That was absolutely fascinating Stephen. I have memories of my grandfather telling me about how to use tea leaves in the garden but I had never seen the science before. It was really great to be able to help you get these numbers together. Thank you so much for the link and the acknowledgement my friend, I was only too happy to help. I will make sure that I point people from my channel to this in my next video. All the best mate.
We bought a Rhododendron some time ago and the vendor (A Rhodo expert & grower) said, more or less, "They LOVE a drink of cold tea if there's any left in the pot."
***** Been exceptionally hot for June, mid to upper 90's, and it has slowed down the tomato production a bit! Just got 3" of rain as well. All in all, we've been doing a lot of canning ; )
My garden worms do the same with my tea leaves ! Some of these videos are based on the great tips my grandparents gave me. Now we know why they were right !
one thing... the ph of the used tea leaves are probably highly affected by the water parameters used to brew them. if you live in an area where water his harder the ph should likely be higher due to disolved minerals, the micronutrients might also be higher in concentration in really hard water. you should do more tests with different kinds of water. for example the ph of the tap water i get floats in the 8 to nine range, with an incredibly high hardness.
Hi there I have a question for you. Is it true that if you spray your tomatoes plants with an aspirin mixture it will trick them into producing a hormone to make the plant healthier and stronger? Thanks.
Do you think green vs black tea has a big difference? I drink green tea and I just started saving it and putting it in my worm bin, but maybe I shouldn't since it has a low ph according to your results.
Don't put more than what you drink on the worms and you will be fine. The worms and the rest of the mix should neutralize out. There should be a few differences but very small.
Great series of testing videos you've done, totally enjoyed them. I wished the tea leaves had been higher in nitrogen, that's what I was hoping for as I am unable to get spent coffee grounds. Look forward to your next testing video.
Happy Gardener My understanding is that the nitrogen number Stephen gave is the immediately available nitrogen. The total nitrogen, which would be available after decomposition, would be considerably higher.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening Thanks for the reply. Why do you think that it would be higher after decomposition though? Do you know of any other examples of this happening, does it happen with most composted things?
Happy Gardener Nitrogen is a key component of proteins. It wouldn't necessarily be available until the proteins are broken down by bacteria, worms, and/or small arthropods. Then their waste would be much higher in nitrogen.
Happy Gardener Yes, it is normal for nitrogen to be tied up in organic matter until the material is broken down. That's part of what makes compost and organic mulches so great for your garden. They release nutrients slowly over time. If you look at 4:32 in the video, you'll see that the nitrogen numbers only represent available nitrogen. The leaves likely contain significantly more unavailable nitrogen.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening 4:32 is talking about the PH not Nitrogen? Slightly side tracking from the results for a moment, my hopes for high Nitrogen content with the tea leaves was it could be used to add to compost piles to heat them up like coffee grounds do. I would of suspected tea leaves would not work as well as coffee grounds for heating the pile up? Although comparing Stephens video with the coffee grounds to this video with the tea leaves. Coffee grounds and Stephen says the NPK is N: 0.00036 P: 0.3208 K: 2.41 Compare that to the tea leaves in this video NPK: N: 0.11 P: 0.101 K: 0.988 Those results suggest at least that the tea leaves are higher in nitrogen than the coffee grounds? So would the tea leaves heat the compost pile up as quick and hot, if not more so than coffee grounds?
Why remove the bags? I would think they would compost better than other paper products commonly used as brown material, I don't compost any paper products 'other' than tea bags.
Good stuff as usual, Stephen. Thanks for sharing. One of my latest concerns was finding out that the tea bags now contain plastic. What is your opinion of composting or feeding the bags to worms? I've stopped both.
If they have plastic they just won't break down. In order for any plastic product to be food safe it has to be inert. It would be more of a pain seeing bags than any risk.
Awesome video, but what I really want to know is, can I just sprinkle my used tea leaves over the soil of my houseplants or use room temperature brewed tea as the watering source? How often? Are different teas and tisanes better for this than others?
Hi, I have a question, can you use the liquid from boiling amaranth or nightshade plants as a fertilizer because assuming that nutrients from these plants will leach into the water. I need to know if there is any science to back it up. Thanks.
There is some but generally its quite weak and often ineffective. what is a better idea is to add them to your compost and recycle them there. I would not add them to the mulch layer as that may allow diseases to develop that can impact your crops.
I asked because I drink only herbal teas. When I tried regular English tea it was too strong for me. There's a significant difference in taste so I thought maybe some trace minerals in regular tea? Just a thought.
I believe near 4 I could not find the paper before I produced this however one yard revolution did a clip a few weeks back where he spoke of the total numbers.
***** Stephen I hope you know I like you and your channel very much but this clip is not up to your usual standards. You should have got that information and THAN do the video afterwards. To an untrained uneducated newbie this will give the wrong idea about Tea Leaves. IMHO.
OMG I love you. Thank you for sharing. I've just into gardening in the last 1.5. I made my outdoor Year round Green house. I also have been growing indoors. I have large bay windows and I turned my China Cabinet into my little Kitchen Greenhouse complete with fluorescent light & a small fan over a glass of Rain water to keep moisture in the air. Can I use lemon peel or orange peel or juices for my plants that need acidic soil? example: Blue berries?
+A Araneta I am glad you enjoyed it. I would not recommend citrus juice to change the pH as its too variable and hard to control. The only reliable method is sulfur amendment as it is slow and works consistently. Sorry I have not found a free way to do this yet.
Have you tried green tea or herbal tea leaves? How would they compare? You ran the lab tests on the leaves, right? What would the results be if you tested the use of the actual tea instead of the fresh or used leaves? How would all of these items compare to using compost tea? Whose brand of tea gives the best test results of all the major brands on the market? Seems like some more research would be helpful. Finally were these tests run in lab controlled conditions? Looks like you were just making the tea in a kitchen so that might have affected the test results.
This is very interesting Stephen, It does prove that waste tea is good for gardens, But I wonder what affect tea oxidisation has on the nutrient present from white (least mature), green to black (most mature). Most teas are different blends and so I would think the results would differ from tea type to the place the tea is grown. I think it would be of interest to compare the prefer conditions of growing tea and how this affects the nutrients intake, as this will give an idea of nutrient present. you could have commented how the tea tasted? If you are looking for fertilizer plants that can be grown for extracting and accumulating soil nutrients the following may be of interest of future investigation (the lettesr behind signifies the nutrients supplied- chicory (Ca, Mg, K) Coltsfoot (Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg) Dandelion (Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, P) Meadowsweet (Ca, Fe, Mg , P) Nettles (Ca, Cu, Fe, K) Plantain (Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg) Silverweed (Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg) Vetches (Cu, K, P) Watercress (Ca, Fe, K, Mg, P) That your work cut out.
Very interesting. Thank you. It will cotinue to go on my compost pile. I don't remove teh bags though, not sure why you do this as it wil all break down.
I use fall leaves, coffee grounds, eggshells, tea leaves ext in my mulch layer. Those materials feed the nutrient cycle. adding sugars to the system has the potential to increase pathogenic bacteria which increases the risks of getting sick. Using the above mentioned materials allows the community to self regulate while adding nutrients to the soil for the plants.
Did you drink all that tea Stephen? I have travelled a great deal in the USA and Canada, but the lack of English tea and the lovely warm colonial weather put me off living there. Drinking tea, warm beer and complaining about the horrible British weather is in our DNA. :) Have you done a video about spent hops? Mulching and composting this free resource?
To be fair I am a coffee man myself so a friend of mine I work with was missing the good English stuff so I gave him the few remaining. The tests took a lot ! I have not done anything on hops but I will be helping a local brew pub grow their own :)
Cool.. a quick question !!! at the bottom of my compost Bin its really wet... I've started to add more Carbon to the Mix. is this natural thing to happen ? Thanks James
Great to see someone who includes scientific data in gardening tips! Keep it up
Interesting Stephen. Thanks for taking the time to look into it.
Cheers.
My pleasure Rob!
That was absolutely fascinating Stephen. I have memories of my grandfather telling me about how to use tea leaves in the garden but I had never seen the science before. It was really great to be able to help you get these numbers together. Thank you so much for the link and the acknowledgement my friend, I was only too happy to help. I will make sure that I point people from my channel to this in my next video. All the best mate.
I am glad you enjoyed the video my friend ! Thank you so much for the help!
I hope you find a bunch of new friends !
Interesting results, Stephen! I look forward to the compost tea video.
This one was not surprising but I had to do it :) the compost tea one will be good !
This is very good news for me, cause its difficult to get used coffee. Thanks for sharing. Your analysis is SUPERB.
I am glad I could help! I bet your plants will really enjoy the leaves !
Great clip. I've been recycling coffee grounds for quite a while - never thought about recycling tea leaves.
Great video Stephen very interesting! Aaron's allotment is a great channel!
HuwsNursery - Grow Organic Produce Inexpensively I am glad you enjoyed the video my friend! I love Aaron's allotment video style!
Great information Stephen!
Thank you my friend !
good info.. I like all the test you do.. thanks for sharing
I am glad you enjoy them. I have a lot of fun putting them together !
Your study is very detail. Good job
Guess I'll keep on adding the used leaves to my compost. No harm there!
J&J Acres Absolutely !
That was an interesting analysis of English tea.Thanks for sharing the information
I thought you might like this one !
We bought a Rhododendron some time ago and the vendor (A Rhodo expert & grower) said, more or less, "They LOVE a drink of cold tea if there's any left in the pot."
Good deal, Stephen! I do put used tea bags in my compost, along with the coffee grounds!
Easy and useful! How are things heating up down there ?
***** Been exceptionally hot for June, mid to upper 90's, and it has slowed down the tomato production a bit! Just got 3" of rain as well. All in all, we've been doing a lot of canning ; )
Stay cool and dry my friend ! We have had wicked heat here but my garden is booming !
Thanks my friends
Thanks Stephen all of my tea bags go through the worm compost bin, as a kid mum always got us to empty the tea pot on the mint.
My garden worms do the same with my tea leaves !
Some of these videos are based on the great tips my grandparents gave me. Now we know why they were right !
one thing... the ph of the used tea leaves are probably highly affected by the water parameters used to brew them. if you live in an area where water his harder the ph should likely be higher due to disolved minerals, the micronutrients might also be higher in concentration in really hard water. you should do more tests with different kinds of water. for example the ph of the tap water i get floats in the 8 to nine range, with an incredibly high hardness.
That is a great tip. I'll have took look daily results from out water treatment plant.
I will likely take a look at water in the winter :)
man i wish i was canadian u guys know so much about organic gardening
The cold tea is an interesting result. Nicely done. :)
Thank you my friend ! It was a neat study to do!
Like your informative vids☺keep them coming!
Thank you my friend !
Have you ever used tea leave petioles left over from the process roasting of tea leave as a fertilizer?
Lovely update thank you sharing and have a blessed day
Thank you Linda
interesting video, thanks for the information!
Glad to have helped.
Please do grass clipping/weeds
Great and informative video, thank you!
I am glad you enjoyed it Isaac
Why have to dry it if you still have put it water?
Thank lots brother..
.
Hi there I have a question for you. Is it true that if you spray your tomatoes plants with an aspirin mixture it will trick them into producing a hormone to make the plant healthier and stronger? Thanks.
I have yet to investigate this but I have it on my list !
to date though the evidence is not strong either way.
OK. Look forward to your answer!
Do you think green vs black tea has a big difference? I drink green tea and I just started saving it and putting it in my worm bin, but maybe I shouldn't since it has a low ph according to your results.
Don't put more than what you drink on the worms and you will be fine. The worms and the rest of the mix should neutralize out.
There should be a few differences but very small.
Green tea is higher in nitrogen
Thanks for the science, most appreciated. :)
I am glad I could help my friend !
Great series of testing videos you've done, totally enjoyed them. I wished the tea leaves had been higher in nitrogen, that's what I was hoping for as I am unable to get spent coffee grounds. Look forward to your next testing video.
Happy Gardener My understanding is that the nitrogen number Stephen gave is the immediately available nitrogen. The total nitrogen, which would be available after decomposition, would be considerably higher.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening Thanks for the reply. Why do you think that it would be higher after decomposition though? Do you know of any other examples of this happening, does it happen with most composted things?
Happy Gardener Nitrogen is a key component of proteins. It wouldn't necessarily be available until the proteins are broken down by bacteria, worms, and/or small arthropods. Then their waste would be much higher in nitrogen.
Happy Gardener Yes, it is normal for nitrogen to be tied up in organic matter until the material is broken down. That's part of what makes compost and organic mulches so great for your garden. They release nutrients slowly over time.
If you look at 4:32 in the video, you'll see that the nitrogen numbers only represent available nitrogen. The leaves likely contain significantly more unavailable nitrogen.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening 4:32 is talking about the PH not Nitrogen? Slightly side tracking from the results for a moment, my hopes for high Nitrogen content with the tea leaves was it could be used to add to compost piles to heat them up like coffee grounds do. I would of suspected tea leaves would not work as well as coffee grounds for heating the pile up? Although comparing Stephens video with the coffee grounds to this video with the tea leaves. Coffee grounds and Stephen says the NPK is N: 0.00036 P: 0.3208 K: 2.41 Compare that to the tea leaves in this video NPK: N: 0.11 P: 0.101 K: 0.988 Those results suggest at least that the tea leaves are higher in nitrogen than the coffee grounds? So would the tea leaves heat the compost pile up as quick and hot, if not more so than coffee grounds?
Why remove the bags? I would think they would compost better than other paper products commonly used as brown material, I don't compost any paper products 'other' than tea bags.
Good stuff as usual, Stephen. Thanks for sharing.
One of my latest concerns was finding out that the tea bags now contain plastic. What is your opinion of composting or feeding the bags to worms? I've stopped both.
If they have plastic they just won't break down. In order for any plastic product to be food safe it has to be inert. It would be more of a pain seeing bags than any risk.
@@AlbertaUrbanGarden m0vie
Awesome video, but what I really want to know is, can I just sprinkle my used tea leaves over the soil of my houseplants or use room temperature brewed tea as the watering source?
How often? Are different teas and tisanes better for this than others?
someone please reply.. but do i have to put "used" tea leafs? can i not just use it the way it is.. without it the leafs being used before
Hi, I have a question, can you use the liquid from boiling amaranth or nightshade plants as a fertilizer because assuming that nutrients from these plants will leach into the water. I need to know if there is any science to back it up. Thanks.
There is some but generally its quite weak and often ineffective. what is a better idea is to add them to your compost and recycle them there. I would not add them to the mulch layer as that may allow diseases to develop that can impact your crops.
Thanks Stephen.
great video
sooo...is it ok to give my rose plant a cup of tea?
Happy Drunk it is
please sir can I use the uncooked coffee ?
Cool. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it.
can you over use the use of tea on an type plants?
thanks
Very interesting!
Do you have data to compare regular tea, herbal tea, decaf coffee to regular coffee? It would be interesting to see the results.
I don't have that data but tea and decaf tea are the same thing just a treatment. there may be differences in leaves. That would be interesting.
I asked because I drink only herbal teas. When I tried regular English tea it was too strong for me. There's a significant difference in taste so I thought maybe some trace minerals in regular tea? Just a thought.
There certainly would be differences but I would wager the herbal tea would be of benefit to the garden!
immediately available nitrogen is ok but where is the the total nitrogen?
I believe near 4 I could not find the paper before I produced this however one yard revolution did a clip a few weeks back where he spoke of the total numbers.
***** Stephen I hope you know I like you and your channel very much but this clip is not up to your usual standards. You should have got that information and THAN do the video afterwards. To an untrained uneducated newbie this will give the wrong idea about Tea Leaves. IMHO.
OMG I love you. Thank you for sharing. I've just into gardening in the last 1.5. I made my outdoor Year round Green house.
I also have been growing indoors. I have large bay windows and I turned my China Cabinet into my little Kitchen Greenhouse complete with fluorescent light & a small fan over a glass of Rain water to keep moisture in the air.
Can I use lemon peel or orange peel or juices for my plants that need acidic soil? example: Blue berries?
+A Araneta I am glad you enjoyed it. I would not recommend citrus juice to change the pH as its too variable and hard to control.
The only reliable method is sulfur amendment as it is slow and works consistently.
Sorry I have not found a free way to do this yet.
Thank you so much for your input.
Have you tried green tea or herbal tea leaves? How would they compare? You ran the lab tests on the leaves, right? What would the results be if you tested the use of the actual tea instead of the fresh or used leaves? How would all of these items compare to using compost tea? Whose brand of tea gives the best test results of all the major brands on the market? Seems like some more research would be helpful. Finally were these tests run in lab controlled conditions? Looks like you were just making the tea in a kitchen so that might have affected the test results.
This is very interesting Stephen, It does prove that waste tea is good for gardens, But I wonder what affect tea oxidisation has on the nutrient present from white (least mature), green to black (most mature). Most teas are different blends and so I would think the results would differ from tea type to the place the tea is grown. I think it would be of interest to compare the prefer conditions of growing tea and how this affects the nutrients intake, as this will give an idea of nutrient present. you could have commented how the tea tasted?
If you are looking for fertilizer plants that can be grown for extracting and accumulating soil nutrients the following may be of interest of future investigation (the lettesr behind signifies the nutrients supplied-
chicory (Ca, Mg, K)
Coltsfoot (Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg)
Dandelion (Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, P)
Meadowsweet (Ca, Fe, Mg , P)
Nettles (Ca, Cu, Fe, K)
Plantain (Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg)
Silverweed (Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg)
Vetches (Cu, K, P)
Watercress (Ca, Fe, K, Mg, P)
That your work cut out.
Thank you for the great ideas ! There is a lot to research here ! I will put them down on my list :)
Thank you.
Thank you
Bravo
Thank you!
Thanks for the info and wrk g if you still active
Very interesting. Thank you. It will cotinue to go on my compost pile. I don't remove teh bags though, not sure why you do this as it wil all break down.
There are some of the newer ones that are made from petroleum products. If yours breakdown they are likely fibre :)
Wow
How about Chinese tea
You must be Maxxam labs best customer.
We do work quite well together :)
Don't you work there?
Tea works in the same way molasses works on soil...it feeds microbes
most soils treated with compost have more than enough bacteria. You can save a few moments and some money ;)
Yes I agree however the more bacteria the more food you need to feed it...should try mix real tea with compost tea like people do with molasses
I use fall leaves, coffee grounds, eggshells, tea leaves ext in my mulch layer. Those materials feed the nutrient cycle.
adding sugars to the system has the potential to increase pathogenic bacteria which increases the risks of getting sick. Using the above mentioned materials allows the community to self regulate while adding nutrients to the soil for the plants.
Did you drink all that tea Stephen? I have travelled a great deal in the USA and Canada, but the lack of English tea and the lovely warm colonial weather put me off living there. Drinking tea, warm beer and complaining about the horrible British weather is in our DNA. :) Have you done a video about spent hops? Mulching and composting this free resource?
To be fair I am a coffee man myself so a friend of mine I work with was missing the good English stuff so I gave him the few remaining. The tests took a lot !
I have not done anything on hops but I will be helping a local brew pub grow their own :)
Tea Dust..not leaves (after drying process tea leaves is converted into dust)
NAY lad. NOT "P&G", just "PG"
Thank you. Just found your channel. +1 subscriber. Hope you start posting again.
I plan to post shorts this year. I wish I had time to get back to it.
Would you please just tell us. You are talking to much
I've been peeing into my compost bin 🚮 the results are awesome! Not joking mind.. I only do it once a fortnight!
This clip may interest you then :)
th-cam.com/video/_9WoW8Rtp2E/w-d-xo.html
Cool.. a quick question !!! at the bottom of my compost Bin its really wet... I've started to add more Carbon to the Mix. is this natural thing to happen ? Thanks James
yes that is natural. Lots of nitrogen rich material also contains a lot of water.
okay so no need to try and air it out as its very mucky