Re: [compost_tea] newbie intro and question

From: Bill George <wbgeorge_at_verizon.net>
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 22:35:47 -0700

Thank you Ted for the vote of support, and thank you Robert for the
critique. It's not my intention to mislead or to start dissent here. I do
appreciate and abide by this forum's mission to forward thoughtful
discussion on compost and tea making. My specific interest is to increase
the level of recycleing done by urban gardeners, and to improve the final
product from their composting efforts. This includes introducing them to
tea making. Internally I am estatic people of Dr. E's caliber are
indentifying and quantifying these ancient techniques scientifically
proving their worth. However, I am equally dismayed that some mysticism is
creeping in. Language has been adopted that shrouds otherwise simple
processes in inexplicable terms, and establishes absolutes where none
should exist. Perhaps it's an attempt to satisfy a society hungry for
precision. I don't know. I've had discussion like these before with people
telling me that tea is such and so. I've been told about the possibilities
of damage to plants by anaerobic bacteria, the coulds, the mights, and the
maybes. None of these are probabilities. Neither are there guarantees
aerobic bacteria will benefit the garden.

My main concern though is this push towards precision in tea making will
lead to absolutism in compost making. If compost and water in a bucket is
not tea, then how long will it be before my compost is declared not
compost? If specific ingredients in specific amounts cured at specific
temperatures over specific periods inhabited by specific species of macro
fauna become the requirement, how will the average person make compost
much less make tea? What about the third world with their lack of
resources? I don't want to see compost be relegated to the realm of
wizards only. I don't want it to follow the accounting path organics have
adopted to prove thier organicness. And I don't want it to follow the near
religious feeling of biodynamics. Science can apply it's rigorous
standards for reproducible results during studies. But the application of
the science needs to relax a bit to gain popular adoption. There are many
of us who've proven to ourselves that simple things work well. Life allows
for fuzziness.

Enjoy!
--
* Bill George
*
* TIDR Wilsonville OR


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Received on Mon Sep 13 2004 - 09:18:08 EDT

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