Over the several years of employment at IES, this year has proven to be perhaps the most interesting. Additionally, this year's gardening has also proven to be the best smelling! On Fridays, if you chanced to come near the Gifford Carriage House, you were greeted by an odor reminiscent of molasses cookies. Visitors were very surprised to find out we were brewing "compost tea". Visitors reaction to our brewed tea typically brought looks of "it has to smell" and"how can you touch it". Actually, the odor of compost is earthy and coffee-like. As gardeners know if your compost smells sour or rotten then you must discard it. It's also wise to mark the containers you use to store "tea" as it indeed does look like traditional brewed tea.

WHAT DOES IT DO?
The answer to this question is everything possible. Though used by generation of gardeners, the benefits of using compost in a "tea" form has been researched and expanded upon principally by Dr. Elaine Ingham and her work studying the "the soil food web". Visit her web site at www.soilfoodweb.com for more information. Her work deals with the dynamics surrounding the symbiotic relationship of soil microbial populations and plant health and performance. We tend to look at a plant from the lip of the pot upwards and often forget about the roots and the soil surrounding them. Soil serves as the "building blocks" for the plant health and success. Most gardeners know to check the acidity of their soil, or the pH level, but typically are ignorant about what is going on in the plant's root zone. Having healthy soil to sustain plants, especially field crops, is critical to survival and impacts both flowering and fruiting. Monthly applications of chemical fertilizers, pesticides can render soils to barely sustainable levels.

Weekly drenches of compost tea will help rejuvenate soils by increasing the organic matter content in the topsoil. Additionally, compost helps facilitate the process of nutrient recycling and nutrient retention. Water infiltrates better in soils with above average organic soils (i.e. organic matter > 4%) meaning more essential water for plants with less runoff. New research has found that using compost tea, as a foliar spray, helps suppress many fungal and bacterial plant diseases. Other compost-related plant benefits include increased flower and fruit production as well as an overall increase in plant health and vigor. Each brew contains a myriad of microscopic organisms. The critters you will find will include; protozoa, fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and microarthropods. This wiggling collection of soil microbes facilitates all of the aforementioned plant benefits. Gardeners should know a little more about these benefits.

1. Nutrient retention is essential for plant health and growth. Soil microorganisms are instrumental for the uptake of many essential plant nutrients (i.e. Nitrogen-fixing and phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria). They also act as a "reservoir" of many essential nutrients. When chemical pesticides are used there is a risk that the first "pest" to die will be the beneficial organisms. If they are absent nutrients may be "flushed" from the soil.
2. Nutrient recycling happens when available forms of nutrients are taken up by plants and subsequently the exudates (the by-products) are returned to the soil. These exudates are eaten by soil organisms, who then give off available nutrients for the plant. As you can see the process is cyclic.
3. Water retention is enhanced in healthy organic soils. Water infiltrates better into the root zone and the water-holding capacity of the soil is increased. The longer water resides in the root area, the less supplemental water will be required.
4. Disease suppression can be attributed to beneficial bacteria colonizing spatial niches on plant surfaces and forcing disease pathogens from the site.

IF IT IS SO GREAT, HOW DO I MAKE IT?
First you need a container, for the water. Next you'll need a compost recipe. It is best to use worm compost but quality compost will do. The recipe we used this year was: (This recipe makes 25 gallons of tea)
1 cup worm compost
1 cup poultry manure
½ cup greensand
½ cup cottonseed meal
3oz. Molasses

You must have a filter bag (100 micron) or anything that will act as a filter, such as a cloth vacuum bag. The most important piece of a compost digester is the aeration unit or bio-blender, and brew for 2-3 days. Mixing the brew for 24-40 hours while adding oxygen enables the beneficial organisms to multiply and grow. The molasses acts as a food source for your menagerie of organisms. You can purchase a digester (tub), bio-blender, and activator (molasses) at the web site www.soilsoup.com.

You can tailor-make your own recipe to suit special needs and individual soil type. Your tea can be bacterial-based or primarily fungal in composition, or variations of both. Remember if a tea turns rotten (i.e. dark yellow or bile looking with a foul odor) you must discard the tea. One good use of this rotten tea is applying it to weeds as it acts as an herbicide. Who would have guessed!

If your compost pile is composed of the right materials and consistently aerated you will be rewarded with a healthy tea. Giving soil a healthy dose of beneficial organisms will lead to healthy plants, which when composted, will foster future quality compost. The soil food web is a fragile system and can be greatly impacted at anytime. The overuse or misuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides greatly increases the risk of damaging this delicate web. Remember, it is a "nematode eat nematode" world under our feet and a soil's digestive system can become upset or out of balance, water and nutrient availability can be impacted. Make sure to use your tea within 12-18 hours of brewing or tea will go bad! Add your tea to plants, either as a foliar spray or a soil drench, or both, on a weekly basis.

The following photographs will show the steps in brewing a healthy compost tea. Step1: the products needed.

Organic Products

Worm Compost

Digester

Bio-blender/tea bag

The products were purchased from local nurseries or Soil Soup Company. Step 2: the brewing process.

After filling with water, fill the tea bag, add activator and BREW! Results in plant performances can be seen in as little as three weeks (3 applications) in plant growth. Size difference in the size of a bloom will show that the tea is working. The compost tea bloom is on the left

Rosa Black Magic (HT)