[compost_tea] Re: PLUM CURCULIO ?

From: dakesian1 <dakesian_at_sbcglobal.net>
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2004 11:09:25 -0000

I assume some of your questions are directed to me. I have a
compaction probe that tells me if the soil is compacted. I also
core feed trees in the yard with an auger bit attacted to a drill.
Both the probe (it's pretty old) and the auger go into the soil very
easily and resistance is minimal.

I've never tilled the area. (We moved into this home 15 years ago
and were left with compacted clay subsoil.) What I did do and
currently do to get the soil healthy is as follows:

1- Laid drainage tiles around all the fruit trees to drain water to
French wells I constructed in two central areas of the yard.

2- Spread compost over the entire yard once a year. Spread a second
appplication of compost around the fruit trees, to the drip line in
the fall. In areas where there is dog damage I spread compost about
once a month.

3- Mulch the grass clippings. Mulch around the trees with hardwood
mulch. Core fertilize with organic fertilizer and/or bonemeal,
bloodmeal, alfalfa pellets, compost, rock phosphate, greensand, sul-
po-mag, rock flour, peanite and ground kelp.

4- Mow in the leaves from the trees. Collect copius amounts of
raked up leaves from the neighbors and mulch them onto the lawn and
fruit tree areas EVERY fall. Thickness of leaves mulched is at
least 3 inches before mulching.

5- Keep a number of collected leaf bags over the winter and mulch
mow them into the entire yard and fruit tree areas each spring. So
now the yard is getting two feedings of leaves. One more than
nature provides.

6- Every two months broadcast one of the following: Alfalfa
pellets, cornmeal, chicken layer feed, turkey growers feed.
Sometimes I fertilize more than once every two months.

7- Spray the entire yard with blackstrap molasses solution at a rate
of 2 Tbl. per gallon. Spray about every two weeks. In the fall I
increase the rate to 3 Tbl. per gallon and spray once a week from
October 15 to November 15.

8- Apply soil drenches of compost tea every two weeks to the fruit
tree roots. (I've now used ACT for two years and soil drench at
the same rate and spray everything about once a week during the
growing season.) Add kelp to the ACT during brewing along with many
other foods. I brew about two 5 gallon buckets of ACT per week
during the growing season (i.e., April through November).

9- Spread the dregs from the ACT around all trees, veggie and flower
beds and shrubs.

10- Water with a dechlorinating filter attached to the hose.

11- Lasagna compost all the raised beds with organic matter. Mainly
raw horse manure and leaves in the fall.

12- Spread the pulp leftover from juicing my home grown produce
around bushes, trees, raised beds and, of course, the fruit trees.

13- Have two birdfeeders that are constantly frequented by birds.
Bird droppings all over the place decompose into the yard. Birds
eat many of the pest insects. Hummingbirds are always in my yard,
bats frequent the yard at night and I oftentimes see them at dusk
and dawn. Spiders live everywhere!! Worms are everywhere!!

14- Mulch mow all dead veggie plant material into the lawn each fall.

15- Every month I boil a bunch of leftover leaves I collected in the
fall and make about two gallons of leaf tea. Sprinkle a diluted
solution of this leaf tea around the fruit trees during the growing
season. So now the fruit trees are getting "leaf" food many more
times per year than nature provides.

16- Save coffee grinds from work and spread this around all plants
every year.

17- I can get whole corn and crimped oats very cheaply where I
live. I always have these on hand and freshly grind up these feeds
into a meal and spread them around all plants. I do this
periodically during the growing season. Each week some plant is
getting a feeding of these freshly ground meals. Of course the
fruit tree areas are a major receipient of these meals. These
freshly ground meals are in addition to the large amounts of alfalfa
pellets, etc., I buy and use in the garden. I also have whole
soybeans that I grind up in small quantities and add to the corn and
crimped oats meals. (Same for flax seeds.)

18- I know this might sound disgusting but periodically I dilute
human urine and sprinkle that solution around all plants during the
growing season.

19- I use fish emulsion, liquid rabbit fertilizer, Bill's Perfect
Fertilizer and other purchased organic liquid fertilizers I've had
good results from over the years.



So, what am I doing wrong in setting up a good habitat for
beneficial soil organisms? Am I really "light years away from what
I think and what actually is"?

I don't "dump" things into the soil and expect them to work. I've
known since I read Rodale's Organic Gardening book in the early
1960's, and from my grandparents, that you have to feed the soil
with organic matter on a regular and consistent basis to expect good
results from anything you add to the garden.

As you can see, I don't "sanitize" the growing area. Like I said in
another post, I think most of the PC problem I have comes from
migration of the pest from other areas.

I don't "easily dismiss biology". In fact, for over 40 years I've
known that soil biology is the key to gardening success.


--- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, soilfoodweb_at_a... wrote:
> Why don't the biological control methods work?
>
> Just like a person, if you don't set up the habitat so the person
can work, then amazingly, the person isn't productive. If you don't
feed a person, they don't get anything done.
>
> If you don't give them air, they don't get anything done, because
they are dead.
>
> If you don't give them a way to write down their findings, they
don't produce any written reports. Worthless person!
>
> So, if you have not fed Beauveria, how can you expect this fungus
to work? You dump the fungus in the soil, but still see the insect,
you say, "see, it doesn't work", when in fact, it is you not doing
your job of feeding the fungus.
>
> When you sanitize your orchard by raking up the leaves each fall,
that's fungal food you are taking away. And you wonder why
biological approaches don't work.
>
> Food. Water. Air. Comfort.
>
> Did you make the soil habitat right for plum curculio, or did you
make the soil habitat right for the fungi that parasitize the larval
stages of the insect? Or for the nematode that can spread the
bacterial inoculum that will kill the insect?
>
> If you'd like to answer my question - have you measured compaction
in your soil? Have you made any effort to make the soil a suitable
home for beneficial biology, or have you just assumed that you have
done this?
>
> There can be light years between what you think and what actually
is.
>
> And if you are going to come back at me and say you don't have the
money, or interest, or whatever, to test with SFI, that is NOT what
I'm telling you to do here.
>
> I have, over and over, explained how to assess compaction in your
soil without ever sending a test into SFI.
>
> So, what is the situation with compaction in your soil? Have you
given the biology you so easily dismiss a chance to work?
>
> Can we not feed you for the next three months? Can we put you in
a water-filled room with no aeration and see how long you continue
to function? Can we then say "See, he can't do the tasks we give
him, he's worthless."
>
> Is turn-about fair play?
>
> 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 - 06:30:27 EST

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