Re: [compost_tea] Thoughts on applying compost tea during rainy conditions.

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2004 18:18:16 EDT

Hi Brian -

Applying tea during rain, or sunshine works fine.

During direct sun, just be aware that the drop size has to be greater than 1
mm diameter so UV is attenuated adequately and doesn't kill the organisms.

How to test? Allow the spray from your sprayer to land on a piece of paper,
and measure the width of the drops. Then you know.

If smaller than 1 mm, don't spray unless it's cloudy or raining, or after 4
pm, or before 10 am. Try to spray while the ground is still wet, if you are
doing ground applications. The critters love dew.

Of course, if you are in the middle of a hurricane, that is not the time to
apply tea. Torrential downpour, not a good idea. The organisms needs to stick
to the leaf surfaces.

How do you KNOW they are sticking? Do a leaf organism analysis.

Acid rain is a problem for bare, naked organisms. But on leaf surfaces, most
organisms are neither bare nor naked. They are emeshed in a slime layer,
glued to the surfaces.

So, when we discuss coverage on leaves, the organisms are not jammed cell
wall to cell wall, they are distributed on the leaf surface, so that the glue
layers are touching. These glue layers are alkaline, when we deal with aerobic
bacteria. So they will help to protect the leaves from damage.

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 Sat Aug 07 2004 - 18:46:35 EDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:15:26 EST