RE: [compost_tea] Root Zone Injection

From: Tim Kiphart <kiphart_at_ev1.net>
Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 12:37:31 -0500

Jeff, interesting points. Continued discussion below.

  This is an interesting topic (I hope! :)). The idea is to get at some of
those root diseases, obviously, but I am not sure this is the right way. You
have to think about the critters in the tea more.
  Part of the idea here is to get to root diseases, but my real interest is
getting the pertinent microbes where they are needed, the quickest way
possible.
  If you inject a fungal tea to try and get beneficial fungal into the soil
foodweb, for example, and kill the fungi in so doing, then you have fungi
foods 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
survive 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?
  Injection directly into the root zone has been used for mycorrhizal
inoculation for many years with, from my understanding, very good success.
Are Ecto and AM just less susceptible to "death by injection"?<<<Could be
our call to arms.

   Could you provide a reference(s) to Shigos' work?
  I am pretty sure you will get better results with aeration, perhaps
followed by an application of some gentle microbe food like soy bean meal
followed 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.
  I understand the need to have air and food. What about situations where
the application of 2" of compost is not possible, like trees planted in a
manicured lawn?

  Topical application of CT and mycorrhizae is certainly less than optimum
without adequate incorporation or movement in via irrigation. How many
inches of rain\irrigation does it take to move the microbes into the root
zone?

  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 moisture 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
sprinkle baby oatmeal on the ground before you apply compost and mulch. You
will get great fungi if your compost has good fungi!
  Love it....always did like oatmeal!

  Thank you for all the great insight.

  Tim
   Jeff



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Received on Sun Jul 27 2003 - 15:00:15 EDT

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