CompostTea

Plant Health Care, Naturally
Revitalize your trees & landscape with the power of biology.

What is CompostTea™?

Our CompostTea™ is a premium, water-based soil amendment extract derived from high-quality compost. Brewed by our ISA Certified Arborists® in small batches ideal for reinvigorating our Finger Lakes and Rochester Region soils, introducing beneficial microorganisms, nutrients, and other compounds that help re-establish soil health for roots to crown benefits for trees and landscaping. People, pet, and lake safe!

Unlike standard fertilizers, our CompostTea™ brewing process uses constant agitation to create a living soil amendment teeming with soluble nutrients, diverse beneficial bacteria, fungi, and other beneficial micro-organisms. All natural with no threat to our local lakes, water sheds, rivers, or streams.

CompostTea™ helps re-establish and improve soil structure and rebuild the rhizosphere (microzone of intense biological activity surrounding actively elongating roots). The brew also provides food for those microorganisms in the soil and the trees.

The application process for CompostTea™ is specific to the site. Our Arborists and Technicians will determine if soil drenching, spray, or soil injection with specialized tools is appropriate. In all cases we’re targeting the tree's absorbing roots and the soil that surrounds them, critical for the trees and other landscape plantings. With regular applications, soil chemistry and structure are restored, improving plant growth and the health of the soil food web.

CompostTea™ contains a carefully selected blend of ingredients, scientifically proven to play a beneficial role in the soil food web which includes soil microbes important to trees/plants. Introducing micro & macro nutrients that may be lacking in local soil means creating bio-available nutrients for stronger trees & plants. Stronger trees & landscaping are more beautiful and more resilient when faced with environmental or biological stressors.

Why do our trees and landscaping need CompostTea?

  • Chemicals like pesticides, herbicides, and some fertilizers commonly applied to our soils can kill a range of the beneficial microorganisms that encourage plant growth.

  • Activities that disturb the soil structure (structural components include soil horizons, aggregate structure, and pore space*) can negatively impact the presence and availability of growth space, nutrients, water, and oxygen for roots.

  • Innate soil conditions (parent material, chemistry, structure) in our native soils may not be conducive to supporting the needs of non-native tree species – many of which are often found in landscape plantings (such as blue spruce, Japanese maple, catalpa, and dwarf Alberta Spruce).

  • The urban forest lacks a healthy organic layer, as soil horizons* and the organic matter layers are often disturbed and or damaged during site development. The organic layer is comprised of organic matter (decomposing plant material) and plays an important role in soil health.

    * See FAQs below to learn more about soil horizons, aggregate structure, and pore space.

How does CompostTea™ help?

Regularly introducing populations of a wide variety of beneficial microorganisms and the food that helps feed their growth is the approachable and effective way to develop healthier soils and microbial populations improving vitality in target trees and plants.

Just like your daily vitamin and probiotic, CompostTea™ helps create stronger organisms that can better suppress diseases and endure threatening pests. 

By mimicking the most fertile forest floors, CompostTea™ encourages robust tree and plant growth while restoring the natural balance of your soil. It’s more than a supplement; it’s a foundation for a healthier, more resilient landscape.

Frequently Asked Questions about CompostTea™ Soil Amendment

  • Compost tea is completely safe! The ingredients are all natural, and the tea does not contain any synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers.

  • Immediately! If the tea was applied as a spray, you may want to let the area dry out before re-entry, so your shoes don’t get damp.

  • We recommend multiple applications of Compost Tea per growing season because our urban and suburban soils are often poor quality and won’t be improved with a single application. Regularly introducing populations of a wide variety of beneficial microorganisms and the food that helps feed their growth is the best way to develop healthier soils and microbial populations. 

  • CompostTea may be applied as a surface spray or via soil probe injection. Neither method is better than the other. Our technicians determine on site which option is best for each individual landscape. For example, if the root system of a tree is primarily covered by turf or mulch, the injection method will work well. If the landscape is rocky or very densely landscaped with plantings, a surface spray may be the best way to get compost tea to the roots of the tree without damaging landscape plantings or our solid injection equipment.

  • We start with locally sourced, high quality solid compost. The goal of the brewing process is to feed / oxygenate the existing micro-organisms with enough materials left over to keep the system aerobic and allow for continued microbial growth. This is accomplished via:

    Adequate oxygenation to ensure that enough oxygen is diffused into the tea to feed the microorganisms while leaving enough remaining oxygen for continued population growth.

    Adding the right ingredients to fuel growth of a wide diversity of beneficial, aerobic microorganisms.

    Constant mixing/agitation that’s strong enough to remove microorganisms from the surface of the compost (a process referred to as extraction), but not so strong that microorganisms are shredded.

  • horizontal layers beneath the soil surface with different textures, organic and mineral contents, chemical and biological activity.

  • Soil aggregate structure is the clumps of soil that are affected by chemical and physical changes, as well as the activities of soil organisms. The shape, size, strength, and arrangement of soil aggregates form the soil structure.

    Pores are the spaces in between soil particles and soil aggregates. Pores create space for, and help retain or facilitate the movement of, water and gases in the soil.

    As CompostTea helps break down organic matter that may be “clogging” soil pores, the soil aggregate structure improves and its water holding capacity and gas exchange can improve.

  • Yes! Beneficial bacteria can out compete harmful or disease-causing organisms. It also helps retain nutrients in their biomass, which reduces nutrient leaching as well as helps break down organic matter which helps improve soil aggregate structure over time. (As aggregate structure improves, water holding capacity and gas exchange can improve.) Bacteria may form symbiotic relationships with the roots of certain plants, allowing those plants access to a greater volume and variety of nutrients. High quality tea can have up to 1 billion bacteria per mL of tea!

  • We don’t sell bottled compost tea because it is important that the tea is applied while it is in an aerobic state with healthy populations of many beneficial microorganisms. Bottling can turn the tea anaerobic, killing the beneficial microorganisms and allowing the growth of harmful microorganisms.