How to Make Compost Tea

Compost is the ideal food for your plants, providing them not only with essential nutrients and minerals but also beneficial microorganisms that can ensure their proper growth and development. Compost can be termed as a product of the recycling process of nature, where organic wastes are converted into a form highly rich in nutrients by the process known as organic decomposition. And if it is compost tea, it can work wonders for your garden by ensuring the growth of disease-free, healthier plants. Making compost tea is quite easy and simple, as compost and water are the only essential ingredients of compost tea recipe. Before explaining how to make compost tea, let's take a glimpse at how to make compost.

How to Make Compost

For making compost, you will require both carbon rich or brown materials and green or nitrogen rich materials. Dead or dry leaves and other plant parts, garden debris, wood ash and wood chips are brown materials, while fresh vegetable wastes, grass, leaves and other plant parts as well as fruit peels or scraps are the examples of green materials. To make a fine compost, you have to mix two parts of brown material to one part green material. Break all the brown and green material into smaller parts and then add some garden soil. Finally, add water to make the mixture moist.

Occasionally, do keep adding small amounts of water to maintain the appropriate level of moisture, but do not overdo it. Also add dry leaves and kitchen wastes from time to time. If you find that your compost is emanating a foul smell, then add more dry leaves or any of the brown material explained above. Your compost should be ready within 3 months to 1 year. Worm compost is also ideal for compost tea, which can be made by adding worms for decomposing all types of organic wastes. You can also use worm castings for making compost tea. But If you are short on time for making compost tea, then buy some compost from the market.

How to Make Compost Tea

For making compost, take a bucket of appropriate size. The size of the bucket will depend on the amount of compost tea required. If your garden is a small one, then a 5 gallon bucket will do. Now fill the bucket with some compost and then add water. Leave space at the top, so that you can easily stir the mixture without spilling the liquid. You can also add unsulfated molasses in order to create a favorable environment for the growth of beneficial microorganisms. Leave the mixture for at least 3 to 4 days. Keep the bucket in a warm place, but away from direct sunlight. Also keep stirring the mixture several times a day. Using rainwater for making compost tea is always better than using tap water, which may contain many chemicals including chlorine.

On the fourth or the fifth day, strain the mixture and compost by using a cheesecloth or any other porous material. The solid materials of the compost will be left behind on the cloth, which then can be returned to your compost pile or bin. Otherwise, you can add them to your garden. Now dilute the compost tea and using a spray or watering can, apply it on your garden plants. It can be sprinkled on the leaves, to check the occurrence of leaf diseases. You can use compost tea once every two weeks. Remember that a good compost tea always smells good and earthy. So if your compost tea smells bad, then do not use it on the plants. Instead, dump it on the compost pile.

Compost tea is a liquid fertilizer, which is readily absorbed by plants as compared to solid compost. Applying it on the soil enhances soil quality by promoting the growth of beneficial microorganisms. And you will see an incredible result and marked difference in your garden with healthier disease free plants, greener leaves, bright and beautiful blooms and large fruits and vegetables of a better quality.