Published: Aug. 9, 2018

Water, waste and ingenuity ─ these are the ingredients of compost tea. Made by mixing compost and water together, this microbe-based fertilizer drastically improves soil health while managing pests. The tea is distributed through the campus irrigation system, which proved to be a deceptively challenging process that took five years of development to get just right. The result? Since 2013 the university has been the first major institution to use compost tea on a large scale, and refrains from applying herbicides to the campus turf.