Is it possible to put tea leaves into plants. Tea brew as soil fertilizer

You shouldn't throw away the used tea leaves right after you have tea, it can come in handy. Welding is used to clean leather furniture, collect dust, eliminate unpleasant odors in the kitchen. Sleep tea has been used as a fertilizer for a long time.

Large-leaved tea leaves are able to transfer the maximum amount of trace elements in its composition to the root system of the plant. These include potassium, manganese, calcium, iron and aluminum. The processed tea is suitable as a top dressing for indoor flowers and for plants in the open field.

Article outline


The use of sleeping tea in the garden

Tea brew is a versatile vegetable garden product. First of all, in the country, tea is used as a fertilizer. To do this, the used tea leaves are poured into the topsoil with a shovel. Over time, this substance will begin to decompose, gradually saturating the earth with nitrogen. In a similar way, tea leaves are applied to fertilize perennial plants, shrubs and even garden trees.

Dried tea is best added to the ground with spring digging. You can collect used tea leaves during the winter period. To make it dry evenly, pour it in a thin layer onto a sieve or sieve. After thoroughly drying, the tea is folded into any convenient container and stored until spring. Plastic dishes work best.

To feed the seedlings planted in the beds, it is necessary to add tea to the planting hole at the rate of 500 g per square meter. In addition, other mineral fertilizers should be added to the hole based on the quality of the soil.

In addition to saturation with useful substances, tea leaves can also cope with other tasks at their summer cottage.

  1. It is able to soften clay soil, increase the moisture permeability of sandstones.
  2. Sleep tea, applied as a fertilizer, perfectly neutralizes alkaline soil.
  3. Adding used tea leaves to a fresh compost heap will speed up compost recycling.
  4. Sleep tea is also perfect as mulch. A few centimeters thick layer of welding protects the ground from cracking in drought, prevents weeds. It scares away rodents and rabbits with its smell, which can spoil the roots.

You can use tea as a fertilizer in the form of an infusion. For this, a glass of used tea leaves is poured with three liters of boiling water. Plants are spilled with a cooled infusion like ordinary water. Cucumbers, tomatoes and beans are very fond of such feeding.

Many summer residents use tea bags instead. The original tablets are pressed peat covered with a fine mesh. Wet peat is believed to be an ideal seed germination medium. Tea bags are of the same quality as tablets.

It is necessary to carefully cut off the gluing point of the package and the thread with scissors. Then you should straighten the bag so that the tea leaves do not crumble. She acts as a feeding and drainage. The free cavity of the bag is filled with nutritious soil.

One-to-one improvised tablets are tightly placed in a plastic container. They are spilled with water, planted in each bag, one seed. The container is covered with a lid. The seeds germinate in the shortest possible time. After the appearance of the first leaves, seedlings can be dived. There is no need to remove the seedlings from the bags: they decompose very quickly in the open field.

The infusion is the lowest concentration and the safest organic fertilizer available. In addition to tea, other useful substances must be introduced into the ground, since it will not fully satisfy the need for nutrition. Tea is considered an additional fertilizer for the vegetable garden.


Application of tea leaves for indoor plants

Even novice flower growers have probably heard that tea is used as a fertilizer for plants. In order to deliver nutrients to the root system, you need to periodically spill the plant with the remains of a sleeping drink. It is best to take a weak, sugar-free solution. They respond well to such regular watering:

  • cacti,
  • ferns,
  • hibiscus,
  • spathiphyllum and anthurium.

Welding improves the quality of the soil in the pot, its air permeability. To prepare the soil, you need to mix three parts of the earth and one part of the tea leaves. This composition is perfect for plants with fragile roots: clivia, begonias, violets, peperomia.

Tea bags are used as drainage. The sleeping and dried tea leaves are placed on the bottom of the pot in several layers. This is a great alternative to expanded clay: the soil will not spill out through the holes.

Thus, they support the full development of ampel and balcony plants. The tea drain keeps the moisture in the pot. Thanks to this, you can reduce the amount of watering, leave home for a few days without worrying about the plants. The presence of tea leaves in the flower container will also reduce the amount of moisture evaporated during the heating season.

Bromeliad plants are very responsive to the presence of tea leaves in the soil. They actively develop only in light, loose soil, well permeable to oxygen and water.

How to make tea for plants

Any organic matter can be useful for feeding plants, especially indoor plants, the soil under which is rarely renewed. You should not throw away the drunk tea and coffee grounds... There are not many trace elements for nutrition in tea leaves, but they are. Also, organic residues contribute to the multiplication of soil microorganisms that produce humus. Salts of humic acid are able to stimulate basic biological processes - growth, flowering, fruiting.

Nutritional characteristics of the brew

Tea leaves can be used as fertilizer in the country or for indoor plants. due to the content of the following mineral components in the sheets:

  • Potassium- tea leaves accumulate it in large quantities. Something remains after brewing and may be beneficial. Without potassium, ornamental crops bloom poorly or do not set buds at all. Now they have come up with a business on berry and citrus dwarf trees that can be grown on a windowsill. Sleep tea will be a good potash fertilizer for them.
  • Metabolic processes are affected calcium. In terms of quantity, it is in second place.
  • Magnesium free the leaf plate is not capable of accumulating chlorophyll. Cacti love calcium, so you can add waste to the soil once a year.
  • Manganese- promotes the restoration and growth of the root system, and also promotes the absorption of nitrogen. The appearance of a plant largely depends on this microelement.
  • Iron prevents chlorosis. In some cases, the reason for the yellowing of the leaves is not a nitrogen deficiency, but a lack of iron in the soil.
  • Sodium accelerates growth due to the activation of plant phytohormones. If the culture grows poorly, most likely it lacks biologically active substances.

In the soil, plant organic matter is gradually processed by soil bacteria. As a result of fermentation in the digestive tract of microorganisms, humus enters the soil.

This substance is a growth stimulant and a biological activator of immunity. Thanks to him, the appearance of crops is improved.

Impact on the soil

If you use sleeping tea as a fertilizer for a vegetable garden or indoor ornamental plants, then the soil wins first. Dry tea leaves absorb water and hold it in place, preventing it from evaporating. Thus, crops can go longer without watering.

The waste can be used as a leavening agent to get more oxygen to the roots. Organics always have a good effect on chemical composition soil, since nutrients are supplied regularly, as they are broken down into trace elements. Their number is small, therefore, it is impossible to harm the plants or overdo it with such fertilizer.

Video: Eco-fertilizers from tea and coffee

It is difficult to grow seedlings on clay soil because the root system cannot break through the heavy composition. If you mix clay with crushed tea leaves, it will become lighter and the roots will grow faster. The second method is to add tea leaves as fertilizer to each well.

When a white bloom appears on the surface of the soil, you need to mix the top layer with tea waste, and they will absorb excess salt... This happens if you use only mineral fertilizers for a long time.

What are the ways to make tea leaves

You can use black tea or green tea leaves. The content of trace elements is approximately the same. Green tea has more antioxidants, so you can't brew too often - this can destroy the plant. Their highest content is in white and yellow tea.

Fruit species in which flavors and dyes are present are undesirable. These substances have a bad effect on plants, especially on weakened ones.

Sugar added to tea leaves can cause gnats to appear near plants, so it is best to dry them. This will also prevent mold from growing in the pot.

Organic matter is introduced into the soil with any mineral or organic fertilizers - ash, manure, compost, complex mixtures. There is nothing in its composition that could affect the assimilation of certain components. It is believed that tannins are capable of acidifying the soil. This is true for small volumes of potted soil, but in the garden, the amount of tea drunk will not affect the acid-base balance in any way.

Composting

Food waste is added to the compost heap for decomposition. The amount of tea brewing in comparison with all other components will be negligible, but if you add kitchen waste, milk residues and whey, vegetable peelings here, then the volume of compost will increase significantly.

Re-brewing

Tea infusion as a fertilizer can be used in liquid form. To do this, you need to brew it again, cool it and water the plants like ordinary water. A glass of dry leaves can be infused in three-liter can until the color appears, and then use for watering seedlings or indoor flowers.

Mulching

In an apartment where the heating is turned on in winter, it is recommended to mulch potted soil with sleeping tea to reduce evaporation. For this, a layer of dry leaves 0.5 cm thick mixed with the top layer of soil. It is better to pour water for irrigation into the pan, and moisten the top with a spray bottle. This way the roots will not rot.

When it makes sense to collect tea leaves

Few will pick and dry tea leaves to bury them in the ground. But in some cases, this activity makes sense. For example, if you work in a cafe and bring large volumes home every day. Then per square meter you can add 0.5 kg of waste.

People who independently grow crops in vegetable gardens and orchards often use food, herbs, coffee and spices as top dressing. Used black tea as a fertilizer is used to feed a wide variety of plants: flowers, fruit bushes, vegetable crops. And there are reasons for this, hidden in the benefits of tea leaves.

Large-leaf tea leaves are used more often as a fertilizer, since they consist of a larger number of important substances:

  • Potassium. The record holder in the composition of tea leaves is necessary for the proper nutrition of plants.
  • Manganese. Keeps redox reactions within normal limits, stimulating the development of the root system of plantings.
  • Sodium. Participates in the exchange of sugars.
  • Calcium. Improves intracellular metabolism.
  • Iron. The mineral is essential for the normal respiration of living cultures.
  • Magnesium. Takes part in the process of photosynthesis. If there is too little of it, cultures will wither.

Sleep and fresh tea contains tannins and vitamins in a lower concentration.

Features of using tea as fertilizer

When using tea leaves as a fertilizer, you need to remember that the maximum amount of useful components is contained in an active - liquid - form.

For processing seedlings, garden and indoor plants, choose large and medium leaf tea. The sachets are used only in extreme cases.

Nutrient infusions should be free of excess substances. Even if the composition includes lemon zest, then there is a high probability that such a product also contains a flavor.

If you plan to bring in sleeping tea during planting, then first dry the leaves by throwing them on a sieve. For storage, the fertilizer is placed in a container and removed to a dry place. Indoor flowers are fertilized with a small amount of semi-dry substance: excessive moisture provokes soil contamination, the formation of mold and the reproduction of black midges.

Influence of tea leaves on plants and soil

When using tea as a fertilizer, you can achieve the following effect:

  • increased soil acidity;
  • loosening of clayey lands;
  • compost activation;
  • increased air permeability in the upper soil layer;
  • enrichment of the substrate;
  • improving the composition for mulching.

Flowers and vegetables react very well to feeding with tea leaves: green manure, azalea, hydrangea, sorrel, cucumbers, simple radish, pumpkin fruits, carrots.

If tea leaves are used to fertilize flowers in an apartment, then it retains moisture in the pots during the heating period, when the air is dry. The leaf product can be used as drainage.

Before introducing tea brewing into the soil, it is necessary to determine the acidity level of the soil. If the indicator is high, then it is not recommended to water the ground or add a dry version of the substance.

Using tea in the garden and in the garden

The scope of application of the dormant product is wide enough. You can use tea leaves as fertilizer for the following purposes:

  1. Improving the soil for small seeds. The product stimulates the growth of most edible greens and some root vegetables. For planting, take 1 tsp. seeds of carrots, parsley or basil, mixed with a glass of dry tea leaves.
  2. Mulching. As a mulch, tea leaves are used only on the surface of open ground, which is regularly ventilated and warmed up by the sun. The old mixture, prepared in advance, is distributed over the beds.
  3. Improving soil quality. To increase fertility, use 500 g of used tea per 1 m2.
  4. Fertilizer. To improve the germination of plants, a special microflora is created in the upper soil layer with the help of tea. The rest of the tea leaves are mixed with ash, laid around bushes and tree trunks, and mixed. As a result, the effect of the tea is prolonged, and the plantings receive more nutrients. This method is ideal for tomatoes, cucumbers, gladioli and beans.
  5. Compost. The brewed tea is taken out into a rotting heap, mixed with what is already in the preparation for fertilizers. As a result, nitrogen production begins and the fermentation of organic products is accelerated. It is important to remove any artificial and metallic elements from the brewed product beforehand.
  6. Top dressing with infusion. Fresh tea leaves can also be used as a fertilizer in liquid form. At 1 st. leaves take 3 liters of boiling water. Pour a warm broth under the roots of the plants. Fertilize crops with this product in the country or in the garden. The ground can be open or closed.

Experienced growers within their garden find new combinations for dormant tea leaves and other organic fertilizers.


Using tea bags

The tea bags can be used as seedling tablets. They easily replace peat counterparts. Sequencing:

  • open the top of the paper package;
  • sprinkle with universal soil;
  • put seeds inside;
  • waiting for the plants to reach the picking phase;
  • transplant them into pots or open ground.

The advantage of this growing method is the ability to transfer crops directly with bags. After a while, the paper will dissolve in the soil. It is good to use this method of growing seedlings on products sensitive to pick ( bell peppers, eggplant

How to fertilize potted flowers with tea?

If you put semi-moist leaves in a flowerpot during the height of the heating season, they will prevent moisture from evaporating. Such fertilization will be useful when using saline soil during planting.

In order to improve the composition of the earth, you can only use the tea leaves that have been steamed without sugar.

You can also use a tea solution made from 3 liters of boiling water and 1 cup of tea leaves. In a cold state, it is brought under the roots instead of the usual watering. It is important to respect the proportions so as not to overfeed the indoor flowers.

The use of liquid tea or used tea leaves as fertilizer for garden, garden or home plants is justified only if alkalization of the soil is observed. Too acidic soil will react negatively to such feeding. As for crops, nutrition is best reflected in those vegetables, berries and flowers that are not demanding on the composition of the earth or prefer acidic soils.

One of the cheap and useful fertilizers for tomatoes is used tea leaves. This is an effective, safe, natural feeding that does not require additional financial costs - kitchen waste is easy to accumulate throughout the year.

It is easy to prepare and apply fertilizer from tea leaves, but you need to know a few nuances to get the most out of feeding and avoid harm to planting.

The benefits of tea leaves for tomatoes

The value of the infusion as a fertilizer for tomatoes is associated with its mineral composition, which is rich in substances that the plant needs for the growth and formation of fruits.

100 g of tea leaves contain:

Element Fraction of substance (in grams) Value for tomatoes
Potassium 1,79 Provides a high sugar content and large fruit size. Increases immunity and resistance to weathering, promotes the survival of seedlings.
Calcium 0,47 Stimulates seed germination, shoot and root growth, affects the number of ovaries and fruit size.
Magnesium 0,22 Participates in photosynthesis, providing nutrition to cells. Deficiency of the element is reflected in the weak formation of ovaries, small size and sour taste of the fruit.
Iron 0,2 Required for building up green mass and forming ovaries.
Manganese 0,083 Delivers nutrients to the organs of the plant, ensuring the growth of roots, aerial parts and fruits. Increases the concentration of vitamin C in fruits.
Boron 0,0095 Stimulates flowering and ovary formation.
Zinc 0,0023 Promotes the accumulation of sugars in the pulp and the growth of fruits.
Copper 0,0011 Stimulates flowering and growth of roots and shoots.
Sulfur 0,065 Provides fruit sugar content and a large number of ovaries.
Molybdenum 0,00004
Iodine 0,00001

Attention!

Tea leaves have the ability to slightly increase the acidity of the soil. A slightly acidic soil is considered suitable for tomatoes, therefore this feature will be useful on alkaline soils, but it is undesirable to fertilize acidic soils.

Tea brewing improves the structure of the soil, making it lighter and looser. This is especially true when cultivating tomatoes on clay soils that are too heavy for the crop.

Selection and preparation of raw materials

As a fertilizer for tomatoes, you should choose large-leaf tea that retains the maximum of nutrients. It is necessary to pay attention to the quality of the product - the tea should not contain dyes or aromatic additives, these substances can harm plants.

For tomatoes, you should take only dormant tea leaves, since after use the raw material loses some of the substances, which prevents excess nutrition. In addition, after brewing, aluminum harmful to plants is washed out of the tea leaf.

The volume of raw materials necessary for fertilizing the beds will have to be accumulated, therefore, after use, the tea leaves need to be dried to prevent the formation of mold. For drying, you can use a sieve or hang in a gauze bag in a draft - it is important to ensure good air access. Dried tea leaves should be stored in a dry place using a glass or plastic container with a tight lid, not metal. Moldy tea leaves should not be used to feed tomatoes.

Fertilization methods


There are several options for using tea leaves to feed tomatoes, the choice of which depends on the specific goals of the gardener.

  1. Application to the ground. The tea leaves can be used to improve the quality of the soil - as a baking powder and organic fertilizer. When digging in spring or autumn, tea leaves must be embedded in the soil at the rate of 5 kg of raw materials per 1 hundred square meters of beds.
  2. for seedlings. The high concentration of potassium, which increases the endurance and adaptive qualities of plants, makes the tea brew beneficial for seedlings. Place 100 g of fertilizer in each well, mixed with wood ash.
  3. Watering with infusion. You can give liquid top dressing at any stage of the growing season of tomatoes. 250 g of tea leaves need to be poured with 3 liters of boiling water and left to infuse until cool. The amount of infusion poured under the bush is determined by the age of the plant - it should correspond to the usual amount of water for a single irrigation.
  4. Mulch. During the summer, tea leaves can be poured onto the tomato garden immediately after use without drying. The brew well retains soil moisture and suppresses the growth of weeds, decomposing, nourishes the soil.

Everyone knows that water is the most widespread drink in the world, and tea, of course, is in second place of honor. Someone likes black large-leaf, someone in bags, someone green with additives. As the saying goes, "the taste and color ..." But not everyone knows what tea is asleep, and even more so that it can be used as a fertilizer.

What are the benefits of tea leaves?

For over three thousand years, tea has been considered medicinal drink... It has only recently begun to be drunk everywhere just for pleasure. In China, tea is still considered a cure for all diseases, they are very reverent and respectful of this culture. Tea leaves have a very high content of fluorides, polyphenols, vitamins A, C, E, P, thein, pectin. About thirty minerals are found in the tea leaf: potassium, manganese, fluorine, zinc, chromium and many others. Tea leaves are a real storehouse of nutrients.

The second life of tea bags

Do you think disposable? You may be surprised, but this is not the case. How to use sleeping bag tea? There are many ways to use it:

  • in the refrigerator, it will relieve an unpleasant odor;
  • lotion on the eyes - from puffiness and dark circles;
  • from minor burns;
  • degreases dishes;
  • add flavor to cereals;
  • will soften tough meat;
  • scare away mosquitoes;
  • and will even remove rust!

Benefits for gardeners

But the most important amazing ability is that tea is very useful for a personal plot, gardeners can not go anywhere without it!

If your family is lovers and connoisseurs of this drink, then during the winter period you should have accumulated a sufficient amount of tea leaves for use on your site during planting. Very often it happens: the seeds are of high quality, the seedlings are planted as expected, timely care, weeding, watering, but there is still no harvest. Summer residents lose heart, they cannot find a reason. And the reason is sometimes simple - "heavy" soil. Heavy - because it has a clay structure that poorly transmits light, water and air. In this regard, the plants coke and wither, no matter how you look after them. If you are faced with such a problem, sleep tea will help you! It will help to dilute and loosen heavy earth, saturate it with nitrogen, fortify and retain moisture.

How to properly prepare sleeping tea leaves for use?

After drinking tea, take a strainer and squeeze the tea leaves as much as possible. If tea was brewed in packaged form, the principle is the same - we squeeze it out. Now we lay out the tea leaves on a flat plate or tray, depending on the quantity and convenience. At night, the tea leaves dry out, and in the morning you can transfer it to a container (it is very convenient to store it in a plastic container with a lid). According to this principle, we collect all the drunk tea during the entire "out-of-town" period - the more, the better. The most important thing is to make sure that the tea is unsweetened. If, all of a sudden, sugar does get into the tea leaves, then before drying it should be thoroughly rinsed in at least two waters, and only then squeezed out and laid out for drying.

How to use drunk tea in the garden to increase yields?

There are several options for use, let's consider some:

  1. Prepare compost. This is the easiest way to effectively use it - just add the dormant tea to the compost heap, pour warm water and cover with plastic wrap for a couple of days. Tea will enrich your compost with useful microelements, because sleeping tea leaves are a natural source of nitrogen. Due to the content of tannins, tea leaves activate the decomposition process, therefore, your compost will grind much faster. If you have a flower garden on the shady side, it is very good to wipe the leaves of the plants with used tea bags. This will nourish the flowers and remove dust from the leaves.
  2. Fertilizer for the soil. If you've already planted your seedlings, feeding them is pretty simple: Dig in a tea bag near each stem of the plant. Gradually decomposing, the dormant tea will saturate the soil with nitrogen. It is an environmentally friendly fertilizer with a prolonged action. Together with the tea leaves, it will not hurt to dig in some ash. Well, if you have not planted your seedlings yet, then the actions are as follows: we dry the sleeping tea leaves, mix with ash and pour a pinch into each hole. After that, we are already adding seedlings. There is one caveat: the tea leaves must be sugar-free, otherwise you will later get rid of the hordes of ants.
  3. Tea tablets. If you are used to growing your seedlings in peat pots, tea bags are a great substitute. Just open it asleep tea bag, cutting off the top together with the bracket, add earth to it, plant the seed and cover with foil until shoots appear. After the sprout appears, you can plant it directly in this bag. This type of planting will help protect the roots of the plant by avoiding transplanting, and will feed each root throughout the growing season. This type of landing is very suitable for pepper, as it tolerates diving very painfully.
  4. Supersoil. Sleeping tea in the garden (especially leaf tea) is an excellent, and most importantly, budgetary means for improving and enriching the soil in the garden, because the tea leaves make the soil looser, and therefore more breathable and moisture-permeable. Recommended proportions for improving the soil: half a kilogram of tea leaves per square meter of the garden.
  5. 5. Mulching. If you want to trap moisture in the topsoil, simply mulch the tea leaves. It will be useful especially for moisture-loving plants. In addition to retaining moisture, the mulch will saturate the plant with nitrogen, keeping the top layer alive. Just do not sprinkle the plants with wet tea leaves, it will very quickly become moldy and suffocate, thereby attracting detachments of midges and woodlice, adding to your headache in search of means to get rid of living creatures. Mulch has another huge plus: no weeds grow under it. So you will have to weed much less. Just remember to loosen the mulch to avoid mold. If the mulch nevertheless became moldy and insects began to swarm, then there is only one way out - remove it and replace it with a new one.

What conclusions can be drawn? Is sleeping tea a good fertilizer?

There is no definite answer. Someone very much loves and constantly uses sleeping tea as a top dressing of their site, someone considers this method very laborious and ineffective. As with any method, there are pros and cons. Let's analyze - what is more?

pros

These include:

  • sleeping tea does not need to be bought, you just need to carefully accumulate it and store it until spring;
  • as a care product for indoor plants - great option, since the number of indoor plants is much less than any garden plot;
  • welding will perfectly dilute and loosen the clay soil, facilitate the access of water and oxygen to the root system of plants;
  • Tea bags are a great budget replacement for peat tablets.

Minuses

Among them:

  • if you have a large plot, then you will have to drink a lot of tea (we remember the calculation of half a kilo of drunk tea leaves per square meter of land);
  • the tea leaves must be very well dried, otherwise, in the process of accumulation, the whole jar of tea will become moldy;
  • you need to make sure that the sugar in no case gets into the sleeping tea, otherwise you will have to keep the defense from all sorts of insects. Well, in principle, and all the disadvantages.

So what is the conclusion? Do you need sleeping tea as fertilizer in the country? It's up to you to decide! Happy gardening!