Re: [compost_tea] simple-mindedness

From: w.reece speas <wrspeas_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 22:54:44 -0800 (PST)

well said ,thnaks,reece

John Cowan <vivax_at_northlink.com> wrote:I am sorry to be so philosophical. What I have written below does not
strictly follow the purpose of this list. Things (especially biological
things) are complicated, not simple. Almost everybody I know likes the
simple version of things not the complicated eternal unfolding mystery
version. Working from a simple point-of-view eventually runs into problems,
however. If we want to be part of the "solution" then we all need to get
away from simple-mindedness.

There seems little doubt among us that compost tea is a very useful tool. It
also seems that testing with SFI can be a good indicator that a particular
batch of tea is a good tool for improving the soil ecology or to suppress
disease. It has also been discussed that compost tea alone does not
necessarily permanently transform the soil ecosystem into a condition that
fosters wonderful plant growth/development/disease resistance. If you have
lousy soil, frequent compost tea applications may be enough to improve
plants. Maybe not.

An analogy- Drop a group of people off in a arid, severe desert landscape
with few tools and supplies. Later, drop off more people, hopefully before
the others have died. They can continue the effort for survival. If you do
this enough times, there might be long term survival due to the
transformation of their microenvironment - food, shelter & clothing. After a
really long time, maybe a civilization is established that has many amazing
accomplishments. If instead, people were transplanted into an abandoned city
with infrastructure intact, then things could happen very quickly.

We can help establish the infrastructure of the soil by adding good compost,
pro-microbial sources of minerals & nitrogen, other pro-biotic substance
and, yes, even by certain types of tilling in limited and thoughtful ways.
The soil life then takes it from there. If you don't do everything you can,
at least within practical limits, then the results will most probably be
less than wonderful. Of course, knowing what you can do is not a simple
matter, either. This might take some serious self-education.

So if you use compost tea and you can't measure improvement in a plant using
any number of methods, then maybe it is not the "silver bullet" in this
case. If there are too many variables to know for sure what is going on then
some sort of experimental situation needs to be created to simplify the
situation. You could grow test pots of various fast growing plants, for
instance. Many plants can be grown from seed easily. If your CT does not
have strong effects in this situation then it should probably be considered
"bad".

Is the above method better than a SFI test? It depends on who you are and
what you are trying to do. One size does not fit all. It certainly is "real
world" testing.

So is making good tea an end in itself? If your roses or grapevines get
disease constantly without using CT as a foliar spray then you have very
high outside disease pressure and/or less than healthy plants. Suppressives
of any sort are short term. If they are non-toxic, great but it does not
solve the problem of plant health. I think we have to acknowledge that
healthy plants and soils do not support disease organisms. Long term, forget
about curing the disease. Build health in any and all ways that are helpful.

I think we should be hard-working skeptics, not just spectators with an
attitude (positive or negative). Make CT. Test, measure, apply. Observe,
think, read. Integrate this into other pro-biotic techniques. Organic
agriculture is going to have to be based on a number of very solid
techniques and results to continue making inroads to mainstream
agri/horticulture. We are going to have to "blow away" the competition to
get wide respect. Hopefully, we can get to that point efficiently AND enjoy
the ride.

John Cowan




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Received on Sun Dec 21 2003 - 02:16:23 EST

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