[compost_tea] Re: Def'n of good tea
---What does high concentrations of CO2 do to anaerobes, in general?
Put them to sleep initially and then kill them at higher
concentrations? Dennis
In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, soilfoodweb@a... wrote:
> Yes, working out the definitions took years. Because you have to
quantify the organisms in the tea, and follow the effect of those
organisms on plants.
>
> We do organism assessment of the tea, then spray out and determine
what actually gives protection, or improves nutrient cycling, and
builds soil structure. It's the organisms. But at what
concentration? That takes time to figure out. Some of the data are
on the SARE website, please look at the reports there.
>
> And you have to remember that just because the tea is excellent
does not mean that conditions in the soil might not result in
organism death. Great tea, but killing heat, or drought, or freeze,
or pesticide drift, or.....no food. Any one of those conditions may
kill the critiers in a good tea.
>
> Just because you apply tea and don't see a positive effect cannot
be put down to "tea doesn't work". The organisms can be killed once
they are put out.
>
> Over and over, when we hear of people applying tea, but not having
any benefit, and we investigate what happened, we can explain to the
grower what they did that resulted in organism death. The tea was
likely great, but if you spray out 2,4-D three days after applying
tea......
>
> People continue to use sulfur sprays, not understanding that even
though sulfur may be organically certified, sulfur sprays still kill
the beneficial fungi....
>
> So, lots of years of work to see the correlations.
>
> Now you can check EVERY batch of your own tea, and discover that it
is, or isn't, good compost tea.
>
> If compost has beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes
in it, then does compost tea not have to have the same critters?
>
> No beneficial fungi, protozoa or nematodes.....how can it be
compost tea?
>
> 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 Fri Jun 11 2004 - 09:06:39 EDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0
: Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:15:21 EST