Re: [compost_tea] Beauveria

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2004 01:05:12 -0500

In a message dated 1/5/2004 3:34:53 PM Eastern Standard Time, halstead_at_mail.telepac.pt writes:


Bill asked:
> Can I apply Beauveria in compost tea,added before or after brewing and apply it to the seasonal growth of grass arround my fruit trees or should it be applied to the bare soil and then mulched?

Typically add Beauveria at the beginning of the tea brew so the spores can germinate and be ready to attack and destroy insects and insect larvae. If you add at the end, you have to hope the conditions in the soil or on plant surfaces will be good enough to get the fungus to grow.

You apply the tea where you have the insect problem. If you have insect adults, then take out the adults by applying to foliage. If you are earlier in the season, and you have a problem that has a soli stage, apply to soil.

But please use it only when you NEED to, as this fungus will take out beneficial insects as well as the bad guys. You want to have a background level of Beauveria always functioning, so the bad guys can't escape their normal predators. When you have an outbreak of bad guys, then get Beauveria going extra strong.

>
> Can I add Urea to straw based compost when there is little
> green material available?
>
Urea is high N, and will get the temperature in your pile going, but hte break-down product of adding urea is NITRATE which is going to enhance bacteria, not fungi.

Green material is added to maintain temperature, but not to give you the high peaks. You have to get temperature up in a thermal compost over 131 F for more than 10 to 15 days. So, you need the hi N, as well as the green. Woody material is there to give structure, and allow air into the pile so you don't have to turn as much. And feeds fungi.

Instead of urea, use coffee grounds, kitchen waste, grocery store produce waste (pre-consumer), potato cake, or other materials with sugars, proteins and carbohydrates in it. Green plant material of course contains this, but you don't always have green stuff.

But remember, if you cut it green, and stored it without moisture, it is still green, even if the color went brown. The microbes have not decomposed the sugars, proteins or carbohydrates - they are still there. So dry hay is still green..... from a microbial point of view.

Hope this helps -

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 Jan 06 2004 - 04:29:15 EST

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