[compost_tea] Re: microbial food

From: growest2002 <g.w.thomson_at_shaw.ca>
Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 14:45:00 -0000

Hi all-just to repeat, I'm not adding baking soda as a fungicide.

The hydrolyzed fish comes at a pH of 3.4, which is not optimal for
absorption thru the foliage, nor perhaps the best for feeding the
microbes around the plant. To bring it up to around pH 6, I would
like to add something alkaline to the fish before mixing it in with
the rest of the foods and water for foliar feeding.

  Doesn't have to be baking soda, but BS (Tom, did you come up with
that shorthand?!) does minimize the precipitating of the phosphate
from the phosphoric acid used to "pickle" the fish. Compared to say
some calcium (lime, etc) compound.

Wouldn't need much, since this is getting diluted for foliar and root
feeding to 1:100, not much Na+ being added. Plus in my area this
will
be leached quickly, more problematic in a dry area...

If somebody else has a better "neutralizer" love to hear it.

Or do you think the acid fish is okay to use as it comes? I would
especially worry if any humic was added to the same tank of "foods"
since they start to come out of solution at pH 6 and lower.

Glen

--- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, "Steve Bridges" <kimas_at_t...>
wrote:
> Baking soda, one heaping teaspoon to a gallon of water makes an
excellent foliar spray for powdery mildew. As a retail nurserymen I
could sell them something but I find it better to be helpful rather
than greedy. Keep it simple, affordable, and simply effective. Don't
know the effect on the microbes, and if I were using AACT then the
baking soda would not be needed? But I'm still not going to sell my
customers a $5 gallon of compost tea when they can use a nickels
worth
of baking soda.
> Steve Bridges
> Kimas Tejas Nursery
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jeff Lowenfels
> To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 11:17 AM
> Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: microbial food
>
>
> Baking soda? What impact on the microbes?
>
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Received on Sat May 17 2003 - 12:22:50 EDT

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