Re: [compost_tea] TESTING, STANDARDS, AT WHOSE COST?

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 11:42:15 -0500

SFI has offered free tea tests for the last two years, in our program called "The compost tea grant". All we asked was that there be a commitment to the program. SFI would do a final soil sample, and three teas, all without cost to the participant, if they would pay for the first soil test.

The point was to get complete data sets. The soil before the tea was applied, the first three teas brewed, and a soil test a year later, so we could know if good tea was being made and what effect there was on the soil. We sent out the submission forms, etc.

We had 40 people sign up for the grant this year, and of the 40, only 4 people have completed the initial soil and three tea tests.

This was really disappointing. SFI will not be repeating this program. There was incredible cost to SFI for administering the program, getting the forms to people, reminding them they were supposed to be sending in samples, etc. Not fun. Alli in our office was handling the grant, so any comments need to go to her.

SFI will be repeating the coupon offer we have going right now again next spring. Until Dec 1, we have a some (sorry, I don't remember details sometimes) percentage off coupon for tea, and something else for soil in the US. Both the Oregon and the NY lab accept those coupons. The OZ and NZ labs will be running their own coupons.
  
We have coupons that KIS and EPM use with their brewers. We've offered coupons to all tea maker companies that have solid data about their tea makers posted on their websites. Solid data means a standard tea recipe, standard test conditions, and repeated data about biology when brewing in that standard condition. Bob's brewers sound like they are coming up on getting that same condition, so there may be a coupon for their brewers in the near future.

I'll be discussing the same program for OZ and NZ when the OZ SFI lab director arrives in the US this December.

Hope that wasn't too much advertising - it isn't Sunday anywhere in the world, I'm afraid, so I can't use that excuse. But Chris did ask specifically about this, so I hope it's ok that I answered.

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 Mon Nov 17 2003 - 14:08:12 EST

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