Re: [compost_tea] Tea Ingredients

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 14:04:44 EDT


Hi Jon -
My goal is to develop a healthy soil for vegtable prodution in a 60 x 60
area, that is mainly sand loam. I understand tea is not a substitude for oganic
matter, but I want to put healthy bacteria into the soil to aid in the digestive
process of turning the organic matter into plant foods.
Exactly right! You can't turn plant debris into soil if you don't have the
organisms to do the job.

Hence the idea of sour milk.

OK, but..... sour milk isn't going to grow the beneficial organisms that you
need. At least, I have seen no data to suggest that it selects for
beneficial organisms, and I have seen some work showing some really negative impacts on
leaf surface organisms.

Sour milk seems to work if you want to kill some of the leaf surface
disease-causing fungi. But then you have to put the beneficial organisms back out on
those leaves - or the bad guys come back. Competition is all important.
*The Kelp is for the macro / micro plant nutrients as well to build in some
cold tolerences, about a 1/2 c per. gal.
OK, there are data to show all of the above. Excellent.

*The Greensand and egg shells for calcium and macro / micro nutrients .

But in the compost tea? Maybe I mis-understood, because I thought you said
these would go in the tea. My experience is that they are better in the
compost. But maybe I just got that wrong, and you meant the compost.

How much? Consider that if you make your compost with the right set of
starting materials, the final C:N ratio of the compost is 10:1. That means a
minimum of 5% N. There should be no need to add greensand for N. But maybe for
other micronutrients.

Egg sheels are a great source of calcium - but you in;y need about 100
pounds, MAXIMUM, per ton.

*and Compost for bacterial and nutrient support.

Yep, compost for foods to feed the beneficial organisms, BUT ALSO for the
inoculum of the organisms themselves.

What plants are you trying to grow, and what is hte biology that they need?
What ratio of bacteria and fungi are needed? You should match your tea to
improve what the plant needs in the soil.

I love having these kinds of chats. It's great seeing that you understand
quite a bit. Just a little bit more that you need to consider.

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 Tue Jul 27 2004 - 16:00:15 EDT

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