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back! So nice to have you stop by! May you find a giant miracle today!
What's This?!?!??
Do you really want to find out???? Okay, so what is that?!?
Alfalfa Tea. Highly concentrated Alfalfa Tea.
I used to make alfalfa tea all the time. Every plant would drink it. I had lots of green growth, but I worried too much green not enough bloom. I think the feeling is when it is homemade, what amounts are the plants being fed? There is a worry that maybe it is not enough nutrients. So last summer I had a family disaster no time for alfalfa tea. Then a bad winter followed by a bad spring. I put compost around plants and then the granulated fertilizer route. Some things improved, but the growth was not as good as in other years. I started researching. I have many problems here. Even though this is a difficult growing environment, I have problems that other gardeners in this area do not have. One of the best things I could do is use Alfalfa Tea. It keeps the soil alive! So I had been on a great plan and need to get back on it.
It helps all the good microorganisms grow. It will keep down the bad nematodes, it feeds, helps the soil not wear out so fast.
So this is my recipe for Alfalfa Tea.
Alfalfa Tea Recipe
Take a tote, it needs a place in the sun, but not where it's in the way, too heavy to move.
Fill with 10 gallons of water let it sit overnight, chlorine to burn off and chemicals to burn off.
The next day I add 1 gallon of dry 100% Alfalfa pellets NO sodium.
Lightly stir, then cover. Put something to weigh the top down.
Eventually the fermentation will keep popping the lid. You do not want mosquitoes or fly maggots.
Once a day I take a shovel and stir. Here it is so hot that within 24 hours the pellets are floating and starting to disintegrate. Stir once everyday. I use a transplant shovel/spade. The mixture will foam, maybe a lot, perfectly normal. My picture of the mixture is at 5 days old. You almost cannot go too long because all it does is ferment which is good. The liquid also goes from being green to a golder brown color. Mine is getting ready for the additives. I put those in for 24 hours before I am going to use it. But, again, you do not have to use in 24 hours even with the additives in.
Additives:
Unsulphured Blackstrap molasses 1 cup ( as important as the alfalfa)
Ironite 1/2 to 1 cup
Then pick ONE from the following:
4 cups of LIQUID vegetable /fruit compost
4 cups of non burning manure either rabbit or well- composted cow or horse manure.
4 TABLEspoons fish emulsion.
Optional: usually add once in spring only
2 to 4 cups Epsom Salts
After the additives, stir vigorously, cover and stir vigorously in about 4 hours. Then let sit overnight. The Alfalfa will sink. After putting in the additives I put 3 1/2 gallons of water into 5 gallon buckets I have spaced out over the whole garden. Usually 7 buckets. Let the water sit overnight. The next day I add 1 1/2 gallons of concentrate to each bucket. To a well watered plants, not dry, I give each larger plant around two direct quarts. I pour a circle around the daylilies and iris. If it gets on the iris rhizomes, just pour some clear water over them. Then I sprinkle all the dirt in the area with any left over mixture.
There is a barnyard odor to the tea, it disappears in a day or two or after rain. But all fertilizer has an odor.
What is liquid vegetable/ fruit compost? I take all my scraps and put in covered containers. Here they start to break down immediately. In a couple of weeks they are pretty liquidy. I pour off some of the liquid only. (it does SMELL, but so does manure) Some studies have said this might even be better than manure.
Supposedly all of this creates microorganisms that eat the bad guys in soil.
What about all that gunk in the bottom?? You can make a second batch with it or use it as compost around plants , mix it into potting soil. It's fine to use all around the garden.
Oh and why did I not get the bloom? It might have been that my plants were too young. They were still growing. Or my soil needs this to help it and I might still need some time release fertilizer in the spring, too. I do not think you can go wrong with alfalfa tea.
Rebloom:
And the aphids? Pretty much all gone. I found a couple more milkweeds that I missed. And a couple of aphids that hung on, but not for long!
May you be blessed to have things work out for you!
