Please Don't Drink the Sweet Manure Tea!
It looks good enough to drink...
I'm darn excited to bring more manure into your life! It's high time manure tea makes a mainstream comeback, for it's a sad thing that this valuable by-product has been replaced by the likes of MiracleGro and other chemical based fertilizers. I won't preach...well, just a little...but why the heck are we throwing our money at that crap? (pun!) The MiracleGro may give you bigger flowers but you're killing your soil and all of it's beneficial flora and fauna in the process therefore, your flowers and edibles will suffer in the long run...not to mention your health?
Which leads me here. To the lowly bucket of broken down, sundried manure.
In Wyoming, manure is everywhere! But, I come from the big city (Long Beach, CA) and I could find it there too. Every city has horses, and every horse owner will love you for hauling away their manure! If, you absolutely cannot locate manure, a bag of cow manure from your local garden center will do. At about a buck a bag, it's still an economical option!
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This here is a photo of broken down (composted), sundried horse manure. Brown gold!
If you're going to make your own manure tea, it's very, very, extremely important to use OLD manure. Got it? Good!
Fresh manure is very hot and will burn foliage because of the excessive amounts of nitrogen.
The benefits of manure tea are numerous!
- Organic fertilizer such as manure tea, feeds the soil. We need a myriad of microbes to get biologically active soil. Healthy soil will welcome earthworms and beneficial nematodes, your dirt's natural defense against pests and disease. Simply put: if earthworms like it, so should we. Chemical fertilizers will chase earthworms away, not mention leach your soil with salt and chlorine.
- Manure tea is fast acting.
- Use of manure is the poster child of recycle, re-purpose, renew.
- Applying manure tea to your plants is comparable to us drinking a power-shake. Easily absorbed, giving your plants the energy they need to get through hard times.
- Manure tea can be poured directly into your compost pile to speed decomposition.
- The tea is a super transplant, rooting solution. Dip your plant, pot and all into manure tea to saturate before planting.
- It's free!
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Okay, lets get dirty!
There are different methods, but this one works for me.
This is my set up: a 20 gal garbage can, a big bucket of composted manure, a pail and an old pillowcase for steeping and straining.
Take a Ralph Lauren pillowcase and fill it with 2 shovels full of manure.
Sorry Ralph *love you!*
P.S. It was a thrift store find many moons ago.
Tie off your manure filled pillowcase and drop into your garbage can filled halfway with water.
Now all that needs to happen is a 2 day soak. You might want to cover the brew with screen or a lid to prevent twinkly fairy bugs (flies) from invading.
Here are the results of your efforts. As the Clampetts would say... black gold,
The end product (pun!) and bounty.
I filled a 1 - 15 gal plastic bottle and 3 - 1/2 gal mason jars which I give as gifts to appreciative gardeners. Keep in mind, this is manure tea concentrate! Dilute one part water to one part tea when fertilizing.
More happy news for you! Use your hose feeder bottle, it works great! This is my old
That's it folks. All I can say is...give manure tea a chance. It truly is a sweet tea, for the garden of course. If you use aged horse manure, there is only a sweet, earthy smell...nothing repellent about it. But it is manure...so be prudent and wash your hands after using.
Go forth and sprinkle tea!
Rebecca
posted by Rebecca @ 11:01 AM
42 Comments
42 Comments:
Hummm, if you use the aforementioned leftover 'feeder' jar, do you still dilute the 'poopoo' tea?
Just to clarify - are we soaking the manure in the pail or the trash can? I assume it's the pail, but just want to check
Luna, the hose feeder will dilute the tea concentrate as you water. Just fill the jar to the top with concentrate and water away!
Sorry, if I confused you but, I do the soaking in the trash can and the removing of the brew with the pail.
Manure Tea is the finest way you can add natural Soil nutrients to your soil. It is the method my family has been using since the early 1800's. A little manure brews gallons of tea.
Thanks for sharing and...Amen to that!
What do you do with the manure afterward?
This is a good part too, great question! When I remove the pillowcase from it's soak, it's still full of water and manure. I pick a spot, like my new tomatoes I just planted to plop the water logged pillowcase to drain and dry, then that spot get a nice manure tea soak as well. After the manure is mostly dry, I empty the pillowcase on my compost pile or, mix it in with finished compost like I did today as a dressing for beds. I realize this whole process might seem icky to a lot of people but you will see an immediate difference in your plants if you give it a try!
Thanks for the recipe Rebecca! Now I just need to find some manure!
You can do it! Remember, if all else fails...buy a bag of steer manure at the garden center.
I love Manure Tea, we've got 4 horses that give me gifts all over the pasture. I like your set up using the pillow case. Great idea to give it as gifts to my gardening friends that live in the city and use commerical fertilizers.
Do you know if this works to repel rabbits? We live in town, no deer, but lots of bunnies!
I have no idea...but if you give it a go, please let me know!
Bless you Rebecca. The deer have destroyed hundreds of dollars of our beautiful landscaping and it is maddening!! I love the little critters but am tired of feeding them. This process sounds a little gross to this girly girl but I'm desperate so am going to try it! aka - I'm giving the directions to my husband :)
I feel your pain! I had given up on making the front beds pretty with perennials...I have some hope now though. Please remember that one remedy doesn't always work for every garden or PEST. Crossing fingers for you!
Can you use Cow poop? My grandfather has a ranch with cattle but he has no horses
Absolutely! Just make sure it's sundried and completely composted. I use horse manure because that's what available to me and many others, especially those that live in the city.
How often do you feed it to your plants?
Thank you Rebecca, in tons and tons.
Same question as Susie, how often do you feed it to your plants?
(lets say regular beer bottle) And so I mix 1 bottle of tea and 1 bottle of water to dilute and pour it to soil just beneath plant? full bottle?
I feed my plants once a week, usually with an overhead spray from a hose sprayer attachment.
You're welcome Nikki!
Yep, you got it...1 part to 1 part. You can also spray your tea using a hose attachment sprayer that will dilute the tea, so much easier! Beer bottles work great too ;)
Rebecca this is Awesome!
I was wondering if I can spray my lawn with the farm country tea?
Oh please do! Your grass and your soil will love you for it :)
If I buy bags of composted manure from the garden shop, do I have to open them and let them dry out first?
No, because it's been composted already...and sterilized. Go for it!
I just mix the manure straight into my garden bed and soil and my plants thrive!! Everytime I water the garden the plants have the nutrients released from the manure.
No weed seeds??
How long does the tea keep? I imagine it could get bad (er...worse?) eventually. Thanks! Gonna talk a stroll through the sheep pasture soon.
I just moved from a highrise in the city to a large lot in the suburbs and now I am reading about manure tea! My how things change! Perhaps I will bring myself to get some manure. Loved the bit about the Ralph Lauren pillowcase!
I have chickens..will that poop work?
Okay, here's a foolish question. I live in a very rainy city with cooler summer temperatures than most (65 to 70 on sunny days, which are sometimes rare). How will I know if the horse manure has been properly sundried and composted? Or should I just stick with the store bought manure? Thanks!
Not a foolish question at all! Completely broken down, composted manure will resemble dead grass with a faintly sweet smell to it.
Aww, another Wyoming girl, via Ca. (high desert). Thank you for the article.
CA was a great place to grow up, WY is a great place to stay :)
I love the idea! If it works I may even have peas and beets this year for a change. One question though, I live in a county where noxious weeds are a huge concern. Will horse manure provide an opportunity to spread the seeds, or is there some process to eliminate them?
Try to find horse manure thats COMPLETELY composted - this reduces the chance of weed seeds sprouting up.
Fabulous idea. Thanks so much for sharing this. We too have a deer issue here in central Ontario, Canada. I will definitely try this recipe this year!
I am so glad I stumbled up on this. I've become a huge fan of cow manure tea - but THIS is something I was not familiar with !!! I'm looking forward to trying this out and sharing with some fellow gardeners. And I can even repurpose the old MGro sprayer ;-)
Awesome...please share!!
Thank you for the tea recipe. Can you water directly onto the plant or is it better to avoid the plant and water the surrounding soil instead?
Because the tea is very diluted, it's safe to get some "tea" on the foliage, in fact...it's beneficial!
Hi there I love your tips...I am actually using your deep water technique In my garden this year! I have two questions how far did you plant your tube from your plant and how often do you give each tube a fill of the "manure tea" oh one more about how much tea per tube? Thanks so much again for your tips
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