by Jan Lazor

Created on: August 01, 2011   Last Updated: August 02, 2011

Brewing manure tea may not sound appetizing to you but your plants are going to love it. The smelly brew takes between one and three days to reach it’s full potential, but once it is ready, pour it on your plants, stand back and watch them grow.

Composted manure that has been well aged and broken done into fine particles, has long been a staple fertilizer used by farmers and gardeners around the world. The decomposed material is rich in nutrients plants crave. Using manure to create a liquid fertilizer, or “manure tea” creates a high concentration of those nutrients and delivers the vitamin cocktail more directly to the root systems and foliage of your vegetables and shrubs.

If you want to brew a batch of this special tea for your lawn and garden, you will need something bigger than a teapot to steep this high potency drink for your plants. For a how-to-guide, visit www.finegardening.com for tips. If you are using bagged manure you purchased from a garden center, fill the bucket about one third full of manure and fill the rest of the bucket with water.

You will use the same proportions even if you are using composted manure you collected from a nearby farm. The water that you use to fill the bucket is very important too. If your water source contains chlorine, make sure you let the water sit before adding the manure to the mix. Chlorine is a germicide and will kill many of the beneficial nutrients and microbes you are trying to nurture in your special concoction. Aerating the water with a bubbler pump, like those used in an aquarium will also break-down the chlorine and dissipate it from the water you plan to use to brew your tea.

Next you will need to position three aquarium bubblers in the bottom of the bucket and attach them to a pump. Air will keep the organisms living in the mixture alive.

Without the aeration set-up, the tea will begin to smell. Beside the bad smell, the good bacteria you have been cultivating in the brown brew will die and the resulting mixture could harm your plants instead of giving them the nutrient jolt you planned to give them.

Ideally you should use the manure tea immediately to reap the maximum benefit from this home brewed punch. It takes about three days for the manure tea to reach its highest levels of concentrated nutrients and microorganisms. Strain the tea through a rag or cheese cloth and fill your sprayer with the mixture. If you are using the spray on the root system of your plants, aim the nozzle and begin giving your garden a refreshing drink.

Some plants can reap the best benefits from spraying this home made brew on their leaves. If this is your plan for some of your plants, add a couple of drops of liquid soap or vegetable oil to the sprayer so the liquid will adhere more readily to the leaves and foliage of your plants. Enjoy this new version of an old-fashioned tea party, and remember the best part is no clean-up required.

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