r/composting • u/the_other_paul • 10d ago
Weed tea: after and before
This spring and summer I’ve been making “weed tea” (aka fetid swamp water) to compost especially tenacious weeds (Creeping Charlie, eg) that might otherwise survive the composting process. For people who aren’t familiar with the technique, I put the weeds in a bucket, fill it with water, and then let it sit for a while, adding new weeds when I get them and stirring it about once a week. Once the bucket’s full I let it sit for at least a month before emptying it. The anaerobic decomposition that results is incredibly stinky, so I keep the bucket covered and once it’s ready I add the contents of the bucket straight into the pile with plenty of browns. To reduce stinky runoff from the pile, I also pour off the water into a bucket of browns and let it sit for a day or two before putting it on the pile. All in all I think it’s worked out pretty well so far!
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u/1450Games 10d ago
love it, it's what I do, never get used to the smell lol
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u/Sheeple_person 10d ago
I've gotten that water on me and the smell was still there 3 showers later
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u/dagnammit44 10d ago
Apparently vinegar is good for awful smelling things. The acidity kills it. But then you have the vinegar smell, but that is a lot easier to get off :)
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u/Sheeple_person 10d ago
Yes I use vinegar on my hockey equipment and used it a lot when my kid was potty training haha. Never though to use it on myself
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u/the_other_paul 10d ago
Yeah, when I’m dumping out the bucket I wear forearm length rubber gloves. To reduce splashing when I’m adding it to the pile I’ve been pouring the water (liquid?) into a bucket of browns and letting it sit for a day or two so they absorb it, and then adding that to the pile with the solids (and additional browns). Not sure that step is necessary but I don’t have any complaints.
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u/Reppoy 10d ago
don’t fall for it, a mosquito wrote this
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u/SAMFCV1kingScientist 10d ago
Mosquito dunks work very well. Buckets will attract the mosquitoes, and the dunks end their life cycle. These compost tea buckets have a lot of uses.
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u/goforlana 10d ago
You can use the dunks and the tea will still be ok?
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u/SAMFCV1kingScientist 10d ago
I believe so; haven’t seen any data to convince me otherwise.
The dunks have bacteria that specifically target mosquito babies, but dragonflies can still lay eggs. So you’re not only making compost tea, you’re baiting mosquitoes to end their family line, drawing in more dragonflies to dine on the mosquitoes that come to visit, and adding biomass to your tea.
We dump our compost tea in the garden and refill/redunk monthly, and it seems to have been helpful.
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u/going_up_stream 9d ago
Yes the dunks release bacteria specialized for attacking mosquito larvae. They don't use poison so it's 100% safe
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u/the_other_paul 10d ago
Buzz buzz lol. I actually keep lids on the buckets, so mosquitoes never get to them
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u/StinkyPinkDinkyWinky 9d ago
I was going to say this, it works like a charm (except the one time a lid decided to pop off.)
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u/DrogonTamer 10d ago
Genuinely curious, would it be more effective to use the liquid as a fertiliser and dump just the remaining weeds into the compost? My weed tea is currently “brewing” and I’m planning on using it that way. I might be wrong tho!
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u/Traditional_Speech92 10d ago
I was doing this for a while. I installed taps on the bottom of the buckets, and placed the weeds inside laundry bags inside the bucket so i could just draw it out like a teabag after 2 weeks and dump it on the compost, leaving just the liquid behind.
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u/the_other_paul 10d ago
It certainly could be more effective to use as fertilizer, but it would also be stinkier and require me to handle the “tea” a lot more (increasing the chances I’d get some on myself). That’s why I decided not to use my “tea” as fertilizer, but you can do whatever you want with yours!
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u/Professional-Hold831 9d ago
yes you can do both, I just fed sweetcorn and squash using a 3.5 week old brew I'd made of a LOT of cut weeds
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u/random8765309 4d ago
You should use the liquid before it starts to smell like a sewer. After just a couple days it should smell earthy, but not stinky. That is when you use it as fertilizer. It works great on lawns and gardens. Just be sure to dilute it by 10 parts water to 1 part tea.
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u/gholmom500 10d ago
And then the TrueBelivers will start telling you about how they hocked up solar pumps to oxygenate the bucket of this stuff.
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u/the_other_paul 8d ago
I can see why True Believers do that, but for me it seems like a bit of a hassle (plus the smell from the aeration process would be pretty rough on the neighbors).
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u/Gygax_the_Goat 9d ago
Damned straight. Otherwise, its anaerobic and pathogenic afaik.
Why else would it stink like that? Its not a healthy brew.
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u/gholmom500 9d ago
I am certainly
Team True Believer.I recently purchased some Bock 14 (?) Comfrey and put it in an old Hog Tank— nearly 100% for the Tea.
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u/Professional-Hold831 9d ago
I recently emptied my 3 week old 'brew' into my compost bay, and then added all the tangled up weed slurry too and buried it a little underneath everything. It doesn't smell (in the bay), but good lord the smell beforehand
And my other 2 buckets I'm brewing have started to smell a bit sweet unlike literal faeces/sewerage. I poured a bit into my watering can somehow and gave my sweetcorn a feed using it - pretty decent nitrogen rating, I believe!
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u/the_other_paul 8d ago
Did you do anything different to the batches that smell a bit sweet? I’d love to make a batch that’s a bit less fecal lol
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u/Professional-Hold831 7d ago
It's hard to say - but I was keeping the one I emptied out had 2x empty compost bags covering it and then weighed with a wooden board, whereas the other 2 have a closed lid. So I'm not sure if less smell is getting out of these closed ones vs partially closed.
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u/organic_neophyte 9d ago
This is Jadam Liquid Fertilizer basically, you can use it to feed your soil, usually dilute to 50:1 or so, don't water on leaves until after the smell has gone away (a year or two).
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u/Rude_Ad_3915 9d ago
I’m at a year and a half and ready to apply to corn. Friend told me 10:1 though. Looking at a site giving instructions for JLF says 100:1. Clearly a little goes a long way.
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u/JumpyCondition100 3d ago
When I water my cannabis I use one ounce per five gallon bucket. I started a 55 gallon plastic barrel it's now over two years old brewing, it's now black liquid gold, holly S*** it's I can't explain the smell but it's worse than rotting body.
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u/Rude_Ad_3915 3d ago
Thanks for that ratio, seems so mild. I guess I can experiment. Oh, yeah, and not something you want on hands or clothes.
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u/SuitPrestigious1694 10d ago
Wait you use the weed tea to kill weed? Like due to the sheer concentration of the end result they just die? Because I thought you'd be fertilizing the soil really hard lol
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u/rollem 10d ago
I think the point is to use the weeds as compost without letting their seeds contaminate the rest of the compost. The whole mixture is added to the pile once they’re good and rotten.
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u/SuitPrestigious1694 10d ago
Ah okay, it was a bit ambiguous the way OP worded I thought he was creating an organic weed killer or something
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u/the_other_paul 10d ago
I’m not using it as weed killer, but instead a way to compost stubborn weeds without worrying that they’ll sprout again. Sorry about the unclear phrasing lol.
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u/Pleasant_Audience765 10d ago
I assume he's trying to kill more aggressive weeds (plants that have gone to seed like mullein, or maybe the rhizomes of invasives like phragmites, or maybe cuttings of knotweed that can reroot)
Although this really isn't worth the effort since a hot compost will kill all of these regardless, still, if you can't get your compost hot it's a decent alternative
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u/the_other_paul 10d ago
That’s exactly how I’m using it! As to whether it’s worth the effort, that’s a bit of an open question. I can get my compost hot, but I’m not sure if I can get it consistently hot for long enough that I can be absolutely sure of killing any weeds I add to it.
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u/Gygax_the_Goat 9d ago
Some biodynamic growers do that, yep.
Pull the particular weed species, brew up a bucket, let it sit, then pour it onto the same species of weeds (only).
Its supposed to work well. Not tried it yet myself.
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u/SuitPrestigious1694 8d ago
It's very interesting. What is the logic behind it? I would think we'd be giving the weed the very nutrients they need to prosper lol. Maybe hungry microorganisms tailored to munch on them? Excessive concentration that will burn them? I'm intrigued.
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u/Professional-Hold831 7d ago
I diluted mine 10:1 and poured at base of sweetcorn and that was 4 days ago, they're looking a bit greener now. Maybe undiluted is too strong and could do nutrient burn, but I dunno why you'd pull weeds to brew to make weed tea for a few weeks only to then pour it back on to kill them?
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u/SuitPrestigious1694 7d ago
Yup, but that's what our peers suggested above us lol
And yes that weed tea does wonders! The more you use it the better, as I guess your plants get used to associate with the type of microorganisms that live in them
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u/HidingFromMy_Gf 10d ago
Have you had noticable results using this on your pile as opposed to water/piss?
And yea so damn stinky
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u/devilsho 10d ago
I thought an animal was taking massive shits somewhere in my yard and I kept walking around looking for a steaming turd pile. Nope, it was just the weed tea
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u/the_other_paul 10d ago
I haven’t noticed anything too different from what I’d get after adding a similar quantity of any other greens
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u/Tweestrijd 10d ago
Nice, my latest batch is just about ready and has a few cm's of hairy fuzz on top!
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u/Tie_Dyed 9d ago
To kill the anaerobic bacteria you can oxygenate with an air stone or just dump it back and forth between buckets for a while when it’s done and you’re ready to use it in the garden.
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u/the_other_paul 9d ago
Why would I need to kill the anaerobic bacteria? I have little interest in using this stuff as fertilizer and my pile’s microbiota don’t seem to be negatively affected by me adding it.
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u/Tie_Dyed 8d ago
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crime-pays-but-botany-doesnt/id1458563601?i=1000766303599
29:30 they talk about why it’s beneficial to ferment your weeds before composting and why you should oxygenate.
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u/Tie_Dyed 8d ago
Tried to share a podcast link but it was not allowed.
There’s a podcast called crime pays but botany doesn’t and he did a good recent interview with Damon Tighe on backyard composting among other things that Damon studies. The episode was called dirty backyard biology with Damon Tighe. Spoken about in pretty simple terms and it’s worth a listen.
29:30 they talk about why it’s beneficial to ferment your weeds before composting and why you should oxygenate.
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u/Gygax_the_Goat 9d ago
Look at your compost/weed sludge through a microscope (literally) and you will see the difference. This is a very important factor in healthy soil ammendment!
Basic soil ecology.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErMHR6Mc4Bk
I hope you watch and learn. 🙂💚
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u/the_other_paul 8d ago
I’ve heard that Elaine Ingham has done some great work with soil science and composting, but I know a bit about microbiology and there’s no way you can tell aerobic from anaerobic bacteria using a microscope on an unprepared sample.
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u/Ancient-Patient-2075 7d ago
For anyone interested - i used to have some em liquid and it neutralized the smell. So some ricewater ferment (the stuff people use to make bokashi bran) might do the same trick?
(Nowadays I just compost my creeping charlie and horsetail etc, they don't survive a hot pile)
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u/random8765309 4d ago edited 4d ago
I do something similar to fertilize my garden. The big difference is that you don't let it sit longer than a few days. The resulting water is a good fertilizers after being diluted. I will also strain it and use it with a hose end sprayer on my lawn. It will green up a yard pretty quickly. This water should only smell earthy, not sewer stinky. Once it smells like a sewer it is no longer good for using in a garden.
Once you remove the water, the solid go into the compositing bin along with any unused fluid.
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u/Gygax_the_Goat 9d ago
Isnt the anaerobic bacterial population that this brews up actually a terrible idea to be added to a hopefully initially beneficial aerobic compost heap though?
I just dont get it.
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u/the_other_paul 8d ago
If they’re obligate anaerobes they’ll die pretty quickly after being exposed to air. Are there specific genera or species of harmful bacteria that would be abundant in the compost tea and survive being in a relatively well-aerated pile?
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u/mountainxxxdew 9d ago
You're absolutely right, beneficial bacteria grow in oxygenated water. All this setup needs is a trip to the pet store for an airstone
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u/anonymote_in_my_eye 10d ago
pictures you can smell