How to Make Compost Tea for Your Garden
It goes without saying that compost is one of the best fertilizers you can use in your home garden. Learn how to make this all-purpose diy fertilizer at home and enrich your garden soil.
Compost tea, contrary to what the name suggests, is a popular nutrient-dense fertilizer that’s prepared by brewing finished compost in water.
Making Compost Tea ~ Simple Recipe
It’s a great natural alternative to many fertilizers you can buy at your local gardening store that not only adds extra nutrients to the soil but also increases the microbe population.
In this blog post, you’ll learn how to make compost tea from kitchen waste. Leftover kitchen scraps will need to be completely composted first before starting the tea mixture.
Related Post on How to Make Compost at Home
When you’re making compost tea, remember to only use aged compost as unfinished compost may contain harmful pathogens.
What You Need
- 3 gallons of water
- 5 gallon plastic bucket
- Homemade compost, aged compost (or store bought if you do not have any at home)
- 1 ounce of unsulfured molasses
- Additional Water
- Burlap to Strain the Compost Tea
- Watering Can or Bucket
Instructions on Making Compost Tea at Home
- Add about 3 gallons of water in a large bucket and leave it outside in the sun for a couple of hours. This should help the chlorine break down as it can kill the good bacteria in the compost tea. Skip this step if you’re using water that doesn’t contain chlorine.
- Take another large bucket (enough to fill about 5 gallons of water)
- Fill the bucket halfway with mature compost. Try not to pack it down as it needs to be loose for the aerator to work properly. You can identify mature compost by its sweet and earthy smell. It shouldn’t smell like rotting kitchen waste or alcohol.
- Pour water in the rest half of the bucket and leave at least 3 inches of space at the top so you’re able to stir it easily without creating a mess.
- Add about an ounce of unsulfured molasses into the mixture and stir it to combine the compost, water, and molasses.
- Combine all “ingredients” and stir with a stick or shovel.
- Let the tea steep for about 2 to 3 days because compost tea is known to take 36 to 48 hours to brew. The longer you let it brew, the more microbes will grow inside the tea.
- Don’t forget to stir the tea at least once a day as it brews to keep compost matter from sinking to the bottom of the bucket.
- As soon as the tea is done brewing, strain it into a bucket lined with a large piece of cheesecloth or a burlap sack.
- After the solids have been strained out, your compost tea will be ready to use.
- Pour your homemade compost tea into your water can and water both the soil and leaves of your plants.
Important Tip:
It’s important to note that you shouldn’t brew the tea for longer than 3 days or the microbes won’t be able to survive.
Final Words
To wrap this simple project up, you can choose to apply the compost tea directly into the soil using a watering can along with or using it as a foliar spray. Use a foliar spray to help boost the health of plants that are infested or weak.
Making compost tea at home is a great way to reuse and recycle your kitchen waste and improve your garden soil. Finally, it’s advisable to apply compost tea at least two times a week to see actual results in your garden.
