Activated Compost Tea

We love tea. So does our garden! I make compost tea in a great big repurposed plastic garbage bin. I use an old onion net bag as a giant tea bag. Stuff it full of comfrey, any other green weeds or vegetable excess like nutritious kale leaves. Immerse it in water in the garbage bin, close it up and walk away.

5 weeks later, open it up for a rich brew of compost tea! Easy Peasy!

Repurposed garbage bin works well for a good compost tea brewing.

 A warning: when opening up your compost tea for the first time, a powerful stench awaits your olfactory system! Every blow fly for miles around will arrive in great droves of excitement within 5 minutes of the grand opening of the brew! Do not however, be put off, your garden will love you for it!

Giant compost tea bag!

 You can use your compost tea by diluting it 1 : 10 and pouring it around all your vegetable plants. When using it on young seedlings, remember to dilute it further,

a 1 : 20 or more ratio is good, as you don’t want to risk burning the new seedlings by too strong a brew.

Comfrey leaves and a few weeds for the “tea bag”.

This 5 week old compost tea is a great growth accelerato. When I have the time and foresight, I like to also activate the compost tea before using. This is very simple, all you need is an old fish tank aerator pump. It activates all the good bacteria in the compost tea, like making kombucha for your gut health. The good bacteria thrive in an oxygenated environment. This is the steroid equivalent for plants, like athletes use for being super-pumped!

   A handful of sheep poos added to the compost tea is a great fortifier.

Activating Compost Method:

• Fill a 10 L bucket with ready made compost tea

• Place the end of the aerator in the bucket and turn on the pump. Leave it bubbling for 12 hours or overnight.

• Dilute and use as previously mentioned. The oxygenation activates all the microbes and bacteria in the compost tea.

A trusty old fish tank aerator does a great job of activating your brew.

The benefits of using activated compost tea includes increasing the bio-availability of nutrients to the soil for plants to take up. It boosts the plants natural immune system, strengthening it against pests and disease. You will see results over the coming weeks as the plants respond to the dose of bio-available nutrients.

Healthy soil = healthy plants = healthy people.

 A frothy brew after 12 hrs of activating.

 So check out your local social media pages to see if anyone has an old fish tank aerator no longer needed and get brewing!

Super fun, and your garden will love you for it and reward you so much for the effort!

Cheers, Jizzy