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Organic Gardening

Compost tea bags

18 years ago

I have a really small patio garden and would like to use some compost tea on my plumerias; however, I am not having much luck finding a vendor that sells the bags. Does anyone know of a seller?

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Comments (15)

sallym
18 years ago
Take a 5 gallon bucket and an old pillow case. Put compost in the pillow case (or an old nylon) and tie it off. Let it soak for 2 days. Dilute with water until it's the the color of tea you drink and water your plants with it. There's MUCH more info on this on the Soil, Compost and Mulch forum.
Sally
flyinbrian
18 years ago
try a paint straining bag from a paint store or Home Depot, as is suggested in the pdf David posted (sorry no link)
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Avajay asked: "If I don't want to get into an aquarium setup right now (money's kinda tight), will my outline above serve any purpose? Would it be better than nothing, or am I just wasting my time? No, you are not wasting your time; your method of making compost tea has been used for many, many years. Contrary to what some call the truth, your technique can make a great compost tea in as little as 2 (two) hours. Of course, brewing for a longer time will allow more microbes to grow in the brew, thus creating a more potent compost tea. If the weather is hot outside I would not brew for longer than 3 (three) days to avoid the tea becoming anaerobic (no oxygen in the bucket), this will avoid the tea becoming smelly and possibly dangerous. Better to make a weaker tea and apply it more often. The link below is just one example of a way to make compost tea. Yes, using a bubbler is faster and makes a more powerful tea, however the soil food web and plants will grow regardless of the microbe count. Make your compost tea and feed your plants. Your garden will be very grateful and reward you in both enjoyment, beauty, and harvest. I trust this helps in some small wayÂ Blutranes Here is a link that might be useful: How To Make Compost Tea
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I didn't read the whole link but it looks like is has some useful info. <Last two questions: How long should the manure sit and be stirred before I can start using the tea? And can the tea be used straight, or does it need to be diluted?> I'm gonna say that just like gardening there are many guidelines so do what fits/works for you & your schedule. Improvise where you need to - it all seems to work IMO. Start it a day or so before you plant to use it. Just remember to give it a stir when you can. I use rain water but you can dechlorinate tap water by letting it sit out overnite too. Or use one of the tips in your link. I often prefer not to buy things to put into compost much less compost/manure tea. The whole idea IMO is to feed the soil - let the soil feed your plants. btw- what do you plan to grow? As for diuting it - I am sure you will find opposing view points but IMO people dilute when they want to stretch what they have. I have used mine straight. I have done it differently on some years. Beginning just like you are talking about (using a 5 gal bucket). Then moving to a 30 gal trash can. I put a spigot in the bottom of each for ease of filling a watering can. I added an aerator from a fish tank using some air stones. I didn't find it time consuming for me. For watering I have also used timers with sprinklers or soaker hoses. I prefer the soaker hoses but setting up timers can be time consuming and I used those only when going away during the summer. I posted something on this gardenweb some years back on how I do my watering using buckets but that is another story completely.
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Comments (21)
I started making and using compost tea about two months ago after a wonderful Texas lady named Janet told me about it. She has a lot more space than I do and brews without aeration and has a bucke for each row of her garden. I have only two buckets worth of space so I did more research. Searching on Compost Tea will give you many links and everyone of them are different. I stuck with the ones not trying to sell me anything. My compost tea made my plants grow faster, transplant better, and now I hope also to produce better! I do not have a compost pile ready to use so I buy a bag of compost instead. I put a small coffee can of compost into cheese cloth and tie or rubberband it together to make a tea bag. I fill a five gallon bucket with water (not all the way to the top or it will spill over) then I drop a fish pond pump with a one inch hose connected to it in the bottom and let it bubble for 24 hours. This is supposed to help remove chlorine and other chemicals from the tap water-same principal you use to refill an aquarium! At the end of the 24 hours I dump my compost tea bag into the water, add about 1/4 cup of molasses ( all I can find here is liquid at grocery store, make sure it is unsulphered) If you have dry molasses ad a handful or so. Let it bubble for another 24 hours. Find something to drain the tea bag with, I use a flat from Lowes that plants came in sitting across the top of the bucket and I let it drip as much as it will. When done, I turn off the pump and use one of those battery operated sprayers made to replace the caps on things like bug spray, and I spray away until it is gone. Note I did have to tie cloth around the sprayer end that sits in the water because it gets clogged even when using the teabag. You can add other things as your plants need before spraying such as fish emulsion, kelp, seaweed, corn meal (whatever your plant needs)or add them at the beginning of the brew, you can even add miricle grow. I spray both the foliage and water the soil with it. The addition of molasses seems to have chased off a nasty colony of huge black ants I had building a city in my back yard and making my weeping willow into a nursery! Oh and after you untie your compost tea bag, use whats in there to mulch with or throw it in your compost pile. There is also a company that makes reuseable mesh bags for this that I think were about $5 each. I may buy some later but for now with drought and no work, I will stick with an old tshirt or cheesecloth! If you would like to see how my garden grows here in Villa Rica GA, it is out of control, and I have never had this kind of growth in any kind of garden, check out my myspace page...look for pics, albumns, garden albumn and then the tomato plants, you can also see my friends garden and we started seed at the same time and put plants into the garden at same time. His are disturbingly samll and need some attention while mine are overgrown and lush and beautiful! I definitely recomend compost tea! http://www.myspace.com/kelleyville Here is a link that might be useful: Kelleyvilles's myspace page for garden pics!
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I take alfalfa pellets the kind u feed to rabbits, and throw a handful in my potted plants every once in awhile. When I water the plants they disintegrate and mix into the soil. Its super easy lol. To tell the truth, I also just take a 1/4 tsp of miracle grow and dump it on potted plants if the are in 3 gal size or larger or in the ground. Then i just water it. I've never burned anything this way. **You must make sure they are watered well at least a half an hr BEFORE doing this. Then you are going to water it into the plants again after applying. Its probably wasteful but lugging around 5 gal buckets got old. You can also get the kind that hooks up to your hose. I'm thinking you might be able to make a really strong compost tea and strain it through some cheese cloth (maybe make a cheese cloth bag) then put it into the miracle grow container that screws onto the hose. I will have to try it and see. Then one could foliar feed that way without lugging a bucket around. Eta..The Alaska Fish Fertilizer works good to foliar feed. You are supposed to mix it in a bucket but you could probably make it more concentrated strain it then apply w a hose sprayer. I used to use it w my regular sprayer but it does clog it up if you dont strain it and its a pain to take the nozzle apart to rinse etc. I add a little coco wet to help it 'stick' to the foliage but you dont really need it. My plants went crazy with that stuff.
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
18 years ago
Try buying already prepared aerobic compost tea solution. Buchanan's Native Plant Nursery in Houston has a SoilSoup kitchen for self-serve gallons of a very high qualty aerated compost tea. Anaerobic or non-aerated compost tea has little value other than as a low nutrient liquid fertilizer.
synger
18 years ago
Sally's method is the one I use, and it really helps. The first couple of batches I made I didn't use a bag. It worked, but was rather messy. Since I aerate my compost tea with an aquarium bubbler, things got all sorts of clogged. If you're making non-aerated tea -- the stir it in and wait a few days kind -- you don't have to worry so much about a bag. Both aerated and non-aerated teas have benefit, though aerated teas are less likely to get "stinky" because of the different bacteria and stuff that grows in them.

For lot of info on compost teas, check out the Soil, Compost, and Mulch forum. Good FAQs, knowledgable, friendly folks, high traffic. I warn you, though... the board is addictive. *grins*
JRoss_Tulsa
18 years ago
I second the use of the paint strainer bag. Here is that link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Deuley's Little Texas Tea Brewer
byron
18 years ago
A pantyhose leg
dchall_san_antonio
18 years ago
If you can't find the paint strainer bag, Woolite sells a fine mesh zippered bag for cleaning lady's delecates.
Violet_Skies_
18 years ago
how do you aerate it?
tom_in_nh
18 years ago
I use some burlap rice sacks that I found at the dump, but obviously that is a chance occurance that will not help you! They rot out after a while, but I found quite a lot of them.
synger
18 years ago
"how do you aerate it?"

I use two aquarium "bubbler bars" attached to a small aquarium pump, put into the water and let to run for a couple days. Tubing, pump, and bubblers cost me all of 15 bucks at Walmart, if that. I make tea out on the deck, so I cover the pump with an overturned bucket in case it rains.
Krista_5NY
16 years ago
Merrill's makes Compost Tea Bags.

Here is a link that might be useful: Merrill's Compost Tea Bags info
tey157
16 years ago
Nice thread, I'm looking for bags myself thanks for the link.
tey157
16 years ago
I bought some paint filtration bags.
veracan
15 years ago
I buy compost tea bags already made, they are made from poultry compost, from a real chicken ranch. They're called Merrill's All Natural Compost tea. They are bags that make 1 gallon of the best nutrition for your plants indoor and out. I used it for the first time over winter on my sad looking indoor plants and inside 1 month everything was full and green, I kid you not. Very affordable as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Merrill's All Natural Compost Tea
rhizomorph
12 years ago
Really convenient bags can be bought online at:

www.letgoletsgrow.com

Those bags have drawstrings and are a good size for both small and large batches.

also, sorry to get off topic, there are many different tApes of compost tea. It is important to know the difference between manure tea and actively aerated compost tea.
Manure teas can have pathogens and are anaerobic while actively aerated compost tea is aerated and has enough dissolved oxygen to help the good guys and not allow such things as E. coli ...

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