[compost_tea] Tea Machine Challenge?

From: Kirk Leonard <kirk_at_oregonatural.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 17:47:18 -0700

Hey, Tom, Bob, thanks for your responses to my Pump & Volume questions.
Good numbers. Here are my latest numbers:

TAFB: 592 AB, 2665 TB, 49 AF, 1861 TF. These for a vermicompost I don't
expect to be fungal. Because it was wet and fresh, the bacterial numbers
are skewed, too, but still pretty good. As AB and drying proceed, TB and
fungi will rise, likely.

My point here is several fold, and I have a challenge to pose to us.

Past comparisons of tea machines have been a bit goofy to the extent that as
far as I know, no two comparisons were done with same compost, nutrients,
temps, water, etc.

Some makers are getting really good at tests, too.

You guys are pros. I expect good numbers from you, and the numbers you
reported were good, but how do they relate to the base composts used?

The measure of a tea machine is how much of the good stuff in compost gets
conveyed and grown in the tea, hmm?

Tea reports without compost reports don't make a lot of sense in assessing a
tea machine or nutrient recipes. If you don't know where the compost
started how can you know how the machine + nutrients performed?

A challenge I would propose is to test tea-making of different machines in
batches made all at the same time - same compost, same nutrients, same
temps, water, et cetera, and based on a tested compost. That would be a
straight-up interesting thing to do, and much more informative. All the
numbers seem somewhat meaningless otherwise.

Let's do a tea machine showdown somewhere with all the variables constant.
Only difference being the machines. Tea pumped, tea & air pumped, air
pumped. All can make good teas, but I bet air pumps will consistently make
better teas..:-)

In the meantime, Paul has asserted that someone at a NOFA conference has
claimed larger tea volumes make better teas. I'd like to hear more about
that.

Kirk L




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Received on Wed Aug 27 2003 - 21:39:48 EDT

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