Compost tea is a extract of compost in water. When compost is soaked in water, beneficial nutrients and microbes seep out of the compost into the water. Though numerous gardening content assert that compost tea suppresses bacterial plant diseases, in accordance with Linda Chalker-Scott, extension horticulturist at the University of Oregon, experiments don’t support that usage. Compost Tea does, nevertheless, provide fertilizer to both the leaves and roots of fruit trees.
How it’s Made
The easiest way to make compost tea will be to shovel a scoop of compost into a bucket, cover it with water, and allow the steep for a couple of days. You can pour the tea under the tree to feed the roots, or you may use a sprayer to spray it onto the leaves. A more complex method of making compost tea requires you to aerate the tea employing an automated air conditioner, an aquarium pump as an example, while the tea is steeping. Doing this adds oxygen to the mixture. The oxygen speeds up the brewing process and minimizes smell. It may also have advantages for the plant it’s applied to.
Plant Ingredients
Any compost you use on your garden could be infused to make compost tea. You, however, tailor your compost to the needs of your trees. Compost made from plants with long root systems like comfrey and nettles will be rich in antioxidants. Compost made of nitrogen-fixing plants like clover and alfalfa supplies sulfur to the leaves of fruit trees. Comfrey tea, which can be made from either fresh or partially composted comfrey plants, is rich in calcium. Spraying the leaves of fruit trees with calcium-rich infusions helps minimize calcium deficiency disease like cork spot.
Worm Castings
Some gardeners create compost tea from worm castings. Castings are excrement of all worm-bin worms. Worm castings are not just very rich in nutrients, they are also loaded with beneficial microorganisms. You can make compost tea from just worm castings or add the castings to plant-based compost before brewing.
Cautions
Use only potable water to brew the tea. Contaminated water can contaminate your fruit. Manure may also contaminate fruit. The act of brewing compost tea triggers microorganisms to thrive. In the event that you had e coli or salmonella from the binder you utilized to create your compost, and in case you made your compost with a trendy pile method, these dangerous organisms will remain in the compost and may contaminate your compost tea. Be careful, too, to use compost made from organically grown crops. If you get aminopyralid-laced plants or plants on your compost pile, your compost tea may harm or even kill your trees.