Re: [compost_tea] inactive bacterial and fungi - activating and causing to li...

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2003 00:50:40 EDT

Hi Chris -

> QUESTION: Is this correct, the SFI inactive B or F test result number
> distinguishes B and F that could be activated from dead B or F?
>
The readings are active and total. The inactive, which can be obtained by
subtracting active from total, could be just slow, sleeping, or dead. The
active organisms is the really active ones, such as marathon runners. Most of us
aren't marathon runners, and as I sit here at my computer in Lismore, Australia
on a nice Saturday afternoon, I would not be counted as active, since I am
not metabolically active enough to take up and stain fluorescently in a three
minute period of time. In fact, I'm seriously considering taking a nap here in
a few minutes, so I am really not metabilically active at all. I can only
hope this message is still in the realm of understandable to the rest of the
compost tea community.

So, activity as measured by the SFI method requires REALLY active organisms,
ones that are modifying the soil, or tea, or whatever because they are that
active. Organisms just waiting to get going do not stain, just as ones that
were running hard, but have now slowed down do not stain either. Anaerobes do
not take up the stain either.

With the ratio of active to total, over time, you need to be a bit careful.
If the total biomass didn't change much from time 1 to 2, and activity went
down, then the percent activity is a reflection of a lower number of active
organisms.

But, if total biomass increased, and activity stayed the same, then the ratio
would decrease. But it's just a reflection that you grew more biomass over
that time period.

Clear?


> QUESTION: If I brew a tea that comes back with numbers like Paul's, and
> inactive means "potentially active", and I add a tiny amount of fish
> hydrolysate to activate them, then my tea at the time of application could
> actually have a higher active B and F, couldn't it? Can I count on this
> activation in gauging how potent the tea will be?
>

Right, the difference between active and total can be viewed as mostly
"potentially active". Good term. You add more food, and some of the critters will
wake up and grow, where they would not have woken up before. the organisms
will continue to use that food, even after applied to the soil or plant surface,
and thus you will allow more organisms to make the transition to the real
world alive, active and functioning.

> Finally, it seems that the whole process includes: make good tea, activate
> inactive organisms, mix and add spreader and/or sticker, use a
> microbeast-friendly means of applying tea to foliage or ground (avoid UV,
> allow at least 30 mins to dry on leaves before it rains), and FEED THE
> FOODWEB.
>

Yep.

> This brings us back to Paulette's recent post about what compost
> ingredients
> provide for which parts of the food web.
>
> QUESTION: To maximize the benefit of the application, should I be
> simultaneously applying the K-rations for the food web members I am
> applying? How does one identify the useful rate at which to apply web food?
>
Standard ecological answer. It depends. Why are you applying tea? what is
your purpose?

If you apply tea to a plant, the plant should provide the foods that will
grow the critters.

If you add tea to a soil with nasty chemicals still in it, the critters are
going to need help for a bit to chew up the nasties.

If you add critters to soil to get decomposition going, you may want to add
an enzyme, like Vitazyme for example, that will help start the process of
break-down of the plant material, and get the organisms really chewing fast.

If you add organisms to soil to have them build structrue, exit compaction
ASAP, then addition of fish, or molasses will give them the foods to do their
work. Get the plants growing ASAP, then, so you give the critters the plant
foods they need to keep working.

OK?

Elaine
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand

"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well,
but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things
turn out." -- Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic





Received on Sat Aug 09 2003 - 01:08:37 EDT

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