Serve your garden a healthy beverage

After blogging on the relaxing properties of a tea bath in our last entry, we thought we’d go the whole hog and preach the benefits of tea for your garden! Sounds bizarre sure, but a compost brew can work wonders for your yard, apparently…

What could be nicer on a chilly fall afternoon than preparing a pot of tea? Readers’ preferences might include Earl Gray or Red Zinger, among others.

Gardeners might suggest a preference for brewing compost tea. It is not a tea enjoyed with your favorite cookie, but one better suited for nurturing and nourishing plants.

There is good science, anecdotal information and maybe even a hint of alchemy surrounding compost teas. A tea’s value depends on the source and how it is used. There is some evidence that foliar sprays suppress plant diseases. These teas not only contain nutrients but reportedly increase nutrient availability to plants. Demonstrations show compost tea speeding the breakdown of toxins on tea-sprayed foliage and also in tea-drenched soil.

The raw ingredient for brewing a better compost tea is actively managed manure compost. Plant-based compost teas may offer varying benefits from those made using animal manures. Good compost management starts with the right blend of raw ingredients. Green plant tissue and animal manure ingredients provide nitrogen or energy and brown plant-based ingredients are the fuel or carbon source.

Construct a compost pile or fill a bin with alternate layers of these energy and fuel ingredients. Creating a pile with a one cubic yard volume provides the insulation necessary for the pile to heat correctly. This heating destroys harmful pathogens and weed seeds. After the internal pile temperature rises to about 120 degrees Fahrenheit and begins declining, the pile is turned inside out and upside down. This inversion causes a reheating of the pile. The temperature spike will not be as high the second time.

A third turning may be necessary if the component ingredients remain recognizable. Finished compost is uniformly dark brown with only the texture and fiber of the ingredients distinguishable. The finished compost should have an earthy aroma. This compost is ready for brewing compost tea.

There are several ways to brew compost teas. One requires several aquarium supplies including an air pump, about 10 feet of plastic air line, three air stones and a gang valve for connecting the air stones to the pump simultaneously. A food-grade 5-gallon pail is first loosely half filled with the finished compost. Fill the pail to within a couple inches of the top with water.

Well or rainwater may be used directly. Municipal water should stand overnight, so the chlorine may dissipate. Add an ounce of molasses and stir the ingredients together. Distribute the three air stones around the bottom of the bucket, connect them to the pump and allow the bubbling process to run for three days.

Aeration is necessary to prevent the digestion process that will take place from becoming anaerobic (composting or digestion without air). Anaerobic decomposition has an objectionable odor and kills the good microbes. Ammonia and alcohol production results under anaerobic decomposition and these are harmful to plants.

After three days, turn off the pump and let the bucket’s contents settle before decanting or straining off the liquid compost tea. This tea should be used in a day or so as it quickly breaks down. You may want to filter the tea if it is used in a sprayer, to avoid clogging the nozzle. The compost left in the pail may be returned to the compost pile or applied to the garden.

Another method for making compost tea starts by crafting a hardware cloth strainer filled with compost and fitted inside the pail. A small water fountain or aquarium pump could then circulate water over the compost, leaching nutrients and beneficial organisms from the compost to the brewing tea.

The fungicidal properties of compost tea include suppression of fusarium wilt, leaf blight, botrytis or gray mold, powdery and downy mildew, and apple scab. Users will also observe increased numbers of earthworms in soils with regular drenches of compost tea.

Thanks to Elaine Ingham, Oregon State University and President and Director of Research at Soil Foodweb Inc. (www.soilfoodweb.com), for information about brewing compost teas.

This article was written by Walter Nelson; the extension educator for horticulture with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chemung County. His gardening column appears every Sunday in Twin Tiers Homes. E-mail him at wnn1@cornell.edu, voice 607/734-4453, fax 734-7740, or write 425 Pennsylvania Ave., Elmira, NY 14904. Visit the Cooperative Extension Web site at www.cce.cornell.edu/ chemung.