compost tea
n.— «Spraying compost tea coats plants with a dense and diverse population of beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. A good tea can contain as many as 25,000 species of bacteria. Once on the leaves, compost tea suppresses diseases in several ways, including crowding out unbeneficial microorganisms, causing antibiotic reactions against diseases and consuming pathogens.» —“Feeding plants compost tea” by Deborah Rich San Francisco Chronicle (California) July 20, 2002. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
If someone urges you to spill the tea, they probably don’t want you tipping over a hot beverage. Originally, the tea here was the letter T, as in “truth.” To spill the T means to “pass along truthful information.” Plus...
If you catch your blue jeans on a nail, you may find yourself with a winklehawk. This term, adapted into English from Dutch, means “an L-shaped tear in a piece of fabric.” And: What’s your relationship with the books on your...