RE: [compost_tea] Digest Number 511

From: chris reid <reidchris_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 08:47:14 -0500

Jeff Lowenfels said:

It would be hard to believe that any fungicide is so specific as to not
impact the beneficials! It is also not clear to me that it is the saponin
causing the fungicidal activity.

REPLY: Well, are we sure it's "fungicidal" activity? I think I jumped
there too fast -- That's not what Dorothy said. She said "acts as a fungal
disease inhibitor". Like, what if the hot pepper meal is a good stimulant
to grow beneficial fungi that would inhibit pathogenic fungi? That's why
understanding the mechanism is important.

Likewise, the presence of saponin may or may not be the critical factor --
it just may be of interest and a familiar ingredient.

jeff says: I still can't understand the infatuation with saponin? If
foams, doesn't it?

Jeff, you may know, but I don't -- is it clear that "saponin" by itself
foams, or is it possible that saponin by itself is not the source of the
foam in yucca? In other words, that it might behave differently in another
setting/biological combination?

JEFF SAYS: And are there not easier ways to get good fungal growth?

REPLY: We have people from all over the world making tea. Ease of
obtaining fungal growth is not where we should stop. There are other
considerations, not the least of which is the cost of inputs. Oliver Hauver
wants to know how to get the benefits of kelp/seaweed and he is in
landlocked Nevada. I want the benefits of a yucca spreader and I live in
New England, where I can't grow it. A significant component of buying that
input for me is postage/shipping.

So, if we look beyond merely making successful tea to having tea widely
accepted, one of the downsides of some compost tea ingredients is that they
are not necessarily locally available. Laura S. touched on this quite a
while back when she was asking for info on plants that might allow her to
use local instead of off-farm sources. When we have tea ingredients list
that farmers can grow on their own farms, then tea will be even more healthy
for the environment and within reach of more people. So knowing the
alternatives, and beginning to discover what they do and don't do, is great.
We are going to turn over a lot of rocks before we find the diamonds --
that's the nature of discovery and pioneering. You've done it yourself.

So I tend to stay excited about all the alternatives we can discover. There
is always, always a better way, and staying excited about continuing the
discovery is how we are going to get there. The last thing I want to do is
start discouraging people who have interesting and thoughtful input from
sharing it.


Must be the cold tonight. .

reply: Yes, it's the cold tonight -- you started this list because you were
interested in the exploration and the science, and you've done a lot of
exploring yourself, so you're the last person I'd accuse of being closed
minded.

Dorothy, do you know if anything has been written up about the pepper meal
work? Any links or papers we could look at? Then maybe the many tea makers
and thinkers could really see what you're reporting.

cheers,

Chris





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Received on Thu Nov 20 2003 - 12:46:03 EST

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