Re: [compost_tea] Re: Mostly aeration... Some snails

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 02:35:31 -0400
Ah, let me remind everyone of what I actually said.  A couple threads are getting crossed in the mail here.  Hum, I'm mixing metaphors, hope you all forgive me. 

And you know, I just don't understand the cult thing.  I have never had anyone bow down in front of me and do the mumbo-jumbo thing.  I think I'd burst out laughing if anyone did! 

Anyway -

Kirk wrote:
> And yes, the shearing of fungi is the main
> concern.  Doc E has said (I'm looking around a corner here wishing not to be seen as part of a cult...:) that 20 micrometer bubbles can shear fungi, and
> I think she said 1mm was a good minimum bubble size.  I
> believe she observed that with equipment I don't have, so my data is limited...

Micro-bubbles which are small enough to stay suspended in water are the micro-bubble sizes that I talked about.  These are bubbles with sizes around 1 micrometer, as I have been told. 

They do not move upwards in water, or at least, their movement is very slow.  The problem is, based on sheer observational data, that these not-rising microbubbles impede larger bubble sizes as they rise through the water.  Where did the larger bubbles come from?  I presume from condensation of smaller bubbles into largfer bubbles, but the larger ones rise in the water column.  As the bigger bubbles rise, and the micro-bubbles act do not, the microorganisms get trapped between the bubbles.  The bacteria just bounce around, but the fungi are shattered.  Torn apart.  Fragments all over the place. 

Interesting effect.  Happen all the time?  Well, when we have folks try to work on "super-saturating water" with micro-bubbles, we always get shattered fungal hyphae.  It doesn't kill EVERY fungus, just reduces active, living, growing hyphae to low levels.  so, not good as a sterilant procedure, nor a fungal grow method. 

Now, the 1 mm DROP size comes from some of the observations we've made about the effect of UV on organisms in the droplets flying through the air. 

When we first started working with pivots and compost tea, the concern was that UV would kill the organisms in the tea during the sunlight-intense hours.  Based on all the microbiologists I talked to about this problem, they all agreed that UV would kill the organisms in the tea droplets if the tea was applied betweeen 10 am and 3 pm.  We thought we'd see "pie-wedges" in the pivots where the organism were killed. 

Never saw it.  Leaf analysis in day-time applied areas of the pivot, versus night-time applied areas showed variation in the areas, but not significantly lower coverage in the daytime areas.

Data - ok.

Pivot        %B      %F
Quarter 1    54      13
        2    66       5
        3    71      14
        4    70       3

Pivot
Quarter 1    89      10
        2    78      12
        3    91      12   (both bacterial and fungal coverage
        4    84       7      of the same area sometimes)

So, which of the quarters were the ones to which tea was applied during the day? 

Then take a look at these data -

Pivot
Quarter 1    21      2
        2    18      1
        3    22      7
        4    59     15

Wanna tell me what went on here?  Quarter four was the mid-day tea applied area, but you need to also know that a fish hydrolysate was applied here too. 

Adding foods to the tea as it is sprayed out can really pick things up. 

But bottom line - as long as the droplet size is large enough, the organisms will be protected from UV. 

Air bubble size is important only if there are significant amounts of stationary bubbles in the water column, which occurs only when air bubble size is very small. 

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
SFI Culiacan, Mexico
SFI Jerome, Idaho
http://www.soilfoodweb.com

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Received on Tue May 18 2004 - 10:51:08 EDT

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