alfalfa tea concentrate?

I've never tried alfalfa tea although I've been an organic gardener for 10 years or so. I've read several recipes for making the tea and if I am reading them right I'm not supposed to dilute it. If I don't dilute it so that it goes further I'll be making tea all month. I have a lot to fertilize. It'll take 2 33 gal cans to make enough for my yard and I don't really have room for 2 cans of tea. We also have some commercial property where our business is and I have enough plants there to use most of a third can.

If I put 3 times the amount of alfalfa in do I get 3 times the amount of foam? And will the tea be 3 times as concentrated?

Thanks much for your answers.

I have never made alfalfa tea, but I have made compost tea and I dilute it about half and half, and if i an using it in a hose sprayer I dilute it even more.
With the alfalfa tea I think you could do the same, also if you don't have enough containers you could do half your garden and then the other with the second batch.
I prefer to use regular compost in general, and then the tea as a boost.
I hope this helps.
Josephine.

Thanks Josephine. Yes it did help. Would you share your whole recipe? Is there a reason for using compost tea instead of alfalfa tea? I'm considering adding goat or llama poop to the alfalfa too. Would that be a good thing to try?
BTW should this thread be in the composting forum instead? I'm not getting much response here.

If you're counting on it as fertilizer I don't know that I'd dilute it, but if you're using other things as your primary fertilizer and this is just a boost then it doesn't matter as much. As far as making it more concentrated I have never made alfalfa tea but hopefully someone else will know. This forum is a fine place for your question by the way--there doesn't tend to be as much traffic here as on some of the other forums so discussions will sometimes go a bit slower. I know there have been some threads about alfalfa tea in the past so you might try searching for those.

Yes, I do need to use as fertilizer. I tried looking for other threads about alfalfa tea before I started this one, but I guess I missed seeing the others. I never understood how to use that tagging system. Can you explain how to use that?

The easiest way to use the tags in this case is go to your home page, and at the bottom of the list of most recent tags you'll see a link to view all tagged pages. Click that, and then look for alfalfa tea in the list (it's in alphabetical order so you shouldn't have to look too far). If it turns out that nobody's tagged the good threads, you can also use Google to search, either use the advanced search and limit results to davesgarden.com or just type alfalfa tea davesgarden.com in and it'll be mostly DG results that show up.

Thanks Ecrane. Let's see what I come up with.:)

Well thanks Ecrane. This is the first time I have felt like I understood the tag stuff. I tagged some alfalfa threads so I could go back and read them. One of them is really long. Can you make this tea while it's still cold? After I take the plants out of the gh I can make tea in there where it's not seen from the street and the aquarium pump can stay out of the weather. But for now I have to make it in our wood shop which is not heated. At least in the work room it isn't. I can put it in the bathroom which is heated, but it'll be a bit crowded in there.

I've only made tea from worm castings, never alfalfa. For the worm tea you can still make it when it's chilly out but it takes longer to brew than it does in warmer weather.

Ok. I started a small batch of tea at the shop in the bathroom in a 5 gal can, but I bought a 32 gal can last night so I'm going to try a new batch in that. I think I'll add some dry humate and molasses. It should be nice and smelly by the weekend.:)

Ok I used my first batch of tea. I added 1/2 cup of liquid molasses to the 4 gallons of tea and then diluted the tea 1 quart to a gallon. I forgot to wash it off the leaves after so the next morning the leaves were slightly burned. But after I hosed them off they looked better.

After that I used the leftover alfalfa in another batch. I filled a 32 gal can 2/3 full and put the leftover alfalfa in some old pantyhose and then added (using a 16 oz plastic cup) 7 glasses more alfalfa. I also added about 3 16 oz cups of dry humate. I forgot to add molasses, so I'll do that today. And I think before I use it I'll add Epsom salts.

Mary Lee, I dilute my alfalfa tea. I have to make it in 5-gallon buckets, and I can only have a couple of those sitting around. But I also add compost, when I have it, so it's a mix of both. I usually add a lot of different things to it, but two regular ingredients are liquid seaweed and molasses (either dry or liquid). Sometimes epsom salts, but not every time. When the bucket is about 1/3 empty I refill it, and I keep doing that until the tea doesn't have much color left. I use some of the sludge and compost the rest.

Oh Patti, I'm so glad to hear that. I thought I was the only one.lol I have so much area that needs it and very little room in the gh. I brought all my ferns in the house and really made a mess with them, but I had bugs in the gh I had to spray for. So since they are already out, I'm going to use that space to make tea and I'll have to use a 5 gal bucket. All the floor space is already used so there's no room for the 35 gal can I bought. I bought an aquarium pump to aerate the tea and I don't want to have the pump sittin' outside in the weather. I'll start using the big can after I clear out the gh next month hopefully.

How much alfalfa and compost do you use? And when do you add the liquid seaweed and molasses and how much?

where are you getting alfalfa?

how much alfalfa to a 5 gal bucket?

Jerry

Jerry, I get mine at feed stores. Some organic nurseries sell it too.

Mary Lee, I'm really not at all exact. I believe the formula I read somewhere said 1/2 c pellets to a gallon, so I put in something that resembles 2-3 cups of alfalfa. I usually put in about a 2" layer of compost. The molasses I add right away, because it speeds up the fermentation process. I couldn't tell you how much. If it's liquid, probably about a cup; if it's dry, I just throw in some handfuls.

Another thing I add sometimes is corn meal, since it's an anti-fungal. I've gotten fairly creative the last couple of years--any leftovers from my kitchen might go in there. I add leftover coffee for a small nitrogen boost; milk because it's anti-fungal; soda pop for sugar; beer for yeast. (My experience is that the benefit from the yeast outweighs any negatives from the alcohol.) If I don't have beer around, I try to add a package of yeast. Sometimes I add a half cup of cider vinegar, to soften the water and lower our high ph. Course, that all makes it smell even worse, but then, nothing smells worse than the alfalfa! I'm not sure why, but my plants really love this concoction, more than they did just the alfalfa.

I also used to use a pump and air stones, but I don't have a place to shelter the pump, so that got too hard to do. It also benefits from the heat of the sun. So now I just set it out on the patio and stir it 2-3 times a day, and make sure it's bubbling a little. I usually let it sit for about 3 days, but it's often ready in 2.

That concoction is really my whole organic fertilizer program. We still have to spread the Texas Tea (sp) on the grass, and Texas greensand I spread dry because it doesn't dissolve in the tea. And of course anything we have to do for pests (neem, beneficial nematodes) gets done separately. But the tea takes care of most everything else.

By the way, you know how TJ makes his famous compost tea? He does it anaerobically--he just fills barrels with green and brown matter, and fills the barrel with water. Covers it and leaves it two weeks. Very easy.

Thanks very much for those ideas. They sound really good. I can easily add beer or yeast and there's always some coffee left. I would think though if you add molasses you wouldn't need soda pop. Doesn't that have sodium in it?

How much do you dilute it? I'm going to use a hose end sprayer.

I don't know because I pour mine as a drench, with jugs or watering cans, and dilute by the color. I would think it would be hard to do with a hose-end sprayer. Seems to me that would be too much dilution, and/or having to do too many refills. You'd just have to try it and see how fast it loses its color. Might have better luck with a pump sprayer.

I tried that with the last batch I made, but it just took forever. I did about half of it that way and then switched to using a hose end sprayer set on 8 oz per gallon. I sprayed until the canister was empty in about a 5 foot area and then refilled. I'm not sure which method really took longer. I think maybe I'll just do the soil drench method once a year and then use it as a foliar spray every month. As a foliar spray I think you dilute it to 1 1/2 T pergallon or maybe 1 1/2 oz per gallon. I need to go back and read that again. I think that way 5 gallons will be more than enough.

I'll bet that would work. I've never tried it as a foliar spray, but then again, this is the only fertilizer I use. I do it once a month, and yes, in my little postage-stamp lot, it still takes at least an afternoon to cover all the beds. That wouldn't be workable in a larger area.

I found in the gardenology section in guides and info up top. click on the "A" and go down to Alfalfa tea and there is a nice long article/definition there. I just made my first batch and its now ready to use. We've just had a lot of rain the last couple of days.

Darla

Darlacooper did you make yours concentrated?

I just followed the directions. I have a 32 gal barrel. Now if it would stop raining for a bit I'd use it on my plants.

Darla