[compost_tea] Re: ICTC Meet (long)

From: irene bensinger <irene_at_trilliumwoods.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 15:33:19 -0700

Jeff wrote:

>I just got back from the first International Compost Tea Council
>education session with Dr. Elaine and many of the ICTC board members
>and many of you on this list.
SNIP
>Anyone else there care to comment?

Folks, you really can believe Jeff's superlatives. It *was*
wonderful: very well organized, highly educational/informative, and
lots of fun. I'm happy to share my own experience of the Saturday
session as seen through the eyes of a home (strictly organic)
gardener and recent CT convert.

Jeff didn't mention his own contribution to the Saturday session (the
only one I attended) so please let me tell you that it was terrific.
Jeff has all the enthusiasm, energy and physical pyrotechnics of a
four-year old (that's a COMPLIMENT, Jeff!) as well as a non-stop
sense of humor.

His story of his own conversion from dedicated user of that familiar
Fertilizer-in-a-Green-and-Yellow-Box to sincere CT advocate segued
smooothly into a general, not-too-technical-for-us-beginners
description of what's going on in the soil food web. His basic
presentation of what's happening down there at the micro level really
helped me understand why we have to be feeding the little critters,
who in turn will feed the plants.

Dr. Elaine and Leon Hussey, president of ICTC, were on the sidelines
during his presentation, stepping in from time to clarify and expand,
then on we went with more of Jeff's enthusiastic presentation of 3-D
electron microscope views of paramecia, nematodes and all those other
tiny things we all grew up believing were flat.

Hendrikus Schraven (sp?) showed us some incredible pictures of
remediation work his landscaping company has done, successfully
creating luxuriant gardens and lawns on a previously water-logged
site.

Dr. Elaine took us through the basic chemistry of how the components
of a compost pile are transformed via several microbiological
interventions into nutrients that can then be brewed, grown and
multiplied into a compost tea full of living bacteria, fungi,
beneficial nematodes and other tiny creatures. Her fascinating
presentation helped me understand how the nitrogen in a green leaf
tossed into the compost pile comes to be nitrogen accessible to the
growing tip of a new plant's rootlet.

She took lots of time to explain the *how* and *why* of keeping a
compost tea aerobic in order to allow the beneficial bacteria to
outcompete (and thus eliminate) whatever human pathogens might be
present in the original compost. This safety issue is, of course,
central to helping gardeners, farmers and The Powers That Be
understand how _properly brewed_ CT is absolutely safe for human food
crops, as well as incredibly beneficial to crops.

After lunch we moved to an outdoor area where several CT brewers had
been set up by their manufacturers. We were able to meet the various
brewers and watch them in action, ask questions of their designers,
sniff compost, peer into microscopes and learn from the many
informative conversations going on among the attendees.

Finally Elaine wrapped the session up with a discussion of the carbon
: nitrogen requirements of various types of plants, spraying
schedules for various crops, and a general Q & A for those of us who
were not already experiencing brain cramps.

It was a wonderful day. My enthusiastic thanks to ICTC for all the
hard work that went in to organizing it, and for making it available
to a wide audience. No CT user should miss the opportunity to attend
a similar ICTC educational event when one presents itself within
driving distance.

irene, outside eatonville, wa where the CT'd zucchini leaves doubled
in size while I was attending the ICTC training session...

irene_at_trilliumwoods.com

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Received on Sun Jul 13 2003 - 19:01:55 EDT

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