Compost Tea

I talk a lot about making various types of nutritional sprays, and one of the best is Compost Tea.          

 Compost tea is not a special tea that people drink, but rather a liquid made from compost. The best way to make compost tea is to place a cup of compost into a panty hose and tie into a ball. Will act like a tea bag, and, when hung in the water, it will spread into the water. The thing to do is to tie the compost ball with a string onto a stick and drop the "tea bag" into a gallon (or larger) container of water. 

The water should either be rain or filtered water and not from the tap since it has in it things that are meant to kill off the bacteria, and bacteria are what we want to grow here.

However, the bacteria we want to grow is of the good variety.

Glass bottles make the best compost tea. Colored glass like wine or beer or ? will also make good compost tea containers as they absorb the sun's energy. The container should be placed in the sun. The length of time depends on why you are using it. 

The info below tells you the duration of time to make compost tea and the purposes to use it.

    One hr...............Normal compost tea sprays. Good for bacterial sprays, mineral sprays. will help to prevent diseases on most plants and trees. Should have no odor.

   4 hrs..............a stronger mixture, excellent for controlling most bacterial diseases. Works great on roses, most vegetables and trees.

  24 hrs.............a powerful mixture for controlling rust diseases, blight diseases, also repels most insects especially ants.

  48 hrs............ good for bad fungus related diseases. Should not smell bad, but should be strong smelling.

You can increase effectiveness of the above mixture by adding one or more of the following combinations (depending on use):

Soap will increase effectiveness as a wetting agent.

Use any natural soap for this purpose. Only add enough to wet the water. Try five tablespoons per gallon water. I like using Dr Bronners soaps because they are organic, and all natural Castile soaps. However there are many types of great organic natural soaps you can buy, just read the ingredients.

Molasses can be sprayed along with the compost tea. The trick is to add the molasses (about 1/2 cup for a gallon or if using 50 gallons use 1 quart), add when you first make it. Allow to sit in the sun for several days? Did I say several days? Well, the length of time again depends on what you are going to use it for. Usually overnight is fine for most cases but longer for disease and or for compost use since if you make compost, this is one of the best ways to increase microbial activity in your compost pile. They also have dried molasses pellets that you can add to the compost pile or even make a molasses tea!

Filtered Water

Important note: when making compost tea it is more effective if you use filtered water instead of city water (which has chlorine which kills bacteria). If you don't have a filter use spring water or solarized water.

Solarized water can be made by placing water into a large glass container (allows the most sunlight to contact the liquid) but a large bucket will do. Allow to sit for a day or two, turning every few hours.

Compost tea is one of the best tools that an organic gardener has to control both pests and diseases. Why? Because it is one of the most effective ways of providing minerals and nutrients to the plant as they absorb it immediately into their system through their leaves (just like humans do through their skin).

I talk a lot about raising the Brix levels of a plant to the point where the bugs leave it alone. I have tried to explain why a healthy plant is not a food source for the insects but an unhealthy plant is. I have attempted to explain what is the main difference between the two and how the insect world and indeed the microbial world, have evolved together with how plants have evolved. Along the evolutionary path, plants and insects have worked out a way for the gardeners (the insects), to keep their garden clean by removing the unhealthy plants. Allows the healthy ones to grow which eventually will lead to some plants becoming old and unhealthy, and they become a food source for the insects.

Disease too has evolved by allowing the insects to become part of the way they spread since both insects and plants as well as us humans and all living things actually, rely on trace minerals for their health and well-being.

When humans are trace mineral deficient, they too become "food" for pests and diseases, just of a different type. I haven't looked into the possibility of there being a "Brix" reading for mammals but I am sure that one can be developed. Imagine having a test that determines if you are trace mineral deficient? Wait, there is a way, and that is to test your hair for trace minerals. I also believe that light waves told you what minerals it just either passed through or bounced off. That is how scientists can tell the matter of a planet. This use of Light is not new as well as the use of frequencies that correspond to the light waves and thus the "element" it originates. Our bodies mainly eat light and the frequencies it carries. Trace minerals are essential "carriers" of energy and plants all need this energy for proper health also.

By providing your plants with the proper trace minerals needed for healthy growth, you are protecting them from the hungry eyes of their predators.  

May all Living Beings Live Long and Prosper!

yours

andy Lopez

Invisible Gardener

any questions email me at andylopez@invisiblegardener.com