What's the easiest way to make compost tea (or other liquid fertilizer)?

I have a very small urban backyard permacutlure setup and I would love to brew my own compost tea to boost my plant health.
But every time I look into making the stuff, my head starts to spin.

So much imformation! So much conflicting information!

Yes, I downloaded Dr. Elaine Ingham's 91-page book on the subject and started reading it - but can someone give me a spoiler and tell me - Is it possible for me to make compost tea at home without investing in electronics and geting a a PhD in microbiology?

I would also consider making some other kind of liquid organic fertlizer that I can make low-tech small scale at home.

something involving a bucket and stirring with a stick seems doable to me!

Look into JADAM liquid fertilizer.

My poor understanding of it is that it's basically an anaerobic rot pot for nutrient rich weeds. You mix in a little with a lot of water and pour.

I made some, used it after a few weeks... I still have the jar fermenting in my greenhouse... haven't used it in a year or so. Probably smells horrendous by now, dunno what happens if I use it on my plants. I might find out!

My suggestion would be to read the information from Elaine Ingham slowly.  Then take a break from what you have read and ask your questions on the forum.

Do you currently make compost? I feel this is the place to start.

Bloomah said, "Is it possible for me to make compost tea at home without investing in electronics and geting a a PhD in microbiology?

Bryant said, "Ultimate lazy would be get a large bucket or barrel and put in two shovels full of finished compost, fill to 3/4 of the way to the top, stir and let sit for 2-3 days then scoop out the liquid, leaving the solids behind, dilute and use.
This is not going to give you large numbers of fungi and bacteria but it is the ultimate in lazy.

https://permies.com/t/118581/composting/Easiest-Compost-Tea#960038

Please read the rest of what Bryant says as he gives a better and best method that will help you make this simple to understand.

If you want to make a brewer this post gives a link to a discussion that might help:

https://permies.com/t/118558/composting/Large-DIY-compost-tea-brewer#960980

That same thread has a picture of a vortex compost tea brewer that might work for you:

https://permies.com/t/118558/composting/Large-DIY-compost-tea-brewer#961215

I am looking forward to more questions.

L. Johnson wrote:Look into JADAM liquid fertilizer.

thanks for the tip. this looks about my level of complexity and we have plenty of  nettle and other nutrient-rich weeds available right now!
Apparently it's a simplified form of those KNF concoctions that also make my head spin with too much information!

I am giong to start my JADAM brew this week!

One of the key take-ways I have found from my reading and 15yrs of compost tea making experience is that just good water, good compost, and lots if aeration makes an excellent foliar or dormant season soil amendment. Actively aerated compost tea creates the highest biomass possible with the byproduct of biological glues to help microbes stick to the plant tissues. An adequately powerful aerator is the easiest way to make this well.

Compost extract (flushing the biota off the compost at a steady moderate pressure with good water) makes the simplest soil fertigation amendment with the highest biodiversity possible with the given compost. Compost quality is paramount for both. I use the Johnson-Su method for my primary compost and mix in any other quality compost or worm castings I can find for biodiversity.

All the rest (kelp, molasses, fish hydrolysate, humic acids, guanos and many more additives) have their uses for nutrient deficiencies and Fungal-Bacteria ratios, but teas with just water, compost and air have been found by Dr Ingham and others to have highest biodiversity. This is my baseline and I have moved more and more to follow Dr Ingham’s suggestion of just using a foliar tea once a season (1 growing and 1 dormant), and compost extracts for growing season fertigation otherwise.

Buy one or two, five gallon buckets or a 50 gallon blue, plastic barrel, a fish tank air pump with two ports, tubing long enough for your set-up and four air stones (use two and because they break easily, two for back-up), fill buckets or barrel with clean water (I use pure Maine lake water), purchase veg or flower guano that goes out of its way to claim that it was harvested using sustainable methods, a gallon of food-grade molasses and mix guano well with molasses according to labels and brew for a minimum of 24 hours at ambient temperatures that are warm enough to support biotic growth and then after brewing, I add OMRI listed humic/fulvic acid and then drench soil.

Hi Bloomah,
You have some great answers so far from people who actually make and use it. I don't. So take this with a grain of salt, as I am just sharing what I hear from people who do make/use it.

My understanding is that there is a difference between two things that are often both called "compost tea". One of these products is merely saving what liquid comes out from the bottom of the compost pile. Generally the compost bin is setup to do this specifically... because it's hard to catch liquid from a compost pile that is just sitting on the ground ;) This takes the least amount of work and I have heard has the better results for plant health. However it is limited in quantity.

The other product is what most people here have been talking about, the process of taking some compost, adding water and air (and possibly other things) to create a large amount of liquid with good micro-organisms in it. This product can be produced in much larger quantities, but I have heard is not as effective as the first.

I second what was said about the quality of the compost. Both of these products are limited by how good the compost is. I think it would be a good thing to get good at creating the compost itself first, and then expand out to compost tea. If you make good compost and spread it around... when the rain comes... it makes "compost tea" for you :)

Barrel, water, compost (homemade if possible) and other natural and organic materials (manure, egg shells, banana peels, etc.), aerate.. and you have compost tea. There are many approaches and formulas for specific balances of microbes.. but I chuck it all in, and let the microbes sort it out. I start with nitrogen rich material for the spring, and start adding phosphorus and potassium rich items as time goes on for flower and fruit. Perfect? I doubt it, but neither am I..

There are quite a few iterations of a ‘sea boost’ or seaweed type fertilizer that companies bottle and sell. If you’re close to the ocean and laws permit, I like to let a bunch of seaweed sit and decompose along with fresh water in a bucket. Seaweed is full of great stuff that is hard to reproduce on land, even including growth hormones! I use it on heavy feeders and they go nuts. Yum! Be cautious of pollution like any input.

Ian Fairweather wrote:There are quite a few iterations of a ‘sea boost’ or seaweed type fertilizer that companies bottle and sell. If you’re close to the ocean and laws permit, I like to let a bunch of seaweed sit and decompose along with fresh water in a bucket. Seaweed is full of great stuff that is hard to reproduce on land, even including growth hormones! I use it on heavy feeders and they go nuts. Yum! Be cautious of pollution like any input.

This.. and while seaweed is preferable, you can add sea salt to your teas and soil for the trace mineral benefits of SEA ENERGY!

https://www.echocommunity.org/en/resources/133e42f8-230a-4f2f-93f0-d86a602956e2