Homemade Botanical Teas

Homemade Botanical Teas

Most gardeners nowadays are very familiar with the compost tea idea. It's hard to find a good gardener without their five gallon bucket, or if they're lucky or rich a nice Vortex style brewer.

Microbe “teas” are great and should be used by everyone interested in a healthy soil ecosystem, but your bubbler and bucket can be used for another technique too, botanical teas.

There are many types of plants that can be used to brew a botanical tea. Many of these plants are Dynamic Accumulators, meaning that they take up one or more type/s of nutrients from the soil and store them. A couple common types of these plants you can likely find in your backyard are Dandelions, Stinging Nettles, and Burdock (Burrs,) Alfalfa, Yarrow, and Comfrey.

So taking a tip from nature and speeding it up a bit is very simple. The recipe will vary slightly depending on if you are using fresh or dried material.

The most commonly found dry materials (meals) in the hydro store are Kelp or Alfalfa. Get your 5 gallon bucket and a bubbler. Add ¼ cup Kelp meal and 1 cup Alfalfa meal. Let it bubble. After a few days you can use this mixture on your plants. Dilute in half if you want a foliar spray.

Fresh material uses the same preparation except it's a little harder to measure. Generally if you fill the bucket a quarter or so up with plant matter that should be plenty. If your cannabis react poorly than dilute or make it weaker the next time. Stirring the concoctions multiple times daily is another option to bubbling, but do yourself a favor and drop 30 bucks at the pet store.

There are other benefits to be gained from homemade teas besides nutrition though. Largely these would be fungicidal or insecticidal properties that we take from the plant along with their nutritional benefits.

Some plants that fall into this category are, Lavender (Especially flowers), Tansy, and Fennel, and Mustard.

Care should be taken to dilute these extracts properly with water or you will burn your plants. Start with a low dose 1:60 or so and work your way up if necessary.

Some fermentation is alright as it is part of the decomposition phase,but it should also be noted that if these extracts sit for too long they will begin to ferment too much which could possibly damage your plant if not diluted. Also while the nutritional benefits will continue to be available after 36-48 hours , the insecticidal and/or fungicidal aspects will begin to deteriorate.

Botanical teas are a great way to save some money on bottled nutrients, and are a good start sustainable veganic gardening practices. What's better than using weeds to grow your weed?

-BDBuds