Re: [compost_tea] Re: Begginer help

From: oliver hauver <enoc2222_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 10:33:24 -0800 (PST)

Hi
i know that
what i am trying to say is i am trying to make a mix easily that i can afford yet be good enugh(and containg the right foods.ect) to grow good bateria/fungi.ect
as i said before I (yes I) will be paying for all the materials for the compost tea and $8.50 for each batch is just to expensive for me at this point in time
(maybe somtime in the future i could but not now)
all i am asking is if any body out there has made a easy to make mix that is afordible and the materials are easil to abtain and are not to expensive
Thanks
Oliver

soilfoodweb_at_aol.com wrote:
I've been traveling for the last week plus, so haven't been answering e-mails. Probably won't have time to go back through the listings to the site either, so if there were questions I needed to answer, please send them to me.

But I read Tom J's reply to beginner help, and the lesson is real.

If you want to spend quite a bit of money to figure out what the appropriate amount of food to add to make good tea (good tea defined by the ORGANISMS you are growing in the tea, not the inorganic chemicals in the tea!), then go ahead.

But please realize, Oliver, that compost tea is beneficial NOT because of N-P-K, but BECAUSE IT CONTAINS THE BIOLOGY KILLED BY TOXIC CHEMICAL USE. Your soil (which should often just be called dirt if it does not contain beneficial soil life) and plant surfaces have insignificant levels of beneficial organisms left if toxic chemcials have been applied.

Got that? It's the biology. Not the chemicals.

You want N-P-K? Go buy a chemical fertilizer. Lots of N-P-K there.

But you are just killing more of your biology when you use high concentrations of N-P-K. You just make the whole situation worse, if you use inorganic fertilizers or toxic chemicals. Soluble inorganic N, P, ok K, as measured by the soil fertility kit you bought at the store, should read practically ZERO in a good tea.

Why? Because the bacteria and fungi growing so rapidly in your tea should have tied up all the soluble inorganic N, P, and K in their biomass. The fact that you had measurable N, P, or K says you weren't making really good tea.

It's the biology that needs to be put back.

And you need ALL the biology - not just bacteria.

If you were signed up for the SFI e-zine, you would have seen that SFI offered a coupon for HALF-OFF the tea test in the November e-zine. You might want to go sign up, and get your teas run at half price while the offer still stands.

--------------------
There are "compost tea" machines on the market that only leave you with anaerobic bacteria. And make no mistake, even those sorry set of critters can improve dead dirt.

But anaerobic tea returns only the first miniscule part of the soil foodweb to the soil. But every journey starts with a single step. So, step miniscule-part-of one.

Actively aerated compost tea machines return the good-guy bacteria, the good-guy fungi, protozoa and some nematodes (depending on what is in the compost). You get steps one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and sometimes eight.

What do you want to spend your money on? Something that won't return but a tiny benefit, or something that will move you well down the road? With repeated applications, using good compost, will get you to "Go, Collect Your Money"

When you buy a coffee maker, do you then try to make your own beans, your own milk and sugar mix? No. You follow the directions of the manufacturer.

So, with the tea machines, buy the manufacturer's starting mix.

Figure out what is in the manufacturer's material, which you can do with time and a good nose. See what amounts the manufacturer used to make the tea machine you bought work right. THEN start fooling around, if you have time. Once your plants are growing so much better, you probably will be spending your time where you should - harvesting your crop, selling a better tasting crop and figuring out what you want to grow next year.

What others plants could you be successful with, now that you know how to fix your soil?

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
SFI Corvallis, OR
SFI Port Jefferson, NY
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
www.soilfoodweb.com

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Received on Sat Nov 01 2003 - 14:22:27 EST

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