watering plants with tea

[Vorguen]

is it good for plants to be watered with tea? I make tea every day and occasionally I have leftover, it is always steeped and never with added sugar / honey / splenda

is it healthy for them to be watered by this?

thanks

[Troppofoodgardener]

Tea is a natural antioxidant, so one would suppose it wouldn't be the best thing for the beneficial creatures in the soil.

A friend actually recommended using a tea-spray as a means to keep mealybugs at bay. I tried that for a while with limited success.

I did notice however that the leaves on the plant seemed to shrivel up slightly, but the actual plant managed to survive the spray & mealybug infestation.

The mealybugs are now gone, but I'm not sure how much of that was due to the tea-spray, natural predators moving in, or seasonal changes.

Maybe run an experiment and have 2 similar plants (type, size etc) in different pots. Water one with tea and one without for a few months?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Should add humic acids and nothing harmful, methinks... I like troppo's idea of a test run. Try it and let us know.

HG

[applestar]

I do water with left-over tea, but not straight -- Usually diluted with about 10X water. I use it with added sugar, honey, or lemon (I don't have specific preference, but drink tea differently depending on the tea and mood). I don't drink tea with milk/cream but I do add rice milk, and I use any left over to water with, too.

The tea leaves go in the worm composter for the earthworms. Unlike coffee grounds, which look perfectly natural even when sitting on top of the container soil, tea leaves have a way of looking messy so I don't put the tea leaves in containers any more.

[soil]

I would dilute then apply.

[Vorguen]

thanks for the suggestions