Anyone started some compost tea yet? | Food Production and Preservation | Forums

Tell me more. I just make manure tea...

the biggest difference between compost tea and manure tea is aeration. the reason you aerate your compost tea is to promote aerobic bacteria and fungal growth. you're not just feeding your plants, but you're also feeding your soil and replacing beneficial bacteria and fungii that have been disturbed or killed by tilling, over-fertilizing, pesticide applications, and use of chlorinated city water (great antiseptic) for watering. those beneficial bacteria and fungii convert compounds in the soil into nutrients that plants can use. when you kill them, you necessitate the use of chemical fertilizers that present those nutrients to the plants in already-broken-down forms. it ends up being a cycle with the end result being the soil depleted and the fertilizer companies getting richer.

i use just a simple fish tank aerator that has two outlets for air stones. if i have to use city water, i aerate for 4-6 hours to get rid of the chlorine, then brew for 24-36 hours. your compost tea should be treated just like a petri dish culture in that you want to apply your tea during the optimal part of the growth curve. too soon and your culture never reaches its growth potential, and too late, your culture starts to die off.

i credit him with turning last year's garden from a meh year to a bounty. i was just watering in the beginning of the drought, but the garden really turned around with weekly compost tea feedings.