These cool weather crops can be direct sown – or started indoors and transplanted out – after the first frost date for better results.
Short Season Tender Annuals
Other vegetables that do well with direct sowing are tender annuals that can fully mature during a short summer season – within 110 days or less.
These plants are not cold hardy, so they should be sown after all risk of frost has passed, and they will generally have plenty of time to reach maturity.
Short season tender annuals include most varieties of:
However, some varieties of cucumbers, melons, and squash are slower to mature. I’ll address those in just a bit.
Seedlings that Don’t Transplant Well
There are some veggies – both cool season and warm season crops – that should be direct sown because their seedlings aren’t typically very successful when transplanted.
Some have sensitive root systems, which are easily disturbed during transplanting – such as carrots and spinach, two cool season plants.
Others, like radicchio, tend to bolt when transplanted, so direct sowing remains the best planting method.
Here’s a list of veggies that are poor candidates for transplanting, and should always be direct sown:
And then there is another group of veggies that only do moderately well with transplanting, so direct sowing is recommended where possible:
If you do need to transplant, you’ll have greater success if you use biodegradable pots for starting your seeds.
However, transplanting in biodegradable pots will only work if you live in a climate where the biodegradable pot will actually break down.
For those of us who are gardening in dry climates, the biodegradable pot won’t stay wet enough to break down properly, and this could eventually stunt the roots of the transplant.
An alternative that works even in dry climates is to grow these delicate-rooted veggies in compressed soil blocks.
According to Master Gardener Sandy Patry, in a 1993 edition of “Cognition: The Voice of Canadian Organic Growers,” published by McGill University’s Ecological Agriculture Projects, these blocks increase survival rates of seedlings dramatically by reducing damage to seedling roots during transplanting.
You can make your own blocks of compressed soil with the Ladbrooke soil blocker, available via Amazon.
Crops to Start Indoors
Unlike the freewheelers mentioned above, some types of vegetables perform better when started indoors.
And beyond the preferences of your seeds as to how they get their start, there are times when you may want to give your preferences priority, and start some of the above indoors anyway.
Long Season Tender Annuals
Generally, the vegetables that are sown indoors are the ones that are tender, require warmer germination conditions, and need additional time to reach maturity – long season tender annuals.
These seeds are started indoors, either in a warm and sunny southern facing window, under grow lights, or in a heated greenhouse, usually six to 10 weeks before the first frost.
Then they are transplanted out to the garden after all risk of frost has passed.
Depending on the variety, different plants can require varying amounts of time to grow from seed to maturity.
Some tomatoes can take 140 days to reach maturity, and some pepper varieties need 175 days.
Plus, many plants will produce harvestable crops over an extended period – so we don’t want to choose cultivars that won’t reach maturity until the day before our first frost.
Tweezers are used to pick up the tiniest of seeds with ease. Sanitize them with an alcohol swab, rinse, and dry before use.
Water
Germination begins when a seed becomes moist, and must stay moist throughout its growth process.
You can mist the soil with a spray bottle, or you can make a mat watering system.
How to Make a Mat Watering System
A mat watering system is one of the best ways to ensure that your plants never go dry. Here’s how to make one:
Line an old one- or two-inch tall baking pan with newspaper that has been cut to fit. Use enough sheets to fill the pan to the top.
Dampen the newspaper with water to the point of saturation.
Place your planted egg cartons on top of the wet newspaper. They will absorb water as needed.
Remember to mist or saturate the newspaper daily.
Congrats! You’re really doing this. You’ve got your supplies, and you know how to make a mat watering system.
That’s two thumbs up! Now let’s get into the seed packets.
Prepare Your Seeds
Seeds come in a range of shapes and sizes.
Some, like lobelia, are so small and light, you don’t dare sneeze while you’re trying to separate them under a magnifying glass.
Others are many times larger, like those of the lima bean.
Many are ready to sow right out of the packet.
As we noted above, others need to be chilled, soaked, or scarified before planting to replicate what would have happened to them in nature, had they not been harvested for sale.
When a plant scatters seeds, they tumble about in all kinds of weather, roughing up their outer coatings, and preparing to take in air, water, and nutrients when they sprout in the spring.
Gardeners must do what Mother Nature would have done, to enable the seeds to open and grow.
Be sure to read packets thoroughly, and don’t skip chilling, soaking, or scarifying, if required.
And now it’s time to sow!
How to Start Seeds Indoors
With all of your supplies assembled, you’re ready to go.
Here’s what to do:
1. Drainage
Poke several drainage holes in the bottom of each cell of your egg cartons.
2. Fill Cells
Fill each cell three-quarters full of potting medium.
Place a toothpick in the center of each cell.
3. Prepare Mat System
If you are making a mat watering system, stack sheets of newspaper in your baking pans and thoroughly dampen the newspaper.
Place your egg cartons on top. One baking sheet may be able to hold multiple egg cartons.
If you have purchased a capillary mat product, prepare it per manufacturer’s directions.
If you’re going to skip the mat system and use a water bottle mister, simply place your egg cartons on top of baking pans that will serve as drip pans.
4. Sow Seeds
Sow one variety per baking pan so watering requirements will be the same for all. Use your tape and marker to label each tray’s contents.
Sow as follows:
For tiny seeds, mist the soil lightly. Use a magnifying glass, and tweezers if necessary, to place two or three in each cell. Do not cover with soil.
For seeds large enough to measure with a standard ruler, plant at a depth equal to the size of the seed, and cover lightly with soil.
Planting too deeply may deprive them of oxygen, and they will not germinate.
5. Make a Greenhouse
Start by cutting a piece of plastic wrap the length of each baking pan. Cut two to cover wide baking pans, and overlap them.
Use a pin to poke about 10 tiny holes in the plastic at random.
Lay the plastic wrap gently on top of the toothpicks to form a greenhouse. Tuck the ends and sides of the plastic firmly underneath each baking pan, taping as needed.
Place it in a bright location out of direct sunlight.
6. Record and Observe
Save your seed packets and start a gardening journal. Note the planting date, and approximately how many days until maturity per package instructions.
As plants grow, write down when they bud, bloom, and bear fruit.
7. Monitor Moisture
If you are using the mat watering system, keep the newspaper saturated.
If you’re using a spray bottle to mist, make sure to keep the soil moist by misting it regularly.
8. Acclimate Sprouts
After they germinate, or sprout, lift the edges of the plastic wrap – but do not remove it for two days.
Allow time for acclimation to the cooler air outside the mini-greenhouse.
9. Move into the Sun
After two days, remove the plastic wrap completely.
Place the baking pans in direct sunlight, away from drafty places like exit doors.
10. Rearrange and Fertilize
Turn the baking pans periodically to prevent sprouts from leaning toward the light.
After germination, cotyledons or seed leaves will soon appear. Above these, the first true leaves will follow.
If your potting medium does not already contain fertilizer, now is the time to apply a liquid plant food like Miracle-Gro Quick Start, available via Amazon, per manufacturer’s instructions.
Thinning
It’s best to sow more seeds than you really want because it’s rare that all of them will thrive.
A few may simply fail to germinate, never sprouting at all.
Winter mulching of annual crops is primarily done to keep the ground warm and prevent it from freezing for as long as possible, thus prolonging the harvest season for as long as possible.
Depending on your climate, crops, and thickness of mulch, sometimes this process can even allow crops to be harvested through the winter.
Mulch annual crops in the fall before the ground freezes.
Crops such as carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, kohlrabi, and kale can often last well into the winter with extra layers of insulation to keep soil from freezing.
To prepare annual crops for an extended harvest, cover plants with a one- to two-foot thick layer of straw, leaves, or other organic material before the ground freezes.
Topping the whole thing off with a row cover, old bed sheet, or garden blanket will help hold it all in place, preventing material from blowing away during winter storms.
You can secure the cover with rocks, logs, or garden staples. Also remember to mark your beds with tall stakes, since you may have trouble finding them again under feet of snow!
Tip: Crops like kale and collard greens can be protected by surrounding plants with stakes wrapped in burlap and stuffing the space between with leaves or straw for insulation.
Some crops, such as garlic and certain varieties of onions are planted in the fall for a spring or summer harvest.
Cover these beds with a thick layer of leaves or straw to protect bulbs through the winter.
In spring, move leaves to the side to allow foliage to poke through and reach the sunlight more quickly.
We take a deep dive into using leaves as compost and mulch in this guide.
Fallow Beds
Unplanted fallow beds can be covered over with organic material anytime during the fall.
This will protect bare soil, helping the soil to retain moisture, reduce erosion, and build up nutrients.
So when you go to plant again in spring, the soil will be nutrient rich, healthy, and moist!
Lasagna mulching is a great technique for protecting fallow beds where you are planning to grow nutrient loving annual crops in the spring, or for anywhere you want to improve the soil.
To build a lasagna bed, simply stack four or more layers of organic materials.
Each layer should be a few inches thick. Try to alternate layers of greens and browns material just like you would in a compost bin:
Seeing a crop through to harvest can pose a challenge when frost is in the forecast.
When water vapor condenses and freezes instead of forming dew, we see ice crystals on outdoor surfaces.
This is called hoar, light, or white frost. It forms when the air is moist and the ground temperature drops to 32°F or lower.
And because the ground temperature can be cooler than the air temperature, it may form on the soil even when the thermometer reads above freezing.
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Damage occurs when ice crystals form inside the tissue of vulnerable plants, causing it to split open and leaching away essential nutrients.
Conversely, when both the air and ground temperatures fall below freezing and the air is dry, freezing without visible frost takes place. This is called hard or black frost, or a freeze.
A freeze dries out plant tissue – in effect, burning it.
In this article you will learn about vegetable hardiness, what to do when a freeze is predicted, and how to evaluate damage.
Understanding Hardiness
Vegetables vary, ranging from able to withstand a freeze to being unable to tolerate even a light frost.
Degrees of hardiness in plants are described as:
Let’s take a closer look at each category:
Hardy
When a vegetable species is referred to as “hardy,” according to James Myers, plant breeder and researcher at Oregon State University this means it can withstand air temperatures below 28°F.
Hardy crops thrive in cool weather with three to six hours of sun per day.
Planting time is in early spring or late summer. They react adversely to heat, often bolting – or going to seed – if the temperature spikes.
Examples of hardy vegetables include:
They can overwinter in all but the most extreme weather conditions.
Half-Hardy
Some vegetables are classified as “half-hardy.” They can tolerate one or several light frosts and temperatures in the range of 28 to 32°F.
Half-hardy crops also do best in cool weather, however, they need a minimum of six hours of sun each day, also known as “full sun.”
Planting time is in late spring, just before the last frost date, or during the summer, with enough time allowed for maturity in early fall.
Examples of half-hardy vegetables are:
Like hardy plants, half-hardy species may bolt during a heatwave.
Tender
Then there are the more fragile crops we refer to as “tender.”
They require temperatures above 32°F and may tolerate a very light frost.
Tender vegetables need eight hours of sun per day to flourish, and cannot be planted outside until the last average frost date in spring has passed.
Examples of tender crops are:
Summer planting must take place early enough to allow for maturity before the first average frost date in fall.
Very Tender
Finally, there are “very tender” vegetables that require eight to 12 hours of sunlight per day.
They can’t tolerate any degree of ice crystal formation, and must be planted after all risk of frost has passed.
Examples of very tender vegetables include:
A second summer crop must mature before the first average fall frost date.
Preparing for a Frost Event
As the first frost date approaches, continue watering, taking care to aim your hose at the soil level near the roots, and not over the foliage.
Watering plants during the day before a freeze is predicted is beneficial.
It allows your crops to absorb moisture, enabling them to retain daytime warmth and generate heat through the evaporative process of transpiration.
Harvest mature crops, as well as those that continue to ripen after picking, like peppers and tomatoes.
When seeds are soaked in the bacterial inoculant, it kick-starts the fixing process, and helps plants to synthesize nitrogen into usable chemicals that fuel plants.
Nitrogen fixing makes legumes a good choice for improving nutrition in poor soils. They fit well into rotationsafter a light-feeding plant, and before heavy-feeding ones.
Legumes are both winter hardy and winter-killed. They create ample foliage that provides a green manure or mulch, resist erosion, condition soil, and suppress weed growth.
Our top legume picks for cover cropping are up next.
11. Alfalfa
A prominent cover and rotation crop, alfalfa (Medicago sativa) has surface roots as well as a deep, long taproot that greatly improves water infiltration and permeability, and reduces soil compaction.
Alfalfa is a premier nitrogen fixer, and it also balances soil nutrients as it cycles other important minerals such as magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium.
An herbaceous perennial, it produces a healthy biomass that dies back in the cold winter, providing mulch for the dormant roots and good erosion control.
A robust cool-season grower, crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum) is another herbaceous perennial with winter-killed foliage and new growth in spring.
Plants produce an abundant biomass that mulches roots over the winter, and provides excellent erosion control and weed suppression.
Clover fixes large amounts of nitrogen, and its long taproots are effective at breaking up hardpan and thick clay soils.
Fava beans (Vicia faba) are hardy annuals that grow in cool and warm seasons. They develop a lavish biomass that can easily be tilled or cut and composted.
Popularly used as a nitrogen fixer, the stout, upright plants work well with vining species such as field peas and hairy vetch for excellent weed suppression and erosion control.
Fast-growing field peas (Pisum sativum) produce a considerable biomass that makes them suitable for spring or fall use.
When sown with rye or oats for support and structure, paired plantings provide good weed control and a thick winter-killed defense for effective erosion control.
Did I save the best for last? Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) is at the top of the list of nitrogen fixers, right next to alfalfa. It makes a popular selection for crop rotation in both conventional and organic farming, and in home gardens too.
Winter hardy, vetches are slow-growing plants. But once established, they form a lush canopy of foliage that improves water infiltration and retention, crowds out weeds, and provides excellent erosion control.
The tilled green manure residue helps condition the soil into a finer, healthier texture with improved aggregates.
Avoid planting other legumes right after vetch, as this can increase the chance of root rot, nematode infestation, and white mold in those plants, according to Thomas Bjorkman, Professor at the School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University.
Providing multiple benefits, the brassicas, grains and grasses, and legumes we use as cover crops improve the soil in every season.
Use them for green manure before growing heavy feeders, as winter erosion control to protect your topsoil, as a general tonic to improve moisture levels and soil structure, and to suppress pests and weeds.
Most are fast-growing and all are easy to cultivate – and you’ll love how quickly your garden responds to their use!
Do you have any questions about the cover crops mentioned here? Drop us a line in the comments below.
A top choice to replenish nitrogen and improve soil structure, the thick, winter-killed foliage is also effective at weed suppression. Austrian field peas are hardy in Zone 6 and above.
Fast-growing buckwheat, Fagopyrum esculentum, establishes a large, dense biomass that provides a dense blanket of mulch.
Highly effective for erosion control, weed suppression, and soil conditioning, the winter-killed residue decomposes quickly, releasing nutrients back into the soil.
A winter-hardy plant in Zones 6 and above, crimson clover, Trifolium incarnatum, spreads fast and thick, providing a dense biomass blanket.
A good choice for erosion control, nitrogen fixing, soil conditioning, and weed suppression, clover’s foliage and roots break down quickly after tilling. Turn it under before flowering starts in spring.
This crop can be sown in late summer to mid-autumn in Zones 3 to 7, and from fall to midwinter in Zones 8 and above. Plants should be dug in before flowering occurs.
Erosion control, green manure, nitrogen fixing, and weed control – whatever the reason, cold weather cover crops are an easy and economical way to improve the condition of your soil!
Remember that winter-killed plants form a thick, protective mulch on top of the soil while winter-hardy plants regrow in spring to provide green manure.
If any of you folks use cold weather cover crops, tell us about your favorites in the comments section below.
Most gardeners know that a good heaping handful of well-rotted compost is an excellent soil conditioner and fertilizer.
It’s all natural so adding it to your garden won’t harm waterways or soil microbes, and it contains all the nutrition plants need to thrive.
You may have even heard of compost tea, which harnesses the awesomeness of compost and takes it up a notch.
But it always surprises me that most gardeners I know have never tried making their own.
That’s a shame because it’s very easy to brew and provides a boost to your crops and ornamentals without the use of chemicals. Once you make a batch, I think you’ll be converted.
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Humans have been making compost tea since the early Egyptian, Greek, and Roman times. The primitive bucket methods used then are the ones many of us still employ today.
Of course, there are also a number of modern adaptations to help us make our compost tea even better and easier to brew.
A good mixture contains all the nutrients you’ll find in a chemical fertilizer, plus more, with none of the bad stuff.
Compost tea contains the “big three” macronutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, along with micronutrients such as copper, zinc, iron, manganese, humic acids, salicylic acid, and beneficial metals.
There are also beneficial protists, fungi, yeast, and bacteria that not only benefit your plants but help to improve the soil as well.
The first time I tried using compost tea in my garden was when I bought some from a brewer at my local farmer’s market. This was back in the 90’s and compost tea was firmly in the category of “crunchy granola” gardening. I started using it and noticed an improvement in all of my plants.
Anecdotally, I conducted an experiment by using it on half of my tomatoes and used my good old reliable store-bought fertilizer on the other half.
You’d better believe after that little experiment, I started figuring out how to brew my own as the results were clear – my tomatoes grew much better with compost tea!
If you want to do the same, this guide will help you make it happen. To do that, we’re going to talk about the following topics:
What Is Compost Tea?
The easiest way to think of compost tea is to imagine a cup of tea, but instead of steeping tea leaves in the water, you’re going to steep compost.
You can always just nab some compost out of your bin, but serious growers create specific recipes that prove to be beneficial to plant growth and soil health. You can also use vermicompost from your worm farm.
There are many different kinds, but non-aerated (NCT) and aerated (ACT) are the two most common. You’ll also find anaerobic and fermented types, though these are different enough from the first two that gardeners sometimes consider them separate products.
Aerated compost tea contains the right oxygen content to allow all the beneficial microbes that were originally in the compost to continue to thrive.
These beneficial species have a positive impact on your garden, suppressing bad pathogens and supporting good microbes.
A good aerated tea contains beneficial nematodes, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa that will benefit your plants and garden.
Non-aerated tea is extracted without providing aeration, resulting in fewer active microorganisms.
Anaerobic tea has little oxygen, dramatically altering the composition of the microbes.
Fermented tea often includes whole, undecomposed materials from the compost pile, like weeds or other plant matter that break down during the fermentation process.
Typically, the oxygen levels are low in this type of tea.
Both anaerobic and fermented tea are significantly different from ACT and NCT, and we won’t discuss them much further here. We’ll focus on how to make your own ACT and NCT.
Don’t confuse compost tea with manure tea, compost extract, or bacterial soup. These all have their uses in the garden but aren’t the same.
Why Use Compost Tea?
The most obvious reason to make and use compost tea is because it’s incredibly nutritious for your plants. It’s a low-cost, effective way to feed your vegetable crops and ornamentals.
It’s also much better for the environment than conventional fertilizers, both in its production and once added to the soil.
Plus, it can even protect your plants from some of the pathogens out there that wreak havoc on your garden.
One study by Ana Isabel Gonzalez-Hernandez et al at the University of Salamanca in Spain, which was published in the journal Agronomy, in 2021, found that compost tea could protect pepper plants from the pathogens Phytophthora capsici and Rhizoctonia solani.
Can your conventional fertilizer do that? No. The answer is no.
Compost tea has also been used to control powdery mildew, downy mildew, gray mold, septoria, and damping off in tomatoes. In potatoes, it has proven to suppress Alternaria and Fusarium.
Inorganic, chemical fertilizers are made from salts, which are harmful to soilborne organisms because they leave salt and ammonia residue, resulting in fertilizer burn.
Compost tea also contains organic nitrogen, which is much more readily absorbed from the soil than the nitrate form of nitrogen that conventional fertilizers add.
Both can be used to feed your plants, you just need less if it’s in a form that the plant can use more readily.
How to Prepare
First and foremost, the old adage “quality in quality out” applies here. If your compost is poor quality, your tea will be poor quality.
It’s vital to avoid adding contaminants that contain pathogens or pests. Your goal is to create a positive environment for all kinds of creatures to flourish.
We want to nurture the beneficial microbes, but if bad ones are present, they will also be able to reproduce.
For example, if you have root-knot nematodes in your garden, and you pull the infected plants and put them in your compost, you run the risk that the pests will proliferate, infecting more plants when you apply the compost.
You also need to avoid anything that might contain human or animal pathogens. You don’t want to be saturating your soil with E. coli or salmonella. Never add contaminated materials to the pile, and keep it covered to prevent bird or rodent feces from getting in.
Before making your tea, the compost should be well-rotted and thoroughly mature.
Compost that isn’t sufficiently well-rotted can harbor pathogens and may lack many of the good microbes that you want to add to your garden, like beneficial fungi, bacteria, and protozoa.
Your compost should have reached temperatures of between 90 and 110°F to kill off most of the destructive pathogens.
The other component to your brew is good-quality water. Rainwater is ideal, but you can also use municipal water, so long as you remove any chlorine.
If you need to get rid of chlorine, stir or blend the water vigorously for 30 minutes. Or, you can use a bubbler, letting it run in the water for about six hours.
You can also boil the water for 30 minutes or filter it through charcoal carbon filters. Finally, you can simply leave the water in an uncovered container for 24 hours to allow the chlorine to evaporate.
Aerated
As mentioned, just as the quality of the compost you use is important, so is the quality of your water.
Chlorine, heavy metals, or contaminants will ruin your tea. If you’re not using rainwater, make sure you filter or aerate your water to remove chemicals before use.
To make a basic tea in a bucket, fill your bucket halfway with water. A five-gallon bucket works well, but feel free to use whatever you have on hand.
Add compost until there is just an inch or two of space left at the top. Stir everything together until well combined.
You can also use a giant tea bag to hold the compost. This makes the process easier since you won’t have to filter out the solids when it’s ready to use.
If you are using a bubbler, it’s a good idea to add molasses to feed the growing organisms.
The bubbling generates lots of microbial growth, and the organisms in the tea might run out of food. Use one tablespoon of molasses in a five-gallon bucket.
Tea made using a bubbler should be ready to use in about three or four days. The stirring method takes longer, up to two weeks.
If, at any point, the tea starts to smell foul, the oxygen has likely been depleted and the materials are rotting. Check your mixture daily for rotten egg, vinegary, sour, or otherwise “off” odors. If this occurs, toss it and start over.
Foam, on the other hand, is a good thing. It means proteins, amino acids, and carbohydrates are being produced. Tea made from vermicompost tends to be particularly foamy thanks to the leftover worms in the mix.
If you want to be a bit more dedicated to the whole process, it’s worth investing in a kit.
TeaLAB has a five-gallon kit that includes the bucket, aerator, pump, hoses, fittings, a bag to hold the solids, chlorine test strips to check your water before using, and several recipe ingredients like humic acid, insect frass, and kelp extract.
If you’re using a machine, follow the manufacturer’s directions in terms of mixing and timeline. Most machines take between 24 hours and three days to create a usable product.
Once the tea is done brewing, you need to filter out the solids, as discussed below.
Non-Aerated
Non-aerated tea doesn’t have the same variety of living microorganisms as aerated, but it can still provide a lot of nutrients and some degree of disease control.
Why would you want to use NCT if ACT is better? Good question!
The answer is that NCT is much easier to make. You simply fill a bucket halfway with clean water and then add compost within an inch or two of the top.
Skip the stirring or bubbler and just let it sit. It will take longer to steep and won’t be ready for about two weeks, but you can literally set it and forget it, just checking on it periodically.
Just keep it in a cool area out of direct sunlight until you’re ready to filter all the solids out.
You do need to be extra diligent about sniffing the mixture and watching for the development of molds on the top with non-aerated mixtures.
Don’t wait much longer than two weeks because, at that point, bad pathogens might start to outcompete the good ones.
Filtering
Once you’ve brewed your tea you’ll need to filter out any solids before applying the liquid to your garden.
The trick is to find some mesh that isn’t so large so that everything passes through but isn’t too small so that beneficial components can’t get through.
Something with a 400 mesh is about right. You can find strainers, filter cloth, or food-grade mesh that will do the job.
I personally find a filter with a handle to be the most useful. You can have a friend hold the sieve while you pour the mix.
Amazon carries a 400 mesh sieve filter with a handle if that sounds right for your needs.
If you use a cloth to filter, attach the cloth to the bucket containing the tea using rubber bands or bungee cords.
It’s much less messy to attach the cloth to the pouring bucket than to the top of the bucket you’re pouring into. Or, you can do the work in a spot where a little spillage will benefit the garden.
Be sure that the container you’re filtering the compost tea into is clean. You don’t want to contaminate your pristine liquid after all that hard work.
Let the mixture settle for an hour or so after stirring or turning off the bubbler.
Of course, if you used a bag to contain the compost, all you need to do is lift it out. Give it a good squeeze to get the last of the liquid out.
You can put the discarded solids back into your compost or use as a mulch for your plants.
Application
You can apply the finished product either to the soil or directly onto the foliage of the plants.
For foliar applications, it can be applied at full strength or diluted in water.
If your municipal water is chlorinated, use rainwater or remove the chlorine from your water as discussed above.
The ideal ratio is about one part tea to four parts water, but feel free to play around.
If you are applying it as a foliar spray you want to cover about 75 percent of the leaf surface on both sides.
A general rule of thumb is to use about five gallons for each acre of plants. Don’t apply during the hottest part of the day or when it is raining, though a light mist is fine.
As a soil drench, use about one pint per plant.
It can be used both for potted and in-ground plants and for those growing indoors, outdoors, or in greenhouses.
Any way that you can apply water can be used to apply the tea. You can pour it onto the soil using a watering can, put it in your drip irrigation, use a hose end or hand spray, feed it through sprinklers, or just scoop a little out of the bucket.
The oxygen in the tea starts to drop considerably after six to eight hours, so it’s best to use the fresh tea right away. If you can’t, store it in a cool area out of direct sunlight for up to five days.
Both drenching the soil and foliar sprays work for suppressing disease.
I want to add a word of caution, here. I wouldn’t rely on your tea alone as a method of treating disease. The brews can vary wildly in their composition of beneficial organisms depending on your compost, water, and brewing method.
At best, it’s usually best reserved for use as a short-acting preventative against some diseases.
Regardless, it’s always an effective fertilizer, feeding your plants and your soil without introducing potentially harmful chemicals. Plus you don’t have to worry about fertilizer burn!
Optional Additions
Your healthy garden compost alone makes for excellent tea, but if you want to try a few different recipes to see how each improves the growth of your plants, there are lots out there.
A good starting recipe is 30 parts compost, two parts unsulfured molasses, one part kelp, and one part any fruit juice, or leftover pulp from a juicer. Don’t use any juice with additives or preservatives in it. It must be pure juice or pulp.
From there, you can experiment with adding other components like two parts liquid humic acid, one part oatmeal, feather meal, soybean meal, or insect frass.
Humic acid is a carbon-rich source of food for the beneficial microbes in the soil that we are trying to encourage.
Many of these ingredients can be found at garden supply stores or at places like Amazon, which carries organic liquid humic acid concentrate in 36-ounce, one-, five-, and 55-gallon quantities.
You can also toss in a half part of well-rotted poultry or livestock manure, so long as it comes from a reliable, clean source.
Your neighbor’s free-range chicken manure is fine but I wouldn’t use anything from a feedlot, for example. And make sure it’s well-rotted, don’t use fresh manure or you risk adding pathogens as mentioned above.
Leave out any sugars like molasses or fruit if you’re making non-aerated tea. These will just cause your mixture to ferment rather than steep.
It’s Tea Time!
Now, after all this work, you might be wondering why you don’t just use compost in your garden.
Well, for starters, you can’t spray compost onto the foliage of your plants.
You also can’t use it as a targeted root treatment in the soil. Plus, you can’t add and steep all the extra goodies like humic acid.
When you look at it that way, it seems like the little bit of extra work is worth it, right? I bet when you see the improvement in your garden you’ll be totally sold. At least, I know I was – and still am.
Do you have a compost tea recipe that you’ve perfected? Or maybe one that you’re going to try? Share with us and other gardeners in the comments section below!
In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a compost tea convert and I hope that this guide helped bring you over to the tea side. I also hope that it helps you feel confident in making your own.
And if you’d like to read more about composting, we have several guides for you to add to your reading list:
Looking for a gardening hack that saves time, labor, and improves the soil? Then it’s time to stop digging and start mulching with the no-till gardening system!
At first this might sound like a counterintuitive idea – leaving the grass and weeds in place with packed soil doesn’t seem like the smartest plan for a bumper harvest.
But the no-dig system is actually a clever method of building the soil through layering, adding a selection of natural materials that includes cellulose from paper, chopped leaves, compost, and grass clippings to increase the volume in a lasagna-like soil casserole.
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As the layers build, they perform a variety of tasks like adding nutrients, improving structure and tilth, and supporting a healthy microbiome teeming with important insects and organisms in an intricate web of life.
It’s also an excellent system for holding moisture in the root zone of plants so you don’t have to water as often. And it’s top notch at killing weeds and keeping them at bay.
A close look at how nature works reveals no need for spades, tillers, or plows – everything is just piled onto the surface of the ground, creating fertile soil as leaves and plant debris decomposes.
Now, you still have to do the work of adding layers, but the process is spread out over the entire year, and it’s a much gentler prep method for both the garden and gardener!
Ready to learn about this productive garden method? Then let’s peel back the layers on no-till gardening.
Here’s what I’ll cover:
Digging vs. Mulching
Conventional wisdom tells us that mechanically tilling a garden is a good way to aerate and lighten the soil structure while killing weeds at the same time.
But it also wreaks havoc on soil life, disturbing the local microbiome and killing a host of beneficial bacteria, fungi, and insects.
And those weeds you thought the tiller was killing? It turns out the blades are actually planting the seeds, so you can expect a nice crop of weeds along with your veggies!
Even manual digging or double digging is time consuming and labor intensive.
For healthier soil – and less backache – the no-till system, also called no-dig, layered, or lasagna gardening, delivers the benefits and results you’re looking for by eliminating digging altogether and replacing it with mulching.
Let’s have a look at how it’s done the no-till way.
Prepare the Plot, Kill the Weeds
The no-dig or no-till system produces strong, healthy plants by not disturbing the soil and by adding successive layers of organic goodies that continuously replenish the soil as they break down.
This allows a host of beneficial bacteria, fungi, insects, nematodes, and other soil life to thrive, interacting in a symbiotic relationship with plant roots.
For the best results, begin preparing your garden beds in late fall or early winter to give the various layers time to decompose somewhat and be turned into soil by earthworms and microbes.
That being said, this method can still achieve good results when started in early spring.
Use an existing vegetable plot, a raised bed, or create a new bed by measuring out the corners and borders with stakes and string.
Using raised beds isn’t essential, but the sides do help to contain all the organic matter that you’re adding in. And they have many other benefits, including preventing backache! Find out more in the benefits of raised bed gardening.
To prevent soil compaction and provide for easy access, plan for furrows, mounds, or rows to be no wider than four feet, and include permanent paths between and around them.
Clean the bed surface of debris and stones and mow down any dead plants, grass, or weeds.
In no-dig systems, killing grass and weeds is a simple process that requires no harsh chemicals, only some newspaper and water.
First spray the grass or weeds with water – it helps to keep the papers in place.
Next, open up several pages of newsprint or paper grocery bags and lay them flat on the wet surface, a couple of sheets thick and overlapping the edges generously to block all light from the weeds.
Today, inks for newspapers, laser printers, and inkjet printers are mostly water or soy based, so you don’t have to worry about petrochemical or heavy metal toxins leaching into the soil. But avoid using the colored advertising inserts which have an ink-binding coating that significantly slows decomposition.
Be sure to cover all the grass or weeds with your paper then spray with a hose, thoroughly wetting the paper to prevent it from blowing away in the wind.
Or you can scatter a few shovelfuls of compost or soil over the paper to add some weight if needed.
Thick cardboard is excellent for killing unwanted plants and is a superb material for suppressing weeds in paths between beds, mounds, or rows.
But because it is so thick, cardboard can be impractical to use for growing areas as it can take up to five months to break down – newspaper is a better choice for garden beds because it decomposes much faster.
Remove and discard any tape or packing labels from the cardboard and lay down a thick layer, with plenty of overlap at the edges. Wet the cardboard with a hose then stomp it down in place to keep it flat.
After your beds are mulched, you can give pathways a pretty finish by adding an aesthetically pleasing layer of organic materials like bark mulch, conifer needles, straw, or wood chips.
Layer Organic Matter
Once the cardboard or newspaper is in place it’s time to start adding layers of organic matter.
Start with a two-inch layer of compost, garden soil, or well-rotted manure, generously covering all areas except the paths.
There’s no hard and fast rule as to the order of materials, but it’s helpful to place matter in alternating layers of brown and green, much like making compost.
Brown layers provide carbon for energy, absorb moisture, and provide strength and structural stability to the soil plus a porous loft for air circulation.
Brown materials are typically dry and can include bark mulch, clean cardboard, coir, chopped leaves, crushed shells, newsprint, paper bags, peat moss, straw, wood ash, and wood chips.
An electric leaf shredder is a fast and easy way to transform clippings, grass, leaves, paper, and twigs into a lovely, chopped mulch.
Need a leaf shredder? This popular electric model from Worx is available via Amazon.
It shreds up to 53 gallons of leaves per minute, transforming those raked-up piles in your backyard into mulch in no time.
Green layers provide nitrogen and moisture. These include fresh or damp materials such as freshly harvested kelp or seaweed, compost, garden soil, grass clippings, leaf mold, and rotted manure.
We have lots of great ideas about how to create compost at home – if you’re new to this practice, start with our guide to the basics of composting.
When the brown and green materials decompose together, they create rich, loose soil loaded with nutrients – the perfect growing medium for berry patches, flower beds, and vibrant vegetable plots!
Add a variety of brown and green materials in layers one to two inches thick until you have a thick, organic mulch six to eight inches deep.
Continue to add mulches over the course of the growing season to maintain the depth.
If you have a surplus of materials, stockpile it for the winter covering. Mulches don’t decompose as quickly in cold weather, and adding fresh material over winter usually isn’t required.
If rainfall is inadequate while mulching, water each brown layer after it’s in place.
Sow Seeds and Transplants
No-dig gardening produces humus-rich soil with a lovely light and porous texture.
However, when planting seeds, it’s important to temporarily move aside the top layer of loose mulch so they can germinate and sprout easily.
Even if the top layer is made of light straw, many vegetable seedlings, like carrots, are very fine and can struggle to push through it, with disappointing results.
Pulling back the top of the mulch also releases humidity, which can cause tender sprouts to fail as a result of problems like damping off.
Simply pull back the loose material on top to expose the rich, loose soil below, then sow the seed at the appropriate depth and spacing.
Keep the soil moist during germination and once plants are well established, around four- to six-inches tall, push some of the mulch back to keep the roots cool and moist.
However, always allow a mulch-free collar around plant leaves and stems. This keeps excess moisture away from the stems and helps to reduce problems like fungal and mold infections while preventing easy access by slugs and snails looking for tender greenery.
Seedlings started indoors or purchased from the nursery receive a similar treatment.
To transplant seedlings, pull back the top layer of loose mulch and create a small pocket in the loose soil below, setting the transplants at the same depth as they were in the original containers.
Water gently to settle in place and move some mulch back over the future root zone but keep a small, mulch-free halo away from stems and leaves.
After a couple of seasons, you might find that because the soil is so rich, you can plant your seeds and plants just a little closer together than you normally would – however, always be sure to allow for good air circulation.
Maintenance
At the end of the growing season, put the garden to rest by cleaning out the remains of any unwanted plants – anything that had problems with disease or insect infestations should be removed and disposed of in the garbage.
Chop down healthy plants and spread them over the surface of the beds, then cover your beds with a two- to four-inch layer of compost and an equal layer of chopped leaves or straw.
To keep things in place over winter, top the bed with sheets of black plastic or an opaque tarp, anchoring it in place with bricks, pegs, or stones.
The plastic covering also helps to keep the soil below a touch warmer, which aids the breakdown process.
In late winter, when weather permits, pull back the plastic and add another two-inch layer of green materials like compost, leaf mold, or manure. Top with a brown layer of chopped leaves, peat moss, shredded paper, or straw.
Replace the plastic or tarp and leave in place until soil temperatures are reliably above 45°F, or when you would usually plant out your cold season crops.
After temperatures warm up, remove the plastic and tarps and begin the layering process again. Continue mulching over the growing season and into fall, adding various layers of mulch as necessary.
By continuously replacing the old mulch as it breaks down, the beds are constantly built up and nutrients replenished, producing healthy, loamy soil – without tilling or the need to use synthetic fertilizers!
No Digging Required
The not-so-secret secret to successful no-till gardening is in the simple practice of regular mulching with a variety of organic materials.
The mulches cover all surfaces, protecting them from wind and rain erosion while suppressing weeds and reducing moisture loss.
As they decompose, the mulches improve fertility, structure, and tilth, producing fluffy, rich soil for happy, healthy plants without any digging or tilling – saving you time and physical exertion!
If you’d like to reduce the number of tasks on your spring garden checklist– and summer chores like weeding and watering – you’ll love the almost effortless results of the no-till system!
This system isn’t restricted to large gardens either – it’s effective for containers or small spaces too.
