Today was the first official strawberry picking. I had reduced the bed by 1/3 when I put in the everbearing bed so it didn’t take me nearly as long to pick. Its a good thing, my back has been giving me a fit with regards to bending. I keep forgetting I’m not 20 any more. 😉
I started another batch of alfalfa tea today. This is my first year using it and I did a little experiment. I treated part of a row of raspberries, salad burnet and a few others. The difference was most noticable in the salad burnet. The plants I treated were much darker green than their neighbors all other things being equal (that I can tell). The recipe I settled on is 4 cups of alfalfa pellets to 5 gallons of water. I put this 22 gallon trash can out at the edge of the garden next to the underground composters (I added a second one recently). This stuff gets pretty nasty smelling and in case it gets knocked over I didn’t want it close to the house.
The plan was/is to use this half barrel for a couple of sweet potato vines (Porto Rico) and a flower or two. The other day I noticed that it is full of volunteer echinacea seedlings. There is a small patch of purple next to this planter and this is the first time I’ve had seedlings come up. I’ve transplanted about a dozen or so already but there are dozens more.
I would love to know how you make your alfalfa tea! I’ve never heard of this, but we’re always trying new things and this sound just up my DH’s ally!
Susan,
There are a lot of recipes on the net. You can google “alfalfa tea” and get anything from the most simple to the utterly bizarre. The recipe I use is 4 cups of alfalfa pellets to 5 gallons of water. I picked up a 50 lb bag of pellets at the local feed store for about $9-$10. This should last me through this year and possibly into next.
Basically its nothing more than filling a container with water, adding the pellets, stirring twice daily and waiting for the stench. Literally. The stuff smells like vomit when its ready. Fortunately the smell doesn’t travel or linger too long when applied. Do be sure to wear garden clothes when working with it though as you will probably spill at least a little bit on yourself if you are anything like me. I can’t give you exact numbers as to dosage, still woring that out. I read somewhere that you shouldnt’ fertilize dry soil so I always apply the tea after a normal watering.
The recipe I read said to refill with water once the barrel gets to about half full. That being the case the first half of the barrel will be stronger than the tea after the second filling.
Some people use aquarium airstones to pump air into the mix. The idea is that the microbes that make the nutrients available are more active in an oxygenated environment (hence the stirring). Mine is too far from the house to do that.
I’m no expert but it does seem to work and since I’ve moved away from chemical fertilizers I was looking for something. I may try adding some fish emulsion to the tea for the plants that like their N. I’ll know more by the end of the summer as to quality, quantity etc.
If you try this please let me know how it goes for you.
Many people rave about alfalfa tea. I am too lazy to mix everything up so once a month I bury the alfalfa pellets beneath my roses and then water thoroughly. I’ve read that it has the exact same effect without all the brewing, in case that’s helpful to you.
RusticateGirl, thanks for the tip. Yes I have heard this too but heard that the nutrients aren’t immediately available to the plant as in the case of the tea. How often do you bury the pellets? I guess if it is an ongoing thing then there would be a constant supply of pellets breaking down.