Compost tea and worm tea

[PunkRotten]

Hi,

I am going to start making 5 gallon portions of compost and worm tea. But I gotta ask, is there a certain time to use it that would be most beneficial for plants? See, all my peppers and tomatoes are loaded with fruits now. I know the teas are beneficial regardless, but is it most beneficial pre-bloom? or it doesn't really matter?

How long do you typically brew your tea? Any standard recipe you could share? I've seen some recipes where people add a bunch of extra stuff to it.

[lunaviker]

I'm definitely no master gardener, but some things I learned from a master gardener's workshop this spring were:

- Start supplementing with worm casting tea around week 6 (after planting) to give plants a boost
- Her recipe was: 2 large handfuls of worm castings in a 5 gallon bucket of water, let sit 2 days, then strain with cheesecloth or floating row cover and use worm casting tea to water. I think it was suggested to use once a month, but for tomato plants you can fertilize with tea every week, and even use it to spray tomato leaves in the morning. If using in a sprayer, you can add an aspirin tablet in it to build up the plant's immunity and disease resistance.

Good luck!

[imafan26]

If you make aerated tea you will brew it for 24-36 hours usually in a 5 gallon bucket with the inoculant in a sock. You will need a strong air stone or bubbler to both aerate and agitate the solution. You need to use it within 4 hours after taking it off the aerator

Non aerated teas will be good up to 10 days. It takes a little longer to brew 3-7 days.

Only use non-chlorinated potable water or rain water. You can add black strap molasses, fish meal (can of sardines), EM-1, compost, vermicast, etc, to the mix. Teas will be finished faster in warmer weather.

In non aerated teas there will be some aerobic organisms but dominated by bacteria and cilliates (anaerobic organisms).