General information on Plant Extracts
Once mistakenly called slurry, the term plant extracts (fermented or not) encompasses all similar fabrications ranging from infusion to decoction through fermentation and juices. All these preparations have in common, the use of rainwater, storage in a cool place, protected from light, careful filtering, plastic containers, preferably black.
.The Decoctions
it is obtained by boiling the coarsely cut plants after a 24-hour maceration in rainwater at room temperature. The water is gently boiled and maintained at 20 to 30mm under a lid, and then left to cool before being filtered with a coffee filter. This method is easy to implement on the other hand these preparations are kept only a few days, moreover it is the best way to extract certain active components used for the preventive or curative treatment against diseases and pests, some of them even have the effect of strengthening the plants.
Fermentation
It is a chemical reaction obtained by maceration, in rainwater, of plants in the absence of air (anaerobic), this one can be more or less fast according to the ambient temperature, it is essential to practise daily an energetic stirring, the presence of a white foam is the sign of the beginning of the process when it disappears (approximately 15 to 20 days) the fermentation is completed, it is then necessary to carry out a careful filtration to be bottled and to be preserved at the expenses with the shelter of the light. In such conditions the product obtained can be kept several months. This one will be used more or less diluted for preventive and curative treatment as well as in foliar fertilizer or to spread.
Infusions
It is also used in the preparation of insect repellent and insecticide preparations, as well as in the preparation of insect repellent and insecticide-treated food. The infusion is especially recommended for insecticide or insect repellent preparations. One can preserve an infusion by taking care to bottle it hot in a glass container and in the shelter of light.
Maceration
Also called cold water extract, this technique simply consists of soaking the plants, previously carefully chopped, in water at room temperature for 24 hours. Then we filter and pulverize pure; not to store it would have for effect to start a fermentation. Main interest of this method is the economy of means implemented, on the other hand their effect is mainly fungicide.
Juice
The principle is very simple, it consists in the manner of a press to express the water contained in any plant. The coarsely cut plant is placed in a pierced container, in its bottom and on the third of its height, that one being placed in a container identical to the first one (but that one not perforated), it will collect and to finish one places another container, on the bucket containing the plants this one weighted with a sufficient weight so that it can press strongly on this last. The process can last 15 to 20 days according to the outside temperature. A concentrated solution is obtained that is filtered and kept in a glass bottle.
Small tip: mulch the plants treated with the waste obtained from these extracts, this will strengthen their actions.
