Re: [compost_tea] Re: chelating minerals with ACT

From: David Anderson <danderson_at_backpackgeartest.org>
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 16:24:50 -0700
longbranchranch wrote:
> brewing ct. I think we can agree minerals in order to be made
> available to organic life must be  chelated. So we need bugs.

Aren't those bugs "organic life"?

I am certainly no expert on this, as I just started looking into compost
tea and it's been 20+ years since I took biology, but it seems to me
that you need to select for the organisms that you need, so they are
able to process the minerals in the form that it is available in your soil.

So if the point is to select for that capability, wouldn't it make sense
to augment the process with those minerals at the start, i.e. when first
mixing your compost pile?

This is similar to the idea of selecting for bacteria or fungi when
making your compost AND making your tea. If you want to grow the
critters that make calcium available through their metabolic processes,
then you should make sure that they have calcium to grow on.

And depending how the mineral is locked up in your soil, it may take
several metabolic (and even mechanical) steps before it becomes
available to the plants you are trying to feed. In that case, you are
probably talking about years to make a significant amount available even
with the correct selection of microcritters.

But like I said, I'm new at this, and if you know better, I would
appreciate an explanation as to why my perception would be wrong.

Dave

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Received on Sun Jun 13 2004 - 21:58:28 EDT

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