If you’ve successfully made your lawn clippings into compost, you are ready to take the “plunge” into the liquid version and brew up a batch of compost tea. It’s an inexpensive liquid plant food that helps enhance flowering, restores the soil and helps suppress plant disease.

Here’s how to brew a nice, strong, healthful cup of tea!

Materials: Compost, water, two 5 gallon buckets, an old pillowcase, 1 oz unsulfured molasses (optional), aquarium bubbler (optional).

Step 1: If you are using well water, you can begin the process right away. If you are using city water, aerate the water in the bucket for a day to deplete the chlorine. The chlorine will kill off the compost’s naturally beneficial organisms. Mix compost with water in one bucket at a ratio between 1:5 (1 part compost to 5 parts water).

Step 2: Add about 1 oz of unsulfured molasses (preferably organic). It feeds the bacteria and starts the beneficial species growing well. Stir.

Step 3: Let the mixture sit and ferment between 2-3 days, stirring often to keep it well aerated. (You can use an aquarium bubbler to keep it well aerated, too.)

Step 4: Strain the mixture, using the old pillowcase or tea towel, into the second bucket. Spray on plants.

Caution: Use the compost tea within 2-3 days because the organisms will quickly use up the oxygen and the tea will start to stink and become anaerobic. An anaerobic tea can harm your plants. Compost and tea should smell sweet and earthy. Never use a smelly compost tea on your plants

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