Compost Tea has become a very popular topic. The following is a quote from Fine Gardening (ref 2):
Gardeners all know compost is terrific stuff. But there’s something even better than plain old compost, and that’s compost tea. As the name implies, compost tea is made by steeping compost in water. It’s used as either a foliar spray or a soil drench, depending on where your plant has problems.
Why go to the extra trouble of brewing, straining, and spraying a tea rather than just working compost into the soil? There are several reasons. First, compost tea makes the benefits of compost go farther. What’s more, when sprayed on the leaves, compost tea helps suppress foliar diseases, increases the amount of nutrients available to the plant, and speeds the breakdown of toxins. Using compost tea has even been shown to increase the nutritional quality and improve the flavor of vegetables. If you’ve been applying compost to your soil only in the traditional way, you’re missing out on a whole host of benefits.
Let’s look at the facts.
What is Compost Tea?
This seems like a simple question, but it’s not. There is no clear definition of compost. Compost can be made from a large variety of materials, and each compost is different. If you make tea from two different types of compost you will get two different types of tea.
The nutrient content of each type of compost tea will be different.
One of the reported benefits of compost tea are the ‘microbes’. If we assume this to be true then is it not important to know which microbes are in the tea? It certainly is. The problem is that unless you have a fairly sophisticated lab you won’t know this. Home gardeners have no way to know which microbes are in their tea.
The microbe content of each type of tea will be different.
Tea can be made in two very different ways; aerobically and anaerobically. The term aerobic means that the tea is made in the presence of oxygen; you usually bubble air through the tea as it is brewing (see picture above). When tea is made anaerobically, it is made without added oxygen. You simply let the smelly sludge sit in a pail. The method used to make the tea is very important because microbes tend to favor one or other of these living conditions. They either like living with oxygen present or they prefer less oxygen. So the method you use to create the tea is very important to determine the type of microbes in the tea.
Aerobic soil bacteria inhabit soils that contain a lot of air; the light fluffy type of soil we all know to be good for plants. Anaerobic soil bacteria tend to live in wet, compacted clay type soils where there is little oxygen present – not the kind of soils we want. So why is it that many recipes for compost tea use the anaerobic method? That makes no sense and I can’t explain it.
There is also something called manure tea which is the same as compost tea except it is made from manure.
Bokashi composting is something completely different and is described in detail in Bokashi Composting Myths.
What Are the Benefits of Compost Tea?
Proponents of compost tea ascribe a wide range of benefits – see the above quote from Fine Gardening.
One thing is clear to me. If a product or gardening technique does everything under the sun, it is always too good to be true. When it sounds like snake oil, it probably is snake oil! Run for the hills.
There are a few main benefits that would be worth discussing. Compost tea is claimed to provide:
- An increase in nutrients
- A decrease in diseases
- Additional microbes for the soil
A recent study compared AACT compost tea to using just compost and is described in Compost Tea – Does it Work?
Does Compost Tea Increase Nutrients?
To clarify the question it should be stated more clearly as; Does compost tea add more nutrients than compost alone? There is no doubt that compost tea adds nutrients. But does the process of making tea increase the level of nutrients compared to just using compost without brewing? If they both add the same amount of nutrients–why bother making tea?
If you think about it for 2 seconds you will realize that this is a silly notion. Think about what you are doing in making tea. You take a handful of compost and you put it in a bucket of water. Microbes take over and start digesting the compost.
Your original handful of compost had a certain amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. No matter what process you use, you will never increase the amount of these nutrients in a plastic bucket (except for some minor organics falling in an uncovered bucket). The microbes might breed and grow and digest things, but the total amount of nutrients remains the same. In fact it might actually be less since some of the nitrogen might be converted to ammonia which evaporates into the air.
What about the quoted statement above “compost tea makes the benefits of compost go farther “. The nutrient content (NPK fertilizer numbers) of say 500 ml of compost is 2.6 – 0.9 – 2 (average value for composted cattle manure; source Alberta Agriculture Department). If I now add this to a 5 gal pale (about 20 L), I still have the same ratio of nutrients, namely 2.6 – 0.9 – 24, but it is now diluted 40 times (500 ml to 20 L). The nutrient value of the tea is now 0.07 – 0.02 – 0.05. That is an extremely dilute fertilizer. For comparison human urine has a nutrient value of 11 – 1 – 2.5, that’s 160 times as much nitrogen as compost tea. Sure you can probably spread the tea over a larger area than a handful of compost, but if you do that the amount of nutrients added to the soil is negligible – so why bother??
The fact is that making tea from compost does not increase the amount of nutrients. It does not make the compost ‘go further’. If you want to add nutrients to the garden just add the compost directly.
In the post, Compost Tea NPK Values, I have a closer look at the NPK values and what manufacturers of the tea and kits for making tea have to say about their products.
Will Compost Tea Decrease Diseases?
This topic has been evaluated extensively, in reference #3 (link no longer valid). There are limited studies about disease reduction by compost tea, and the results are inconclusive.
The concept here is that the tea has a high concentration of microbes. When these are sprayed onto leaves they populate the surface of the leaves to such an extent that invading pathogenic microbes can’t take a hold. The good tea microbes out compete the potentially bad ones.
For this to work, the sprayed on microbes would need to colonize the leaves (ie live and breed on the leaves). This requires that the new environment, ie the leaf surface, has enough food for them and the oxygen levels are right for them.
Clearly, the oxygen levels would be high and so you can expect that anaerobic microbes would die out quickly. Anaerobic tea just won’t work.
The native microbes on plant surfaces are not well understood. There are anywhere from 1 to 10 million microbes on each 1 square centimeter of plant. Nobody knows what happens when more microbes are sprayed onto the leaf. I can’t help wondering why the large number of naturally occurring microbes can’t out compete the potentially bad ones and yet the ones sprayed on in the tea will do this??
In summary, there is little scientific evidence to support the idea that compost tea solves disease problems.
Does Compost Tea Add Microbes to the Soil?
There is no doubt this is true. You have a pail full of slimy microbes and if you spread it around the garden you are certainly adding microbes to the garden.
There is a new gardening trend of adding microbes to the soil under the assumption that the soil ‘needs microbes’. I’ve looked at this myth in more detail in the post Soil Microbes. In summary; the soil already has lots of microbes and adding a bit of tea is not going to make much of a difference.
If you are interested in identifying the microbes in tea you should read this before buying a microscope and taking Dr. Ingham’s course: Soil Bacteria – The Myth of Identification and Management.
The scientific study discussed in Compost Tea – Does it Work? clearly shows that adding microbes from AACT tea does not impact plant growth.
Can Compost Tea be Dangerous?
It is important to ask this question. Even if there are some minor benefits for using compost tea, they could be outweighed by risks.
Think about what you are doing when you make the tea. You are creating an incubator for microbes. You are providing the moisture, the food and the right oxygen levels to grow microbes. But which microbes are you growing? You have no idea know.
The reality is that along with the ‘good’ microbes you might also be growing ’harmful’ ones. You could be growing microbes that will make you or your plants sick. Tea that is aerated can contain Salmonella and E. coli both of which can prove to be deadly to humans. Remember the contaminated lettuce? That was E. coli contamination. You could also be growing microbes that are harmful to plants.
This study shows that adding molasses to increase the microbe populations can significantly increase the population of salmonella and E. Coli 0157.
The process for making compost tea is not selective – you grow whatever is in the pot.
I am confident that the risk is low. But why take the risk when the benefits of compost tea are at best, minimal?
Conclusion:
If you want to make some compost tea, go ahead. You will probably not harm anything and you just might have some fun doing it. But understand that there is currently no evidence that compost tea is any better than using just compost. Be a smart gardener and just spread the compost on the soil as a mulch. Nature will do the rest.
Further Comments:
This post now has quite a few comments. Many of them are from people with feelings about this topic but without any scientific evidence that their feelings are correct. If you have some references to discuss – please continue posting comments. If you have no valid references to support your position – don’t bother commenting, because I will not approve the comment.
For more information and explanations about the myths promoted by Dr. Ingham, have a look at these posts:
Teaming With Microbes – In Depth Book Review
Soil Bacteria – The Myth of Identification and Management
Teaming with Microbes – A Close Look, Part 1
Teaming with Microbes – A Close Look, Part 2
References:
1) Application of Two Microbial Teas Did Not Affect Collard or Spinach Yield: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/44/1/73.full
2) Brewing Compost Tea : http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/brewing-compost-tea.aspx
3) Link no longer valid.
4) Photo source for Aerated Compost Tea: Lily Rhoads
Searching several academic databases lead to a wealth of evidence that compost teas do in fact provide many benefits, mainly increased disease suppression, increased growth and yields. The disease suppressing ability of foliar CT is well established. I’m not going to take the time to cite the dozens upon dozens upon dozens of scholarly articles published in further dozens of scientific journals because anyone can read the abstracts on Google Scholar by taking a few moments. I found it difficult to find a study that didn’t show some positive benefit of compost tea use, especially in terms of disease suppression. The results are highly varied because of the number of substrates, techniques and plants used to conduct the studies but the evidence is mounting in favor of compost tea application. It is simple to make and apply and can be done very affordably and shows great benefits to organic production.
In terms of toxicity by pathogenic microbes, it is universally recommended to not apply CT before harvest, usually one to two weeks before harvest date. The CT would have a minimal impact at this late stage and should be used as a preventative measure, not to treat symptoms.
I’ll be posting another paper in a couple of weeks that show not benefit from ACT on landscapes. In fact compose used directly produced better results.
In the mean time can you post one link for a metadata study that shows compost tea suppresses disease?
When you use tea it gets to the Rhizosphere faster. That way the microorganisms that exist around the roots can do what they do and leave nutrients immobilized where the plant can access them. Rather than waiting for top dressed compost to be mixed in the soil below by the biology within the soil already. (anthropods, earthworms,etc.)
Re: “When you use tea it gets to the Rhizosphere faster” – faster than what? What are you comparing it to? The Rhizosphere already hosts huge bacterial populations – they are there before you even start making the tea.
Besides most of the tea will soak into soil as soon as it comes in contact with it. I have never seen any evidence or even claims of the tea moving bacteria to the roots.
I completely disagree with nearly every point you’ve made. ACT will fertilize your plants with readily available nutrients/minerals. It will save you money by utilizing microbes with a substantially smaller amount of material and aenoribic conditions promote a pathogen rich environment. I think you should be less stubborn and do research yourself. It seems you have a very skewed vision as to your resources and “COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS” are horrible. They leach through soil into groundwater for one, and secondly they run off into rivers and streams causing algae blooms which kill fish. This article is bogus and proves absolutely nothing!
I am sorry to say you don’t even understand the basics of fertilizers. The nutrients in compost tea are exactly the same as the nutrients as in commercial fertilizers. This is basic chemistry and not disputable.
ACCT can NOT provide more nutrients than what was in the compost used to make the tea. This is a basic law of physics that says you can’t create matter from nothing.
Commerical bottle nutes/ferts are just watered down garbage anyway why not use teA? Even if the effect is minimal its better to make tea on your own for way less than 20 a bottle of watered down shit. How were fertilizers developed? Industrial waste.
Why not just use the compost? That is even easier.
Wow I can’t believe you have been arguing this for 2 years! So my question would be, during all this time, have you ever actually tried using compost tea? Or even better, you did a side by side?
The thing is..
Your right in a sense, there is only so much NPK in the stuff! But you are totally off when it comes to everything else, you are refrencing physics but you have aparently no knowledge of actual soil science, of which you are trying to represent with this article..
So yeah the NPK is what it is, and the minerals, random particles and micro nutrients are what they are too. But where it gets complicated is how each of these elements interacts with the plant, or even if they are there for the plant at all.. Lots of nutrients are only available to the plant within a small window of pH, which may vary with temp.. And some stuff is to big particle size to break down.
We are barely beginning to understand the soil food web, the symbiotic relationship of fungi, bacterias and other microbes, with the plant and its root system. It not only acts as a communication highway but as a nutrient factory, helping breakdown nutrient particles with acid they secrete, but not just blindly, in communication with the plant, the microbes will source what is needed and find it in the soil and “plasma stream” it to plant..
So anyway, where your missing the point is that we are brewing microbes and life into to tea, that then make our plants more efficient at getting there nutrients. And yeah all the microbes are in the compost, but by making tea, we are waking them up and multiplying there numbers, and giving them there first boost of sugar so they can go to town!
I actually know a lot about soil chemistry.
For example – your statement “Lots of nutrients are only available to the plant within a small window of pH” is completely false. first of all it is quite a wide window, and secondly at the limits of the window the nutrients become less available – they don’t stop being available.
pH does not vary with temperature as you suggest.
Re: “some stuff is to big particle size to break down” – what does that mean? size of particle has nothing to do with how easily it breaks down. Stuff – I assume you mean molecules break down based on their chemical structures.
In your last paragraph – you are just putting words together that make things sound good. There is no scientific basis to what you are saying.
Seems to me like you have a personal vendetta against miss Ingham and her practices. Nothing about this article sounds very scientific or objective. Thanks for your Opinion on things. We are all entitled to viewing things differently. Do you have a chemistry degree? Organic Vs Synthetic nutrients are completely different molecular structures bonded differently with different charges. Nice nonformative article. Thanks for muddying everything up for those of us that seek true knowledge and social expansion.
I don’t have a personal vendetta against Dr. Ingham, in fact, I acknowledged in my writings that many of her ideas are correct, but others are not.
I have degrees in chemistry and biochemistry. The statement “Organic Vs Synthetic nutrients are completely different molecular structures bonded differently with different charges.” is completely false. Neither plants nor any lab in the world can tell the difference between a nitrate ion from synthetic fertilizer or an organic source. Same for the other nutrients.
I’m not a fan of commericial fertilizers as I tend to burn my plants. But using very little of them is actually very safe. Anyway, they are all ions when watered, just like how compost tea is made up, just at higher doses. Then again, I find compost tea a waste of time. I just put the compost on the soil, and it do its works naturally. I’m “brewing my compost tea” on the soil. From an industrial point of view, compost tea is a waste of time and a non value added step.
Keep pouring compost tea every to your plants, give lots of it. I’m sure the phosphates will eventually reach groundwater. In case you didn’t know, too much organic manure can cause groundwater pollution.
In fact some of the latest studies have concluded that organic farming with the use of manures are producing more runoff pollution than conventional farming – on a per pound of produce produced. More on that in a future post.
Plenty of proof.
Dr. Elaine Ingham has been proving it for 30+ years. In her course she provides she has a case study proving properly brewed compost tea can completely wipe out botrytis after the vines had been purposely infected with the disease.
The unfortunate thing about these methods is a lot of enexperienced people are trying to mimic, giving this biological process a bad rap.
No one should be playing with these methods unless they know what they are doing and can properly analyze what they are doing under a microscope.
So you say “No one should be playing with these methods unless they know what they are doing and can properly analyze what they are doing under a microscope”. That means no one except some microbiologists should be making compost tea. Farmers and gardeners will not be able to do this type of analysis even though Dr. Ingham makes such claims in her courses. https://www.gardenmyths.com/soil-bacteria-myth-identification-managment/
Dr. Ingham has not published any research on compost tea to support her theories. What she does do is report on personal observations that have not been backed by scientifically published research. Until the work is published in peer reviewed journals it proves nothing.
I’m not a microbiologist and am confident in analyzing soil the way Elaine has shown me.
Personal observations from an experienced microbiologist is good enough for this farmer/gardener. Peer reviewed journals be damned if what I learnt through her courses works. There were more than enough case studies provided through her course that shows what she is doing works.
Having no prior knowledge of Elaine or her work and having completed her courses, it seems everything you state about what she advocates is bass ackwards, and it seems I am not the only one who comes to your site and sees this.
All I can really do is recommend you go straight to the source, take her course or the cheaper route pay for a consultation with her. Write all your concerns/questions down and speak with her about it, than make your conclusions. It is all to easy to misinterpret what someone is trying to say online or in books, this is why one on one is the best way to get clarity. If you have the funds, the course would be the most beneficial for you, she covers a wide range of topics.
You know I’d almost be willing to even pay the hour rate for her consultation service, just so you can get this clarity. More critical thinkers like you who are well spoken, experienced with growing and can get a message out to the masses need to see the benefits to using these methods.
The reason why I made the statement you quoted is because it is all to easy to make compost/tea and negatively effect your plants, or have no results at all, which does no good for getting this knowledge out to the masses.
Funny thing is, generally speaking one rarely really hears of the success stories of anything, usually it is the failures….pissed off people or let down people seem to be more encouraged to share their results. This is why it is important to have those with experience practicing these methods, so not to detract from the work that is being done. Eventually enough people will be practicing these methods, with a portfolio filled full off success stories to back them up, and better yet offering their services to gardeners/farmers, and even better more people teaching others to do it themselves, but we are not there it.
Best wish to you Robert
Dr. Ingham does present a lot of anecdotal evidence – which is not worth much. And as a scientist she knows that.
“That means no one except some microbiologits should be making compost tea. Farmers and gardeners will not be able to do this type of analysis even though Dr. Ingham makes such claims in her courses.”
I see your still on about this Robert and I know you don’t let my comments go through anymore. I’m still determined to banter you over this becauze you’re condesending to everone that disagrees with you and I don’t like it. Plus, I just feel like I’m having a one-way one-on-one with you and I do like that.
That being said, what in the world are you talking about in the quoted section above? As a proficient writer and someone who seems to understand sciences pretty well, it’s an outrageous claim. I am not a microbiologist, but I do own a microscope, and I am able to count and ID the important microbes, bacteria, fungus, yeasts, and their respective ratios in a compost tea sample. I know plenty of non-microbiologists (farmers in fact) that can do this as well, if not much better than I can.
Also you mentioned a “basic law of physics” that apparently states, “you can’t create matter from nothing. If you’re reffering to e=mc^2, that THEORY was disproven almost a decade ago now.
Thank you for your time Robert, hope you’re well.
The quote you picked out is a clarification of something someone else said – I did not say the original sentence.
If your comments were removed it was because either they added nothing to the conversation or your tone was unacceptable – like saying “you’re condesending to everone that disagrees with you and I don’t like it. ” If you don’t like it, please visit other blogs. This is my blog and you are a guest here.
I believe that the basic laws of physics that says “you can’t create matter from nothing” is one of Newton’s laws.
It was to my understanding that compost teas add more readily available nutrients to the root zone, rather then ‘adding more nutrients’. (Opposed to simply composting in the soil)
When you add ingredients to the soil to be decomposed, it takes several months to years to break down. However, water and oxygen speed this process, and a byproduct of this is additional microbes (which further the decomposition rates) there for feeding your plant yummy nutrients within days opposed to …
It is the microbes that decompose organic matter in the tea. How much decomposition do you get in a couple of days? Nobody ever says.
The tea might speed up decomposition and make nutrients available sooner. But if that is the requirement – just use fertilizer – it is even faster.
Fertiliser? Full of heavy metals? Are you crazy? When we use acids and other processes to extract fertilizer from rock we also extract a lot of stuff that has been proven to cause autoimmune disease. Also when I spay my plants bugs find them unapealing . clearly you have never used this. The microbes are pretty predictable if wormcast is used. I can’t believed this. compost tea has been my single most reliable go to when encountering disease or bugs. Those who use compost tea are mostly organic gardeners so why would you suggest fertilizer when compost tea is the perfect organic fertilizer. There is no myth to this I couldent garden organically without this seemingly magic microbe fertilizer. Try it on a small problem area it works.
Fertilizer is not full of heavy metals nor does it cause autoimmune disease. Now you are just making stuff up.
How can the ‘microbes be predictable’ when you can’t ensure they are always the same type??
Compost tea has not been proven to be anything but compost – which we know adds nutrients.
Nitrogen, Potash,Phosphorus are expensive, compost is virtually free
So – what is your point??
I never said compost was not a good idea. I compost everything in the garden.
Making tea from it makes no sense.
Hey Robert
Happy to see some healthy skepticism here.
I was suspicious of claims that compost tea foliar sprays would have any effect at all, especially on disease resistance and increased nutrient uptake?! and stumbled on this article. Nice points!
I think it’s important to temper much of the hype with this application method.
I would like to add some thought though, to round out the discussion, lest we throw the baby out with the compost water:)
It is my understanding that a compost tea merely operates like other liquid fertilizers, though much less controlled, effective, and focused seeing as one isn’t entirely sure what is in the tea (however we are certain that there is a bunch of stuff in there that plants do like, NPK etc. maybe something like 10 – 8 – 8 or higher if you make great compost, but still paling in comparison with any classic mineral fertilizer out there). That is, I assume that proper use of compost tea should follow the same regiment of liquid fertilizer application – short term boosts of available partially mineralized nutrient. This is in contrast to any other solid soil amendment which usually has a sliding scale of nutrient release time. Good soil management would/could make use of both of these types BTW.
Although it may be less effective than straight Anhydrous Ammonia or Urea there is little to no worry that you will burn your plants and the soil PH will most likely not shift drastically one way or the other.
Also you don’t need gloves or masks or coveralls for application – though you may want them 🙂 In that regard it is a very user friendly and forgiving tool in the gardeners/farmers repertoire. And if one is trying to convert a conventional operation, no matter the scale, into one using more sustainable methods, I think this is an interesting way to frame the issue/start the process.
And let me be clear that I am only discussing nutrient here and not by any means attempting to show preference for soil management style or method…just discussing this one application method in isolation of the larger story. I am a huge advocate of soil amendments that promote good soil structure (colloids and cation exchange) and I don’t think compost tea is very effective in that regard (if at all).
Just a few grains of salt added here so we don’t end up dismissing what is basically an application method.
Thanks!
You are correct it will add nutrients. The fertilizer numbers of compost are about 1-1-1, a tenth of your numbers. If we dilute this to make tea the resulting liquid is significantly lower.
I agree you can use this to fertilize the garden. But why not just use the compost and do less work?
Hey Robert
You’re right, my mistake. My npk was waaaaaay off.
Yeah my points are moot. Better off spreading your piss around if you’re looking for a liquid fertilizer. At least you’d still have some of that nitrogen.
agree that less work is the way to be:)
compost tea for one is not about makeing more nutrients thats the authors bad its about taakei g a handfull of complost full of fungi protizoa and bateria and adding a food sourcer water and oxogen .then you brew for 12 to 48 hrs depending on what microbs yu are after durring the brewing process those bacteria and fungi protizoa erat the sugar source or protien source and they strat produceing more of the same bacteria fugi and protizoa in huge numbers .This is why you brew compost tea and this is why compost tea gos a hell of alot further than compost a cubic foot of compost will add signifigant biology to a very larg area of soil however 50 gallons of tea diluted at 10 gallons water to 1 gallon tea will repopulate a huge area of soil
Do you have scientific proof that fungi and protozoa are increased in the brewing process?
A recent study I will write about soon showed that there was no increase in fungi during the brewing process. Bacteria do increase.
But you are missing the point. No one is suggesting you don’t get more bacteria by brewing. The issue is that the soil already contains billions of times more bacteria than you have in the brewing pail. Soil already has lots of bacteria. Adding a few more, relative to what is already there is not going to make a difference.
Hi!
I am curious if you feel this is the same if you are making a compost tea and adding specified soil innocculants, like glomus intraradices, trichoderma harzanium, streptomyces, etc. Do adding these to an earth worm casting tea make them more readily available and at a higher population? I like making AACT, but I always add different microbes with different recipes when I want a certain population in my soil. Is this effective? I also like to mix in the innocculants straight with the soil. Thanks for the info, great blog!
Connor
I am curious – how do you know “which population your soil needs”?
This is a fundamental flay in this whole idea of adding microbes to soil. We (ie scientists) don’t know which microbes are in the soil – there are thousands of species that have not been identified. And we don’t know which will make the soil better for plants.
And, there is no scientific evidence that adding microbes to soil actually makes any difference – except in some specific disease cases.
I think that all microbes improve nutrient buffering and compost tea merely puts a random variety which will be compete if their particular ecological niche has room. On the whole, compost tea is too much work and too much can go wrong.
You keep saying that we (those who brew ACT) don’t know what is in the tea (microbes)…but this is discovered in a lab under a microscope…there is a surefire way to identify various organisms…soooo, yeah.
Actually there is NOT a sure fire way to identify all microbes. Certainly not under a microscope.
Most soil microbes have not been identified – so why do you think a gardener could do this using a microscope? At best soil microbes are classified into large groups based on morphology – that is what Dr. Ingham promotes. DNA labs can get DNA profiles of microbes, but even this just puts them into classes of microbes. https://www.gardenmyths.com/soil-bacteria-myth-identification-managment/
Spend some time on Google looking at scientific papers about soil bacteria identification and you will quickly see the problems.
I often take issue with people that prescribe anything as a silver bullet and compost tea is no different. I think that you are correct in that compost tea for the once-in-a-while gardener is a bad idea, and anaerobic compost tea is always a bad idea. The biggest benefit of compost tea is that it allows a skilled gardener/farmer to push diverse microbes across large areas (say a lawn, orchard, row crops, etc). However it is not very useful if those same areas do not have the necessary soil composition and structure. I believe compost and mulch will provide typical gardeners with more than enough nutrients and will gradually help improve structure along with some carefully chosen amendments based on a soil study.
Couple things. I was watching one yard revolution on youtube. He said he is having “better results without tea” he does use controls as well. So that kind of proves your point. I like how you mention ignorance in the original post, then you get a bunch of debate over it lol.
Something I noticed from one yard revolution is he said make compost tea from weeds when you don’t have Humphrey (this is before he discovered no results from compost tea). So even in your post you say that it does have nutrients but we’re arguing the increase in microbes. My question is, if I throw the leaves from my weeds in water and water my plants with the tea is it better than just watering from a hose? I’m trying to repurpose the weeds without having them in my compost pile.
Weeds added to water will decompose and add some nutrients to the water. They stink like hell in the process if you don’t aerate. This water will then be better than just tap water – but only marginally.
A better way is to just drop the weeds in the garden and let them decompose there. Less work and you get the same nutrients.
I’m afraid this article is crudely inaccurate. Have you heard of the soil food web?? those microbes may consume resources but as you said with physics, the energy is only converted and not wasted. This process helps to balance PH and provide a much broader range of bio metabolism necessary for vibrant and more nutritional fruit. Chemical Fertilizers are well known to kill or inhibit these beneficial bacteria. These statements are supported by factual research and not opinion as far as i know.
I have. I have even written about Teaming with Microbes. A lot of the information in this book and the information promoted by Dr Ingham about the Soil Food Web is incorrect and is not supported by science.
Microbes don’t adjust soil pH.
Chemical fertilizers do NOT kill or inhibit bacteria in soil. That is the subject of my next post and it is one of the biggest mistakes in the Soil Food Web Theory.
If you think the information in the blog post is wrong – then provide scientific evidence.
Chemical fertilizers could actually feed bacterias with more nitrogen to speed up decomposition of organic matter.
Fantastic resource. Between this and Linda Chalker-Scott’s Horticulture myths, and the Professors blog. Man, it’s just so nice to see fact based analysis.