[compost_tea] Re: Some Numbers and Metabolites

From: Kirk Leonard <kirkleon_at_open.org>
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 11:51:36 -0800
I sure do like it when Doc E gets a vacation.  10/27 digest was rich with
new information and perspective.  Thank you, Elaine.  Saved until today to
take it in and have some questions, maybe couple corrections?  Many snips
from original messages.

> From: soilfoodweb_at_aol.com
> Subject: Re: Re: Tea and powdery mildew
>
> In trials with compost tea, Trichoderma was added to the compost tea.
> Just a teaspoon of T-22 was added to 2000 L of brew in a standard
ACT-brewing
> machine, using 2.5 liter fish hydrolysate, 2.5 liter kelp, and 20 kg
compost.
>  If my calculations were correct, that is 500 gal of water, 1 gal fish, 1
> pound kelp, and about 10 pounds compost.  Good, aerated, fungal compost,
tested
> routinely to allow us to know that the compost is always fungal.

Is 20 kg compost to 10 pounds a typo?  I can imagine 20 liters of compost
being 10 pounds, but 20 kg is 44 pounds last I checked... I dislike chasing
numbers but this confuses me.

> 25 liters of ACT/HA (5 gal/ac) was applied to half the area, the normal
> conventional application to the other half of the area.

I think this might be a mistake.  25 liters is a little over 6 1/2 gallons,
a hectare is about 2.5 acres.  Running these numbers out, this would be less
than 3 gallons per acre, which speaks well of the results but doesn't make
number sense.  Please set me straight on this.  Seems like 5 gals/ac should
be closer to 50 liters/hectare?

And on "metabolites" - a completely different subject - a wonderful word but
still a fuzzy concept to me...

> From: soilfoodweb_at_aol.com
> Subject: Re: How do they do it?
>
> All organisms need adequate water in order to live.  In soil, the
organisms
> seek out water-films, which are held on the surfaces of the aggregates and
seek
> out pores of proper size filled partly or fully, with water.
>
> Dry products can actually hold significant water, and if stored properly,
> will maintain adequate moisture to keep the organisms in a low level of
activity.
>
> Many other products are dried to below the "wilting point" for any
organism.
> In that case, the organisms HAVE TO BE in a dormant form.  That means
spores,
> dormant stages, dauer larvae, cysts, etc.
>
> Many organisms in soil require several days to weeks to move into those
> dormant stages, and many soil orgnaisms do not produce a dormant stage
that we
> know.  They may make dormant stages, but we haven't connected them to the
active
> stage yet.  More to learn.

Ok, this is probably Microbiology 101, but I have to ask to make a mental
connection about metabolites, which I have taken to mean the dead bodies of
soil critters, effectively, containing soluble nutrients, chemicals and
minerals readily accessible for nutrient purposes, for both plants and other
soil organisms.

Organisms are either active, dormant, or dead, right?  If you haven't seen
transitions from (potentially) dormant to active, this probably means they
were dead, ie fully decomposed and ready to go again, right?  Are these
metabolites?

> As Kirk says, its not just a right, it is a requirement of citizens in a
> democracy to express their opinions.

Strongly agree, but actually, I used a variant of a quote from Gunter Grass:
"The job of citizens is to keep their mouths open."

I hope everybody votes and we have a new US president Wednesday.  The
prospect bodes better for aerated compost tea, and all natural "teas," I
believe.

Kirk



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Received on Mon Nov 01 2004 - 23:17:13 EST

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