Compost Tea Improves Plant health and Resistance to Disease

Compost tea is a Do It Yourself project for fertilizing and protecting your plants from disease. The tea is made by soaking compost in water for a period of time.

A spray can be made to reduce fungus from building up on your plants. Using either a machine or barrels, Making Compost Tea is not hard.

Reducing Fungus and Feeding Plants

There can be many types of tea. Europe has their own type that is based on whether manure is added or not. The Prefered Tea contains manure since it has more properties that prevent plant disease.

While many people know the benefits of compost they may not have heard of this type. The tea is much more beneficial than just using the compost as most people do and putting it into the soil around the plant.

The more nutrients that are released to the plants you are growing, the less chance of disease. The improvement in the flavor of the vegetables is another reason many people use this liquid compost.

If you are still using compost the old fashioned way, you may want to try brewing some compost and see what a difference it makes.

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Do You Want to Know How to Make Compost Tea?

In order to make compost tea there are a few things you will need. A bucket and aquarium supplies will work. A pump that is sufficient for running three air stones, tubing,a gang valve and three air stones. Something for stirring the liquid, a straining cloth and uncultured molasses are needed.

It is essential that you have the air stones because without them, the tea will not be aerated all the time it is brewing and the teas will smell really bad due to the lack of oxygen.

This tea can actually harm plants rather than fertilizing them. Also you do not want to brew the tea longer than two or three days and use it immediately after it is finished.

If you will be using well water for the tea that is fine however, if using city water run your air stones in it for at least an hour to get rid of the chlorine. Chlorine will kill the organisms in your compost.

Fill a bucket about half way with compost; attach some tubing to the pump and the gang valve. Using three more pieces of the tubing, connect them to the air stones and to a port on the gang valve and push a bubbler in the other end of the tubing.

Putting the bubblers in the bottom of the bucket under the compost, the next step is to fill your bucket with water. Leave about three inches at the top of the bucket. The molasses can be added after the pump gets going.

When you put this in, you will need to stir it rather briskly. After doing this make sure your bubblers are still in the bottom of the bucket. If you stir the tea a few times a day (which is recommended) the bubblers most likely will have to be adjusted every time.

Using the liquid Compost

By letting the tea sit for a while after brewing the compost will separate from it and then you can strain it for use. This will render about 2 ½ gallons of compost tea. It should be used right away after making it.

As to how often you use this on your plants will depend on the health of plants. Usually a good spray in the spring of the year will suffice. However, if you do not have insects in your garden that are beneficial to the garden, once a month or once every two weeks is recommended.

One of the simplest things you can do for the health of your garden is to use a compost spray. Chemical fertilizers will kill out beneficial insects in your garden and without these insects the plants are prone to all types of disease.

As long as you use compost tea that has been well oxygenated, 75% of the bacteria that cause plant disease can be eliminated.

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