Re: [compost_tea] Compost tea foods

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 21:57:23 EDT

I'm getting around to older e-mails, once again, because I'm in Australia
just now, teaching an 8 hour a day course. Just a tad distracted from other
things!

So, here it is the weekend, one our way to look at land for moving the
Australia lab to a bigger building, and I have a few minutes to respond to e-mails.

Hank in Costa Rica asked about foods, and when to add them. The response
there needs to be related to temperature, oxygen concentration in the water, and
the desired organism response.

The warmer the weather, the better it is to spread out the additions. But be
aware that addition of foods to the tea once the organisms are growing means
an instantaneous, and massive spike in oxygen use, as the active organisms do
a feeding frenzy thing on the added foods. The oxygen demand is incredible.
Make sure you don't add too much at that mid-time feeding to out-strip the
machine's ability to supply oxygen.

But, this mid-course feed might be a much better thing in hot weather.

How do you know if it is working? Check with your small microscope. Keep an
eye out for the "fuzzy lollipop stick" effect of anaerobic bacteria on fungal
hyphae. Make sure organism numbers are increasing significantly after you
add the additional foods.

That's the easy thing to do! Come to SFI for the next microscope training
class. We allow folks to come practice with their microscopes in the lab for
minimal cost, so you can get the help of the trained techs on what you are
seeing with your microscopes.

Elaine Ingham
Dept of Graduate Research
Southern Cross University







Received on Sat Aug 28 2004 - 01:16:41 EDT

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