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metsuyan

Stanky Fertilizer Tea.... Dangerous?

metsuyan
11 years ago

Hi everyone...

I am an amateur organic gardener and this year planted some tomato plants using the "earth box" planting system. For those of you unfamiliar, it is basically a planter on wheels that has a screen on the bottom with a tube that comes up to the soil surface so as to create a reservoir beneath your soil so that you may water below your plants as well.

That being said, I had followed the directions of making a fertilizer tea listed on the bag of a well known organic gardening product manufacturer. I placed the indicated amount of fertilizer in a bucket with water and let it sit for 48hrs (they had only direct me to 24 but that's what happened). As it turns out, I covered the bucket fearing that something would get in it and left it outside (where it was hot). When I opened it up.... Holy mother of Jesus.... What a foul fish smell!!! Being the idiot that i am, I assumed that that was just a sign of its active potency so I strained it as directed and distributed the tea to the solid beds of my tomato plants.

Now after reading on the web, I'm getting the idea that that was clearly not the correct course of action. The manufacturer never said anything about using a circulation pump to prevent anaerobic bacterial proliferation. Then I read about dangerous E.Coli bacteria and I'm worried that even if my plants do survive that I might kill my family by feeding them the fruit of these plants...

Can someone with great knowledge in this area offer me some insight? FYI... My plants are all already showing medium to large fruit that is just waiting to grow a bit more and ripen red.

Thx for your help.

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