Soil organismsI have a large personal library, there are some 6000 books in=
it and about 150 - 200 on ag alone. I find it quite amusing to look at th=
e traditional approaches given in "text" books of all kinds. To me, we hav=
e been inundated, since WWII, with a single approach that basically asserte=
d that the land alone can not and is not suitable to sustain agriculture wi=
thout significant help in the form of NPK fertilizers, pesticides and a spe=
cific program of land management.
I find the same mindset in nearly all the books I have with a few exception=
s. The exceptions are in books by some of the "discounted" radical thinker=
s of the day. I have three books by Jethro Kloss and other Kloss family me=
mbers that describe practices very similar to those we are finding benefici=
al through using CT. An interesting sideline is that while yield was sligh=
tly lower in some cases to significantly lower in others, food quality was =
better. So I have floated the idea that the obesity in the American popula=
tion in children is not necessarily from only fast food but from all food. =
(Unfortunately I don't have a PhD in Nutrition or in food science so I don'=
t have the credentials to make my theories matter much.) I think that one =
source of obesity is because people have to eat more of the food to get the=
same nutrition their bodies tell them they should have. We have a society =
where even vegartarians are overweight and this is strange indeed.
Also, a good look at the human digestive tract seems to show a model simila=
r to soil mechanisms: Bacteria breakdown nutrients which are absorbed by in=
testinal cilia in a similar manner to root systems. Because we are providi=
ng our bodies with low-quality food, the amount of bacteria in our systems =
decreases and food is broken down and absorbed differently. In effect, we =
are making environments in our bodies that are beneficial to fats from cell=
ulose and meat sources and hostile to nutrients we need. This is just the =
opposite of what we do when we brew tea. We try to make environments healt=
hy for benefical organisms and hostile to those that are not beneficial for=
our purposes.
I have been working with some farmers and vinyard owners and find the minds=
et pretty well entrenched. You get a manager how graduated from Cal. Poly =
which is one of the best ag schools in the nation, and you find a guy who i=
s for all practical purposes an industry or factory guy. He has been train=
ed in all the current "chemical" trends for farm or vinyard management. He=
knows chemicals like he knows tractors. Even the classes these guys get i=
n soil management promote the theory that the soil microbiology isn't enoug=
h to produce the yield required for modern farming.
So somehow, we are going to have to find a way to fit into this mindset and=
slowly change the thinking because I can tell you and have the data to pro=
ve it: compost tea cannot cure powdery mildew on grapes but it can control =
the spread BEFORE it hits an orchard. It does work. Also, the brix of the=
grapes is higher. In other words, CT makes for a higher quality product. =
Orchard Experience
I have been working with a sustainable apple orchard in my area. This is t=
he first year I have had anything to do with them and they are reporting th=
at this year the fruit is much sweeter than previous years. Now, I can't sa=
y that this is only because of CT. We have had a different rain cycle this=
year, the orchard started filtering their well water and stopped using cer=
tain fertilizers. The individual fruit size was smaller than typical but p=
eople were wolfing them down. I have had no insects or blights this season=
and it may be because we are in a semi-drought (this may also account for =
the smaller fruit size.) condition. There are a lot of factors I still don=
't understand about the mechanics of an orchard so there may be multiple ex=
planations. The orchard followed sustainable growing practices where clove=
rs were planted and left between the trees. These clovers were mowed and l=
eft to decompose. I both foliar sprayed the trees and sprayed the clovers =
before and after mowing. I did not soil soak. Tea was brewed with a mixtu=
re of commercial compost that I had altered with addition of local (my own)=
compost and some humus from the orchard before the project was started. I=
was shooting for the highest fungal counts I could get and both the compos=
t and the tea tested consistent when we did a microscope analysis. Tea was=
brewed in a 225G brewer using an Earth-Wise aerator and a Hi-blow HP80 pum=
p. The brewer is free suspension so I tested fungal counts before extracti=
on and after (before spraying.) There was a very slight drop in overall bio=
mass after filtration but I don't think it was more than 20%. The remainin=
g liquid and compost in the brewer was put again into the compost pile. =
The compost pile is static. I have a blower and CO2/O2 monitor that either=
adds or removes O2 based on CO2 levels measured by the meter. So the whol=
e operation is low maintenance in regards to turning. Then only thing that=
has to be done manually is water and I have designed a spray rig that can =
take care of that so that all that has to be done is turn on the sprayer. =
I have worked out a methodology where I can possibly change the manual part=
s of the watering to automated but don't have enough data to be sure it wil=
l work. Basically, I plan to hook up a moisture detector to a switch that =
will activate when a certain level of moisture is reached.
The whole system can be controlled with an old computer which can be picked=
up $50 or less and an AD/DA card. It is very simple and I have a programm=
er optimizing the software now. I wrote it in C++ and Visual Basic (the fr=
ont end.) to make it easy to use. I got the idea from looking at a rainbir=
d program called DX2 that controls irrigation systems for parks and process=
control from several greenhouse companies.
Ultimately, the idea would be to automate the orchard and use fertigators t=
o distribute the tea but this orchard isn't set up that way. I think that =
would be the ticket for vinyards also.
Ted Peterson
EW/SOE
----- Original Message -----
From: clay
To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2004 9:16 AM
Subject: [compost_tea] Soil organisms
I have been doing some reading comparing natural ecosystems and agroecosy=
stems.
Came across this when looking at soil ecosystems...
The text talks about the knowledge of soil organisms being lacking. Im as=
suming that things have changed quite a bit since the data is around 13 yea=
rs old.
Thought some of you may find this interesting?
D. A. NEHER, 1999, Soil community composition and ecosystem processes Com=
paring agricultural ecosystems with natural ecosystems-Agroforestry Systems=
45: 159–185.
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Received on Sun Oct 10 2004 - 15:05:02 EDT