Manure tea is simply water in which manure has been steeped. By soaking the manure in water for a few weeks much of the goodness in the manure is leached into the water. The resulting liquid is a highly potent fertilizer.
Manure tea or manure water can be made from any farmyard manure. Poultry, pig, horse or cattle manure is all exceptionally nutritious stuff. All the trace elements as well as the ‘biggies’ such as potash, nitrogen and phosphorous, which plants need are contained in animal dung. All types of animal dung are different and will contain different proportions of nutrients. But all animal dung is good! Even zoo-poo will do! Just use whatever is available in your locality.
Although digging manure into the garden is effective it can be impractical especially in the small garden or one used as a recreational area by the whole family. Plus, obtaining large enough amounts of farmyard muck to apply to the garden can be difficult unless you live in a rural area. Applying manure water means you can target the benefits of muck to those plants who really need it easily and without having to get hold of large deliveries of the stuff. Plus all plants take up nutrients dissolved in water so you speed things up for them.
Tomatoes thrive if given a weekly feed with manure tea fertilizer. The fruits will be large and numerous while the plants stay strong. Strong plants can fight off diseases so it pays to keep your plants healthy.
Peppers and chillies also flourish if fed weekly with manure water until the fruits start to set. Then you withhold the feed to encourage the plants to focus on seed (and therefore fruit) production rather than getting too large and lush.
Any plant which has suffered a set back will appreciate the ‘pick-me-up’ qualities of a manure tea tonic. Cabbages (and any other member of the brassica family) really improve if given a dose of liquid manure after an attack by the club-root disease or over-feeding by hungry caterpillars!
Ornamental plants will benefit from a natural liquid fertilizer such as this, too. Roses are particularly glad of such a quick fix when attacked with fungal diseases. Any plant which crops heavily, whether it be a cucumber of a rose is bound to benefit from some nutrient replacement therapy. So make sure you feed them regularly.
This kind of feed is fantastic because you know what goes into it. Not much! If you are dubious about the organic credentials of the manure simply leave it to sit for six months before using. That way you can be sure any veterinary compounds used in commercial animal husbandry are long gone. Even if you did not do this, your homemade manure tea fertilizer is likely to be a lot more environmentally sound than any commercial products. For a start you are recycling. Secondly there is no packaging. Thirdly this stuff lasts for ages! Simply keep topping up your bucket of manure tea, with fresh water until the water stops turning brown. Trust me, that can take years. By then you will have dissolved an awful lot of nutrient from not a lot of poo!
Want to learn how to make manure tea fertiliser or homemade pesticides then visit our Self Sufficient Life website.
