Re: [compost_tea]ACT the didn't do well.

From: Robert Norsen <bnbrew_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 22:07:58 -0700 (PDT)

It is certainly much easier to measure the microbes than to evaluate what the ACT is doing to the plants. It takes time to measure a response in plants. Like Elaine was saying it took years of testing, with application and observation to determine what is good and what is not good enough TEA.
 
My yard and garden is one where the garden had to be blended with the landscape. ( Her request) So we have Rhodies, strrawberries, roses, blueberries, grass, fruit trees, Oxalis, raspberries, our worm bin, apples tree, iris, plumb trees big cedars, all growing in what is - well we like it. At the start 23 years ago we added some putrid grass clippings to the basic heavy clay soil. Dug some in ( this was way before I was aware of the Soil Food Web. The empty lot had been the local clippings & yard waste dump for years,) We got fair results. When Giovani started his compost work we added 2 " of compost to some areas. And we applied ACT a couple times in 2000.
Also applied ACT once in 2001 and 2002 Year 2003 I made a lot of ACT to test the CACT cycle. Applied much of it on my own yard & "gardens".starting in mid summer. Didn't get much in the way of results. Fruit crops were poor. Strawberries had blosoms and started to bear but the berries were small.. Blueberries f rom 12 large plants fed the robins plus one breakfast treat. Fruit trees had a small crop that tasted good. I wondered if my ACT was effective. It tested OK at SFI
 
This year is different. Heavy fruit load, berries are bigger, but not ready yet. Plants look better. It is still too early to know how the summer will go. Conclusion to date - it takes a season to change what this type of plants do. This year we are testing the mobile BobO500 so the yard is getting good applications of ACT.
 
In my neighbors raspberry area where the vines were all about alike when I sprayed in 2002 & 2003 I sprayed the North 2 rows and the South two rows. Left the middle 6 rows with just the level organic fertilizer that was applied evenly entire 'patch' in 2002. In 2004 the North 2 rows are 6 times the size and productivity of the middle rows. Weeds did well in all areas. The south 2 rows are 4 times the size and productivity. I will show pictures later..
 
The problem in my own raspberry "patch" is the plants grow so lush I have to cut them back hard to find my way thru to pick. Need to leave more open space between initial planting. Plums, peaches, apples are heavy. Blueberries - I defy the robins to fly away with enough to make a difference. .
 
It took a season with several heavy applicatons to see results at my house, but it changed ! Bob

soilfoodweb_at_aol.com wrote:
Hi Eric -

When we first started testing "aerated compost tea", which in fact wasn't aerobic (there's a difference betwee aeration and being aerobic), we killed a number of tomato plants. Symptoms were browning of leaves, leaf curl, deformed leaves.

We didn't always out-and-out kill the plants. Sometimes insects pests were attracted to the plants that had been harmed by the anaerobic teas, and the pests were what delivered the coup de grace.

and of course, there are the plants that did not receive adequate compost tea ORGANISMS to protect the leaf surfaces, and the plants succumbed to the disease we had applied.

I would like very much to hear from folks that tea did not work for. I've always said that.

We then try to figure out what went "wrong", so the problem is assessed and prevented from happening the next time.

Please share, folks! We need to know about when things don't work, although I sure ALSO want to hear about when things do work!

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 Mon Jun 14 2004 - 10:44:57 EDT

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