Power Water

gardenertaylor 5/2/2013, 8:36 pm

Hey! I read in the Answer Book for Square Foot Gardening about Power Water. This is water that you allow to sit a few days with egg shells, dried banana peels, and some coffee grounds. It sounds like a vitamin water for plants. After sitting a few days, water your plants with it.

Has anyone tried this? What's been your experience? Notice any benefits?

Triciasgarden 5/2/2013, 9:03 pm

I haven't heard of it and so I haven't used it. I heard about letting egg shells sit in water and watering with that water. I did try it once but I don't remember if there was any difference. Last year I used cooled and watered down coffee to water my house plants and a planter that hangs on my front railing. They all loved it and there was a noticeable improvement in the growth. The flowers in the planter did the best they ever did, even though I used fertilizer other years. I may try this and report back.

gardenertaylor 5/2/2013, 11:20 pm

Page 84 in the Answer Book. Add to the sun-warmed water eggshells for calcium, chopped-up banana peels for potassium and phosphorous and a small amount of coffee grounds for nitrogen. After a few days, remove the items and throw them in the compost. I think I'm going to give it a try. Cool

CapeCoddess 5/3/2013, 11:54 am

gardenertaylor wrote:Hey! I read in the Answer Book for Square Foot Gardening about Power Water. This is water that you allow to sit a few days with egg shells, dried banana peels, and some coffee grounds. It sounds like a vitamin water for plants. After sitting a few days, water your plants with it.

That's very interesting. I need to see if my library system has that book yet.

I make my compost tea like that using a scoop of compost in a 5 gal bucket of water, except it sits for only 24 hours. It has all those things in it and then some.

CC

gardenertaylor 5/3/2013, 2:55 pm

oooohhhhh, that's what compost tea is? I didn't know that. Yes, it sounds like it's basically making a compost tea, more or less. Interesting. Learn something new everyday! Laughing

CapeCoddess 5/3/2013, 3:05 pm

That's just one way to make compost tea. Some folks boil it and some leave it sit for days. I don't know what the does to it so I don't do it.

CC

**camprn** 5/3/2013, 3:26 pm

CapeCoddess wrote:That's just one way to make compost tea. Some folks boil it

Clearly some folk have too much time on their hands.... bounce

B00kemdano 5/3/2013, 3:53 pm

I have mostly tabletop sfgs, and they have fabric / wire mesh bottoms. When it rains significantly, the water starts dripping out of the bottom of the TTs. I catch some of it in a bucket, and it looks like tea, so I wonder if that qualifies? Very Happy

That tea usually goes back into the rain barrel after a couple days when I start running low.

CapeCoddess 5/3/2013, 4:50 pm

B00kemdano wrote:I have mostly tabletop sfgs, and they have fabric / wire mesh bottoms. When it rains significantly, the water starts dripping out of the bottom of the TTs. I catch some of it in a bucket, and it looks like tea, so I wonder if that qualifies?

Could be potent stuff. Since it goes into the rain barrel it ends up on the plants anyway. Someone on here has TT's with what they called 'diapers'...a piece of plastic attached under the bed that is angled to drip into a bucket. Can't remember who it is, sorry, but they were new and had photos of it. Way cool!

CC

**RoOsTeR** 5/3/2013, 5:27 pm

I stuff compost in an old sock. Throw it in a 5 gallon bucket of water. Call it compost tea and a day Cool

plantoid 5/3/2013, 7:30 pm

CapeCoddess wrote:
gardenertaylor wrote:Hey! I read in the Answer Book for Square Foot Gardening about Power Water. This is water that you allow to sit a few days with egg shells, dried banana peels, and some coffee grounds. It sounds like a vitamin water for plants. After sitting a few days, water your plants with it.

That's very interesting. I need to see if my library system has that book yet.

I make my compost tea like that using a scoop of compost in a 5 gal bucket of water, except it sits for only 24 hours. It has all those things in it and then some.

CC

Put a couple of spoons of sugar in the bucket and stir it till it disolves . The sugar will also feed the yeasts in the compost so the nutrient release is higher as well as being bacterially live , your plants wil show their gratitude .

HOUSTONMOM 5/3/2013, 8:04 pm

plantoid wrote:
CapeCoddess wrote:
gardenertaylor wrote:Hey! I read in the Answer Book for Square Foot Gardening about Power Water. This is water that you allow to sit a few days with egg shells, dried banana peels, and some coffee grounds. It sounds like a vitamin water for plants. After sitting a few days, water your plants with it.

That's very interesting. I need to see if my library system has that book yet.

I make my compost tea like that using a scoop of compost in a 5 gal bucket of water, except it sits for only 24 hours. It has all those things in it and then some.

CC
Put a couple of spoons of sugar in the bucket and stir it till it disolves . The sugar will also feed the yeasts in the compost so the nutrient release is higher as well as being bacterially live , your plants wil show their gratitude .

Hi,I read and watched videos of people using molasses to feed the microbes is that the same as using plain old sugar?That would diffenitly be easier cause sugar is always on hand.

plantoid 5/3/2013, 8:27 pm

Not quite as good as soft brown sugar or molassas but as you say readily available and of course cheaper.

HOUSTONMOM 5/3/2013, 8:45 pm

plantoid wrote:Not quite as good as soft brown sugar or molassas but as you say readily available and of course cheaper.

Never heard of using brown sugar but it makes a lot of sense and it's also pretty much on hand .Thanks!

gardenertaylor 5/4/2013, 12:01 am

The sugar is a great tip! Thanks y'all! I love you

**walshevak** 5/4/2013, 10:02 pm

RoOsTeR wrote:I stuff compost in an old sock. Throw it in a 5 gallon bucket of water. Call it compost tea and a day

+1 either 5 blend or worm castings.

Kay

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