Composting Old Tea, Y or N?

[TeBrecwast]

Recently I have been thinking about all the old tea leaves that I toss into the trash. I do compost vegetable waste myself; however I have been hesitant about composting old tea. I was wondering if there is anyone that has used tea leaves in compost or gardening, and did it appear to have a benefit? And did you just add the tea to the soil, or fully compost before adding the soil? I am looking to compost for vegetables.

[Emily@Adagio]

Hey, there!

I'm going to move this from TeaWare up to Tea>Miscellaneous for you, since it'll probably get a better response in that section.

And don't forget to Introduce Yourself to TeaChat! We're happy to have you join our group of Tea Lovers!

[victoria3]

I place all my spent leaves around plants that enjoy moist soil outside. Some leaves are beautiful to display around fruit trees here in Southern California. Other people I know compost them resulting in nicely aerated soil during decomposition phase. Placing them inside around plants resulted in moldy leaves. I think HY Chen's dried roasted DongDing leaves are beautiful so I've saved some to use for a future project.

[jayinhk]

I would suggest adding it to your compost heap and letting them break down fully with everything else.

[joelbct]

Yup I think tea works great in compost. Rich plant matter from rich soil around the world, nice addition to the compost bin. Leaves in general are supposed to be a good addition. There is something about the proper 'green' (nitrogen- most kitchen scraps) to 'browns' (carbon- shredded newspaper and dried foliage) ratio, I'm not sure whether tea leaves fall into the former or latter, but I'm sure Google would know.

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[Genmaichange]

I place all my spent leaves around plants that enjoy moist soil outside. Some leaves are beautiful to display around fruit trees here in Southern California. Other people I know compost them resulting in nicely aerated soil during decomposition phase. Placing them inside around plants resulted in moldy leaves. I think HY Chen's dried roasted DongDing leaves are beautiful so I've saved some to use for a future project.

What are 'HY Chen's dried roasted DongDing leaves' ? Also what would the future project entail?

[victoria3]

I place all my spent leaves around plants that enjoy moist soil outside. Some leaves are beautiful to display around fruit trees here in Southern California. Other people I know compost them resulting in nicely aerated soil during decomposition phase. Placing them inside around plants resulted in moldy leaves. I think HY Chen's dried roasted DongDing leaves are beautiful so I've saved some to use for a future project.

What are 'HY Chen's dried roasted DongDing leaves' ? Also what would the future project entail?

HY Chen aka Hau Yin Chen is a farmer in Taiwan who follows traditional farming methods and makes excellent roasted oolongs. I order from him on facebook 薪誠坊 Shin Cheng Fang/百年茶園/凍頂烏龍專賣店. My future dry leaf project might just be using them in photos or adding essential oils or...... not sure yet

[LooseLeafTeaMarket01]

I would definitely include tea leaves in your composting. Or feed them to your other plants.

And here's an idea, lol, I'm already laughing because it does sound a little nuts but I'll go for it.

When I used to juice, I would keep the pulp and make veggie burgers. What if you kept your tea leaves...and made Tea Burgers?!

[stevorama]

I put my tea leaves into my compost bin. I consider them like dried leaves (brown material.) No problem.

[shadesofviolet]

I put my tea leaves into my compost bin. I consider them like dried leaves (brown material.) No problem.

They're actually a green because they were picked when they were living - not like fallen leaves where most of the nutrients have time to leave before they drop.