Re: [compost_tea] newbie intro and question

From: Bill George <wbgeorge_at_verizon.net>
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 07:06:25 -0700

Thank you Lynton. I am new to the list but not to tea or composting. I saw
tea long ago in a Russian immigrant's garden (ye olde stinking pot of
black water), and again in a Chinese grandma's garden ( a similar bucket
of black water). I've followed Dr. E's and SFI's research for (golly!) a
long time. Maybe a decade. Over the last year I've had some very heated
discussions with people who have received training from SFI, and they were
(being as polite as possible) zealots. So, I joined the forum to find out
if their absolutism is being taught, or misinterpretted by them. So far it
looks like a little of both which is typical for human dynamics. I haven't
seen compost and tea being treated like a religion yet (whew). However, it
is apparent there are those Who Believe. I'll try not to rock the boat.

Enjoy!

Bill


On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 21:49:27 +1200, L Blair <rlbct_at_clear.net.nz> wrote:

>
> Bill, I appreciate your intentions to encourage community recycling of
> organic matter.
>
> I can also understand your caution in approaching what to you is new
> technology.
>
> However you decide to proceed, you will need to give guidelines on how to
> make compost or tea. If you want to learn something on the way, it might
> make sense to run different systems and compare the results. This should
> remove a lot of uncertainty.
>
> Without reasonable guidelines appropriate to the conditions its possible
> to
> have stinking messes (literally - I've done that!) that are not pleasant
> to
> be around and not conducive to good growing.
>
> my 2c
> Lynton
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Bill George <wbgeorge_at_verizon.net>
> To: <compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 5:35 PM
> Subject: Re: [compost_tea] newbie intro and question
>
>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>



--
* Bill George
*
* TIDR Wilsonville OR


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Received on Mon Sep 13 2004 - 12:04:18 EDT

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