How to make Liquid Fungal Compost Extract for your Farm or Garden

HOW TO MAKE AND APPLY A LIQUID COMPOST EXTRACT
from a finished fungal-rich solid compost

Materials:
-Three pounds (1.5 kg) of solid, live fungal-based compost - to make ten gallons of extract
-Ten gallons of extract is enough to treat one acre! It won’t harm the soil or plants if you use more.
-Three, clean, five-gallon buckets
-Ten gallons of clean water poured into two of the five-gallon buckets
(If the water is chlorinated, it will kill microorganisms. Leave chlorinated water open to air overnight.)
-Stir stick or hand drill with paint stirrer attached
-Coarse linen or cheese cloth, enough to make two to four layers on top of a five-gallon bucket (Compost extract is filtered through the cloth so that particles won’t clog the sprayer-applicator.)
-Hand-held or backpack-style pump liquid sprayer-applicator, two-to-four-gallon capacity (An inexpensive manual pump sprayer should be adequate for small acreage.)

Methods:

1) Evenly divide the solid compost into each of the two, five-gallon buckets of water.

2) With the stir stick or paint stirrer, mix the solid compost in the water, for two to three minutes.

3) Secure the cloth over the empty five-gallon bucket and pour the mixture through the cloth. The filtered compost extract should look like weak, cloudy tea without particles. Repeat as needed.

4) Fill the pump sprayer-applicator with the filtered compost extract.

5) Apply the compost extract to the soil using the sprayer. A light application is sufficient; ten gallons per acre. IMPORTANT: The compost extract should be applied within one day, to ensure viability of the microorganisms. Immediately after applying the extract, water the ground thoroughly. Water or rainwater will incorporate the live microorganisms into the soil, where they can multiply.

Courtesy of the Mosca-Hooper Conservation District, Alamosa County, Colorado, USA, the San Luis Valley Local Foods Coalition, and the Rio Grande Farm Park, Nov. 13, 2021.


To purchase fungal-based compost, contact the Mosca-Hooper Conservation District.
https://mhcd.colorado.gov

Or, make your own fungal-based compost with a Johnson-Su “bioreactor.”
   • Johnson Su Bioreactor