Using Tea Compost for Your Garden

Using Tea Compost for Your Garden

I recently visited the Rodale Institute, which claims to be one of the oldest organic farms in the US. It was founded 75 years ago by J.I. Rodale.

One of the most potent strategies they employ to improve plant health is compost tea. While there are a variety of ways to make compost tea, you typically use a volume of water, certain sugars for nutrients, minerals, along with certain bacteria or microbes. The mix is then aerated /oxygenated using a pump, as the beneficial organisms require oxygen to survive. The tea is typically grown over 24 to 48 hours, and then you apply it directly to the soil on a regular basis.

An ideal compost tea is composed of tens of thousands of different species of bacteria, along with fungi and protozoa that actually digest the bacteria. This type of tea compost can address both of the main components necessary for maximum plant performance, i.e. mineral nutrition and optimized soil biology. Kempf explains:

“To provide a more complete picture of why those two factors are the engines that drive the overall system: Inside the plant, all types of metabolic processes go on that depend on mineral nutrition in order for the plant to be able to grow and be healthy. According to a number of plant researchers, geneticists, biochemists that have done a lot of work on plant nutrition, in order for a plant to have a completely functioning enzyme system, which it needs to be really healthy; it needs at least 64 different trace elements.

We’re talking not only about having adequate quantities and the right balance of minerals, but we’re also talking about a very broad spectrum, a very broad suite, of mineral nutrition, specifically a lot of the various trace minerals, to function as enzyme co-factors. However, we need that mineral nutrition to be in a form in which it can be readily absorbed and readily utilized by the plants. And the key to getting mineral nutrition absorption into plants is microbiology in the soil system.”

This  is very similar  to your own biology.

Everyone of us have microflora in your digestive tract that is responsible for helping you digest your food to chime. As the proteins and carbohydrates in the food are broken down through enzymatic digestion into individual amino acids, essential fatty acids, and simple sugars, your body is then able to  assimilate these simpler compounds and use them for energy.
As explained by Kempf, the exact same process holds true in soil, where the soil microflora digests root exudates, sugars, and amino acids that the plant’s root system sends out into the soil. These sugars and amino acids, for the most part, contain a very limited mineral profile.
The minerals are actually created through the microflora in the soil, as follows. The soil bacteria, fungi, Actinomycetes, and a variety of other soil microbes feed on these soluble sugars and amino acids. They also extract minerals from the soil mineral matrix and use them to build their own bodies. As that microbial population cycles and regenerates, the minerals that are contained in their bodies are then released and become available for absorption by the plant. Again, this is very similar to the way that fermented vegetables or probiotics improve your own digestive and overall health.

How Charcoal May Improve Soil Health

Compost tea can produce great results in terms of plant growth, but you also need to pay attention to other environmental factors, such as watering and increasing the organic matter in your garden soil by adding compost and other soil amendments. Another area I’m really excited about is the use of BioChar, which is charcoal used as a soil amendment. Producing BioChar involves slowly burning biomass, such as wood and other plant materials. The slow burning releases methane gas, producing charcoal that has an incredibly high surface area when spread out thinly.
The charcoal stores carbon (as trees and plant materials extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere) and starts to reverse some of the challenges we’re seeing with increasing CO2 levels in the environment.

When put back into the soil, it can keep the carbon stable, in the form of charcoal, for extended periods of time, which is an environmental benefit.
From a gardening perspective, it provides a suitable environment in which beneficial soil bacteria can grow and flourish.

According to Kempf, BioChar may also help “filter” toxic chemicals in the soil:

“I do not know this for sure, but I suspect, based on the charcoal component, that there’s a very strong possibility it might also have a great beneficial aspect in sequestering toxins and environmental pollutants that are in our soils and ubiquitous in our environment today.
For example, with all of the herbicides and pesticides that are being sprayed, all the aerosols that are in the air, every time we get a rainfall, there are some minimum levels of pesticides that are within that rain. I think having that BioChar component in your soil can help bind a lot of those toxins and prevent them from being absorbed by your plants.”