Re: [compost_tea] Weeds: Rhizosphere of Spotted Knapweed

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 08:42:31 EDT

Bindweed and nutsedge both tend to be helped by high nitrate levels. So, you
have to drop the nitrate. You do this by tying up nitrate in the bacteiral
and fungal biomass. And that requires foods to feed bacteria and fungi.

If the tea adds the inoculum of bacteria and fungim but your soil does not
have foods to grow bacteria and fungi, you won't get the reduction in the
nitrate, and may have little effect on the weeds.

Weeds that are present because of lack of Ca require that you get Ca back in
the soil, but not just Ca in the soil for a few days, but high Ca in the soil
during the germination period, OK?

Weeds requiring low iron to out-compete your grasses (foxglove, for example,
or moss), need low iron in the spring period. If your grasses have plenty of
AVAILABLE iron, then the moss will not typically be a problem.

OK?

Elaine Ingham
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 Thu Aug 21 2003 - 12:16:31 EDT

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