Composting Tea Bags - How Good Are Tea Bags In The Garden

More than ever, composting tea numberless is communicable on as people become more aware of eco-friendly practices. Whether y'all see information technology as an efficient way of recycling waste or y'all really like to endeavor composting any organic matter left on the kitchen table, composting tea bags benefits both the garden plants and the environment.

But as with all good plans, at that place are usual snags that pop up along the manner and make you wonder if yous're actually helping your plants. Although tea leaves are an excellent organic material for composting, the bags they come in are annihilation but organic. Read on to find out how to pick the correct tea brands to compost and how composting tea bags should be done.

All about Composting Tea Bags

And so what exactly is compost tea, and where did the idea of composting teabags kickoff originate? Composting tea works the way you might expect. You collect the tea numberless, add together water, and allow oxygen in to help the microorganisms brew it into first-charge per unit compost.

The difference betwixt compost tea and other types of fertilizers is that the tea commonly contains a high number of good microbes. These microbes commonly compete with other leaner in the soil over resources. If you have more practiced bacteria than bad pathogens in the soil, your plants volition grow to be healthy and suffer from few fungal- and bacteria-related diseases. Then information technology's in your best interests equally a gardener to compost your tea numberless.

These same microbes that you pour into the soil forth with the tea compost will break downwards the nutrients in the compost and the soil. They plow the nutrients into soluble material that the roots can blot hands, along with the moisture in the soil.

Moreover, the tea bags themselves incorporate organic materials that assist in the composting process. And then in a way, composting tea bags is a self-sufficient process. This is in dissimilarity to composting other materials such as mushroom or banana skin that require manure, gypsum, and other ingredients to help "cook" the compost.

That's all skilful and dandy, merely what about the plastic in the tea bags? Over the past few years, more gardeners have found plastic particles in the soil after using tea bags compost. Every bit we'll come across later, this is a serious problem, and we'll discuss how to get around it and make 100 pct organic compost from tea bags.

Benefits of Composting Tea Bags

And so what makes composting tea bags unlike from other food leftovers? We already mentioned the plethora of expert microorganisms that back-trail the tea bags, from brewing all the fashion to fighting off bad bacteria in the soil and breaking downwards the organic materials in the soil. But hither are some more benefits to consider.

• Tea compost improves the soil's chapters to concord nutrients and moisture.
• The tea leaves comprise almost 4.4 pct of nitrogen, 0.25% phosphorus potassium, and 0.24%.
• Strengthens the roots and promotes the evolution of a robust root system.
• Fights off soil pathogens and bad bacteria.
• It encourages the decomposition of other organic materials in the soil.
• Increases the plant's tolerance to different weather conditions, including high temperature.
• It improves the soil'southward stability and leads to looser and more porous soil for healthier plants.
• Reduces the number of diseases and root problems that you accept to deal with equally a result of diminished pathogens in the soil.

Composting Tea Bags and Plastic

Merely earlier we get to the bodily process of composting tea numberless, we demand to accost the elephant in the room. It's a plastic elephant, and information technology tin can cause serious problems to the plants if you utilize the wrong tea bag brands. Because believe it or non, plastic particles have found their fashion into the making of tea bags. Then when you compost those tea numberless, the tiny plastic particles will cease up in the soil and cause harm to the plants.

It all started in 1971 when a written report found that composting tea numberless along with the tea leaves made for a more potent and well-counterbalanced compost tea.  Fifty-fifty though tea numberless are classified as biodegradable materials, the reality is very much dissimilar. These minor bags dangling from a cord have more polypropylene or non-biodegradable plastic than y'all tin can imagine.

Even the tea numberless listed equally 70 pct or 80 percentage biodegradable shouldn't be composted. That's because this list includes the tea leaves themselves in the calculation. So if you consider that the tea leaves make up almost seventy to 80 percent of the whole weight of the tea pocketbook, that means the numberless are fully non-biodegradable.

And then what tin can you practice most information technology? Well, you lot have ii options hither.

• Apply only fully compostable tea bags from trusted brands. We listing some of the meridian brands that you can compost their tea bags below.
• Rip open up the tea bags and only use the tea leaves to compost. This might add a few more steps to the process of composting tea numberless, merely it will ensure your compost tea is fully organic and plastic-gratuitous.

How to Compost Tea Bags

Although removing the tea bags before y'all compost the tea leaves eliminates about of the plastic components out of the resulting compost tea, in that location's still a lot to exist said almost the crucial role the tea bags play in the composting process. This is particularly true of some of the tea bag brands we list below that employ organic materials such as hemp to make the numberless. Here we detail the steps yous'll follow for composting tea bags.

1. Pick a make clean plastic container for the composting. It should hold a gallon of water for every tea bag you utilize. If you accept a large garden, yous can start with a 3-gallon container.
2. Fill the container with water with temperatures between 60 degrees and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature drops beneath sixty degrees F, the micro-organisms in the mash will go dormant. Higher temperatures above 100 degrees F will kill them.
3. Drop a tea pocketbook of your option for each gallon of water in the container. You can remove the cord and newspaper tags since they don't contribute to the brewing.
4. Use a fish tank air pump to oxygenate the h2o. Turn it on for brief periods to improve the oxygen levels in the container. Don't get out the air pump unattended since information technology might create foam.
5. Leave the container in a dark and warm place for 24 hours. Y'all can utilise a heating mat under the container to keep the water temperature higher up 60 degrees F.
6. The microbes in the tea leaves will get to piece of work breaking down the organic materials in the tea leaves as long every bit there's enough oxygen in the water and the temperature is acceptable.
7. Afterwards the compost tea is fix, you tin fish out the tea bags and apply the brew for fertilizing your plants.

Which Tea Bags to Compost

The question of which tea brands offer fully compostable tea bags and which don't is a thorny effect. Many tea manufacturers go upwardly in arms if someone points a finger at the obscene amounts of plastic particles in the tea bags they sell. So rather than uncover the rotten apples in the basket, we'll merely focus on the good tea brands that you can safely compost.

Yogi

A lesser-known tea make that only sells in large stores. However, if you can get your hands on their tea numberless either online or from a local retailer, you volition accept top-charge per unit compost tea. Their tea bags are fabricated from tree pulp and hemp. Both are excellent organic materials that heighten the composting of the tea leaves and contribute a few nutrients of their ain to the mash.

Tazo

Another visitor that makes tea numberless fully safe to compost. The bags are made of hemp, which is biodegradable. However, the staples are made of aluminum. Although aluminum doesn't rust in or out of the water, there's still a chance it would go out trace amounts of the metal in the brew.

Bigelow

The visitor has two main products. Regular size tea numberless and large tea numberless. If you desire to compost tea bags from Bigelow, then purchase the regular size production. These tea numberless are both bleach- and dioxin-complimentary. The large-size tea bags are a dissimilar story since they are heat-sealed and contain thermoplastic fibers.

How to Employ Compost Tea

Experts recommend that you use your compost tea inside the get-go 36 hours after composting information technology. That's because the brew usually has enough oxygen to sustain the microorganisms for that long. You lot volition need both the nutrients in the mash as well as those good bacteria to enrich the soil and make the plants healthier.

Fill a spray with the compost tea and apply it to your veggies, flowering perennials, and turfgrass during the growing season. Although rich in nitrogen, the compost tea poses no take chances on the roots of the plants.

And before you throw away the used-upwardly tea numberless, become alee and rip the bags open. Utilise the tea leaves leftovers to line upward blossom beds and rows of veggies. It will human activity every bit superior-quality mulch that will eventually break downward and fertilize the soil.

Tips for Composting Tea Bags

Although unproblematic and straightforward, the procedure of composting tea numberless is fraught with perils. Not least of them is using not-biodegradable tea bags and infusing your soil with tiny plastic particles that might finish upwardly in the food you lot eat. So here are a few tips to guide you through this process.

• Don't use tea numberless that contain synthetic fiber. The oestrus of the water will release them into the brew. They are hard to remove from the soil, and they don't degrade.
• When in dubiety, rip the tea handbag open and only use the tea leaves to compost.
• Use tea bags from different brands to create a well-counterbalanced compost tea.
• If the whole tea pocketbook and plastic issue proves to be a hassle and you can't get your hands on fully biodegradable tea bags, accept the bags out of the equation. Just use loose tea leaves to compost and create a nutritious fertilizer. You'll be doing the environment a big favor this style.

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