Organic gardeners all know compost is fantastic stuff. But
now, there's something even better and that's compost tea. If you start
with a good compost you'll have a versatile elixir for all your garden
needs. Compost tea helps prevent foliage diseases and at the same time
increase the nutrients to the plant and shutdown the toxins hurting the
plants. It will improve the taste/flavor of your vegetables. So why not
give this tea a try either by buying it or brewing it yourself. You
won't believe the results!

Four ways that good bacteria work:

• Help compete for the nutrients
  
• Dine on the bad varmits
  
• Help produce antibiotics to use against the varmits.
  
• They shove the bad varmits out.
  
  

Compost tea that is correctly brewed has a wealth of microorganisms
that will benefit your plants' growth and health as well as the soil
that they live in. Compost tea can be considered yogurt for the soil.
The microorganisms living there are both good and bad. What the tea
does is make sure the good guys win by introducing helpful bacteria,
fungi, protozoa and beneficial nematodes.

Harmful bacteria lives best in soil that does not have good air
circulation. Good bacteria lives best and will thrive in soil that is
well ventilated with oxygen. This is where a good compost tea, made the
right way, comes in. When you have well oxygenated compost you
automatically get rid of 3/4 of the bad varmits. Also by using harmful
insecticides or chemical fertilizers we reduce the number of beneficial
microorganisms in the soil.

Plants produce their own energy and food and half of that goes
to the roots and some of that goes into the surrounding soil and guess
who gets that? Correct, the good guys, and then it turns into a
beneficial cycle.

The following is taken from the internet and shows compost tea is becoming a force in gardening.

National Organic Standards Board Compost Tea Task Force Report
April 6, 2004 Introduction In 2003, the National Organic Standards
Board convened a Compost Tea Task Force to review the relevant
scientific data and report their recommendations on ‘What constitutes a
reasonable use of compost tea?’ The Task Force was composed of 13
individuals with knowledge and expertise in organic farming practices,
organic certification, EPA pathogen regulations, compost, compost tea
production and analysis, plant pathology, food safety and environmental
microbiology.

Throughout their discussions, members consistently acknowledged
the growing interest among certified organic and conventional growers
to use compost teas, and the need to develop effective
biologically-based tools to manage plant fertility, pests, and
diseases.

A primary reason for producing compost tea is to transfer
microbial biomass, fine particulate organic matter, and soluble
chemical components of compost into an aqueous phase that can be
applied to plant surfaces and soils in ways not possible or
economically feasible with solid compost.