Re: [compost_tea] Kelp; another dum question

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 13:56:37 EDT

Parts of the Pacific Ocean are cold, and the kelp from the Pacific side of
Canada is a really good product too.

As usual, be careful on what someone from the company trying to sell you a
product says.

Ask for data shwoing what the product actually does on soil.

The problem with the Norwegian product sold by a Canadian company is that the
process they use to prepare the kelp destroys much of the "goodness". Note
that the product I am referring to is no longer approved by hte organic world.
That's a clue.

So, try to pick kelps that have organic approval. That means no nasty acid
or base extractions, no heating to remove foods that the company can then sell
to others, while making the kelp product poor as a microbial growth promoter.

The argument becomes less about whose "sea grass" which is a common name
applied to all kelp, is better, and more about what happened to the material
during processing.

The real answer is to have data about what happens with the organisms when
the product is added to soil. Then you know if it grows what you want to grow.

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 - 15:05:27 EDT

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