Re: [compost_tea] Re: sleeping critters - help from Elaine?

From: rlbct <rlbct_at_clear.net.nz>
Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2004 19:08:02 +1300

Thanks, Chris
I was assuming (unfortunately without saying so) that the brew would run
until the little guys all went to sleep - ie they consumed all the food,
closed the shutters and shut down.
And in the seminar Elaine told us of a cow cesspit that was aerated and they
found no e-coli. (of course "no" is probably not an absolute term here).
And I was thinking bacteria.
I don't know what happens to fungi, protozoa and nematodes when the food
runs out and the bacteria are asleep. (Do predators eat the hibernators - oh
there's the bear again! ?). But it can't be good without o2. So are the
FPN's cooperative and agree to sleep or do they check out for good?
I'm assuming now (I must say it!) that we do lose these guys, which must
devalue the CT enormously.

Another assumtion : referring to 'sleeping' here means they go into a
dormant stage (much like an earthworm lays it eggs). So its not the same
critter that wakes up, it the 'egg' that needs to develop? Like a fungus
has spores. But do bacteria have 'egg' like stage. I thought they
multiplied by division. In which case, maybe the cell does literally slow
right down and wait for better times.

According to some reseach I've just read about (done in Australia) there is
an "ethylene cycle" in the root zone, where the microsite goes aerobic to
anaerobic and back. The ethylene puts the aerobes to sleep for a spell
(...waiting for the frog, or is that a different fairy tale?). But they
sleep for a short time until o2 diffuses into the region again and ethylene
diffuses out.
Lynton




 
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Received on Fri Mar 12 2004 - 06:58:05 EST

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