Re: [compost_tea] Worms in tea

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 14:46:05 EDT

Yep, it the worms survive in teh tea, especially if down in the sediment you
have developed on the bottom of the container, the material has stayed aerobic.

But I don't think you really made tea. You made a water slurry of the
compost, and stirred it around for awhile. You did not likely grow much of anything
in the slurry - fungi probably didn't make it through the brew. The worms
were happy eating hte bacteria in the compost, but in terms of increasing the
microbial life in the liquid - probably didn't do much.

A true compost tea gets the oeganisms growing, increasing microbial biomass
significantly through the 24 hr tea brew.

Liquid compost slurry is a different thing - still probably going to do good
thigns if applied on the field, but not the level of improvement you would
expect to see with a real aerated compst tea.

So, please, don't say something like "Elaine doesn't think this tea maker
works". I define tea as something where we have BREWED and increased ALL groups
of microbes in the tea during the brew cycle.

Extracts and liquid slurries are something else. they can give you benefits
- just not the same benefits we expect from tea.

But live worms in the sediment - shows conditions are aerobic.

OK?

Elaine R. Ingham
Soil Foodweb Inc., Corvallis, Oregon
Soil Foodweb Inc., Port Jefferson, New York
Soil Foodweb Institute, Lismore Australia
Soil Foodweb Institue Cambridge, New Zealand
Soil Foodweb Inc., Hilversum, The Netherlands
Laboratorios de Soil Foodweb, Culiacan, Mexico
Soil Foodweb Inc., Jerome, Idaho




Received on Fri Jun 18 2004 - 22:45:41 EDT

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