Alfalfa tea in 5 gallon bucket

Here is my 5 gallon bucket of alfalfa tea. Just add water and let it brew without a lid for up to 10-12 days. I will use mine before day 8 because of our high temps.

Batch of alfalfa tea almost ready

I have been making a batch of alfalfa tea in a 5 gallon bucket for the garden. It has been about 5 days so far and it seems like it's just about ready to be used. I plan on using it as a foliar spray and then pour any left overs over the soil to drench the plants. I've read to let it brew for up to 12 days in the winter months. Since it's been in the 80's here recently,  plan to use it before day 8. I stir it at least once a day with a large stick to add oxygen. My method is to pack  as much alfalfainto a 5 gallong bucket as I can, then fill with water.

Our Arizona raised garden bed update: Day 10

These are our Arizona raised garden beds. It has been about 10 days since we planted our seeds and look at what's growing now! I have sprayed them one time with the organic fertilizer spray I mix up. To make this organic fertilizer spray yourself is simple.

Mix into a 1 gallon pump sprayer, then fill with water:

1/3 cup of liquid seaweed
1/3 cup fish emulsion
A splash of vinegar

Use this to spray on the tops and bottoms of your leaves as well as onto the ground soil below as a safe and organic fertilizer. I use this about twice a month, may be more in the summer months. It helps to protect from insects, root rot, heat stress as well as having many more great qualities.

Here is our corn growing very tall, very fast!

All the of the garlic bulbs we planted have sprouted and are growing very tall.

Almost every seed we planted has started to grow.

This is our smaller vegetable garden, 10'x10'x4', and has many vegetables growing.

Our old wine barrel filled with wild flowers is doing great as well.
You can see the wild flower seeds sprouting up through the dirt in the center!

Photos of possible salt burn on myers lemon tree

This poor myers lemon tree... I hit it with a hose to remove some spider webbing and all the leaves fell!
Only a few of really tough leaves are hangin on :)

I hope I can bring this lemon tree back to life soon, it gave us the best fruit ever!

About ready to add some mulch fertilizer to the citrus trees

Just bought a few bags of composted steer manure to add around the citrus trees this weekend. I wanted to buy some chicken manure, but Lowe's doesn't  seem to sell it. I'll post more imagesof this process as I  will be removing the 3/4" rockmulch that is there now  and replacing it with this organic style ofading nutrients in addition to being a mulch for better water conservation.

Enjoy the weekend and remeber when it comes to established citrus, (two years in the ground or longer), you want to fertilize three times per year - Valentine's Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Fast update before I foliar spray

Waiting fo it to get a little cooler outside befoe using the hose end sprayer to foliar feed the yard. I thought that since I had a few extra minutes I'd share my alfalfa hay tea experience with you...let me tell you that this tea has to be the wost smelling thing I've used since I started going oganic! At first the smell  seems nice, sot of like when your at a petting zoo. Then all of  a sudden you'll get a horrible wiff of something almost undescribable...it's the alfalfa hay fom the alfalfa tea mixture!

Let me also tell you that the receipe calls for stuffing asmuch alfalfa hay into a 5 gallon bucket, filling it with water and waiting fou days until you pour the mixture on your plants, (you can strain the water if you already have mulch around yourplants, or let the hay fall as mulch.). So what went wrong with my batch of alfalfa tea??? It could be that insteadof sitting for four days  in the 110+ heat, our tea sat for almost 9 days. Could that be why the odor is so strong? I have no idea at this point since it'smy first time making the alfalfa tea. I'll try another time and only let it brew for the called for  four days and find out if the same horrible smell occurs.

I suppose if you had grown up on or around a farm the smell would be bearable, and I'm sure I will get used to it like I have with the fish emulsion, but this alfalfa hay tea is really tough to take :)

Working on getting somemore photos up soon! Now it's time to go foliar feed the plants and trees. See ya!