Re: [compost_tea] Re: yeast in AACT
Hi SFO -
> Can you clarify: More testing is needed to
> determine "aerobicity"(my quotes)? Do the tests you recommend a)
> monitor Dissolved Oxygen and/or b)use ratios of AB/AF to TB/TF to
> tell us more about whether our tea stayed aerobic? In the case of the
> latter, how may we use those data to interpret "aerobicity"?
I like having instant information on the conditions in the brew. So, the DO
probe is best. It's just that DO probes are expensive, and they are subject
to being finicky.
So, learning to make the tea so it comes out correct, doing an SFI tea test
with your first one or two or three teas, to make sure you are doing it right,
is what is least expensive. Send your first tea in - if it's good, then there
you are. If it needs help, you go searching for what needs to be fixed, and
get the second tea right.
We have a few people who have problems after two or three teas, and that's a
head scratcher. Water too alkaline? Unsuspected water problems? Still
working on a couple of those!
So, ratios in tea -
Active to total biomass
When bacterial activity is low, but total bacteria is high, it's a good
indicator that you have lots of anaerobic bacteria present which will not take up
the activity stain. The activity stain we use is taken up by aerobic bacteria,
not anaerobic bacteria. Different sets of enzymes are used for anaerobic
metabolism than aerobic, and the anaerobes don't use the FDA stain. So, activity
of anaerobic bacteria is not detected. Low activity, and high total
bacteria, especially in compost tea, suggests anaerobic growth was occurring. So,
reduce bacterial foods, so the grow of the organisms in your tea doesn't
outstrip the ability of your brewer to aerate the tea.
Low active fungi can occurr because the surfaces weren't present for the
fungi to attach and grow. Maybe fungal foods weren't present. Maybe the bacteria
bloomed and out-competed the fungi. These are things we need to spend more
time researching - which bacteria are so competitive with the fungi? Could we
add an inoculum of bacteria which do not compete with the fungi, so we could
help the fungi be happier in the tea? Working on that actually.
Low active fungi, high total fungi - this can only have occurred when the
fungi grew, and ran out of food, (or bacteria started to grow, and zonked the
fungi) and are now not growing. Add more fungal food ala Jeff Lowenfels
suggestions.
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 Sun Sep 28 2003 - 10:52:36 EDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0
: Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:14:47 EST