Compost tea and liquid manure for the home garden

Making a highly active and beneficial compost tea or liquid manure for the home garden is easy

This compost tea brewer is especially designed for the serious home gardener who enjoys using "the old fashion way" the natural way without the need to smoother the home garden in chemicals and inorganic fertilizers.

                                                                                                            Making the compost tea:

Simply add 5-10 litres   of   a good “earthy-smelling” compost, cow manure   or vermicompost   (worm worked compost ) into a 20 litre bucket with sufficient water and wet thoroughly after crumbling any large lumps.   Add this 20 litres to the 80L SmartBug Brewer, which is already half full of water, switched on and aerating, then top-up with water to about 75 mm from the top of the brewer.   Initially there may be a   earthy smell depending on the compost or manure source, but after a short period of aeration this will dissipate. 

Continue to aerate (“brew”) for 3-7 days to liquify and humify the organic material, the longer the better. This process biologically releases all the beneficial plant growth compounds and promotes a profiliation of beneficial aerobic microbes that will give your plants a real tonic.

If excessive foaming occurs in the compost tea add Oresome Antifoam at   about 10ml/100 litres.   Alternatively you may use a small amount of   cooking oil,   vegetable oil or fish oil.  

After several days (depending on air temperature) the compost tea should have a pleasant earthy smell and have a shiny milk chocolate colour. It is now ready to make your garden grow. 

The next step will depend on your method of use.

• If applied as a soil drench:   apply undiluted to the soil then hose in or mixed it with sufficient water to carry it into the root zone.
• If a watering can is used to apply the compost tea to the foliage, it may need straining. You will find a plastic water tank strainer is excellent.  
                                     
  
• For foliar spraying with a knapsack fitted with a fine nozzle, use the tank strainer as above and let the strained compost tea settle and dilute with one part of compost tea to 4 parts water. Depending on nozzle size a second straining using a stocking maybe required.
• Any residual solid product remaining in the bottom of the brewer after the compost tea has been skimmed off can be applied to the garden.

The compost tea brewer should be throughly cleaned out with detergent and water immediately after use, taking particular care to wash under the diffuser.   Follow by hosing thoroughly.   If carried out immediately after use this cleaning will only take a few minutes.

The addition of microbial foods such as MicroBooster CN30, molasses, raw sugar, fish hydrolysate or kelp are best added just prior to soil or foliar application and will improve the performance of the tea.

Alternatively you may use, instead of compost, LivingSoil Inoculant which is a convenient dry formulation that contains a diverse range of beneficial microbes , biological foods, humic compounds and plant hormones derived from vermicomposts.   These are safely stored in biogenic silica for a long shelf life and avialable from O'Grady Rural.

LivingSoil Inoculant as well as being convenient for making compost tea, can also used in potting mixes and in composting where it is added during the last turn at the rate of 5kg/cubic metre.