Organic Gardening Class – Making Soil Activators Brewing up Comfrey, Nettle or Borage Tea

Learn to make nutrient-rich soil activators like Comfrey, Nettle, or Borage Tea here are the secrets of soil enrichment and sustainability. Dive into the world of organic gardening as we delve into the art of making soil activation teas using powerhouse plants like Comfrey, Nettle, or members of the Borage family. These nutrient-rich brews are essential for promoting healthy plant growth, enriching the soil, and fostering a thriving ecosystem in your garden. Brew up these natural elixirs that will supercharge your garden’s fertility and vitality.

The Importance of Nitrogen

Nitrogen is the basic element soil or compost needs to have in sufficient quantities for the plant to produce healthy leaves and stems; this inturn will enable the plant to photosythesise effectivley and remain healthy. Nettles are a very good indication of showing the quality of nitrogen within the soil if they are green and healthy then your soil has a good nitrogen content. Here is a picture of nettles growing on subsoil and also nettles growing on our compost heap within 2 m of each other:

Nettles are stunted and yellow showing a lack of nitrogen
Nettles are green and lush showing large avaialble qualntities of nitrogen growing on the compost heap

You can make these brews from Borage, Comfrey AND OR Nettles, turning weeds into somethis really useful! This is what comfrey looks like:

This is what nettles look like:

Most plants in the Borage or Boraginaceae family can be used to make bio teas this would include:

Pentaglottis sempervirens and Borago officinalis

These plants are nitrogen indicators and draw nitrogen from the soil very efficiently. Nitrogen, or ‘N’, is very important for plants to develop leaves and stems and will especially help them to effectively photosynthesize. By making a soil-activating tea, you can also use this to activate the bacteria in the soil that breaks down organic matter, thus releasing even more important nutrients for your plants to take up!

Heres the Step by Step process for making bio teas

First harvest the leaves and foliage of nettles, comfrey and or borage you can also add grass clippings. Spread them out on a grassed area

You will then need to cut the material up as small as possible. You can use secatuers, shears or even a lawn mower like the video below:

Once the material is sufficiently shredded, put it into sacks made out of a permeable material like hessian or a woven polypropylene.

Tie off the tops of the sacks so that the material cannot spill out and spread weed seeds when it goes into the water. Place up to 3 full sacks into a water butt, weigh them down with stones on the top, and fill the butt with water.

  1. When a foul smell emanates from the water butt, don’t fret, as the tea will be ready to use after a few months when the odor dissipates.
  2. Dilute the tea using the same ratio as you would when preparing a jug of orange squash.
  3. Pour the diluted tea onto the soil surrounding your plants.