RE: [compost_tea] Re: New poll for compost_tea

From: Mike Benton <compost_at_mweb.co.za>
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 21:40:10 +0200

Hi Paulette. I must apologise for taking so long to reply to your question
but I have been so caught up with chatting to Bob Norsen that I forgot all
about it. Sorry:>
I am about 100 miles outside Cape Town in South Africa. I came here more 33
years with my folks ,from the U.K.This is such an amazing country and while
we may have a troubled past ,things are getting much better .I would suggest
a google search rather than I go any further from compost tea then I have
already gone or of course just email me directly.
I have been a lurker since the days of BY {before Yahoo}. I have made and
used tea for about 4 years now In the early days we had two 20000 lt flow
thru type machines ;taking anywhere from 3 to 7 days to make something that
smelt OK and showed improvements on the 180 ha grape farm where I was
running all the compost and related production. Nice small site with about
two and half miles of compost windrows at a time.
I left them and set up a company on my own focusing on helping the farmer to
get his soils back to life. I deign and sell compost turners and also work
with EM but at the moment I am focusing on AABCT.I have built nearly 15
machines of either 1200 or 3000lt,the oldest of which is 21months.I started
with a drilled PVC diffuser set up in a 6000lt GRP tank [although he only
makes 3000lt at a time].Since then I have found aeration methods from water
treatment and use rubber bladder type diffusers. These have slits in the
rubber that open under pressure and release a bubble of about 1mm.These
bubbles merge into bigger bubbles and move the water about. My machine is
similar to the Compara machine but all that I get from overseas are the
blowers and they come from Italy. The currency is weak against the dollar
which is great for you guys if you visit SA but makes imports expensive, so
I produce the diffusers and fittings here. If you want more on diffusers go
to diffuserexpress.com and have a look. .I built my first brewer of less
than 1200 lt about 2 weeks ago and that is a little 25 lt unit for playing
with, new ideas are cheaper to try out on 25 lts.
The reason why I lurk is simply that I have NO data .Sure I can show you
temp and CO2 readings for the compost used in the tea .I have had clients
test for ecoli and other nasties,without any problems. I even offer to eat a
sample of compost that is delivered to you. I don't have to do that much
these days ....But we lack a lab of the calibre of SFW and as such cant get
meaningful data. I have about 2000ha of fruit and veggies using my brewers
and they all seem happy, but so far all attempts that I am aware of to get a
SFW lab going have failed on economic grounds.Doc Elaine please jump in here
and correct me if I am wrong .I would love to hear that we are getting a
lab...
I shall quietly go off now and lurk for another year or two

Regards
Mike Benton
Compost Technologies
compost_at_mweb.co.za <mailto:compost_at_mweb.co.za> mobile 0823345371




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Received on Thu Jul 10 2003 - 00:06:18 EDT

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