Compost Tea

Compost tea is best described as a liquid soil conditioner for your garden and lawn. For the organic gardener, it is just one more way to utilize the compost harvested from your compost bin, compost tumbler or worm compost bin. It can be used either as a spray for leaves or soil, depending on where your plants have problems. Compost tea can also provide a quick boost to ailing house plants or to seedlings and transplants. When you’re done with the tea, you can use the dregs as mulch in the garden.

Making compost tea is a snap! Simply steep your compost or vermicompost in water to create hearty liquid sustenance for your plants. Grab a large five gallon bucket or similar container and fill it loosely with only your finest batches compost. If you have a poor compost yield, your tea will be similarly lackluster. Add water to cover your compost, and then stir the bucket contents daily for a week. When the tea is ready, simply drain the liquid from the bucket, now awash in the nutrients and minerals it leeched from your compost. Use a strainer or cheesecloth if you plan to spray your tea from bottle to remove clogging residue. Because the tea is so potent, make sure you dilute your liquid loveliness by mixing ten parts water to one part compost tea before applying to plants. If you do not, you risk burning your plants with the tea high nitrogen content.

Making vermicompost tea is a similar process. Add two tablespoons of your worm castings to a liter of water and let it sit for one day, shaking occasionally to facilitate mixing. The tea is now ready to be sprinkled on your plants, straight from the bottle.

Compost tea and traditional solid compost both accomplish the same goal of nourishing and improving soil conditions. However, you may find one meets your organic gardening goals more than the other. If you are looking for an immediate boost in your plants, compost tea is the way to go. As a liquid, it is immediately absorbed by your plants, and can be applied to the soil, or the roots and leaves of your foliage. However, its liquid form is a double-edge sword, requiring frequent applications to balance how easily the tea is washed away. In addition, just as plants treated with good compost tea derived from a proper compost batch show immediate benefits, a toxic or weak compost tea from a poor compost batch will become instantly apparent in your garden. A tea with too much nitrogen, salts and unwanted microorganisms can burn or impair your gardening efforts. Compost tea is not the most forgiving form of compost application.

Solid compost offers more room for error, and does not need frequent application to perform its soil enriching duty. However, it would not be the instant perk some gardeners seek in their flower beds and gardens.

Unlike vermicompost, compost tea does not have a long shelf life. The more quickly it is used, the greater its potency. If you must store it, keep it in a shaded area with ventilation.

Pet Waste Management

A pet waste digester system is similar to a composter, except instead of microbial activity leading to decomposition, special digesters with non-toxic enzymes work to break down your pet poop into completely benign residue. This liquid then enters the surrounding soil, cleanly and with no risk to children or pets. This process keeps hazardous waste materials out of our landfills and water treatment facilities. Most systems come with a plastic or metal receptacle you partially bury into your yard, and the liquid or powder digester you throw in to break down the waste. Today is systems are compact, aesthetically pleasing, and many sport foot-pedal operation of the receptacle lid, for greater convenience. The receptacles are designed to control odor, complete with a lid. Once the enzymes begin to break down the pet waste, the odor is neutralized.

You absolutely cannot put pet waste or human excrement into a backyard compost bin. It is all about safety, safety, safety. For the standard backyard compost bin or vermicomposter set-up, there is no guarantee that the pile will heat up enough from the microbial activity to destroy any harmful pathogens in the waste. Imagine a nick on your hand caused by yard work. Now imagine that hand dipping into contaminated compost—not a pretty picture. Unless your compost has been specifically designed and allocated for fecal management, steer clear and keep your composter feces free!

Composters.com does sell quality pet waste composters, and it is a valid, eco-friendly way to deal with pet waste. However, until one is well-versed in standard vermicomposting or pet waste digester systems, we recommend holding off. Pet waste digesters are designed as a low maintenance alternative to trashing your pet’s waste. If you are a seasoned compost participant looking for a change, than the pet waste composter is for you.

Sources:

http://www.composters.com (original guide)
http://www.compostguide.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting
http://www.howtocompost.org/info/info_composting.asp
http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/vermicompost107.shtml
http://vegweb.com/composting/

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