Return to newsroom

Compost Tea machine

Millais Nurseries have just taken delivery of a Compost Tea brewer. No we are not into any catering, but this is the way ahead for healthy plants. Compost tea is part of our green revolution to grow healthy plants with minimal use of chemicals. Richly organic humic soil is composted in Switzerland and is then placed in the brewer with a catalyst, and bubbled with highly oxygenated water for 24 hours to brew compost tea, full of beneficial bacteria and microbes. We then dilute this and spray onto our plants every 10 -14 days to keep them free from leaf spots, Phytophthora, mildews and a whole host of other diseases.

The Swiss compost is made by Bionika to a scientifically proven method. It is pending full Soil Association approval. See http://www.bionika.ch for details. The brewing machine is an American product made by Oregon company Growing Solutions Inc.(www.growingsolutions.com) and was recently featured in the cult werewolf film ‘Twilight’ last year! Whilst both companies have been established for a good number of years with proven success on a number of different crops, our machine is one of the first to be commissioned in the UK.

We have high hopes that Compost Tea will produce a clean and healthy crop of Rhododendrons when alternated with other ‘non-chemical’ products such as seaweed, sulphur, citrus seed oil and garlic. It is much safer for our staff also!

Article Date: 10 May 2009