AlFalfa Tea, hmmmmmm good!

I made the tea last week.... Took me a long time to decide to make it.
Oh My!when I took the lid off, the odor was much worse than a 60run boarding kennel at 6;A.M.! That's bad smelling stuff. The Roses have to do good in defense of the odor.
And, what a surprise. I thought it would be tea like, more like Poo....
Wish you guy's had told me about all this... Hopefully it will do a good job....I hope the wind doesn't kick up tomorrow!
And oh, the maggots, another surprise. Next time I'll ask many more questions..
Sandy

What maggots? Ewww!

Ack !!! Yuck !!! Ick !!!

You poor thing Sandy =((

I just grab a bag of alfalfa meal at the feed store and spread it near the plants , oh yeah- try soybean meal too.
Plants love this stuff and you'll get a lot of earthworm activity .... worm poo good ........LOL

I'm cracking up about it now. I wish someone had been with me with a camera...Yeah, the maggots really got to me along with the smell,reallyawful.Anything for plants.

I have a lot of Alfalfa left. I'll wait on that until fall. Soybean meal, that's a new one on me. I was going to purchase worms on line.. I'll get the soybean meal after you tell me where to get it.
Thanks , isn't this fun?
Sandy

All this can be found at your local feed store. You know .... where farmers and horse owners get their feed. These are common ingredients in animal feeds, even in smaller animal foods.

Always check these stores first , if you go down the line to nurseries and pet stores it's the same product . Just kicked up in price about 200%

Why are you going to wait till fall ??

Sandy, try this link. It's a treasure-trove of info for your plants. Don't worry ,it's good for other plants besides brugmansias ...LOL

We all try hard to stay organic when we can ;-D

http://davesgarden.com/t/423312/

That would be a good thread for the FAQ forum!

When I made alfalfa tea, I just put a few chunks (couldn't get the smaller stuff at the time) into a big open bowl of water and let it sit for 2-3 days. Then I poured it around my hosta, leftover alfalfa droppings too. Lots of flies when I forgot about it once or twice but no maggots. That would have been the end of my alfalfa tea days. By making such a small amount at one time, it didn't go far, but once or twice last summer for each plant was enough to see a big difference this spring! I planted almost everything from pots last year, and everything came back looking like it's been there much longer.

Hello All:
Scooterbug, love that name. I was told to use the alflafa spring and fall....I got into that treasure of knowledge. Wow, who needs books with all of you out there...
I tried to get soybean meal, they thought I was going to make dog food! I'm still going to search it out.
Great info. from all of you.
Noticed some of the roses are getting black spots . I'll go back to the site scooterbug and see what info. will be there for rose diseases. Hate to use insecticides..I'll try and get a picture tomorrow...
Thank you all
Sandy

Ask the nearest farmer where you can get it ... assuming you don't live in a downtown metro area. Look in the phone book under animal feed , Feed mill , Feed co-op ....... yer gotta find something. ????

Ask the local college Ag-Extension for your county. Anywhere you should be able to get it in a 50# bag ... really cheap compared.

Cheryl,
.............What in the world did you use ? Those little compressed alfalfa hay cubes? I remember a drought about 15 years ago when ya couldn't find good hay . We fed cubes or had these huge irrigated bales of alfalfa trucked in from out west .... OUCHIE $$$$$$$
...............We had 19 total, studs,mares and babies to feed.

Yep - those cubes! It was all I could find and it was a great big bag. I tried pounding the cubes down for a few weeks until I finally gave it up and just started letting them soak - much easier!

Wow! all this info... Thanks
I live at the South Jersey Shore....We have several farmers down here (Jersey tomatoes, good).I have checked out the feed store and they never heard of soymeal..
Scooterbug, I used the Alfalfa pellets . I'll look for the recipe. I know it's been on Dave's....
Going back to the thread Scooter, that's full of info.
Sandy

'Soy bean- meal' is a very common ingredient, and goes in almost every type of cattle and horse feed, a main source of protein (complete).

Sounds like you went to a store that only sells pre-bagged feed. They will not have it. =)

You need to find the type of feed store/feed mill that mixes tons of feed.................. for farmers and horse owners every day.
Yes........... they are everywhere, usually in the outskirts.

Wish I could help, i hate it when I can't find something.

Sandy I did a little search for your area,It only shows pet smart store.
I guess you need to expand your search to more rural farm type areas.

Scooterbug, I have a friend who owns a feed store and everything else you could want. He's so busy I hate asking him to special order for me... I need cat and dog food so, I'll ask him if he would mind doing it for me... Thanks for going through all the trouble to search. Petsmart is a wee bit away.
Our traffic is getting very bad here but, I'll call petsmart.
Yes, all our dealers sell from bags except, bird seed and a few other small items..
Have a great day and thank you...
Sandy

Dont bother calling, it is a pet food store, this is not what you are looking for....... find a feed mill where they mix,bag and load it in your truck.
I'm outta here , good luck!