Re: [compost_tea] Does this make any sense?

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 16:26:01 EDT

You need to know that you have the beneficial foodweb in the soil if you want
to let the grass clippings decompose in place.

You can run a soil foodweb test to know right away, or start leaving
clippings in place and watch to see if the clippings decompose and disappear within 15
to 30 days. If they do, then you know the foodweb is there and doing its
job. If not, then you need to add some organisms.

Presumably you would need to add fungi, but to know for sure, you would test.
 

If you have been adding compost to your soil previously, you just might want
to test your compost and soil (qualitative test would be the least expensive
way to do this, $25 per test for bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes), and
make sure the biology is there in reasonable amounts.

Elaine R. Ingham
Soil Foodweb Inc., Corvallis, Oregon
Soil Foodweb Inc., Port Jefferson, New York
Soil Foodweb Institute, Lismore Australia
Soil Foodweb Institute Cambridge, New Zealand
Laboratorios de Soil Foodweb, Culiacan, Mexico
Soil Foodweb Inc., Jerome, Idaho
Soil Foodweb Inc., South Africa







Received on Thu Oct 07 2004 - 23:09:30 EDT

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