Research Summary

Compost Tea
by Roland Evans, 2005

Compost tea is the organic answer to chemical fertilizers. It produces stronger healthier plant growth with increased immunity to disease. Best of all, the benefits increase year-by-year as the enhanced soil ecology becomes increasingly sustainable.

Teas made of manures or composts have been around for hundreds of years but recently aerobic brewing has drastically increased the benefits. Modern compost tea is the baby boom of microbial growth; it enormously multiplies the population of beneficial bacteria and fungi by pumping air through a liquid mixture of high quality compost and special nutrients. The resulting brown solution is diluted and sprayed on the soil and plant leaves.

The benefits are extraordinary. The microorganisms in the compost tea not only increase soil fertility, they also protect plants from disease and attack by pathogens. This results in larger, stronger, healthier plants that resist environmental and biological stresses. And because compost tea works naturally, with each application you increase the health and productivity of your soil and decrease the need for extra plant nutrients.

Sales of compost tea brewers double each year as domestic and commercial gardeners begin to recognize the enormous benefits of a natural approach to soil fertility. Many landscape businesses are now regularly spraying their customer’s gardens with tea rather than fertilizers. Cities such as San Francisco and Vail in Colorado are using compost tea as part of their land management programs to reduce the use of pesticides and fungicides.

There is growing scientific evidence that compost tea produces results far beyond anything chemicals can achieve. My brother, John Evans, who lived in Alaska, has won nine world records for giant vegetables and over 400 first place awards for quality vegetables (click here for incredible pictures). He uses only an organic system based on a specially developed compost tea. A 19 pound carrot and a 75 pound Swiss chard are wonders to behold!

In my own garden at 7,400 feet in the Rocky Mountains the soil is mostly decomposed granite. In the two years of using a compost tea system, my garden has begun to look like those familiar from my childhood in the British Isles. Now my flowerbeds thrive and bloom even under the burning sunlight. I grow 28 varieties of vegetable: the carrots and parsnips are large and sweet, the peas and beans keep producing throughout the summer, the tomatoes taste like real tomatoes! Compost tea has worked wonders.

There are a number of brewing systems on the market and not all of these are equal in effectiveness. To produce good tea you have to have compost rich in bacteria and fungi, an aerobic system and proper nutrients. Equipment typically includes a brewing container, a pump, and aerator to oxygenate the water and a supply of compost and nutrients. The tea is brewed over a period of a day or so and then applied to the soil or plants in the correct dilution.

In choosing your brewer there are a number of factors to look for in addition to cost:
• The brewing system should be relatively simple and straightforward. More expensive and complex brewers do not produce better tea.
• You should satisfy yourself that the brewed tea has the appropriate levels of beneficial microbes. This is shown both by the results it produces and through testing by organizations such as the Soil Foodweb Incorporated.
• You need to know the quality of the compost supplied or suggested. Many systems use worm castings rather than compost; these may not always have the required spread of microbial life. Your own compost may work well but it depends on the species of bacteria and fungi it contains.
• The nutrients for tea brewing vary greatly. All tend to include something like molasses but it is often the other ingredients that make the difference.
• Properly brewed tea smells “sweet” and tends to foam. Any sourness shows that the brewer produces anerobic tea that is unusable.

The Bountea Compost Tea System was developed with all of the above factors in mind. It uses a simple and relatively inexpensive brewing system to produce a compost tea that greatly exceeds the standards for bacterial and fungal vitality. The developer, John Evans, holds numerous “Guinness Book of World Records” for vegetables that are not only large but also healthy and taste good! The incredible success of the tea depends on its superlative ingredients: high quality “Alaska Humisoil” compost and a specially designed propriety bioactivator. Bountea Compost Tea is the most effective natural growing system available.

First published in the Colorado Gardener, April 2005
Revised Jan. 2006

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Return to Research Summary

• View John Evans and his incredible Giant Vegetables in: The Secret is in the Soil
• Read what our customers say about the Bountea Compost Tea System
• Learn more about soil ecology