Dear Deb,
Yes, our Microbe Brew is back again this year, but just so no one thinks we’re brewing up our worm friends, let’s call it compost tea instead of worm tea. As far as how to use it, I’m resisting the urge to make a joke about drinking it because last year we actually had folks stand indecisively between the Eco-Cycle tent and the coffee tent, asking each other, “Do you feel like having tea or coffee?” Only in a health-oriented community like ours would people be willing to ingest compost tea—impressive. So just to be clear, Microbe Brew is to feed your soil, not you. The Brew is available Saturdays at the Boulder Farmers' Market and on Wednesdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials at 5030 “old” Pearl Street.
For those who may be new to compost tea, Microbe Brew is a living liquid full of diverse beneficial soil microbes. When sprinkled onto your garden or lawn and then watered in, these microbes consume organic matter and minerals in the soil and turn them into humus, the only plant food found in nature. Microbe Brew is not a fertilizer—it’s the sustainable alternative that balances and accelerates the natural process that is already taking place in your soil. It also helps conserve water by holding moisture in the soil and reducing evaporation.
To make the tea, we start with worm castings (a.k.a. worm poop), the most balanced compost in the world already teeming with soil microbes, and we “brew” the castings in a special tank that essentially acts as a Petri dish for beneficial microbes to reproduce. Then we haul the brewing tank right down to the Market on Saturday mornings and pour the resulting tea directly into gallon and quart containers as customers order it (sorry, no six-packs for this brew). Freshness is very important because the tea has no shelf life – it must be applied to the soil within 10-12 hours of leaving the brewer or the microbes will run out of oxygen and go dormant.
Compost tea can help plants in any soil, including houseplants, turf, gardens, and perennial trees and shrubs. No soil preparation is necessary before application. It can be a great first step toward your ’05 garden that you can do even if the soil is wet or snow-covered. According to our compost expert and Master Brewer Dan Matsch, the most effective times to use the tea are during the spring when your soil is just waking from the winter, during periods of heavy soil feeding such as the vigorous vegetative growth stage of early summer and the flowering/fruiting stage, and during stressful times such as hot spells or after mowing the lawn. Occasionally, you can get growth-spurt results if the soil is very depleted (as with most houseplants out there), but more often the results are more flowering and fruiting and steady growth unchecked by stress—a key to surviving the up-and-down climate of spring and summer in the Front Range. Compost tea can also suppress disease, especially when applied to the leaves.
New this year is a money-saving rebate on Microbe Brew, offered by the City of Boulder Water Conservation Office. Because of the tea’s ability to hold water in the soil and reduce evaporation, the Water Conservation Office is encouraging its use by offering a rebate of 50% off to City of Boulder residents. Please bring a utility bill as proof of residency. Come see us Saturdays at the 2005 Market for more details on application and results, and feel free to bring us a cup of coffee since there’ll be nothing to drink at our tent!
