[compost_tea] Re: ACT Tests

From: Kirk Leonard <kirk_at_oregonatural.com>
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 13:31:24 -0700


Clearly there's some serious interest on this among us and I don't know if I
can take all this agreement... I agree with Jeff that test events should
be in one place at same time and conditions, which is why ICTC
conferences came to mind. I agree with Mike that the point is to test
pumps, tanks, volumes, nutrients, and with both Mike and Bob that many
makers is a good thing, and would not be surprised to see something really
good come from encouraging home-site-built machines. I do think machines as
small as five gallons should be included.

As long as the compost is the same for everybody's "tea up" it doesn't
matter if it's AH or not, but thank you Jeff for the support. (Then he goes
talking about orchid bark - right, I have a bunch of that - or some kind of
sticks for porosity.* Jeff - you might need to ship the sticks, too..:)

And Chris is onto the best overall goal, imo - Best Practices. Not best
single machine, which doesn't seem ever likely, anyway. (I can still do good
things with a soilsoup tea pumper turkey, according to my plants, even if I
disagree with the biz otherwise...) How to do the best with what you have
and are doing is the point.

Indicators, how to best manage with the water, compost, machine, nutrients,
climate and soil you have in a given situation. This is a multi-year
project, if not decades, hmm? We have a solid start and it's good to put a
framework in place. We'll not likely ever get our arms entirely around
biology, not to mention weather, but how to work with CT seems do-able.

I doublespoke, I think. In terms of a tea test, I did think of all at the
same time same place, and then I described reporting on a continuous basis
here on list last post. I assume at an event, machine, compost, water, et
al specs would be done in some detail. What I meant was when folks report
CT tests here, knowing more about the conditions, compost and machine specs
would help, not just nutrients and TAFB. Scott and others of his countrymen
have provided pretty good examples.
____
*Do you mean bark that has had orchids in it or bark that is used for
orchids? At first, I thought how the heck do you get bark from orchids?
Then I remembered they can grow in/on it. Is that the same as "bark
nuggets", or fat bark dust? With or without orchid juices?

Seriously folks, Jeff has once again done a eureka on me. Or maybe I'm just
dense and everyone else already got this. I always recommend chunky, aged
compost to "bulk up" the air/water porosity of vermicompost, most of which
is similar to AH, and hadn't imagined using this season's wood chips or bark
dust or "sticks" to do that. Let's see... I've got some rhodies and lilac
and filbert and walnut and apple and grape and conifers... hmm, what might
their chips or sticks add to a tea...? I think this is another great
notion, maybe a new variable.

Kirk L










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Received on Mon Sep 01 2003 - 18:42:32 EDT

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