Soil & Fertilizers: Compost or manure tea bags

Does any one try the tea bag method?
I'm experimenting with horse manure, mushroom compost and banana skins.
I use the banana skins because my tomatoes love potasium and banana skins are full of potasium.
The brew is a very dark amber color and looks very rich.
May be I should explain.
I use a 10 gallon drum (or what ever suitable)
of water.
Then I plunge into the drum an onion bag (burlap sack)
full of animal manure(none meat eating).
Every now and then I suspend the sack/bag above the drum letting the liquid run back in to the drum.
After two weeks you have the best liquid fertilizer you could hope for.


This message was edited Sunday, Sep 9th 4:02 AM

my mother did this once, had us out collecting sheep droppings, (ugh) she submerged them in a large rainwater barrel and just let it keep filling up. she got great crops from that!

My grandmother had me and my brother do the same with horse and cow manure dumped into a 100 gallon barrel of water. During the season we would pail out the foul liquid and side dress potatoes, garlic, cuke, etc.

Now that I am the age of my grandma and a long-time organic farmer, I just wonder how safe this practice is. I do know it still works, but I use it on non-organic crops of cut flowers.

Well, I was wondering if the term "tea bag" was a "new concept" or something! Yes, marshseed, I still do that also, with rabbit droppings usually. I let it steep several wks and make it very strong, then dilute it down at a ten-to-one ratio. If you want to feel safer using the teabag method in your veggie garden tho you may want to try making it with weeds instead of manure. I gather favored weeds (lambsquarter, dock, broadleaf plaintain, etc...and throw in some cultivated comfrey) and soak them in water. They will steep (and can also eventually stink!) and a great source of nutrition. I have no qualms about using it in the garden. (However I tend to not use it as a foliar spray on plants like lettuces, greens etc, just from personal preference tho.)

I must LOL @ horseshoe when he says "I tend to not use it as a foliar spray on plants like lettuces, greens etc, just from personal preference tho"
I wonder why? LOL again.
When this brew stops smelling I feel its probably at its best.
When my wife stops complaining about the smell wofting through the kitchen window then I know its time to empty the bag and fill with fresh ingrediants.
And the cycle starts again.(My wife is sort of an early warning alarm) Hope she doesnt read this post or it will be my last.

Re Horshoe's foliar spray comments, herewith old English joke.

'What do you put on your rhubarb?'
'Horse manure.'
'How strange. We put custard on ours.'

Ironbarkbob's tea bag brew sounds great. A similar mix was explained to me by an old country man a fortnight ago. He said it's good (very good), but whiffy!

Oh, my. I'm beginning to wonder if there should be a limit - only Horseshoe or Ironbarkbob in one forum at a time. The two of you together could be a dangerously funny combination ;0)

Now for a more serious question - Marsh, why not use manure tea on edibles? Assuming the manure is from cow, horse, chicken, rabbit, etc. How would this be different from composted (or non composted) manure added directly to the garden?

And weed tea, 'Shoe - approximately how many pounds (handfuls, some measurement) of weeds per gallon of water do you suppose? And I'm guessing any weeds - including bermuda that I pull out of my garden? How long does it take to...er...ripen? Must it be gauged by the aroma? Please tell me there's another way to tell.....

Oh, and can someone clarify for me once and for all - (this is just a burning curiosity question for me) - is pig manure safe in compost? I had figured it was off-limits since pigs will eat just about anything you care to put in their trough, including meat. But I saw where someone was composting it for their vegetable garden, and it made me wonder.....even if you limit their diet to vegetable and grains?????

weeds??? I can use weeds to make compost tea??? do you realize I could make a fortune with the weeds I have here!!! oh my, please let me know if there are any no-no weeds, I'm starting as soon as I can!!!

Morning ya'll...Vols, I've used rabbit manure for yrs with no harmful effects. It was suggested by someone once that the manure from non-meat eating animals if safe when "properly prepared". If you do use it for food crops then of course you want to use it at a time well before harvest. Also, three yrs ago I had access to pig poop. I wrote the Rodale Institute about their opinion on the matter and rec'd word back that if it was well composted it would be fine. This is due to the fact that in most states, (ours being one of them, NC) pig farmers have to cook all food that is fed to pigs. When I went to the pig farm, sure enuff, this guy had a huge cooker where he threw in all food scraps and cooked 'em down AND an inspector came by on occasion to double check. This is why there has been no cases of trichinosis for many many yrs! I used the poop, had a great garden and suffered no ill effects what so ever! As for using weeds...I gather the weeds and cram them down into a five gallon bucket, at least half fill it...then add water to the top. Cover it with plastic and let it steep for a wk. It is easy to strain into another five gal bucket (I place an old window screen over the second bucket.) Be sure to get all the water out of the weeds by squeezing them. The weeds that are left can either be turned into the garden or thrown on the compost pile. (I don't use any weeds with seed heads on them, by the way.) The mixture you have can be stored in milk jugs. Each gallon milk jug can easily be diluted in a 5 gal bucket. Depending on the strength you want I use half gallon of "stock" to a full bucket of water. I consider this a maintenance drink. Use a full gal of stock/bucket as a plant "pick me up" or for plants in dire need of support and encouragement. As for 'no no' weeds tiG, I wouldn't use anything with seed heads (unless you want to make doubly sure you strain all the seeds out... you don't want to infest your garden.), and I also wouldn't use the bermuda...what if a few joints got in the garden of that stuff? It'd be everywhere and you'd never get it out. My favorites are weeds that have nice root systems and lots of foliage. (Even tomato trimmings or spent plants are great, with the added benefit of a belief that tomato plants help discourage many bugs in the garden.) Did I forget anyone now? Class dismissed.

Speaking of class.
When I was a small boy back when every thing was black and white.
I used to take raisons to school for my teacher.
After many months of this ritual I stoped.
When asked by the teacher why I had stoped bringing her the raisons, I had to tell her the sad news "My Rabbit Died"

LOL you are awful but i like you.

If you are using cow manure for tea, it best to compost it
for 120 days before making the tea.

I do mine on a smaller scale, I use a 3lb coffee can full
of composted manure, place manure in a leg of panty hose.
toss in a 5 gal plastic bucket, fill the bucket with water
and then let it "steep" for a week or 2.

I apply a little thinner, I use a 6 gal hose end sprayer
to apply. 1 qt of tea to 6 gal of water. Repeat every couple weeks..

For weed/compost tea. This works too, just need to well compost the weeds.

Byron

vermicompost (using non dairy, non fat or non meat products, tea bags, coffee grounds, shredded newspaper garden leaves, grass etc...the red wigglers eat the scraps and turn it into rich compost. Put the vermicompost into a pair of panty hose with lots of water...strain and use to water plants...this is great. My plants grew 1-2 feet taller than they had ever been before. I had oriental poppies that were 6 feet tall and blooms almost 8-10 inches across last year. The peonies were spectacular and the garden was so luch it looked like the tropics.

Joydie

funny story

a year or two ago i was at a friends house and i grabed a leaf of something out of the garden (i forget what) and started munching. i told him it tasted funny he said he sprayed it with fish emulsion. i asked if he had watered or if it had rained since he sprayed it he said no and i was spitting for about 5 min yuck. i ask if things are safe to eat out of the garden now.

this is great. if i were to make the tea bags the size of base balls how much water would you seep it in?

I made compost tea last year in a 5 gallon pail, let it steep for a couple of weeks and used it in the garden. It really was great, I diluted it 10 - 1 with water. One day I forgot to cover the pail and the next morning there was a dead squirrel in the pail, I felt so bad, I guess he was looking for water. How often do you use fertilizer like this?

I save my tea bags , coffee grounds, egg shells and once they dry out i just sprinkle it around my beds. I guess it helps, cause I always get lots of blooms.