Weed Tea

Flatland

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Been reading about making weed tea. I have wondered whether weed seeds can survive the process and when you use the tea you end up spreading weeds. Has anyone made weed tea if so how do you know when the seeds have been in the water long enough to rot & no longer viable?
 

ClissAT

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Yes what a good & thought provoking question, Flatland.

I would also be very interested to hear whether others here have used weed tea & how they dealt with this seed problem.

It's always been one of the great unanswered in my mind.
It's always hard to know whether it was my weed tea usage or just natural seeding that caused an area to become covered in weeds again. :D Weed seeds can wait in the soil for up to many years before germinating.

I think soaking time might also be different for different weeds seeds.
Only one way to prove it Flatland, & that is to do some test patches but the variables could send you bonkers. :D

I use extra large plastic garbage bins with well fitting lids to keep mozzies out to make my weed tea in.
I fill the bin with weeds & maybe a little chook or cow poo, top up with water, lid on & forget it is there!
Come back around 2mths later, bucket off the water & top up again. I do that maybe 3-4 times before turning the slop into a newly dug bed & starting again with fresh weeds.
All that time I would usually have 3 bins on the go so always one being used while the others have been forgotten. I do the same with organic lucerne hay using one biscuit in the large bin.

Because I leave my beds to fallow & the old plants to freely seed after a crop, it is hard to know whether I bought in the weeds in the weed tea or if it was natural seeding. In anycase I feed those to the horses or dig them in to improve the soil.

So I'll be very interested to read other's replies to this question.
 

Mark

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I can't say I've ever made weed tea but I do compost weeds and get contaminated compost in the garden - it doesn't worry me too much though because weed seeds would be there anyway they blow in from all over the bushland behind us.

I've made other teas from comfrey and manures or duck bucket water.
 

David - coona

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I have done the Lucerne tea (today) on some brassica transplants, cauliflower, Brussels and red cabbage. First time I have tried it, looking forward to the results.
 
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