WHAT IS ALFALFA TEA?
Alfalfa tea is a kind of Spring tonic for roses to help them to get off to a good start. It is made by putting three quarts of alfalfa pellets,(the kind without molasses), into a 33 gallon garbage can with a good lid. You will need the good lid to deal with the foul aroma that will come out of that can after a few days. After the mixture has fermented for about a week, it is ready to be poured around the base of your rose bushes. While this is a good mixture on its own, you can “soup it up” by mixing a couple of cups of fish emulsion and a cup of Epsom salts into the garbage can. Stir well. Put a gallon of the alfalfa tea around each large rose planted in the ground and a lesser amount in the potted miniature roses (until it streams out from the bottom) A really large climbing rose would probably get two gallons. This mixture causes a visible improvement over the growth on similar roses which were untreated. The smell is not really noticeable once the mixture has soaked into the soil.
Alfalfa, scientific name Medicago sativa, is a perennial legume and member of the pea family that finds its roots in Asia and Europe. Records indicate that it was used by the ancient Romans as horse feed as early as 490 B.C. Since then, cultures around the world have found ways to include alfalfa in everyday life, including creating teas to use as herbal medicines and gardening aids.
