Nitrogen from weed tea?

I need nitrogen in some of my garden beds. LIke, now. I opened up some news ones this spring, and they got too much brown stuff, some kitchen scraps, but that's all. They are not looking as happy as I want.

What I have is a bunch of invasive grasses I just pulled by the roots, crab grass, Bermuda, some kind of foxtail. I do not have hot compost going (long story) I do not want to cold compost them, or dare just turn them in, as they just regrow and spread.

Can I put them in water to make some kind of tea type thing that will contain the nitrogen so it can be given to the plants that need it? Will that work?

Trying to fix problems with what I have...   :D

Yes you can! It takes a week or three to get really rotten and rich. I've done it for exactly the reasons you say: to dispose of noxious weeds and/or their seeds, and even just seedheads of plants I like but have too many of already.

I found a couple problems with it, but I think if you strain it as soon as it goes rotten and rich, the problems might be avoided.

=> It can really REALLY stink if left long enough. Like Ugh!!! Wow. Impressive.

=> It attracts clouds of flies. I leave something over the top as a lid but it is never quite airtight or flyproof.

=> Last year I left it out of the way, fearing the stink, and then of course I left it too long. When I opened it, it was swimming with some squiggy organisms that I can't identify and they really grossed me out. I dumped the whole bucket and its contents in a dry ditch where the nutrients won't go to waste, but everything will dry up first.

So I think if you keep an eye on it and strain it promptly and use the juice, it's good stuff. Dilute it with other irrigation water, of course! If you're afraid the solids might still have unwanted seeds that survived the anaerobic soak, let them dry up for a few days and then add them back into the new batch.

Rebecca: Excellent! Thank you!!
Yeah, I have made some horrifying anaerobic soaks before.
Wasn't sure if it would get the nitrogen out of the weeds.

Thank you !!
Tomorrow morning I dig the weeds out of the trash can... :D I put them all in there today, then thought of asking.

Well we can't know exactly which nutrients are in it, in which proportions, but hey it certainly looks rich. My purpose with it was only half to get the nutrients and make fertilizer, and half to deactivate unwanted seeds.

How fast do you need the fertilizer? Grasses are slow to decompose but if you have broadleaf weeds they take just two days instead of two weeks. Ragweeds are blooming right now and I have been using the greens around my yard.

And at the same time killing seedy grasses in weed tea. Be prepared for the stinks, once I had some sprayed on me and went inside the house. My kids yelled: " there's a chicken in the house!" They thought they smelled chicken poop. Anaerobic decomposition of sulfur containing proteins gives out H2S.

When you are done with weed tea, simple dump and cover up the grasses, it will automatically turn into a hot aerobic compost pile(if it's big enough).

Nigel Palmer has a great book on such ferments, and recommends leaf mold from a healthy forest nearby as an odor mitigator and beneficial microbe inoculant. I am sure some biochar would help too.