Re: [compost_tea] compost application

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 00:39:06 -0500

Perry asked -

> Anyone have ideas of how much is too much? What kind of potential pollution problems can arise in agronomic applications.

We have documented none, even after five years of applying tea. There isn't enough chemical in compost tea to worry about. The biology KEEPS the nutrients in the soil, so they don't leach.

When you think that onion for example, which removes 50 pounds of N per acre, with a 40 ton onion per acre yield, usually requires 200 pounds of N applied per acre if working with inorganic fertilizer, where does the "excess" N go?

What if you held on to all that excess N? You wouldn't have to add any additional N for 4 years. And 2 tons of compost would more than supply the needed N on an annual basis.

You could, alternatively, supply the N in the compost tea by adding fish, for example.

Perry wrote:
>Since ours is going on forage crops will the biology consume the additional nutrients the plants don't use.

Yes. Leaching goes away as a concern.


> Do we assume P & K levels will rise with compost and
> compost tea as they will with manure application?

You want to balance the P and L that you add with compost and compost tea with removal of those nutrients by the plant. So, if you put manure into compost, and that manure was from cows fed pelletized material, you may be elevating P or K in your soil. But, as long as you don't blow off the organic matter by tilling too much, the organic matter and organisms will hold that P and K in organic forms, which do not harm plant roots. Benign forms of P, K, etc, instead of "salts" which harm plant growth by holding water in the salt forms.

I'm not sure that explanation is really clear if you don't understand salts. So, you might want to come to ACRES, where Arden Anderson and I are giving a talk in a pre-conference workshop, Dec 8 and 9, I believe. ACRES is in Indianapolis this year. I'll be doing a tour of the organic dairy in Indianapolis too, while I'm there!

Please come join us!

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 Tue Nov 18 2003 - 03:47:44 EST

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