Compost Tea for Your Lawn and Plants

By THERESA COTY ONEIL| Encore
September 2008

Dirt is what you wipe off your shoes before you enter your home. Dust is everywhere and made of dead skin cells, pollen, dried leaf particles, and even fallen bits of stars. And soil is alive, filled with microorganisms and fungal strands that convert the nutrients in air into food for plants.

"I think farmers have knows for years that soil is alive," said Nancy Essex, owner of Flowerfield Enterprises, which sells a variety of vermicomposting (worm composting) products, including worm bins and the vermicomposting bible, "Worms Eat My Garbage," written by the company's former owner, the late Mary Appelhof.

Nancy, along with her five employees, recently launched Compost Tea, an earth-friendly and economic product with which to fertilize lawns and plants without dependence on synthetic fertilizers.

The tea, which contains billions of microorganisms, works by strengthening the life of the soil with the microorganisms that convert already available nutrients, such as phosphorous and nitrogen, into plant food. Traditional fertilizers add the nutrients but often kill the microorganisms, creating "fertilizer and water-dependent" grass and plants that we might not want our children or pets to touch, Nancy said.

The creation of the tea, overseen by Flowerfield's "brewmaster," Joe Miazgowicz, is a time-consuming and complicated process. Beginning with a base of high-quality compost, Alaskan humus and vermicompost, Joe then adds water and aerates the mixture, which strips the microorganisms off into the tea. The brew is then fed with a variety of additives, depending upon what type of plant life for which the tea in intended.

"Grass likes different microorganisms than trees," said Nancy. Additions can include kelp, feather meal, molasses and folic acid.

"I don't drink this," said Nancy. "You could drink this. It won't hurt you."

Compost tea, which is produced and sold only locally because by its very nature it is alive and has an incredible short shelf life (four to five hours unless constantly aerated), is available at Wedel's Nursery and Bell's Store. Lawn treatments, which include spraying plantings, can be ordered through Flowerfield. The typical yard runs between $55 and $75 and the treatment is delivered by truck and boom sprayer, similar to what the chemical-fertilizing companies use.

"It's a real interesting thing that advertisers have convinced us that to have a perfect-looking yard we have to be completely dependent on excess water and chemical fertilizers," said Nancy, whose interest in compost tea started years ago when she met renowned soil-scientist Elaine Ingham ("the goddess of compost tea") at a poker game at Mary Appelhof's house. "I'm at the place in my life where I don't want to do any more harm. And this isn't doing any more harm."

source: Encore

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