How to Make Compost Tea for Your All-Natural Garden

Compost tea is a natural liquid fertilizer made by soaking compost in water. By undergoing a day-long steeping process, solid compost adds soluble nutrients and beneficial microbes to the water. You can apply the tea to your plants and soil for an added boost of beneficial microbes and nutrients.

Some of the purported benefits are still up for debate. Compost tea is not a miracle cure for all of your gardening-related issues, but it does have a few benefits:

• It stretches your compost pile. Compost tea is a great way to make your compost pile do extra work for you. After you’ve added compost to your soil, you can water your garden with compost tea to add additional composting nutrients to your plants as they grow.
• It’s an easy way to add nutrients. While tilling solid compost into your soil can be laborious, applying compost tea is as easy as watering your plants. You can apply compost tea to thirsty plants in your garden using a spray bottle or a watering can.
• It reduces dependence on chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers can be harmful to plants and soil health. Compost tea offers an all-natural, organic alternative, which allows you to reduce your use of chemical fertilizers.
• It’s customizable. Making your own compost tea allows you to customize the nutrients and beneficial organisms you’re feeding your plants by controlling the contents of your compost bin or compost pile. To add more carbon to your soil, compost brown materials like paper products, dry leaves, and wood chips; for more nitrogen, compost green organic materials like kitchen scraps and grass clippings. Meeting the nutritional needs of your soil is the key to healthy plants.

While there are many commercial compost tea brewers on the market, you can easily make DIY compost tea at home with standard, inexpensive materials:

1. 1. Compost. To make compost tea, you’ll first need to have an active compost pile with organic matter. A basic compost tea recipe calls for two cups of finished compost—meaning it’s fully decomposed and has a sweet smell. If you’re into vermiculture or worm compost, use worm castings instead of compost to create a natural fertilizer called worm tea. Learn more about worm tea here.
2. 2. A large bucket. You will need a five-gallon bucket to steep your compost in.
3. 3. A food source. The bacteria in your compost will need an additional food source to multiply in your compost tea. Use a sugar source like unsulphured molasses, maple syrup, or fruit juice. You can use granulated sugar, but liquid sugar sources are an easier option because the sugar is already dissolved into the water. Other options for this food source include kelp or fish hydrolysate.
4. 4. An air pump. You’ll need to aerate your compost tea to prevent toxin-producing anaerobic microbes from breeding. Use an air pump or air stone/bubbler to aerate the water throughout the brewing process.
   
5. 5. Unchlorinated water. To keep the bacteria alive, use unchlorinated water. Tap water can include trace amounts of chlorine that can be harmful to beneficial microbes. You can also collect rainwater or purchase filtered water from the grocery store to steep your tea.
6. 6. Brewing bag (optional). To reduce mess, place your compost in a sock or mesh bag before adding it to your water. This brewing bag will help keep large chunks of compost out of your tea, saving you the hassle of having to strain the finished product before adding it to a spray bottle.

Here’s a step-by-step guide for brewing compost tea in your backyard:

1. 1. Fill your bucket with water. Add unchlorinated water to your 5-gallon bucket.
2. 2. Mix in the sugar source. Add two tablespoons of your food source to the water and stir to combine.
3. 3. Add the compost. Place your compost in a sock or mesh bag then add two cups of finished compost to the water.
4. 4. Set up your air pump. Set up your air pump to aerate oxygen into the bucket of water. You can use a hang-on-back aquarium pump or place an airstone at the bottom of the bucket.
5. 5. Wait 24 hours. The brewing process can last from 12 to 48 hours—many gardeners choose to steep the tea for 24 hours.
6. 6. Use immediately. Use compost tea directly after the brewing process is complete. The beneficial microorganisms in the tea will start to die out within hours of the brewing process, paving the way for dangerous organisms like E. coli to develop. To use compost tea throughout the growing season, make a new batch every week or two.

To use compost tea in your garden:

1. 1. Dilute the mixture. Most gardeners recommend diluting your compost tea in a three parts tea, one part water solution. Diluting the tea helps it travel further into your garden by spreading the microbes out within a larger volume of water.
2. 2. Choose your delivery method. A watering can or spray bottle are the best options for delivering the tea into your garden. If using a sprayer, strain the compost tea to avoid clogging the spraying mechanism.
3. 3. Water your plants with compost tea. You can water your houseplants and outdoor garden with compost tea. Sprinkle the tea directly onto the soil as a soil drench or soil amendment. You can also use foliar spray feeding to apply it directly to plant leaf surfaces in the early morning.

Grow your own food with Ron Finley, the self-described "Gangster Gardener." Get the MasterClass Annual Membership and learn how to cultivate fresh herbs and vegetables, keep your house plants alive, and use compost to make your community - and the world - a better place.