Re: [compost_tea] basic questions

From: Robert Norsen <bnbrew_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 22:12:43 -0800 (PST)

Butch it helped me sort thru the process just trying to explain it. I think ACT alone would do well on most reasonably good soils if the plant debris is retained in / on the soil. Perhaps with weeds and cover crop to help feed the soil microbes during the off season. All those growing plants will harvest nutrients from the air and water and microbes will "disolve" nutrients from the soil. Like was said a moment ago on this list ( sorry I read it but forgot who said it ) erosion if allowed, takes away far more than the plants .Erosion is one of the serious results of chemica farming. Not enough fiber, mulch and that wonderful bacterial slime that holds so much water and holds soil together. I get a great "feel" for tha bacterial slim during our Seattle winters. A collection of pollen and dust and exudate from overhead trees and the bacteria form slime on my wood decks that make for ass busting skating. Bob

2_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
Bob, your kind to offer this explanation which I
understood but many post seemed to say that ACT was
enough by itself. If I understood your description we
grow some food crop and harvest the edible part, seed,
leaf, fruit and allow the rest of the plant return to
the soil. Then add ACT at various points prior to the
next growing season. Add a little compost or cover
crop and the system is self-sustaining.

If this is over simplified but true then it's the
basis for sustainable agriculture which is what we'll
have to do to feed the world. Chemical fertilizer,
pesticides, fungicides will not do it.

--- Robert Norsen wrote:

> Forget the rules, Butch. Use your good sense.
> Bacteria are like other forms of life. Same for
> fungi and protozoa. They need food to survive.
> Some can hibernate a long time but if they are
> active they must eat. For soil microbes, food can
> be organic hydrocarbon debris or the exudate from
> growing plants or added kelp or molasses or dog dew
> or whatever but clean sand, clean clay, will result
> in the critters starve or go dormant. Among the
> thousands of varieties of microbes involved some
> will respond differently from others. Can they live
> by disolving clean rock for food? Elaine might
> know. I would believe they can disolve rock only in
> the presence of other food that gives them the
> ability to form enzymes and the enzymes and acids
> they produce disolve the rock and furnishes them
> with a small fraction of their 'food'.
> The great thing about this system is that the debris
> that we can't use, what is left in the ground or on
> the ground becomes their food. Then in the
> wonderous way of the soil food web this life
> benefits the plants that they are dependent on and
> form ways to conserve the water they both need, they
> eat the forms of life around them including some
> forms that would harm the plants.
>
> It is easy to think this was all planned by some
> very intelligent contoller. Or did it just happen
> because it worked?. Or rather it worked until semi
> super beings found ways to "make" plants grow under
> heavy fisted chemical control. Now our return to a
> natural way of soil life needs to gently , carefully
> nurture that life to return it to approximate a
> natural condition. A high ratio of fiber, old plant
> debris, animal waste, plant roots, live and dead
> will provide the essential food for the microbes.
> Live plants are important to furnish the exudates
> some species need. Compost and ACT can introduce
> part of the natrural microbe life forms.
>
> Never a straight hard answer, Butch. So many
> variables - Bob
> butch ragland wrote:
>
>
> I can't tell you how many times I've tried to get
> this
> straight answer. If I understand, for long term
> sustainability some form of organic debris must be
> in
> the system. Either as residue or from some external
> source.
>
>
> --- soilfoodweb_at_aol.com wrote:
> > Of course, compost tea alone cannot build soil.
> But
> > it can go a long way
> > towards getting you there. Compost can go a long
> > way to getting you there.
> >
> > But we always have to be growing plants, and using
> > the residues to help the
> > soil build.
>
> =====
> Butch Ragland
> Conflict is as addictive as
> cocaine, alcohol, cigarettes,etc
> I'm sorry to report that
> cooperation is not
>
>
>
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=====
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 Wed Jan 05 2005 - 10:45:12 EST

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