Preparation name

Biodynamic preparation - Weed tea

How to make

Content: Any weeds that you intend to stop competing with your plants in the food garden
Procedure Pull out the weeds you want to reduce from your garden and place them in a bucket or drum of water, filled to a level that the weeds are covered with water. Do not mix weed types in the container. Insert the compost preparations – 502-507  into the container and stir each leaf day (from the Biodynamic calendar) for 8-10 weeks.
Storage: You can store the weed tea in the container you have made it in. Its best to use it as quickly as possible to reduce your weeds, so long term storage is not recommended.

Reasons for use

This eliminates the need for the weed to be in your food garden and balances out local trace element deficiencies which the weed growth is reflecting.

How to apply

When to apply: Since the tea takes 8-10 weeks to brew, its quite possible that the weeds may have come back since you weeded to make the tea, so make sure you weed the bed before applying the weed tea.  The weed tea can be applied at any time. It is recommended to have repeated doses of the weed tea over three consecutive evenings. Some Biodynamic practitioners suggest only applying weed tea's when the Moon is in the Crab constellation, as this is said to  increase the potential to benefit from the cosmic forces.
Quantity: The weed tea can be diluted at the rate of one part weed tea and 5 parts water. This diluted mixture is then applied to your garden at the rate of 15-20 litres  per acre. For a hosuehold garden, use approximately half a bucket of the diluted mixture.
How to apply: For a small garden, you can flick it out onto the garden with a horse hair brush from the bucket. For a larger space, it would be best to use a backpack sprayer

Country alternatives

None

Comments

This preparation is easy to make and must be made from your own weeds, so you can't buy it from anywhere, you have to make it yourself.

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