[compost_tea] Web of Life

From: Ted Peterson <ted.peterson_at_tcsn.net>
Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 12:07:54 -0700

If anyone needed a primer on the realities of the soil food web and the ben=
efits of compost tea can have from a completely different source. Pick up =
a little book called The Web Of Life by John H. Storer. There is a chapter=
 called "The Soil Responds" and if you read the ramifications of what he wr=
ites, direct feeding plants with NPK can have an OVERALL deleterious effect=
 on the quality of food grown in the soil. He lists lots of test done by. =
. . Guess who?. . . Dr. William A. Albrecht. Imagnie that.

Now, this book was written in 1953 and all the indications are there. Yet =
few heeded the indications of the test results. Why? Because the indicati=
ons of these test show that while yield may be higher, quality is lower. T=
he quality is really lower. They used hay and rabbits. Also, the tests in=
dicate that fertilizing soil may actually do much more long-range damage th=
an one would initially think. So the chemical/fertilizer industry would ne=
ver embrace this. There is no profit in NOT using something.

Now it took until when for Elaine to figure it out and put all the pieces t=
ogether? What stoke of luck got her on to the right path when others looke=
d at the data and said: "Huh?" We may never know. The indications are, at=
 least from this little book, that people were hovering around the idea but=
 never connected the dots.

By the way, compost and/or compost tea is never mentioned in the book. You =
will have to read and extrapolate ramifications of the findings and then th=
ink about the purpose of compost and compost tea in general. The book is a =
quick read 3-4 hours max. It even has pictures which are always fun.

Ted Peterson
EW/SOE



Received on Fri May 07 2004 - 00:29:10 EDT

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