compost tea

n. a solution of organic waste matter used as plant fertilizer or insecticide. Subjects: English, Agriculture

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Citations: 1958 Lima News (Ohio) (Mar. 24) “Bluffton Rabbit Raiser Finds Use For Waste” (in Bluffton) p. 4: The Amstutz compost-humus product is especially helpful to the housewife for potting plants. About 25 percent of the mixture in potting soil should be compost. Making a “compost tea” is also suggested for watering plants. This mixed in the ration of one pound of compost-humus to each gallon of water. 1980 Peter Tonge @ Weymouth Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts) (July 11) “Sturdy Kohlrabi finds its way to table in many ways”: Applications of a manure or compost “tea” every week or so, once the stems have begun to bulb out, helps a lot. Put a couple of shovelfuls of manure or compost in a burlap bag and let is soak in several gallons of water for about three days. Draw off the muddy liquid and add more water until it has the appearance of light tea. Then feed it to the young plants. 1986 Cathy Reiner Seattle Times (Washington) (May 4) “Garbage In Compost Out—Low-Cost Source Of Fertilizer Is Also A Good Way To Ease County’s Problem With Landfills” p. E4: Other methods at the site include earthworm bins, compost “tea” brewers and a complex bioreactor that is designed to produce heat and energy. 2002 Deborah Rich San Francisco Chronicle (California) (July 20) “Feeding plants compost tea” p. HO-3: Spraying compost tea coats plants with a dense and diverse population of beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. A good tea can contain as many as 25,000 species of bacteria. Once on the leaves, compost tea suppresses diseases in several ways, including crowding out unbeneficial microorganisms, causing antibiotic reactions against diseases and consuming pathogens. 2006 Michelle Locke Modesto Bee (California) (Sept. 9) “A Spritz of Sunscreen”: The compost teas are part of an approach known as biodynamics, a type of farming that bans use of artificial pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, and promotes crop and wildlife diversity to curb pests.…The theory is that if a plant is resistant to problems such as drought or insects “there’s something in that plant that causes that resistance. So you just take that, you make a tea out of it and spray it on whatever you want that you want to have that resistance.”

Posted 12 Sep 06 | Permalink | Tell a Friend