digitS'
Garden Master
I made "manure" tea only once. But, I think that it was alfalfa hay tea. There was a good size ranch with lots of cows and hay and manure nearby. Rain-spoiled hay and manure were available, I just had to show up at the right time, when people were there feeding livestock and available to ask. This was in the mid-70's.
Composting was great but my barrel of tea in the garden smelled absolutely horrible!
This year, I have it again - except that it is neither manure nor alfalfa. I'm using mint tea. A fairly terrible mint tea.
The idea came from a friend and it seemed to make sense. I understand that if you change the smell of plants, pests may be repelled. I had hoped that cramming mint in a 5-gallon bucket with water and leaving it a week would smell better than what I made long ago, and I'm sure it does, but it still stinks.
Nevertheless, I have lots of mint, and it may be working. There are aphids on the cabbage now that the leaves are curling around heads and they are impossible to spray. There aren't enough of them that the aphids seem to be seriously retarding growth. And, the plants have been growing well, right along. Surely, there is some fertilizer value to that tea.
Steve
Composting was great but my barrel of tea in the garden smelled absolutely horrible!
This year, I have it again - except that it is neither manure nor alfalfa. I'm using mint tea. A fairly terrible mint tea.
The idea came from a friend and it seemed to make sense. I understand that if you change the smell of plants, pests may be repelled. I had hoped that cramming mint in a 5-gallon bucket with water and leaving it a week would smell better than what I made long ago, and I'm sure it does, but it still stinks.
Nevertheless, I have lots of mint, and it may be working. There are aphids on the cabbage now that the leaves are curling around heads and they are impossible to spray. There aren't enough of them that the aphids seem to be seriously retarding growth. And, the plants have been growing well, right along. Surely, there is some fertilizer value to that tea.
Steve
