Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Using Compost Tea
Compost tea needs to be used as soon as possible after you make it, because not long
after that pump goes off, the oxygen in the water drops rapidly. It can be used with eight
hours, but the sooner the better. When possible, I use mine within one hour of its being
ready. If used in farming or for other commercial purposes, you'll want to do some testing
to make sure you're making a good tea. Use it in the morning or the evening because many
of the microbes don't like UV rays.
My method of applying it is to strain it through nylon or cheesecloth into a quality back-
pack sprayer, such as those made by Solo. This allows me to spray a mist at 60 psi and
thoroughly coat both sides of the leaves of all of my plants. A watering can will suffice for
soil applications, but some kind of spray is best.
A hose-end sprayer would work, but that water coming through the hose often has chlor-
ine in it and it's very cold. I'd rather not shock my microbes like that. I add EM and bios-
timulants in with the tea, even if I already added a small amount to the brew. Commercial
growers and wineries might spray weekly during disease season. Home gardeners might
spray anywhere from once a month to once or twice a year.
Using a spray is best because research by Elaine Ingham says that we want our leaves at
least 60-70% covered by microbes in order to prevent and even cure some diseases. For fo-
liar applications, which is the main method of application you'll do, you'll generally spray
compost tea undiluted at 1 pint per 1,000 square feet, which means a good quality five-gal-
lon brew can do about an acre. It doesn't hurt to do more than that, though. You could
spray your five gallons on a few thousand square feet and that's just fine.
Of course, if you have tall trees, you'll need more. The rule is 1 pint per 1,000 square
feet for each six feet of tree height you have. If your trees are 12 feet tall, you need one
quart. We don't dilute the foliar sprays because we want the maximum number of microbes
on the leaf surface as possible. It can also be applied to the soil at 1-4 pints per 1,000
square feet. This can actually be diluted with clean, dechlorinated water in order to provide
sufficient coverage. When planting, you can drench each new seedling with one to two
pints of compost tea.
There are other uses, too. Hydroponic systems use compost tea at 1 gallon per 40 gallons
of water. It's applied to ponds at as little as 1 gallon per acre foot. That means if you have a
pond that is an acre big and one foot deep, use 1 gallon of compost tea. In a small backyard
pond the size of a king-sized bed and four feet deep, that would be 1 tablespoon of compost
tea. You also need to apply sufficient aeration throughout the pond so the aerobes can actu-
ally live there.
