Re: [compost_tea] Root Zone Injection

From: Jeff Lowenfels <jeff_at_gardener.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 18:37:33 -0800

This is an interesting topic (I hope! :)). The idea is to get at some of th=
ose root diseases, obviously, but I am not sure this is the right way. You =
have to think about the critters in the tea more.

If you inject a fungal tea to try and get beneficial fungal into the soil f=
oodweb, for example, and kill the fungi in so doing, then you have fungi fo=
ods that the bad fungi can use. Very tricky. I would think you would want =
to make some holes and pour tea in as in after aeration. And once they surv=
ive is the tree going to be putting out enough exudates for the beneificals=
 to survive (actually Shigo suggests a dying tree might!) Anyhow, what are =
those fungi going to eat down there?

I am pretty sure you will get better results with aeration, perhaps follow=
ed by an application of some gentle microbe food like soy bean meal follow=
ed by some good fungal compost tea with mycorrhizal and then an application=
 of two inches of fungal compost/humus topped off by the tree's own leaf.

This way you get to control what is going on. You know the critters in your=
 tea are fine. No guesses and you get the microarthropods and worms in the =
act so you get nutrient cycling...in this case ammonium, the kind your tree=
 needs. There is stuff for everyone to eat and the mulch helps buffer the m=
oisture flow from the soil to the atmosphere.

And, I will go one step further, though you may laugh.....depending on the =
size of the diameter around the tree you need to treat, you might want spri=
nkle baby oatmeal on the ground before you apply compost and mulch. You wil=
l get great fungi if your compost has good fungi!

Jeff





Received on Sun Jul 27 2003 - 01:34:24 EDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:29:24 EST