The secret to bigger, healthier, pest/disease resistant produce is in the soil, and the secret to improving the health of your soil is this compost tea recipe. Grab my recipe and watch your garden flourish! Then head over and learn how to build your own compost tea brewer.

I started brewing the “lazy” man’s compost tea for five years in Seattle using my own DIY compost tea brewer using a 55-gallon food-grade barrel. My compost tea, in tandem with some other “lazy” techniques, resulted in impressively healthy soil and giant crops.

Alongside my other methods of fixing our soil, including the tips we share in our composting cheat sheet, we’ve been growing monumental amounts of produce (and avoiding the grocery store) with very little effort.

Why Compost Tea?

Growing huge and abundant produce while tending as little as possible is always our goal in the garden. Creating healthy soil is our first priority, and healthy soil starts with good organic compost.

But compost takes time, a lot of human input, and isn’t really an instant fix. Fertilizer can seem like a good shortcut, but it can be expensive, and even a lot of organic fertilizers have stuff we really shouldn’t be putting on our plants or in our bodies.

What if we could create a liquid compost that would provide nutrients immediately available to enhance your plant growth? Enter: compost tea.

What Is Compost Tea?

Compost tea (also known as aerated compost tea) is the single quickest and easiest fix for your garden. It is a fermented liquid that concentrates helpful bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and positive predatory nematodes (the good kind) by distilling these nutrients into a liquid form making it easily absorbed by your plants as a foliar (leaf) spray, or can be delivered directly to the roots of your plants.

At the same time, it improves the health of the soil by adding beneficial microorganisms that result in less watering, and more pest and disease resistance for your plants.

How to Make Compost Tea:

Ingredient Break Down:

Here’s what each of the ingredients does for your plants and your soil, broken down:

Ascorbic Acid - Vitamin C “un-bonds” the chlorine and chloramine from your tap water, provides a little extra something for the plants. It’s an antioxidant, which helps plants deal with stresses from drought and UV radiations. Check out this awesome article in Science Daily for more info on Vitamin C
Liquid Kelp/Kelp Meal - Promotes fungal growth
Unsulphured Molasses - Acts as a food source to promote beneficial bacterial growth (fermentation)
Worm Castings - Provide valuable minerals like iron and desirable micro organisms and fertilize your plants with material that is easily digestible by the plant and won’t burn or damage the plant like some fertilizers can. They improve soil structure, improve water retention in soil, and anchor nutrients that might otherwise leach away with water. They increase seed germination, plant growth, and fruit/flower production. They help curb root and crown rots, wilting diseases and help inhibit certain insect pests like mites, aphids, and mealy bugs. When used as the main fertile component in compost tea, certain vegetables have seen up to a 50 percent increase in growth and yields. - Cornell Vermicompost Research
Azomite - A natural source of trace elements that can improve soil, help combat erosion, and help your plants sequester more nutrient density. It’s extracted from ancient volcanic ash deposits.
Mycorrhizae - Beneficial fungus that increases nutrient and water uptake by a plant by stimulating root growth. It helps plants create a better line of defense against environmental stresses, pathogens, and diseases by encouraging a larger, healthier root system. It also helps improve the soil structure in soils with heavy clay and sand content (like ours here in TN). A good fungal network can transport nutrients over large distances and deliver them directly into the root cells of your plants. The plants support further mycorrhizal fungal growth with energy in the form of carbohydrates that are produced during photosynthesis. Individual plants can become connected with other plants through this mycorrhizal network, sharing nutrients, sugars, and water as well as attracting more soil microbes.

Supplies Needed:

Powdered Ascorbic Acid
Liquid Kelp
Unsulphured Molasses
Worm Castings
Azomite
Mycorrhizae
Compost Tea Brewer Bag
Binder Clips
Foliar Leaf Sprayer
Compost Tea Brewer (Link to her DIY?)

(Many of these items can be found on my Amazon store, when you shop using my link, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you, THANKS!)

The most ideal base for your compost tea is rainwater, but if you, like me, are using city tap water more often than not, you can either run your full brewer for 48 hours before adding anything to it to cause the chlorine/chloramines in the water to dissipate or add 2 tablespoons of powdered Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) to the water.

Running the brewer for a minute after adding the powder should accomplish the same goal. (If you’re cheap like me, and you’ve got some nasty old Vitamin C capsules and a mortar and pestle, this is a great opportunity to offload them.

Vitamin C is also, incidentally, great for your plants, so you get a little extra fertilizer in there right off the bat.

Brewing Compost Tea for 50 Gallons of Water:

2 T. Ascorbic Acid
1 Cup Liquid Kelp (I used 2 cups of kelp meal, mixed with my worm castings because I had it)
1 Cup Unsulphured Molasses
16 Cups Worm Castings

I like to add a couple tablespoons of Azomite and Mycorrhizae as well, just for good measure. Really, you can tweak this recipe as much as you’d like to offer more nutrients in an immediately consumable format to your plants and soil. I’m experimenting with adding tumeric and cinnamon to minimize mold/bad bacteria developing. My next batch will also include a healthy amount of wood ash, a couple TUMS tablets for calcium, and I’ll keep you all updated about what works and what doesn’t! I’ve been wanting to experiment with Diatomaceous Earth and First Saturday Lime as well, but those generally only work in powdered form, so I’m interested to see how they reconstitute in compost tea form as it dries on the plant leaves. * adjusts nerd glasses and moves microscope *

Instructions:

Put the liquid items directly in the water, the powdered items in the compost tea brewer bag, insert the aeration wand, clip the bag in place, and turn on the bubbles! In 24 hours, you’ll have a ready to use foliar (leaf) spray ready to go on your plants.

How to Use Compost Tea:

I spray my tea on my plants at dusk, using a battery-powered backpack sprayer, so I can really control where it goes. I choose dusk to spray because spraying any kind of fertilizer (or any liquid for that matter) in the heat of the day can burn your plants. The liquid droplets magnify the sun on the leaves and can cause a sunburn.

Plants are also more prone to be more susceptible to fertilizer burn during the daytime as well. The runoff from the spray will go directly into your soil and all kinds of magic will start to happen there as well.

Tips:

Use a paint can liner as a compost tea bag.
Use binder clips to secure your compost tea bag inside your compost tea brewer.
I keep my Compost Tea Brewer in my garage because compost tea likes to live between 55 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Simple Compost Tea Recipe (for JURASSIC-sized veggies!)