Compost Tea +

[Jim Miller]

Thanks for any help Jim

#1 Can compost tea be sprayed on vegetables like
Kale , Spinach, Chard, etc. If so,
How long should I wait before picking to eat.

#2 How old doe's Horse manure have to be before it can be called aged 8)

[CaptainCompostAL]

True aerated compost tea can be diluted, and used as a foliar/soil drench on any plants, at any time, and as often as possible!

The reason is that aerobic compost tea is not a mere natural liquid fertilizer, but a powerful biostimulant, designed to enhance the beneficial micobial action involved in regular composting, mulching, cover cropping, and to encourage good microbes involved in foliage nutrient uptake and disease control.

I use gallons of aerobic tea brews at least 1-2 times a week on all my fall/winter greens, and eat the stuff the next day if I want!

[Tree Dude]

quote="CaptainCompostAL"]True aerated compost tea can be diluted,


So, does true aerated compost must be diluted?


Tree Dude

[CaptainCompostAL]

Not necessarily. It depends on the crops. Heavy feeders like sweet corn or elephant ears, can take several applications per week of strong undiluted aerobic tea as both a foliar or soil drench.

For more sensitive plants, it's best to dilute it far more, and use it like a irrigation or watering substitute. Test the foliage first on a few leaves with a foliar spray of tea to see it is too strong or causing burning.

Aerobic teas are far more versatile than non-aerated teas, for both foliar and soil applications, with more frequency of tea applications per week, for use on or around the plants.

However aerobic teas are very fragile. They start losing the aerobic bacteria and fungi populations after 24-48 hours in a tea brew container, if the constant aeration is shut off. Once these microbes get on the crops' foliage and/or soil, they tend to survive and reproduce naturally again.

[Jim Miller]

Thank you Capt.
I have another request,
I have available to me the horse manure from a horse farm.
The manure is mixed with straw and sawdust.
Can this be composted alone,
or should it mixed with something else first.
could you suggest a program for me to follow regarding the free horse manure
8)

[CaptainCompostAL]

Compost is a blend of decomposed "greens" (high nitrogen materials) and "browns" (high carbon materials).

Horse manure is a green.
Hay,straw, and sawdust are all browns.
Perfect mixture by itself!

Most of my homemade compost is horse manure/sawdust from a local equine clinic. I make it richer by adding more leaves, grass clippings, and fish scraps it too, for my own use and my compost customers.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Jim Miller wrote: Thanks for any help

#1 Can compost tea be sprayed on vegetables like
Kale , Spinach, Chard, etc. If so,
How long should I wait before picking to eat. Assuming your compost tea is made from excellent compost, the waiting period is at least 10 seconds.

Quote: #2 How old doe's Horse manure have to be before it can be called aged 8) From what I see in the stores, horse manure, similarly, must be aged for 10 seconds to be called aged. "Aged manure" is a meaningless term used on bags of stuff at the big box stores. When you go to true garden shops, they know the material you really need is called "compost." Now if you want excellent compost made from horse manure, it may take a year to develop.

The best way to tell whether your compost is any good is to smell it. When it is finished the entire batch will smell fresh like a forest floor after a rainstorm. If parts are not quite that fragrant, then stir it up and continue composting. The very last step of the biological composting process is what generates that smell.

[Jim Miller]

Thank you for your help
Jim Miller 8)

[culdeus]

One of these days I need to take a walk in the forest on a rainy day.

[Jim Miller]

There is nothing like it .
I do it often.
Jim 8)