Can I Water My Plants With Tea?

Can I Water My Plants With Tea?

Have you ever been sitting out in your garden enjoying a cup of tea and when your finished there’s some left in the tea pot. You could put it down the drain however that would be a waste of water. You maybe wondered “Can I water my plants with tea?”

Let’s find out…

What benefits are there in watering with drunken tea? If you conduct a chemical analysis of tea, you can find in the composition of the drink minerals and organic matter, as well as tannins, that will acidify your soil. Not all houseplants need such acidification.

We can certainly say that ferns that suffer from the action of carbonate salts in soil or water as well as cacti that love hard water and the tannins it contains, respond well to tea.

The rest of the houseplants, however, react to the watering of the teapot with a lot of disdain or probably disgust. More so, there is no reliable experimental data that would prove the obvious benefit of such a fertilizer.

There is an opinion that regular mulching of the soil with tea residue helps to retain moisture, and if you make tea leaves under flowers indoors and gently store them in a flowerpot, the plants will receive a fertilizer with an extended lifespan.

Disadvantages of Watering Your Plants with Tea

Flavored tea with additives can lead to dramatic consequences for flowers including root rot and imbalance of soil nutrients.

Watering plants with tea leaves that contain sugar provokes the appearance of a fungus mosquito in the pot, black midges, and other pests that are not easily eliminated. These pests will start a toxic relationship with your flower and will require a huge chunk of alimony to severe the marriage.

When using moldy tea, you can introduce bacteria, mold in the soil (apparently) and cause soil contamination.

For cases of domestic greenhouses that prefer acidic soil, such addition can only do more damage than good.

Top Tip: You can determine the acidification of the soil by such signs as a greenish coating on the soil, which gives off an unpleasant smell, rotting of inflorescences and leaves, as well as mold on the petioles of plants.

These arguments will make the supporters of the “grandmother” methods reflect and think deeply. But if you are a cultured person and can’t be dissuaded by what neighborhood folks think, you might as well go ahead with teeing up your flower, pun intended.

How to Use Tea Leaves for Irrigation and Fertilizer?

This option may be acceptable to supporters of organic floriculture, as natural remedies have recently become widespread.

Top Trick: Any tea can be used for watering: black, green, herbal. The main thing is that it does not contain additives and flavors of synthetic origin.

How to Water Plants With Tea Infusion?

Make sure your flowers need soil acidification. Plants like tomatoes, oxalis poinsettia, and east lily thrive in acidic conditions. A simple soil test can be performed with a litmus test.

You do not need to constantly pour this fertilizer under the flowers, several times a month is enough. Avoid watering your plants with tea that has added sugar, acidic or moldy solution. You can use a cool, weak, unsweetened solution at room temperature.

Top Trick: If, in addition to watering, the tea leaves also flow under the flowers, then it is necessary to strictly fix the amount of them, mixing them with the top layer of the soil. This method will help maintain humidity, which will require you to water the plant less often. 

Some Other Ways to Use Tea Leaves.

If you are a tea addict like many of us, then you might be “elated” to discover that there are other means to use them.

A large amount of waste after drinking tea can be turned into a drainage layer when planting a flower in a new pot.

To do this, lay the tea leaves on the layer of expanded clay, sprinkle with earth and plant a flower. When it reaches the roots of the lower soil layer, part of the tea leaves already decompose and serve as organic fertilizer.

Instead of a drainage layer, the dried tea leaves are mixed with the flower soil when a plant is transplanted into another pot. This additive is acceptable if the soil is dense, then it acts as a baking powder.

Wrapping Up

So, if you use tea for watering, then you should do it following all the rules, do not use additives and flavorings, or moldy raw materials. This method is best for plants that prefer acidic soil and hard water with tannins.

When adopting this method, try to regularly loosen the soil under the flowers indoors and monitor the condition of the plants. When midges and other insects appear, you need to cultivate the soil and reduce watering.

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