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(R) 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.

Unlike standard fertilizers, our brewing process uses constant agitation to create a living soil amendment teeming with soluble nutrients, diverse beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes.

CompostTea helps reestablish 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.

Special tools are used to inject CompostTea directly into the soil, below grass roots to ensure deep soil rejuvenation, critical for trees and other landscape plantings. Over time, with regular applications, soil chemistry and structure are restored, improving plant growth and the health of the soil food web.

CompostTea may also contain extracts of plant material, sugars, proteins, carbohydrates, kelp, crushed rock, humic and fulvic acids, & nitrogen, as food for the microbes & nutrients for trees/plants. Introducing micro & macro nutrients that may be lacking in local soil means bio-available nutrients for stronger trees & plants.

Why do our trees and landscaping need CompostTea?

  • Chemicals applied to our soils can kill a range of the beneficial microorganisms that encourage plant growth (pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers).

  • 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, xxxx, xxxx, and xxxx).

  • 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 leaves) and plays an important role in soil health.

How does CompostTea help?

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 improving vitality in target trees and plants.

Just like your daily vitamin, 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 heathier solids 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.

  • 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.

  • Yes! Beneficial bacteria can out compete harmful of 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.