Re: [compost_tea] Re: Re: Tea and powdery mildew

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 13:56:41 EDT

Hi Dave Squtch -

There's a huge diversity of organisms in compost, and most species are not
that widely occurring. Your statement that "most of the critters in compost are
pretty ubiquitous, but the chemical inputs vary greatly from location to
location." just doesn't hold up to the data becoming available.

The attitude that bacterial species are universal comes from plate count
methods that have been used since developed by Pasteur and Koch back in the 17th
century.

Plate methods only isolate a tiny, tiny, tiny number of species of bacteria
and fungi, and select most strongly for the spore-forming species. These
species are present in compost, or tea, but are not active. So what? Who cares?
If they aren't actually doing anything in compost, is it telling us anything
important? And these plate count results are actually then mis-leading us.

But, as you suggest, the diversity of foods added into compost is just as
important as having the diversity of organisms. BUT, the foods made by any one
SPECIES of plant is set by its DNA, and thus there is a limited set of food
resources that any plant species can produce. To get diversity of food resources
in compost, or tea, you have to add different species of plants.

Just like people, if the food isn't there to feed us, we don't perform our
functions. So, Ted may have the organisms in the tea, but isn't feeding them.
And so, no function without the right food.

Or he may have the foods present, but none of the proper species.

What to do?

Well, the easiest and simplest first step in making good compost tea is to
make sure you have maximized ALL the kinds of organisms.

So, ALL of the organism types are in your compost?

That means, good biomass of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes.

Then check, are they all getting into my tea?

That means, good biomass of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and well, some
nematodes too. Just good guys, please.

Now, apply to your plants. Are you getting the results you want to see?

That means, protecting plant surfaces with the organisms, so diseases cannot
establish on the leaf surfaces, so you see improvment in soil tilth, so your
shovel goes into the soil without a struggle. Seeing fungal strands in your
soil. Seeing microarthropods in the soil, or seeing earthworms return to places
you didn't have earthworms before.

Not seeing these things?

Then you are missing something in the compost or in the tea.

Where to go back to and start fixing?

Start with the compost. Add more kinds of food resources there.

Add the foods that grow Trichoderma. What does Trichoderma eat? Other
fungi. No Trichoderma? It means you don't have good fungi. So, fungal foods, and
make sure you have a good diversity of fungal species in the pile. Go
collecting. Handfuls of soil or leaf material from whereever you can find fungal
strands. Add them to the pile AT THE START OF THE COMPOSTING process. If there
are diseases in those soils, you want to deal with them in the composting
process. No surprises, please.

Then make more tea, try again.

So, for the backyard grower, this isn't an expensive process.

But for large scale people, it becomes economic to do some testing, and
document what is in the compost, not only diversity, but specific beneficial
species.

SFI does that kind of testing now, and a much wider range of kinds of
organisms, tied to the specific needs to the plant you are growing. We will do the
plant testing as well to determine what effect teh species of bacteria and
fungi have on your plants.

There are other labs that do plate count work, that will tell you the
organisms that grow in specific conditions in the lab. I think we need to do more
than that, and so we are starting that process of getting beyond lab conditions
for isolation.

There are companies that sell bacterial species, like EM, Organica, Bioag,
Bio-Grow, Bio-whatever (check the SFI website, I think we have info up there on
the ones we've tested).

But there is only one company that I know of that sells a decent inoculum of
beneficial fungal species - Rootgrow, I think. There's about 50 species of
fungi in their mix, as I recall. Again, all tested to make sure they are
beneficial, not detrimental to vegies and row crops.

EM states two species of fungi, both yeasts, in their mix.

So, if you grow a quarter million dollars of plant products, you might want
to consider these inocula, so you know you have a diversity of the good guy
critters in your tea or compost.

But be aware that species of organisms are adapted and selected by climate.
what works well in New York, doesn't work well in Arizona. You need to get
the local critters. so, get local compost. local compost tea.

Buy local, but make sure it is quality material. Better to buy quality
material from Alaska, even if you are in Arizona, than buy garbage from a local
place.

Can you tell I'm on vacation? Time to answer things in detail!

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 Wed Oct 27 2004 - 15:05:26 EDT

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