Miraculous Compost Tea
A few weeks ago, I found a YouTube video on how to make compost tea. Compost tea is key in organic farming… it is decomposed, nutrient-rich organic matter that is then recycled as fertilizer.
Besides being used as a fertilizer, there are many other uses for compost tea… like soil conditioner, natural pesticide, erosion control, landfill cover etc etc… Many people use compost tea in their organic farm, but it can also be used in our backyard gardens, for landscaping, horticulture and agriculture.
I asked one of my students, Li Kheng (thank you very much Li Kheng for doing this all the way), to create compost tea to fertilize the soil for our plants at Kechara Forest Retreat (KFR). She did an excellent job along with her team, the “Green Girls”… I’m very happy that they not only did what was requested, but did it very well and have the results show. I want to blog about this for everyone to know how easy and cost effective making compost tea is. It makes the plants grow greener and it also prevents plant diseases naturally. If you don’t have a green thumb, well compost tea is your answer to make everything you plant grow with whatever your thumb color!!! It is a must. Things really grow in Findhorn community because of their communion with nature devas, but compost tea is really good too!!
I would very much like this effort of using compost tea on our plants in KFR to go on permanently so that the plants will continuously be healthy. Kechara Forest Retreat or KFR will have many organic gardens and plants so we will be using compost tea to make our retreat land very lush, green and healthy.
Do watch the video below… Li Kheng gives a very good explanation on how to make compost tea.
Tsem Rinpoche
Here are some benefits of using compost tea:
- The beneficial organisms in the compost tea protects the plant surface by keeping disease-causing organisms from attaching to the plant, this will improve the growth of plants.
- Reduced use of fertilizer as the compost tea improves nutrient retention of the soil which stimulates plant growth.
- Increased nutrients are available for the root system which leads to stronger, healthier plant. This allows the plants to absorb correct amounts of whatever nutrient the plant needs.
- The reduced use of chemical based pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers benefits the ecosystem and environment of the area.
- Improves the intake of nutrients by increasing uptake by the plants. The microorganisms in the compost tea promotes prolonged absorption while decreasing evaporative loss from the leaf surface.
- The reduced water loss and improved water retention in the soil allows less frequent watering needed of the plants.
[Source: http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/recycle/tea/tea1.htm]
What is compost tea?
Compost tea has a variety of content that encourages growth and protects the plants from diseases, these include soluble nutrients, and a variety of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes. It provides a rich growing medium which is porous to absorb moisture and soluble minerals that is essential for the plants to flourish.
Compost tea can consist of several ingredients such as vegetables or fruits which is also known as compost food, however in KFR, we use only organic worm droppings as it proved to be sufficient for the growth of the plants on our land.
Compost tea recipe used in KFR to make 8 gallons (150 Liters)
| No. | Ingredient | Amount |
| 1. | Organic earth worm droppings | 4 cups* |
| 2. | Organic soil | 2 cups |
| 3. | Soil from local land | 2 cups |
| 4. | Organic Unsulfured Molasses | 12 Ounces |
| 5. | Water | Up to 8 gallons |
*1 cup – 250 ml
Method:
- Gather all the required materials.
- Place the required amount of organic nematode droppings, organic soil, soil from local land and organic unsulfured molasses into a tray. Mix the ingredients using your hands and ensure the mixture is homogeneous.
- Transfer the mixture into an opaque 8 gallon industrial drum and fill the water in the drum to make 8 gallons.
- Aerate the mixture using a double oxygen pump. Make sure the tube is long enough to reach the bottom of the drum and there is sufficient weights tied to the tube so that it does not float to the surface. Then turn the pump onto high speed. Aeration must be done for 24 hours before the compost tea can be used.
- After 24 hours, pour the compost into a waterfall can and start watering your plants with compost! Only pour a little compost on each plant. Do not water the plants after applying the compost of pouring the compost before it rains, this is to avoid the compost from being washed away before it can be absorbed by the plant.
- If at the end of the day, the compost you made is not finish; continue to aerate the compost in the drum by turning the oxygen pump at low speed. Try to finish the compost within 48 hours from the time it was made.
- Pour compost on your plant only once a week, or every 4 days if necessary.
Watch a short video on how to make compost tea:
Photos of KFR plants blossoming:
Carnations blossoming.
Hibiscus blossoming in full.
New flower buds growing after compost was poured.
New flower buds blossoming.
New leaves growing after just 2 weeks pouring compost tea.
The plants look much healthier and greener.
Our chili plant bare fruits.
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Thanks for sharing, Great post!. I was looking for a organic soil locally for a small pitch which I working on lately. I’m very fortunate to come across this article and found this will benefit me in near future.
Now, with a simple understanding of the information shared, I’m ready to make my own homemade fertilizers with affordable cost for my garden. I found this compost tea is a well-balanced and nutrient-rich fertilizer that can help to make by brewing compost in water. It’s good to know this fertilizer can be used on flowering plants, vegetables, houseplants, and all sorts of crops to increase growth, blooms, and yields.
Thanks for the Green Girls team for introducing the best, cheapest and the easiest method of preparing compost tea for all of us.
https://bit.ly/2MwBdGb
Compost tea is a great way to love your plants naturally and is fertilizer for our flowers, vegetables and houseplants. Infact first time I know of this…..sound organic. Wow that’s wonderful as compost tea helps suppress foliar diseases, increases the amount of nutrients available to the plant, and speeds the breakdown of toxins.
Li Kheng did a good job to create compost tea to fertilize the soil for those plants at Kechara Forest Retreat (KFR).
Thank you Rinpoche and Li Kheng for sharing this wonderful knowledge. It would be great if our farmer used these method in producing vegetables for the market.
That is a very unique way to create the compost tea. Thank you for sharing. The plants came out wonderfully. Thank you Rinpoche for this beneficial article. And Thank you Li Kheng and the ‘Green Girls’ for this miraculous concoction.
The wonder of compost tea is it’s all natural, organic, anyone can make them at home, inexpensive and it works! I’m surprised it’s not more popular. This should be THE thing every gardener should have.
The amazing thing is that it takes a monk to steer us into this direction. The truth is Rinpoche has been the one behind most of the ideas and projects by Kechara. All this stem from deep compassion and care to make Kechara succeed ad grow in every aspects so that dharma can spread. Rinpoche doesn’t put any boundary to who, what, where, why and when he cares. The vast scope is reflected in Rinpoche’s blog.
Hello friends,
We are a small community garden in the south of France, also planning to make compost tea, and I would like to know the name of the air pump you are using, thanks for sending me the link.
Love,
Nadia
wow it’s amazing how compose tea can help the plants.it made good result in two weeks.now all those plants have good and healthy flowers.its a good thing Li King learned how to make compose tea.
With the use of compost tea for the plants, Kechara Forest Retreat is turning into a garden of beautiful flowers and lush leaves, and thanks to the tender loving care of the Green Girls.
what a great post for anyone who has plants! I’ve always preferred organic foods/fertilizers and this simple recipe is proven to work! Thank you Rinpoche, Li Kheng and the Green Girls for testing out the compost tea and giving all of us the recipe so that we can also do our bit for organic fertilizers at home. If we stop using chemical fertilizers, it will be better for the environment and for our food as well, which benefits us in the end. All it takes is a bit of work but the results are worthwhile.
[…] asked one of my students, Li Kheng (thank you very much Li Kheng for doing this all the way), … […]
That is a very unique way to create the compost tea. Thank you for sharing. The plants came out wonderfully.
Please keep up the great work!
I hope you don’t mind if I share your post on some of my blogs 😀
I’m amazed how effective the compost tea are to the plants in KFR!
Li Kheng and the rest of the Green Girls really did a great job! From the video, I can really tell that Li Kheng really did a complete research for the compost tea as she knows everything at her finger tips. From the outcome of her work, she truly showed me how much she wants KFR to be a therapeutic place for people to visit in the future… and I’m truly inspired by this attitude.
Thank you for the wonderful post, Rinpoche. We all want KFR to manifest and with more people like Li Kheng and the green girls, doing their tasks perfectly and quick, it will be ready in no time!
Li Kheng and the Green Girls did a great job with the compost tea!
People who read this blog post might think that these girls are experienced with gardening, but people like Li Kheng is the owner of 32 Coffee Bean outlet in Shanghai. She has never done gardening in her life, nor had the desire to do so.
However, here she is in Malaysia at Kechara Forest Retreat touching worm poop to make compost tea! She truly is amazing (and have the merits) to know what’s good for her life. To do whatever it takes, even the “smaller” work, to make Kechara Forest Retreat the place where everyone and anyone can enjoy.
The Green Girl’s effort really bore great and visible results. The flowers look amazing, and I can’t wait to see when the organic garden starts growing lots of delicious vegetables haha. I’m really happy for all of them. Congratulations! 🙂
Compost tea, is said to offer many benefits to gardens and crops, but must be made with care to ensure its national value as a fertiliser. Compost tea is, as described by National Geographic, a liquid made by steeping a product bag of decomposed and recycled organic matter known as compost, in water. The compost infuses the water with nutrients and beneficial micro-organisms for 24 hours to 14 days as stated, and eventually be sprayed on to the foliage and ground around the plants to enrich the soil and to feed the roots of the crops and flowery plants. It would be a wonderful idea to have a organic garden and plants to instil a greenish lushy and healthy look at KFR.
It is indeed amazing on how compost tea can create wonders, for the past few weeks when Li Kheng was trying out on making the compost, she has been like a plant doctor that collect those ill plant and try to put on the compost.
Li Kheng is not a plant expert, in fact, I don’t think she know much about plant (sorry Li Kheng if I’m wrong), but she does put in the effort to learn, to consult the plant specialist, and now the compost is a total success that she can even share with others. Li Kheng’s action shows nothing is impossible.
making compost tea seems to sound difficult, but when go through the instruction, it is not so, it is quite easy to make, everyone who has a little garden at home can use this for their home plant.
Thank you Li Kheng for this finding and the sharing. I’m sure many people will be benefited from this too.. hehe 🙂
Such an amazing fertilizer for the plants. One can’t wait but feel like going out to do some planting. Li Kheng is spoke very well in front of the camera. Hehe. She demonstrated the steps very clearly. One can’t go wrong following the steps.
Well done Li Kheng! It sure is satisfying to see the result of the beautiful plants growing. The colors sure are vibrant. 🙂
喜欢大自然。这是我们需要的，自然健康。在种植的过程，我们也会体会到：只要我们用心 + 耐心， 成果是通常是超乎我们的想象。
这就是为什么我们致力推广克切拉禅修林，这不但只是一个林中的歇息之地，同时也是让我们找到自己内心安定的地方。
It is exciting to see the plants blooming with flowers in KFR. KFR is going to be our Malaysian Findhorn very soon. Its great idea to use compost tea to fertilize the plants. Li Kheng gives a very clear explanation on how to prepare them. Keep up the great work Li Kheng and “Green Girls”!
I had the chance to water the plant with the compost tea few days ago in KFR. As what Li Kheng said, it is quite a pleasant surprise that the compost tea actually smell sweet and doesn’t have the bad smell I hate with the decomposed waste 🙂
She also showed me plants which are treated with and without compost tea, and even as an outsider, I can see that the colour of the flowers of the plants treated with compost tea are much brighter and vibrant!
I asked Li Kheng how compost tea is made and she kindly explained it to me, and now she has a video on this! Thank you for taking the time to film this and let everyone to know about how easy we can do compost tea for our own garden, and the best part is it doesn’t smell bad 🙂
Share with your friends about this miraculous compost tea!!
Julia and I was there when the above video was being recorded. Li Kheng is a natural! Not only smart and pretty but the compost tea she does work wonders! The plants that were nearly dying was saved by the compost tea. The Green Girls are really hardworking and they are smart too. All of them have no knowledge about gardening but they went ahead and do the best they can!
Not only is the compost tea good for the plants, it is also good for the environment as compared to pesticide and herbicide which are harmful. Looking at the pictures of all the lovely flowers, I must say that this compost tea works well for the plants.
Thank you, Rinpoche, for sharing this information and kudos to Li Kheng and the “green girls” for taking good care of the plants.
Yeah Compost Tea!!
I have a done this, not this exact recipe but it is great! My plants blew up what seemed like overnight. I love keeping a compost bin and feeding the worms. I refer to them as my “pets” in public, but my “mothers” when I feed them. I apologize for any pain I cause when rotating the compost and recite Chenrezig’s short mantra. That works well for me – reminding me how precious this human life is and to be kind to all.
I remember using something similar to compost tea in my house. It is a multipurpose compost-based enzyme. The enzyme can be used for cleaning, cooking or as fertilizer. This post was extremely informational. I would love to try it out on the plants in my house. It is better for the environment too because it does not have bad chemicals.
I want to try this! Thanks for the information and demonstration.
Thanks for sharing!
Wow,compost tea can be such a wonderful fertilizer for the plants! When we put in efforts in whatever we plant may it be vegetables or fruits,or others the most rewarding and fulfilling is the harvesting time when you can enjoy the fruits of your labour. Thank you Li Kheng for sharing and the ‘green ladies’for helping in planting.
It is truly almost like a miracle fertilizer… just a few little drop is all they needed and poof! U can say it is like plant steroids but the natural way!
The Green work is really a humbling experience for us, basically Rinpoche put us girls together to do this… and the funny thing is none of us are “green”. The only green stuff I ever did was probably shopping for veggies and eating a bowl of salad. So yeah it has been very challenging but when we actually see the dying plants grow, it is really rewarding… and yes a miracle for us that have zero knowledge.
Now every time I’m driving or wherever I go, I can’t help but to notice the trees, plants, shrubs and have learnt to appreciate them. Most gardeners say that if you talk to the plants they actually grow better… now I understand what they mean… actually plants are alive and they do react to their surroundings. So whatever energy you put in, it tends to have an effect on them.
Every day we are learning something new about them, just by observing their soil, leaves and how they grow, the insects that come etc. It is a very beautiful yet spiritual experience when we realise how everything is so connected and we’re all interdependent.
Thank you Rinpoche for allowing us to reconnect within and without and appreciate mother nature, her beauty. We look at her at a different perspective now. Can’t wait to harvest our first organic vegetable!
I am not very much a gardener but I really love this video. I must say that Li Kheng along with the Green Girls (Joy and Julia) did a good job with the compost tea thingy. I love the video and I find her explanations to be clear, concise and informative. I think that it would be of much help with the organic farming that we have planned there and it would also work for all those wannabe gardeners at our own little patch at home. Kudos to Li Kheng and the Green Girls.
This is informative and good idea to take care the organic plants.Thank you for our green girl Li Kheng share this information and i am learning how to make compact tea for the plant.We will look forward all the plant and veggies at healthy and grow well at KFR.
An inspiration to try for my clumsy non green hands. This compost would certainly have less issues w flies and smell. Good for garden at home. CNY round the corner, time to get all the new plants and flowers to bloom. The carnations are beautiful. Great job Li Kheng and the green ladies. Thank you for sharing.
It is amazing how with a bit of curiosity, an open mind, a willingness to do, and application of effort can yield such tremendous and surprising results. A few minutes ago, I wouldn’t even have thought about what makes my plants grow better and now I am quite excited to go and try it especially having witnessed the outcome of something that requires really very little effort. This post is not only interesting but doubles as a mind-opener that encourages us to make our mind be available to explore beyond our usual lazy comfortable and tiny paradigm.
KFR is shaping up to be a real life exercise and experience of possibilities and what can be achieved if only we applied ourselves and trust good advice which may initially be beyond our grasp. The life lessons on KFR started long before the first seed was even planted.
I can see now a series of videos on Organic Gardening produced by KFR and similar tutorials on a lot of other subjects.
Li Kheng is another natural in front of the camera and such good work is being done by the Green Girls (and some guys). It is wonderful to see things grow by one’s own hand. Such a great pleasure in these simple things.
Compost tea seems like a miraculous drug for the plants. And the compost tea was very potent in healing plants and so forth. Thank you Li Kheng and the ‘Green Girls’ for this miraculous concoction.
Compost tea looks so much like a magic for me. This is really exhilarating for me as I do not have green thumb but yet I love to have flowers and nature near me. Having too much commercially made fertilizers are bad for both the environment and the beings living in it.
It just takes some efforts to make compost tea. And both the process and the results can be so satisfying.
Thank you Rinpoche, Li Kheng and the ‘Green Girls’ for doing this and sharing this knowledge on the blog.
Awesome ,we can plant more organic vegetables and flowers at KFR . The plants look much healthier and greener by using “compost tea ” .
Thanks for Rinpoche sharing and i will sharing with my friends too.
Great idea to help not only the plants but the environment as well1 Will definitely print this instructions out for my mommy who likes to plant greens! We can read about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING here at Rinpoche’s blog. =)
Thank you for sharing, Rinpoche!