PSA: That week I nearly killed my whole garden with compost tea

Last April I got way too excited about making aerated compost tea for my raised beds. Brewed up 5 gallons with molasses and let it sit for 36 hours instead of the normal 24. Ended up spraying everything including my prize tomatoes and by day 3 the plants had this slimy brown rot on the leaves. Lost about 80% of my lettuce patch and had to rip out all the infected leaves on my zucchini. Has anyone else messed up their garden by over-fermenting compost tea?

2 comments

2 Comments

richard_hall3d ago

Bet that molasses really fed the wrong stuff when it went anaerobic.

leo_campbell3d ago

Man that's rough. Letting it sit that extra 12 hours probably let the bad bacteria take over and go anaerobic on you. I've done the same thing before with a batch that got left in the sun too long, turned my whole garden into a science experiment gone wrong.