Re: [compost_tea] detrimentals not beneficials

From: butch ragland <wilddog_202_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 21:20:19 -0700 (PDT)
Elaine the first paragraph is one of the zealot, hear
that word carefully, I'm not criticizing. I admire
your work very much but there is as much knowledge to
be gleaned from what goes wrong as well as what goes
right. All knowledge has a value and can be used in
some positive way. Unless your throw the knowledge out
with the bad tea. Tea can be defined in any way that
can be replicated. Who knows the value of a bad batch
that can be replicated and where or how that value can
be applied. Out of my imagination, say an oil spill
clean up. AND I'm not trying to change the direction
of you or anyone else's focus and work.

Your last paragraph is one of a thinker it begins to
answer my question.

--- soilfoodweb_at_aol.com wrote:

> Hi Butch -
>
> No one will, or should, claim compost tea as an
> herbicide.  We have not
> defined the conditions which will result in the tea
> containing compounds that could
> kill plants.
>
> However, if you brew compost tea that you
> purposefully make anaerobic, we
> know that SOMETIMES, materials will be produced that
> can, and do, kill plants. 
> I've done it a few times when we were first playing
> with compost tea.  Rather
> disconcerting.
>
> However, it is hard to control all the factors that
> need to be controlled to
> make an herbicide brew, consistently. 
>
> So, I prefer to use simpler approaches, such as
> adding so much carbon to the
> soil that the bacteria and fungi grow rapidly, take
> up all the excess nitrate,
> which is what weed species require to germinate and
> out-compete the more
> desired crop or grass species.  Much more reliable.
>
> The key is excess carbon, AND the organisms to use
> that carbon.  The carbon
> can be molasses, for example, orange oil, as another
> choice, or lots of woody
> material, with just a touch of high nitrogen
> contaiing material to get the
> bacteria and fungi going.  All of these can do a
> good job of killing plants you
> don't want, and enhancing the plants you do want.
>
> Be careful though - too much of any of these, and
> you can kill all the
> plants.  We've done that too, and actually a
> graduate student of Mark Wilson's
> published that information some years ago as part of
> a study on conditions that
> allow native plants to grow. 
>
> Best way to approach this is to test the proper
> concentration of molasses or
> other high carbon materials by adding to plots at
> higher and higher
> concentrations.   The concentration that kills the
> weed without killing the crop plants
> is the one you want to apply over a larger area. 
>
> OK?
>
> 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
>


=====
Butch Ragland
Conflict is as addictive as
cocaine, alcohol, cigarettes,etc
I'm sorry to report that
cooperation is not


           
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Received on Fri Oct 29 2004 - 00:55:08 EDT

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