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Millions of people of all ages drink tea brewed from fermented or green leaves every day. The drink has become so popular that meeting guests and lunch breaks is indispensable without it. Restless housewives also find a use for the cake left after drinking tea. Garden and indoor flowers can benefit from drinking tea as a fertilizer. Welding improves the composition of the soil, nourishes the root system, and therefore increases the decorative properties of plantings and the quality of the harvest.
Making tea
Compost
The easiest way to make the most of your tea leaves is to add them to your compost pile. The tea will enrich your compost with elements beneficial to plants. In particular, dried tea leaves are a natural source of nitrogen.
In addition, tea leaves, due to the tannins they contain, activate decomposition processes, which means that the compost will rot faster.
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Before adding tea leaves to your compost pile, be sure to check that the bag and tag do not contain synthetic elements that cannot be digested by microorganisms. Such materials are usually smooth to the touch, and it is difficult to confuse them with paper. If the tea bag is not natural, remove it before composting.
It is also a good idea to use used tea bags to wipe down indoor plants. This way you will not only carefully clean the leaves from dust, but also feed the flowers.
Spent tea as fertilizer for indoor plants
The used tea leaves are also used in indoor floriculture. There are at least 4 possible directions for its use:
- Foliar feeding. Water the pot with the remaining liquid from the teapot 1-2 times a month. Or make a special infusion of drunk tea for this. Ferns and cacti respond well to this feeding.
- Improving soil quality. Add dry tea leaves in any quantity to the soil mixture for indoor flowers. This ingredient will not only increase the nutritional value of the soil, but also improve its breathability and protect against mold formation.
- Drainage. Tea leaves for flowers can replace expanded clay if you place it at the bottom of the pot. Dried bags will do the job best.
- Pet protection. Relying on the specific smell of sleeping tea, it is recommended to use it as mulch to protect pots from attacks by cats.
Thus, the tea leaves that just yesterday went into the trash can will allow you to achieve abundant flowering and rich greenery on the windowsills.
Fertilizer
Tea leaves can be used as an environmentally friendly fertilizer at any stage of plant growth. Applying such tea fertilizers is very simple - just dig them in the top layer of soil in the tree trunk circles. Gradually decomposing, the fertilizer will saturate the soil with nitrogen.
The big advantage of this fertilizer is that it has a prolonged effect and releases elements gradually.
It also doesn’t hurt to bury some ash in the soil along with the tea leaves.
If you plan to apply tea leaves for planting, it is recommended to dry it first. Dried sleeping tea can be poured directly into the holes.
If you drink tea with sugar, the tea leaves must be rinsed before use. Otherwise, ants will crawl onto the “sweet stuff”.
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Methods of application
To make fertilizer, you can only collect loose leaf tea without additives or artificial flavors. The bags are not suitable for use in the garden or vegetable garden, since the leaves inside them are ground too finely and resemble more like ordinary dust, often with the addition of dyes. For any of the methods, the tea leaves must first be dried. It is better to dry in a dark place, since direct sunlight negatively affects the microelements contained in the leaves. High heat is not recommended.
In tablet form
The use of various ready-made tablets for seedlings has become a common practice for gardeners and gardeners. It is possible to significantly accelerate the appearance of the first shoots, as well as simplify the application of fertilizers in the first weeks of cultivation. Instead of peat tablets, you can use tea tablets made with your own hands.
On a note!
It is better to use tea with medium leaves or small fractions. Kenyan and Indian varieties are sold in this format.
There is no need to dry the tea too much, since you will need to add a little water to hold the mass together. For the tablets you will also need peat, coconut substrate in the proportions of 3:1:0.5, where 3 parts of tea. Mix everything thoroughly, pour in a little water until the mixture is slightly moistened. Line a small tea or coffee cup with cling film, place 3 tablespoons of the mixture inside, wrap, and press on a flat surface. You can plant the seedlings right away, or you can dry them, leaving the ends of the shell open, then store them and use them during the planting season.
Seed filler
Making your own filler for sowing seeds is more difficult than it might seem. Excess of active fertilizers of any kind should be avoided. The seedlings will stretch out very quickly without forming the necessary support, which is undesirable. Tea is a good filler because the leaves release nutrients slowly and in small quantities.
The leaves can be used in combination with peat and sand, with turf soil. The main soil should make up two-thirds of the total filler volume. Dry the tea first so that the soil does not become moldy and small midges do not appear in it.
Tea compost
Making complete tea compost is difficult. Firstly, you will need a lot of brewed tea. Secondly, due to tannins, the mass will rot very slowly, it will dry out more quickly. Constant moisture will be required, which can lead to the appearance of insects and parasites. The smell from such homemade compost will be pungent, so it is better not to store the container with tea in a house or apartment.
The best option for using tea leaves is to add tea leaves to regular classic compost up to a volume of about 20 percent of the total mass. The leaves, by releasing their enzymes, will significantly accelerate the decomposition of other organic components, so the compost will be ready for use in much less time. You can apply this compost with tea according to the standard fertilization scheme.
On a note!
You can use both green and black tea for this purpose. Exotic varieties of blue, white, and yellow species will not spoil the overall mass, but they will not bring much benefit either.
Fertilizer
As a classic fertilizer, you can use either freshly brewed tea, not yet dry, or pre-dried tea, and even an infusion of such raw materials. The first option is best suited for open ground. It is better to combine tea leaves with ash, which is added during planting or digging.
When adding fresh tea leaves that are still wet, you can ignore the growth phase of the crop. At any time, you can add leaves to the soil and carefully dig them up. Fertilizer with dry tea leaves is suitable for indoor plants. They must be added in small quantities to the soil during transplantation.
It is better to put fertilizer directly into the holes in the spring, since quite a lot of tea will be needed. Half a kilogram per square meter is an average calculation for moderately alkaline soils. If the PH imbalance is obvious, the dosage should be increased to 0.7 kilograms per meter.
A nutritious infusion can be prepared as follows: pour 1 glass of dry tea leaves with 3 liters of boiling water. Leave until completely cool. It is advisable to use it within the first 24 hours. There is no need to dose this fertilizer; it can simply be used when watering instead of regular water. This is an excellent option when additional feeding is needed in the middle of the season. A small concentration of microelements will not harm even the weakest plants, but will strengthen them.
Improving soil structure
You should place dry or still wet tea in the soil before digging if it is necessary to improve the properties of the soil in a particular area. First of all, in this way you can loosen and lighten the overall mass. It is worth using the largest tea leaves. Thanks to the concentration of tannins, they do not rot for a long time even in conditions of high humidity, so one application per year will be quite enough.
Tea leaves are also capable of:
- help in the fight against fungal plant diseases;
- reduce the risk of mold;
- reduce alkaline level.
On a note!
You can determine that there is too much alkali in the soil in a simple way: just pour a little vinegar on the ground in an area where there will be no plantings. If a chemical reaction with hissing is noticeable, then the pH is far from neutral.
Getting rid of mold is especially important for those who grow flowers and vegetables at home, actively use greenhouses and small enclosed front gardens. To achieve a stable result, it is worth adding dry tea leaves, and annually. Throughout the season, the fertilizer will gradually decompose, releasing all the useful microelements to the plants and soil.
Mulching with tea
One of the easiest ways to use old tea leaves is to turn it into mulch. By covering the soil with such a protective layer, you can protect it from excessive drying out and cracking, even in adverse weather conditions. The number of weeds will also decrease.
You can mulch the soil in this way even in spring and early summer. The leaves will remain light after watering, so young shoots will easily emerge into the light. In the fall, the entire accumulated layer can be dug up along with the soil; it will serve as additional fertilizer.
Using tea leaves as tea leaves is a universal way to improve the quality of the soil and strengthen the immunity of the plants themselves. It can be used in areas of risky farming, in black soil, and even in the southern regions. Dried leaves can be stored for a long time, so you should start collecting tea leaves in the fall in order to make an excellent fertilizer from it in the spring.
Tablets for seedlings
Used tea bags may well serve as a worthy alternative to peat tablets for growing seedlings.
It is enough to open the top of the bag, add a layer of universal soil for seedlings on top and sow the seeds there. When shoots appear and the seedlings reach the picking phase, they can be transplanted into pots or open ground directly in a tea bag.
The tea leaves will serve as a good fertilizer. In addition, such a transplant will not damage the roots of the young plant. For some crops (for example, pepper), this is a real salvation, because they react painfully to picking.
How does tea leaves affect soil and plants?
Conventional brewing methods, even repeated ones, cannot completely wash out all the substances that make them useful from the leaves of the tea bush. They retain tannin compounds in large quantities, which are especially useful in gardening. At the same time, thoroughly dried raw materials can gradually release microelements into the soil or plant roots for a long time.
The effect of tea on plants
Infusion with tannins is useful, which:
Dry leaves contain:
Boron, aluminum, and manganese are found in small quantities. All of them contribute to the active formation and strengthening of roots, leaves, buds and inflorescences. As a result, the plant becomes stronger and produces a significantly larger harvest in the presence of other favorable factors. Large leaf tea, which is what is recommended to be used, when added to the soil will make it looser, lighter, softer, and will help natural ventilation, which is also very useful for most crops.
What plants to use for
Organic fertilizer in the form of tea leaves or compost made from them will have a good effect on vegetable crops, berry bushes, and aromatic herbs. All plants that need strong green shoots, active photosynthesis and the formation of a large number of fruit ovaries will respond positively to fertilizing.
The fertilizer is not used for root crops, crops that grow well in dense and heavy soil. Fertilizing is also not advisable for crops that can “grow fat,” that is, actively grow above-ground foliage and stems to the detriment of fruits or the underground part, which is harvested.
Advantages and disadvantages
Many gardeners like using tea leaves. The following advantages stand out in particular:
- the soil is enriched with potassium, calcium, magnesium and other useful elements;
- the soil structure improves, the earth becomes looser, therefore air and moisture penetrate deeper;
- natural composition;
- minimum price, availability at any time of the year.
Disadvantages of feeding:
- excess tea leaves (especially fresh) often leads to the formation of mold;
- tea leaves help increase the acidity of the soil (it is added only to alkaline soil).
As mulch
As a mulching material that prevents the growth of weeds, promotes moisture retention in the soil and saturates it with nitrogen, well-dried large-leaf tea leaves are most often used rather than sleeping bags. Wet tea leaves are completely unsuitable for this purpose: quickly becoming moldy, it will only attract hordes of woodlice and small midges to the area, forcing the gardener to look for a means to destroy them. To prevent the mulch from becoming moldy, it is necessary to loosen it regularly. If it is still not possible to avoid the formation of mold, the old layer is immediately removed and replaced with a new one.
Sleeping tea bags buried in the top layer of garden soil can also serve as mulch to prevent weeds from growing.
Tea composition
Large-leaf tea leaves are used more often as a fertilizer because they consist of a larger number of important substances:
- Potassium. A record holder in the composition of tea leaves, it is necessary for the complete nutrition of plants.
- Manganese. Keeps redox reactions within normal limits, stimulating the development of the root system of plantings.
- Sodium. Participates in the metabolism of sugars.
- Calcium. Improves intracellular metabolism.
- Iron. The mineral is necessary for normal respiration of living cultures.
- Magnesium. Takes part in the process of photosynthesis. If there is too little of it, crops wither.
In lower concentrations, dormant and fresh tea contains tannins and vitamins.
