Compost tea is a rich, beneficial food for the plants in your garden made entirely from products straight from your kitchen, but how often should you be feeding your plants compost tea?
Whatever the case, newly planted beds will need to be fed compost tea twice a week, while your established plants may not need to be fed more than once a week, bi-weekly, or once a month depending on the plants and how many nutrients they require.
Some of your plants may not react well to a compost tea filled with nutrients, especially [nitrogen], and will do just fine feeding twice a month or every month.
Meanwhile, other species of plants need lots of nutrients and will appreciate a weekly application of compost tea.
In this article, we will explain everything you need to know about compost tea; how to make compost tea, how to apply compost tea, when to apply and much more.
Your garden will flourish with this easy to make, nutrient-rich food your plants currently crave.
How Do You Make Compost Tea?
Creating your own compost tea is easy with just two ingredients: your kitchen food scraps and water.
Yes, that’s it.
You will need a compost tea bag that will keep your compost neat and tidy while allowing the nutrients to leach into the water. Most compost tea bags are made from muslin, silk or paper. Let the compost tea bag steep in water for three to seven days before using.
If you want to make the most of the nutrients in your compost tea, you can add a piece of tubing to ensure aeration to keep a fresh supply of air in your compost tea to support the healthy microbes that you want.
You Might Also Try: There are also compost tea brewing kits available from several manufacturers.
How Do You Apply Compost Tea?
Once your compost tea has been steeped and is nutrient-rich, put the tea in a spray bottle.
Spray the plants by spraying the foliage so the leaves of your garden plants can absorb nutrients. You can spray the roots and soil at the base of your plants for maximum absorption as well.
Another way to use compost tea directly to the soil at the base of the plant is with drip irrigation. In this case, it is best to dilute the compost tea, so your garden plants are not overfed.
When Should You Apply Compost Tea?
Similar to other methods of manual watering, compost tea is best applied in the morning before the sun gets too high.
Doing this will minimize drying out and allow the plant to absorb nutrients completely before it gets too hot. After all, it’ll have the added benefit of being warm enough before nightfall anyways.
Otherwise, compost tea can be applied in the evening when the temperature drops below eighty degrees to avoid drying out.
Expert advice: as with many manual watering methods, it’s best to apply compost tea on calmer days. Too much wind will take away the nutrients before the plant has a chance to absorb them.
How Long Does Compost Tea Last?
Compost tea can last from four to six days as long as you store it in an opaque, airtight container.
By keeping it in an opaque container, it limits the amount of oxygen and light that can further decompose the nutrients present in your compost tea.
To extend the shelf life of compost tea longer than a week, it should be stored in a larger container and have an aquarium oxygen pump with an air stone. This allows for continuous aeration and keep the microbes alive, and slow the decomposition process.
Don’t Guess: If the compost tea has a rancid smell, it has likely already begun to decompose and would be better off to thrown out than added to a plant to prevent it from becoming sick.
How Much Compost Tea Should I Feed My Plants?
It can be difficult to learn how much to apply as an application rate but in general, try to apply enough of it to the leaves of your plant that it will run off of its foliage.
If you are applying with a watering can versus drip irrigation, most plants will benefit from about half a gallon for every one thousand square feet of soil.
However, it is a good idea to double check what your specific plant needs because some plants can be overfed easily, resulting in stunted growth or a lack of flowering or fruiting if too much nutrients are supplied.
What Are the Benefits of Compost Tea?
Your plants receive many of the same health benefits from compost teas as they do from compost just a little less concentrated.
Here are some of the main benefits of using compost teas over compost:
- It gives your garden plants immediate access to the nutrients needed for the growth of your plants, lengthens your plants’ ability to root deeper by stretching root tendrils, and strengthens your plants’ immune systems to ward off rot and diseases.
- Compost tea also helps to retain more water in your garden soil, so you will not have to water your garden as often.
- It is also a cost-effective way of feeding your garden: you only need water and any kitchen scraps from fruits, and vegetables that you were going to toss in the trash anyway.
- If you are applying seasonal feedings of compost to the soil, using compost tea can also reinforce your garden’s capacity to produce showy flowers and plenty of fruits to harvest.
Time to Start Brewing Some Compost Tea
Compost tea is an all-natural and economical way to nourish your garden plants and support them in growing and producing at their highest potential.
The applications need only be done on a weekly schedule and for the odd time on biweekly or monthly; you will not need to be making tea on a daily basis.
Final Words
Compost tea can be used after a few days of brewing, and can, if kept in a proper state of storage, last for four to six days.
If you thoroughly spray the foliage or soil by any methods including drip irrigation or drench watering, you will deliver the readily available nutrients compost tea contains to get your plants to their healthiest state.