molasses in properly as it can easily get stuck to one side.

To grow the beneficial bacteria try and ensure the water temperature is not too cold as hotter temperatures will ensure larger bacteria growth.

Let the compost tea mixture aerate for around 12 to 24 hours before using it on your garden. Some people have known to let it aerate for about 36 hours but any longer than that and a lot of the beneficial bacteria will die off.

Using your compost Tea

To use your compost tea on your garden mix 5 parts water with 1 part compost tea. Ensure the water you use has all chlorine removed as this will instantly kill any bacteria you have worked hard to make. The simplest way to remove the chlorine is to let the water sit outside in the sun for 24 hours otherwise aerating the water or adding chlorine remover will work just fine.

The importance of each ingredient to make Compost Tea

Molasses - The Molasses works as a food source for the bacteria and has added benefits as Molasses has the ability to turn the vitamins and minerals into a form that is easily absorbed by the plants. Any simple sugar source will work fine to feed the bacteria , many people use basic sugar, glucose or honey.

Humic Acid - probably the most important ingredient that will add extra benefit to your compost tea. Humic acid is the end product of decomposing organic compounds and is extremely effective at increasing plant size and fruit production.

Humic acid is said to increase the plants cell structure and give the plants the ability to absorb more water and nutrients. This is why so many people who grow giant vegetables will always have a high quality humic acid in there compost tea. I currently use a liquid compost tea as the really high quality humic acids (humates) can be extremely expensive.

Fish Emulsifier / Seaweed Fertilizer - Provides many essential vitamins and minerals for the plant as well as nitrogen , phosphorus and potassium.

Goodluck with your gardens everyone and have fun experimenting with your own compost tea concoction,you see making compost tea can be great fun:P until next time:)