Re: [compost_tea] Re: Holding time for tea

From: Steve Bridges <kimas_at_texasgrown.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 18:48:38 -0500

Long before the advent of aerobically active compost tea, people were using=
 mainly a fish/seaweed blend to feed their plants. Now you can purchase any=
 number of 'all-in-one' blends of fish/seaweed that contain any number of o=
ther ingredients (molasses, bone meal, soil activators, humic acid, etc.).

We did a comparative test a couple of years back to test potting soils and =
fertilizers (everybody said theirs was the best!). We potted up about fifte=
en 5 gallons pots and planted a Celebrity tomato in each pot. In about half=
 the pots we tested potting soils alone to see which one did best. In the o=
ther half, we used the same potting soil but added different fertilizers to=
 test the fertilizers. All the fertilizers were dry fertilizers that were m=
ixed into the potting soil, except for one. That one pot did not receive an=
y dry fertilizers, but was foliar sprayed once a week with Sea Spray by Mae=
stro-Gro, one of the all-in-one blends of liquid fertilizers. That foliar s=
prayed tomato grew twice as fast and produced better than any other dry fer=
tilizer. It was the most healthy of all the tomato plants.

So can a plant uptake simple liquid organic foliar sprays without the benef=
it of the microbes making the nutrients available? Sure they can! Why does =
a light rain seem to really stoke a tomato plant (not enough to soak the so=
il)? My vote....foliar feeding is an excellent way to bump your plants thro=
ugh the growing season when you don't wish to rake the mulch back to reamen=
d the soil.

We also use foliar feedings to get our commercial grown plants back to good=
 health when they come in from the growers. Some commercial growers really =
force feed the plants to get them up and growing and when the arrive at a r=
etail nursery they can go through some shock from not being given their dai=
ly dose of drugs. You could say our organic foliar would be the methadone f=
or the heroin that they were addicted to!....8~)

With all this said, I still believe that aerobic compost tea is a better wa=
y to go,,,,,,but I still foliar feed with simple fish/seaweed, too.......su=
ccess is always found in diversity.

Steve Bridges
Kimas Tejas Nursery
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Robert Norsen
  To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
  Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 1:11 PM
  Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: Holding time for tea


  Hi GW. In my experience, if your tea is active and you add significant a=
mounts of fish or kelp the tea will become anaerobic within 15 minutes. =
 Like O2= < 2 . Question - is foliar feeding of fish and kelp that has n=
ot been assimulated by the microbes really effective as a way to better gro=
wth or production? It seems to me that is like feeding the root system nu=
trients without the benefits of microbes. Is there good evidence that it =
works? Bob

  growest2002 <g.w.thomson_at_shaw.ca> wrote:
    Maybe this is already clear to everyone else, but I'm still uncertain
    about adding foliar nutrients to a tea that is going to be
    immediately
    sprayed out.

    I would like to combine fish and kelp foliar feeding with the tea
    being applied. If I add fish at 1:100 in the tank, and kelp at
    1:200,
    will the oxygen demand kill off a significant amount of my tea in the
    30-60 minutes it takes me to expel that tea from my sprayer?

    A possible factor is that lately I've gone to spraying straight tea
    (other than a small % of water used to dilute the yucca that is added
    to the tea in the spray tank). Thus I have a very "concentrated"
    bunch
    of organisms in that spray tank, ready to consume the fish/kelp when
    it's added...

    It sure would be nice if we could eliminate the extra trip around to
    foliar the nutrients separately from the tea, but not if the tea gets
    murdered in the process--Glen

    --- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, soilfoodweb_at_a... wrote:
> I have been asked, off the list serve, to comment on how long you
    can hold tea.
>
> IF you make sure that oxygen is maintained in aerobic ranges, you
    CAN hold tea for up to 5 days.
>
> BUT please recognize that during that time, you very well may
    select
    for an ever-diminishing set of organism diversity. The reason for
    the 5 day cut-off is that by that time, you are deal with a limited
    set of microbe diversity.
>
> If you add any foods into that "being-held" tea, oxygen will
    PLUMMET
    to very low levels. You have bunch of activated, starving bacteria
    and fungi in your 2 to 3 day old tea, and they will be SAVAGE about
    any added food, using it very rapidly, and with a huge oxygen demand.
    Ask Bob of Bob's Brewers about his experience with this! The oxygen
    demand can be so extreme that it will result in loss of the
    beneficial
    fungi, protozoa and nematodes from the brew quite rapidly. Within 4
    to 6 hours.
>
> So, if circumstances force you to hold tea, do it with caution, add
    only minimal amounts of food (no more than a teaspoon or 20 ml, for
    example) after 24 hours. It can be done, but with extreme care.
>
> If you tank mix nutrients into your tea, you have the same
    situation, so remember that you have only a few hours - perhaps only
    4
    to 6 hours - to get the tea out before the beneficial fungi have been
    consumed.
>
> Of course, once your organisms have gone flying through the air in
    droplets, the aeration problem has been alleviated. The thin layer
    of
    tea on a leaf surface will be nicely aerobic. Diffusion is quite
    adequate on the leaf surface.
>
> The test to determine whether aeration was adequate is to PUT THE
    TEA INTO A SEALED CONTAINER AND LEAVE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE OVERNIGHT. =
 
    Open the container and smell at 24 hours. If ok, your tea was likely
    ok. IF stink can be detected, do another tea.
>
> Compost tea is meant to be made, and applied right away. There is
    no point in holding it, as you start to lose diversity after 48 to 72
    hours. Hold it only if you have no choice. With proper maintenance,
    tea can be held up to 5 days. But then, apply it someplace that you
    don't care if the results are a bit funky. I personally let the weed
    patch have it. You are helping diversity in the soil, which will
    ultimately will select against the weeds.
>
> OK?
>
> Elaine Ingham
> President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
> SFI Corvallis, OR
> SFI Port Jefferson, NY
> SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
> SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
> SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
> www.soilfoodweb.com



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Received on Mon Apr 28 2003 - 21:05:49 EDT

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