RE: [compost_tea] Re: MICROBIOLOGY TESTING of COMPOST TEAS

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 03:53:29 -0500
Tom:

Please note, I did not call any particular person not worthy of their degre= e.  But it is important to make sure that people understand when in-ap= propriate information is given out. 

To reiterate, what I said was that anyone with a Ph.D. in microbiology who = does not understand that plate counts cannot assess active organisms in the= soil are not worthy of their degrees.  

Rather like a medical doctor saying that taking temperatures would measure = whether someone has cancer.  Taking someone's temperature is useful fo= r determining fever, but not for determining whether someone has cancer.&nb= sp; That person would not be worthy of their degree either.

I have always been clear that plate counts are worthwhile, for the appropri= ate information.  If that information is needed, then plate counts are= the way to go.  But don't pretend that plate counts can measure somet= hing that they cannot. 

You seem to confuse my insistence that plate counts measure certain things,= with me "not liking" plate counts, or not liking people who do p= late counts. 

Please, get off that bent, because you are flat out wrong.  Plate coun= ts can be useful for certain things.  Stop trying to pretend that I ha= ve something against plate counts. 

Tom wrote:
I cannot speak for the ICTC, but find it curious that somehow it is the res= ponsibility of an informational organization to prove a single technology i= s superior.

Elaine response:
Please note the mission statement for the ICTC.  An educational compon= ent is included, and I have been assured that a research component is part = of the ICTC's mission. 

Further, no scientist would suggest that a single technology could be "= ;proven" one way or another to be "superior" or "inferi= or".  To suggest that I percieve one technology to be "bette= r" or "worse" is just ludicrous. 

Each method measures specific things.  The question is, which one asse= sses what you want to know?

Fact: plate counts measure less than 0.01 PERCENT of the actual set of orga= nisms present in any diverse material.  It is a FACT that plate counts= do not measure active organisms, they measure mostly some un-known portion= of the whole community.  The portion assessed is mostly the dormant c= omponent, but some portion of the functioning component as well, except we = don't know how much of each.

Is this kind of information useful to you? 

What is it that you want to know about compost tea?  

------------------
Tom wrote:
I believe a beginning place should be to create a central “clearing= house” of all the data, studies and reports regarding liquid compo= sts and their uses and testing.

Elaine respondes:
Congratulations!  I applaud you for suggesting something. 

But please check out the ATTRA website, since the work you are suggesting h= as already been done by Steve Diver.  He's happy to discuss papers and= work with folks too, so talking with him is a great way to get the summary= rapidly.

-------------------------------
Tom said -
Again I’m sorry you find considering more than your lab harassing, = I find it important to the growth of our industry.

Elaine replies:
I have always been clear what different labs measure, and I have never said= that my lab is the only one to consider. 

SFI measures certain things.  If you don't need that information, go u= se whatever lab gives the information you require.  But when you put o= ut a list of labs, it would really be more useful to state what those labs = actually measure, rather than try to make it sound like all the labs measur= e the same thing, and that all of them assess tea. 

--
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
SFI Corvallis, OR
SFI Port Jefferson, NY
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
SFI Culiacan, Mexico
SFI Jerome, Idaho
SFI South Africa
http://www.soilfoodweb.com


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Received on Mon Dec 27 2004 - 08:21:12 EST

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