Author Emmy Ulmschneider
and Debbie Roland
Master Gardeners
Four thousand years ago the Egyptians were making compost tea that simply extracted food from compost and put it in liquid form. This method is easy to apply to the soil and plants. The great advantage is that you will not be carrying compost bags from your car to your field or yard.
Compost tea can be made by making and filling a cloth bag or bag that opens with compost. Then place the bag in a bucket of water (barrel or bucket) and shake it occasionally. The bag is big and full, the water is very large.
Adding nutrients such as molasses (about an hour) helps to increase the spread of pathogens. Adding this mixture to your soil provides an increase in nutrients for your plant.
To make compost tea put one gallon of compost in a five gallon container. Add water up to a few inches from the edge of the bucket. Mix frequently. After 5 days (the amount or less will not change) save the water and water your crops.
You can use a barrel, watering can or sprayer to apply water to your plants. If you are using a sprayer make sure you carefully filter the tea so that it does not clog. If you are trying to strengthen the poor soil, tea can be used directly without reduction and re-applied after a few weeks.
If you use it as a fertilizer, it can be reduced before applying.
The aroma should be earthy and sweet if you make tea or compost.
Another option is Bokashi compost.
Bokashi compost is an anerobic bubble that causes an object that can be added to compost bins to decompose or dig into the soil. It requires a special Bokashi store, which you can make or buy. It has a spigot on the ground to drain large amounts of nutrient-rich tea.
In the Bokashi bin food waste including milk and meat scraps, is a layer of inoculant infusion that you can make or buy commercially. Using a barn, a layer of chopped food waste and an inoculant, tightly wrapped; That’s after the anerobic method!
Wait about 10 days until the crumbs have evaporated, remove the stagnant water, add the yeast crumbs to the compost barn and resume. You can add Bokashi water directly to the fields or dissolve it with water for house plants.
Therefore, whether you are doing it yourself or reducing your time, there are other ways you can increase the size of your garden or garden and the health of your crops.
For more information, call the AgriLife office at 498-4071 in Odessa or 686-4700 in Midland or visit aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu or westtexasgardening.org.
Recent Comments