Spray bottle of compost tea is miracle worker #1 Dwarf Fruit Trees can really respond to treatment with compost tea. (that lovely young tree behind the bottle is an Apricot grown from the pit of an apricot I ate. )
My earlier post by Steve Diver - the recognized world expert - on Compost Tea is here
One of the easy things about Dwarf Fruit Trees is they make fantastic Indoor Fruit Trees.
Whether you live in a warm or a cold climate, the dwarf fruit tree is ideal for bringing greenery, bright colors, gorgeous fragrances, and…. frankly….
companionship…
…indoors and into your daily work-a-day life.
A fruit tree breathes life into your moods and moments.
Flowering plants merely bloom, but Indoor Fruit Trees pulsate color into the room. Going back to the very Garden of Eden itself, our minds are deeply connected to respond to fruit “ripening on the vine”.
A fruit tree in your indoor space paints an interior design with the energy of tasty abundance. An impact eclipsing mere greenery alone.
There are many wonderful considerations for your tree indoors:
A sunny spot - what a bonus that your tree draws you to the sunshine.
An adequate container - in size not style…unlike most green plants that require a beautiful container too, the Indoor Fruit Tree itself blows away the pot’s importance to the eye. Even a big container can be as plain or as decorative as you like.
Regular water and nutrition - a good well-drained potting mix, with some acidity for the citrus (adding coconut peat or other peat does the trick), and some compost tea, bokashi, or a commercial fruit tree fertilizer regularly throughout the growing season.
A bit of spray - again bokashi or compost tea are good here, commercial sprays can also work. To help keep any unbalances of disease or pests from dominating your tree.
Lots of Love, Talking, and Attention - no kidding. Trees like great music too - particularly Mozart.
Feng Shui - Lime trees and Lemon Trees at the entrances to a home rock the Feng Shui and absorb bad luck - so say Lillian Too author of 10 million copies sold on the art of placement of things to balance energy. See Dwarf Fruit Trees Absorb and Kill Bad Luck and Evil Influence. (Now we are talking!)
Please post your comments on favorite Indoor Fruit Trees you have growing in your home, office, studio, or other indoor space.
Steve Diver of NCAT gets my vote… he gives me hope…may he lead us into a new era…
What is Compost Tea?
As the name implies, compost tea is made by steeping compost in water. It’s used as either a foliar spray or a soil drench, depending on where your plant has problems.
Bucket-Fermentation Method
“Passive” compost tea is prepared by immersing a burlap sack filled with compost into a bucket or tank, stirring occassionally. Usually the brew time is longer, from 7 to 10 days. This is the method that dates back hundreds of years in Europe, and is more akin to a compost watery extract than a “brewed” and aerated compost tea.Bucket-Bubbler Method
The equipment setup and scale of production are similar to the bucket method, except that an aquarium-size pump and air bubbler are used in association with microbial food and catalyst sources added to the solution as an amendment. Since aeration is critical, as many as three sump pumps may be used in a bucket simultaneously.
With homemade compost tea brewing, a compost “sock” is commonly used as a filter-strainer. Ideally, the mesh size will strain compost particulate matter but still allow beneficial microbes—including fungal hyphae and nematodes—to migrate into solution. Single-strand mesh materials such as nylon stockings, laundry bags, and paint bags are some of the materials being used; fungal hyphae tend to get caught in polywoven fabrics. If burlap is used, it should be “aged” burlap.Trough Method
Large-scale production of compost teas employs homemade tanks and pumps. An 8- or 12-inch-diameter PVC pipe is cut in half, drilled full of holes, and lined with burlap. Compost is placed in this makeshift trough. The PVC trough is supported above the tank, several feet in the air. The tank is filled with water, and microbial food sources are added as an amendment. A sump pump sucks the solution from the bottom of the tank and distributes the solution to a trickle line running horizontally along the top of the PVC trough filled with compost. As the solution runs through the burlap bags containing the compost, a leachate is created which then drops several feet through the air back into the open tank below. A sump pump in the bottom of the tank collects this “tea” and distributes it back through the water line at the top of the trough, and so on. Through this process, which lasts about seven days, the compost tea is recirculated, bubbled, and aerated. The purpose of the microbial food source is to grow a large population of beneficial microorganisms.
Commercial Tea Brewers
Commercial equipment is available for the production of brewed compost teas (see a list of suppliers below). Usually there is a compost sack or a compost leachate basket with drainage holes, either of which are used to hold a certain volume of compost. The compost-filled container is placed in a specially designed tank filled with chlorine-free water. Microbial food sources are added to the solution. A pump supplies oxygen to a specially-designed aeration device which bubbles and aerates the compost tea brewing in the tank.Summary
Depending on your scale of production and the level of financial resources available to purchase commercial brewing equipment vs. making some kind of homemade brewer, there are several methods to choose from. Research at Soil Foodweb, Inc. in Corvallis, Oregon has shown that differences exist in the beneficial attributes of compost teas, with commercial tea brewers producing the greatest numbers and diversity of beneficial microorganisms.By Steve Diver
NCAT Agriculture Specialist
February 2002
We prefer to order Dwarf Fruit Trees online from Amazon when giving them as gifts or deliberately planned purchases for our landscape and interior home whenever possible. Due to the compact size of the plant and the incredible convenience of having trees arrive with the friendly delivery person at the front door, we generally shop with the mouse.
In addition to the magic of the internet purchase and delivery system, there is the ever present opportunity to invest in the perrenniel yield of a new tree from your local mega store via the impulse buy.
Nurseries worldwide, have produced Dwarf Fruit Trees in the millions, as noted in the original Dwarf Fruit Trees post, driving lower and lower the cost of popping one into your cart along with - in our case - that new Victa Enviromower cordless electric lawn mower. Thus driving the impulse buy to the practically irresistible.
For an additional 1% on the purchase cost of the large item we set out to acquire from the big box store home center, we head home with both a ficas for the office and the Bonanza II Dwarf Peach Tree.
That riot of slightly blurry pink is due to the vehicle motion as the tree rides home on my lap from the local Mega Store (they actually call it that) here in New Zealand.
Here in the “top of the south” in New Zealand we’re just coming into spring with all the allure of new pink blossoms to grace the sunny porch off our Master Bedroom.
The tag you see in the photo says
“Peach - Bonanza II 45cm Std - Dwarf peach with largish orange, blushed red fruit with firm yellow, melting flesh and juicy, aromatic flavour. Early ripening and freestone. great plant for containers and city gardens. 2m”
YUM!
This tree is presently at around 45cm and will grow to a max height in the neighborhood of 2 meters. What could be better than that for our little sunny bedroom porch where it’s pink blossoms greet us in the morning? It’s a gorgeous tree that can’t ever outgrow the space.
If you care to keep colors ever new for your view simply move the little tree to another spot on the terrace when the blossoms fall, then replace the prime viewing spot with a different plant in full color for that time of year.
The sales woman at the Mega Store, Karen, kindly suggested a 2 year slow release granulated fertilizer from Yates for adding to the soil when planting the tree at home.
We appreciate the convenience of this suggestion, however we prefer our fully organic, non-chemical, and stress reducing, life-enhancing, home-made Compost fertilization method that we immortalized in Part 1 Secret Passkey to Lower Stress and Part 2 The Master Key to Successful Composting.
Though our response in care preferences for the Dwarf Peach Tree didn’t offer an additional impulse buy sale for the store, it did elicit a warm smile and nod of agreement from the garden center clerk, Karen.
Those of us with prior slimy, buggy, and disgusting mess compost experience are understandably thinking negative thoughts at the moment about the previous post. But composting has come along way in the intervening time; so can we.
Composting is actually a gift to anyone with yard debris and kitchen waste. Both of these waste streams just keep coming and coming at us. It’s a real chore to handle them both all the time in the way we’d like to be most responsible for them. Sure the recycle trucks in some places come by and pick up yard waste in bags or bins on the side of the road for you, but you have to time it right to get it collected, in the receptacle, and up to the street in time for the rigid pick up schedule. This means more obligatory stresses.
On the other hand our Dwarf Fruit Tree is happy if we just give it a nice dressing of rich compost anytime in early spring on a day that suits us and check on it throughout the growing season to see how that compost fertilizer is holding up. Similarly the constant stream of waste from our landscaping and out of our kitchen can make into a compost pile at irregular times according to our inspiration rather than a “utility” company schedule. This is a happy confluence.
There is a bigger impact than we may see at first. A subtle magic is at work here. Mother Nature, and a closer connection to her seemingly infinite majesty, has arrived in the form of our Dwarf Fruit Tree.
Could the source be a new or renewed inclusion of our daily habits into the cycles of Nature yielding benevolent stress reduction and task overwhelm amelioration?
Let’s examine: Dealing with kitchen waste suddenly gets a little thought attached to it when the food scraps go into the big stainless steel soup pot with lid that we use for compost around place - the thought carries an anticipation that in 9 months time that bannana peel, or half eaten oatmeal, is fertilizer for the joyful little fruit bearing tree that graces the veranda.
This is not like fertilizing roses bushes. Don’t get me wrong - i’m in love with roses and don’t begrudge them their compost, but there is a more definite conscious linkage to composting food knowing that the fertilzer it becomes via composting is growing new food as fruit yield of our Dwarf Fruit Trees. Harvest and eat in the future and repeat the cycle. Anyone who has composted at home for any length of time will confirm this sense of being connected to the natural world daily through the composting habit.
Let’s examine: how does this reduce the feeling of overwhelm? Our yard is surrounded by lovely mature trees both evergreen and deciduous. The evergreen trees don’t dump all their leaves every fall, instead they drop them in smaller amounts almost continually. Thus creating a never ending litter with ongoing work to keep the grounds in order and at the same time a constant supply of covering material for our kitchen scraps going on the compost.
The Secret Sauce Successful Compost Every Time:
Dissimilar Layers + A Covering Layer for all Kitchen Waste
The master key to hassle free and effective compost, as well as alleviating the burden of kitchen waste, is to layer different types of organic material in your compost pile, using yard material (or anything organic and compact- even sawdust - that works to cover up the kitchen scraps. The other layers are a mix of whatever green (like lawn clippings and evergreen leaves) and brown (like autumn leaves or hay) material at hand. Be sure to layer in some structure with material that doesn’t compact as much creating air spaces in your pile. No branches, small twigs no bigger than a childs little pinky finger are ok.
Final step - leave it until next year.
Wow - is that all there is to it? Pretty much. Everything else is fancy footwork and over-thinking the job. Fine if you like but not required. The main thing is getting started and having some goals and thoughts in mind that inspire follow through.
The annual spring fertilization of our Dwarf Fruit Trees is the perfect goal for letting our compost “cure”. We know there’s nothing to do to that compost pile other than keep piling on more layers of material until the pile reaches maximum size (about chest or shoulder high after several settlings) in spring each year.
The stream of kitchen waste keeps me inspired to find “cover” for it from my yard debris all year long. Compost will never smell or attract flies if you simply cover it with a nice layer of yard debris each time you make the trip from the kitchen with the compost bucket (or pot in our case) out to the pile. In synergistic and beautifully complementary fashion the key to an effective compost pile is different types of material in layers. Thus every few days when the kitchen receptacle fills there’s an opportunity to be inspired to seek out a different “layer” from last week’s debris from the yard. Use it to cover on top of the kitchen waste on the compost pile.
Replacing the deadline of getting all your yard debris up to the street in time for the recycle truck to waste more fuel hauling it away, we can be tuned into our Dwarf Fruit Trees gift of connection to the natural cycle. By thinking of their upcoming need for fertilizer next spring this attention leads naturally to the inspiration to compost. The every few days trip out to the pile with the bucket from the kitchen leads naturally to cleaning up the yard waste to keep the compost pile well covered and properly layered.
We all know how good it feels to get the landscape in top shape. Now doing so is not only a chore -it’s part of our own ecosystem cycle of connection to nature right within our own lifestyles.
A complete and natural cycle minus any of the stresses of “modern living” right here in our little city yard. Composting is not just for farmers and neither is growing fruit! We can do it too. And we love it.
For a fuller explanation of how layering in the compost pile effects the build up of heat via keeping the bacteria and other micro-organisms and worms etc pick a good book on composting - well worth the investment or the library trip.
We recommend The Complete Compost Gardening Guide by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin. These green thumb gals “turn the compost bin upside down with their liberating system of keeping compost heaps right in the garden, rather than in some dark corner behind the garage.”
A synopsis of our approach to composting comes down to this:
- the upper part of the pile has layers that bring both brown and green material together (brown such as dead leaves etc) green being kitchen waste, lawn clippings etc)
- these layers also include layers of compact versus structural stuff - ie grass clippings are compact - broccoli stalks are structural. small twigs are ok but have to be tiny branches. branches any bigger than a young ladies little finger are too big to compost.
- the structural layers keep enough oxygen around for the pile to heat up and get hot enough to break down material in hyper-speed
- the bugs do an incredible job of heating up the mid to upper part of the pile.
- there is no need to turn the pile…. just leave it alone for a year and the worms will find their way in and help the micro-organisms do their job of “curing” the compost and turning it into mature fertilizer over the next year. The lower half of the pile stays cool for the worms to be happy. you keep adding to the upper part of the pile with layers that allow for the heat to build up from the other micro-organism that do the fast break down work.
- the mid and upper hot part of the pile breaks down so fast and settles so much that the pile shrinks before your eyes - keep piling on more until the shrinkage gets to the point where it stays about about chest high or so.
– start a new pile and leave the first pile for a year to “cure” into fertilizer for your Dwarf Fruit Trees and other plants. The worms work their magic over the year at which time you’ll be astounded by the richness and number of worms inhabiting your rich new fertilizer. Your Dwarf Fruit Trees will love this concoction of compost, worm castings, etc.
Once we’ve got one or a few Dwarf Fruit Trees on our property we’ve also got an intention to take care of them: a need for feeding them some rich fertilizer each year in early spring and throughout the growing season depending on your choice of fertilizer.
Oh - chores, chores, chores.
Is this a negative - a reason not to have some of our own food home grown, a reason not to have plants and growing things around our place? Is life just too busy to add more duties and chores to the days, weeks, months, and years that are already full up with survival, entertainment, education, parenting, adventuring, etc in so many other forms?
Yes, in some ways it’s true that having another living thing to care for is “piling on” the responsibilities and thus the chores to keep up with in our busy lives especially in the city.
However there’s a secret to share with us all about this process of bringing ourselves closer to nature, no matter where we live.
It’s a secret particularly accessible to us via Dwarf Fruit Trees growing happily anywhere from a sunny corner of the kitchen or living room to the roof garden or terrace or a small apartment balcony.
To have growing fruit at home truly is an opportunity - one with a magical secret that arrives with it to more than compensate for the “piling on” of additional hard to manage chores from another living thing to shelter and preserve.
When we bring nature into a home or work environment, in this case in the form of a fruit bearing yum factory of a Dwarf Fruit Tree, there’s quite a bit of life improving, overwhelm reducing, magic that comes in with it.
Case in point - keeping the tree fertilized so it not only survives but thrives enough to bear some luscious bounty. Seems like another item for the research list and then the “to do” list. Yet isn’t it true that we already have an item that is percolating within our intent about having less of an impact on the earth? The vast majority of us, regardless of politics or economic views or even environmental views, are all trying to reduce the amount of personal waste we pump into general environment. We are all thinking at some point about composting our organic kitchen waste, aren’t we? Otherwise we are piling on more weight in the garbage truck. More weight means more fuel burnt, meaning more emissions, less efficiency, more pollution, etc etc.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Compost
These days it is simply “not done” to dump all your kitchen waste into the garbage truck and land fill bound trash can in your kitchen. Compost all that organic material ourselves rather than expend the fuel and land fill space to haul it off needlessly.
Suddenly the Dwarf Fruit Tree that has arrived in our life with all its promise of harvest and beauty and natural connection no longer looks like a burden of more to do list items to take care of it. Oh no, a funny thing has happened on the way to the compost pile, now our tree’s needs for rich fertilizer has brought a bit of inspirational magic into our days via alleviating the burden of what to do with our kitchen waste, rather than load down the garbage truck with it.
Let’s also pile on yard debris like all those wet leaves making a slick hazard in the driveway or front entrance as another point of “have to clean it up and take care of it before someone gets hurt” bearing down on our consciousness.
Dwarf Fruit Trees are in a fact a magnet and beacon for the transformation of these burdens into inspirations.
Now we have our own personal destination for our organic kitchen waste and our yard debris….. our Dwarf Fruit Trees each spring fertilized by our fully “cured” compost from our own compost pile
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