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From: Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
Subject: Re: colloidal clay and rock phosphate
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Robert's description of his wife's batch of rice as a
substrate to capture and culture beneficial microorganisms
living in the forest floor is IM.

EM, in contrast, is only made by master brewers. It is a
specific set of microbes and microbial brewing process.

Yet EM and IM are used in a similar way in terms of spraying
on piles of manures, composts, and animal bedding to enhance
microbial remediation...  or to inoculate soils and plants
with beneficial microbes, bioactive substances, and liquid
nutrients.

Steve Diver

>


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Subject: [permaculture] BioImages - Virtual Field-Guide (UK)
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BioImages - Virtual Field-Guide (UK) | BioImages.org.uk
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/

3,187 Taxa
30,113 Images

"BioImages (VFG-UK) is programmatically built from
a 4th Dimension Database."

Another database example with lots of plants,
insects, and life form photos.

The author made extensive use of a digitial camera to
collect photo images of field specimans, as well as
a flatbed scanner to compile "herbarium" samples of
leaves and flowers and mushrooms in digital color.

Shortcut to Taxonomy / Phyla / Database fields.
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/SHORTCUT.HTM

Regards,
Steve Diver


_______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture


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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Glomalin, the Unsung Hero of Carbon Storage
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Also see:

"Glomalin=97Soil's Superglue"
Agricultural Research magazine | October 1997
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct97/glomalin1097.htm

And especially, the ARS web page on Glomalin and
Sara Wright's work at:

Glomalin - an Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Glycoprotein
http://www.barc.usda.gov/anri/sasl/glomalin/glomalin.html

Of special interest is the USDA brochure, a 5-page PDF:

Glomalin, A Manageable Soil Glue
http://www.barc.usda.gov/anri/sasl/glomalin/brochure.pdf

Best,
Steve Diver


"Lawrence F. London, Jr." wrote:

> ----------
> From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
> Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
> Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 09:15:03 -0400
> To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom@hevanet.com>
> Subject: Glomalin, the Unsung Hero of Carbon Storage
>
> STORY LEAD:
> Glomalin, the Unsung Hero of Carbon Storage
> ___________________________________________
>
> ARS News Service
> Agricultural Research Service, USDA
> Don Comis, (301) 504-1625, comis@ars.usda.gov
> September 6, 2002
> ___________________________________________
>
> Glomalin, a recently discovered major component of soil organic matter,
> stores about a third of the world's soil carbon, offsetting industrial
> pollution. This is according to a recent collaborative study by scienti=
sts
> with the Agricultural Research Service and the University of Maryland
> (U-MD) at College Park. The study was partially funded by the U.S.
> Department of Energy.
>
> The study was done by Kristine A. Nichols, a U-MD soil science Ph.D.
> candidate and technician at ARS' Sustainable Agricultural Systems
> Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., along with colleagues Sara F. Wright and=
 E.
> Kudjo Dzantor. Wright, an ARS soil scientist, discovered glomalin in 19=
96,
> and Dzantor is a U-MD soil scientist.
>
> Glomalin is a sticky protein produced by root-dwelling fungi and slough=
ed
> into soil as roots grow. By gluing soil particles and organic matter
> together, it stabilizes soil and keeps carbon from escaping into the
> atmosphere. In an earlier study, Wright found that glomalin serves as a
> corrective to global warming because it increases with carbon dioxide
> levels.
>
> Nichols and colleagues detected large amounts of glomalin in soils from
> four states, showing it to be a major part of organic matter. The gloma=
lin
> weighed 2 to 24 times as much as humic acid, which was previously thoug=
ht
> to store the most carbon. But Nichols found that humic acid only stored=
 8
> percent of total soil carbon compared to glomalin's 27 percent.
>
> Wright has found glomalin in soils from around the world, ranging in
> weight from less than 1 milligram per gram (mg/g) of sample to more tha=
n
> 100 mg/g. She found the highest levels in Hawaiian and Japanese soils,
> indicating that some soils might be able to store large amounts of carb=
on
> in glomalin with a turnover rate of 7 to 42 years. She is on a team
> investigating underground carbon storage in tropical forests, thought t=
o
> be major carbon reservoirs.
>
> For more on glomalin, see the September 2002 issue of Agricultural
> Research magazine, online at:
> http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep02/soil0902.htm
>
> ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
> agency.
> ___________________________________________
> * This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
> subscribers on weekdays.
> * Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at
> www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm
> * The latest news is always at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm
> * NewsService@ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/is
> * Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1648

.

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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
Subject:      Re: cations + chelation + amino acids
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Was.....  Re: Low Tech Soil Health Methodologies for Farmers

David Menne wrote:

> Because alkali metals, and a goodly proportion [viz the unchelated] alkali
> earth metals occur as cations [demonstably by various physical phenomena] in
> aqueous systems and not as whole molecules. Single charge cations of course
> by definition cannot form chelates ["held by twin bonding"], despite what a
> lot of the fringe nutritional health product supply industry claim.

Well, I see that monovalent potassium is among the amino acid
chelated mineral products at Albion Laboratories.  The Metasolates
line of foliar fertilization products are certified organic.

See:

Albion Laboratories
http://www.albionlabs.com

A related site that comes to mind when amino acids and foliar
fertilizers come up in organic fertilization is Delbon in France,
supplying liquid fertilizer products like Protaminal geared to foliar
fertilization and fertigation.

Delbon - The specialist in environmentally-friendly liquid fertilizers
http://www.delbon.com/main/index-us.htm
        The technical glossary, fertilization files, crop files, and amino
        acid summary are especially noteworthy.

Steve Diver

.

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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
Subject:      Agriculture biodiversity at UNEP-BPSP
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Here's a resource for your sustainable agriculture toolbox,
relating to agriculture biodiversity.

Steve Diver
ATTRA

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D
Managing Agricultural Resources for Biodiversity Conservation:
A Guide to Best Practices
http://www.unep.org/bpsp/Agrobiodiversity/agrobiodiversity%20thematic/agb=
ioguide.pdf

        78-page PDF

By Barbara Gemmill, 2001
Environmental Liaison Centre International, Nairobi, Kenya

With Support from:

Biodiversity Planning Support Programme (BPSP)
Global Environment Facility (GEF)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Nice layout, summary, and resource listings for the following topics

1. Principles for Conserving Farm Genetic Resources
2. Principles for Conserving Agricultural Ecosystem Services
3. Principles for Conserving Biodiverse Agricultural Landscapes

Source:

UNEP-BPSP Thematic Studies
Integration of Biodiversity into National Agriculture Sectors
http://www.unep.org/bpsp/HTML%20files/TS-Agriculture.html

Also see:

2. National Experiences with Integrating Biodiversity into the
   Agricultural Sector: 6 Regional Case Studies
http://www.unep.org/bpsp/HTML%20files/TS-Agriculture2.html

3. Scientific Reviews of National Experiences and Approaches:
   7 Expert Reviews
http://www.unep.org/bpsp/HTML%20files/TS-Agriculture3.html

4. Managing Agricultural Resources for Biodiversity Conservation:
   Annotated Bibliography
http://www.unep.org/bpsp/Agrobiodiversity/agrobiodiversity%20thematic/agb=
iblio.pdf

        71-page PDF

5. List of Relevant Web-based Resources on Agrobiodiversity
http://www.unep.org/bpsp/Agrobiodiversity/agrobiodiversity%20thematic/web=
-basedbiblio.pdf

        18-page PDF

The Bibliography provides this background material:

One of the outcomes of the RIO SUMMIT (United Nations Conference
On environment and Development) of 1992 was the signing of the
Convention on Biological Diversity, which has now been ratified by
over 100 countries. By ratifying this convention, countries commit to
implementing the agreements and programme of work as it is
developed through the =93Conferences of Parties=94, which occur more or
less every two years.

When the Convention was originally drafted, agricultural biodiversity
was not included as an aspect of biodiversity. But such a clamour has
been raised as to the importance of agrobiodiversity, and so much
attention has been drawn to such trend as: the precipitous loss of
landraces of cultivated crops, and the very large proportion of
biodiversity, in general, that occurs in human-dominated landscapes.
As a consequence, agricultural biodiversity was included in the scope
of the convention, and FAO was given the mandate as overall
taskmaster for the subject.

To a large degree, the focus on agrobiodiversity up until now has been
on conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources, and its
concomitant issues of access to genetic resources (for example, by
plant breeders or pharmaceutical researchers) and fair and equitable
benefit sharing (with communities or indigenous peoples who have
shared or shepherded such resources over time).

However, the Convention on Biological Diversity has recognized its
need to liaise thoroughly with the scientific community and through
this liaison, with respect to agricultural biodiversity, a number of
other thematic focal areas have been established. The present list
of areas are:

Pollinators.
Soil biodiversity
Biodiversity that provides mitigation of pests and diseases
Crop genetic resources
Livestock genetic resources
Diversity at the landscape level
Wild biodiversity in agroecosystems

It is now accepted that the =93Programme of work=94 of the Convention
on Biological Diversity should include the conservation, sustainable
use and benefit sharing of all of these focal areas.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D

.

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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Glomalin, the Unsung Hero of Carbon Storage
To:           SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
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Also see:

"Glomalin=97Soil's Superglue"
Agricultural Research magazine | October 1997
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct97/glomalin1097.htm

And especially, the ARS web page on Glomalin and
Sara Wright's work at:

Glomalin - an Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Glycoprotein
http://www.barc.usda.gov/anri/sasl/glomalin/glomalin.html

Of special interest is the USDA brochure, a 5-page PDF:

Glomalin, A Manageable Soil Glue
http://www.barc.usda.gov/anri/sasl/glomalin/brochure.pdf

Best,
Steve Diver


"Lawrence F. London, Jr." wrote:

> ----------
> From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
> Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
> Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 09:15:03 -0400
> To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom@hevanet.com>
> Subject: Glomalin, the Unsung Hero of Carbon Storage
>
> STORY LEAD:
> Glomalin, the Unsung Hero of Carbon Storage
> ___________________________________________
>
> ARS News Service
> Agricultural Research Service, USDA
> Don Comis, (301) 504-1625, comis@ars.usda.gov
> September 6, 2002
> ___________________________________________
>
> Glomalin, a recently discovered major component of soil organic matter,
> stores about a third of the world's soil carbon, offsetting industrial
> pollution. This is according to a recent collaborative study by scienti=
sts
> with the Agricultural Research Service and the University of Maryland
> (U-MD) at College Park. The study was partially funded by the U.S.
> Department of Energy.
>
> The study was done by Kristine A. Nichols, a U-MD soil science Ph.D.
> candidate and technician at ARS' Sustainable Agricultural Systems
> Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., along with colleagues Sara F. Wright and=
 E.
> Kudjo Dzantor. Wright, an ARS soil scientist, discovered glomalin in 19=
96,
> and Dzantor is a U-MD soil scientist.
>
> Glomalin is a sticky protein produced by root-dwelling fungi and slough=
ed
> into soil as roots grow. By gluing soil particles and organic matter
> together, it stabilizes soil and keeps carbon from escaping into the
> atmosphere. In an earlier study, Wright found that glomalin serves as a
> corrective to global warming because it increases with carbon dioxide
> levels.
>
> Nichols and colleagues detected large amounts of glomalin in soils from
> four states, showing it to be a major part of organic matter. The gloma=
lin
> weighed 2 to 24 times as much as humic acid, which was previously thoug=
ht
> to store the most carbon. But Nichols found that humic acid only stored=
 8
> percent of total soil carbon compared to glomalin's 27 percent.
>
> Wright has found glomalin in soils from around the world, ranging in
> weight from less than 1 milligram per gram (mg/g) of sample to more tha=
n
> 100 mg/g. She found the highest levels in Hawaiian and Japanese soils,
> indicating that some soils might be able to store large amounts of carb=
on
> in glomalin with a turnover rate of 7 to 42 years. She is on a team
> investigating underground carbon storage in tropical forests, thought t=
o
> be major carbon reservoirs.
>
> For more on glomalin, see the September 2002 issue of Agricultural
> Research magazine, online at:
> http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep02/soil0902.htm
>
> ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
> agency.
> ___________________________________________
> * This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
> subscribers on weekdays.
> * Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at
> www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm
> * The latest news is always at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm
> * NewsService@ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/is
> * Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1648

.

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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
Subject:      Symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi resources
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"Lawrence F. London, Jr." wrote:

> Topics I am interested in learning more about include:

> mycorrhizal fungi
> ectomycorrhizal fungi
> endomycorrhizal fungi

See my resource listing; expanded and updated December 2001.
It lists mycorrhizal suppliers and features key web- and print-based
resources on mycorrhizae; some fascinating knowledge exists
amongst all these resource links.

Symbiotic Mycorrhizal Fungi:  Quarterback of the Microbial
Herd
http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/mycorrhizae.html

Want to go even deeper, check out these rough web
notes containing additional resources; some very good;
supplemental to the above resource list.

Index of /~steved/archives/mycorrhizae
http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/archives/mycorrhizae/

I was teaching a workshop and found it helpful to
provide this analogy.  It may not be 100% botanically
accurate in every situation, but it helps to get
people into mycorrhizae-land fairly quickly.

Mycorrhizae is the root-fungus association, not the fungus
itself.   Though, it is accurate to say mycorrhizal fungi
to indicate their ability to form symbiotic mycorrhizal associations.

Think of lichen growing on trees.  Lichen is an
association of algae and fungi, an above-ground
symbiosis.  The fusion of these two organisms
actually creates a new organism that has tissue
growth which looks distinctly different from the
parent organisms.

Mycorrhizae is an association of mycorrhizal
fungi and plant roots, a below-ground symbiosis.
Some mycorrhizal associations actually grow a
form of fused root-fungus tissue that extends a few
millimeters into the surrounding soil, thus expanding
the plant root rhizosphere and therefore the plant's
ability to acquire water and nutrients.

Here's another one.  In one of those web note
resources, a forestry publication from Canada,
it says that a typical forest in British Columbia
may contain 4,000 to 5,000 species of
fungus that form mycorrhizal associations
with tree root systems.

Best,
Steve Diver
ATTRA

.

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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
Subject:      Permaculture guilds
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"Lawrence F. London, Jr." wrote:

> I, too, am interested in guilds, the permaculture concept. I would be i=
nterested in
> reading a definition of guilds and seeing websites with examples of the=
m.

Yes it will be very helpful to get a clearer idea with
accompanying examples of permaculture guilds and how they
relate to or differ from ecological guilds; how they can be
designed and established; expected and hoped-for results.

Agroforestry, permaculture, polyculture, intercropping,
mixed cropping, farmscaping, planned biodiversity,
understory, overstory, multi-story, stereo farming, canopy
layers, riparian buffer strips, border strips, shelterbelts,
hedgerows, alleycropping, forest farming, forest gardens,
multi-tierred, multi-layered.... and so forth; all these
inter-cropping systems that involve perennials and annuals
and woody plants and herbaceous plant mixtures can
probably benefit or generate additional synergy from the
concept of a permaculture guild.

Here's one item on polyculture that came to mind. The
summary page below points to a 115-page PDF report.
The acknowledgement section provides an interesting
story about Bill Mollison that provides insight to the
origins of permaculture with its emphasis on ecological
design.

"In November 1959, watching marsupial browsers in the
floristically simple rainforests of Tasmania, I wrote in my
diary: =91I believe that we could build systems that would
function as well as this one does.=92"  .....  Bill Mollison

Polyculture Production Principles, Benefits and Risks
of Multiple Cropping Land Management Systems for
Australia
RIRDC | Australia | May 2001
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/ORG/01-34sum.html

Best,
Steve Diver
ATTRA

.

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Subject: [permaculture] BioImages - Virtual Field-Guide (UK)
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BioImages - Virtual Field-Guide (UK) | BioImages.org.uk
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/

3,187 Taxa
30,113 Images

"BioImages (VFG-UK) is programmatically built from
a 4th Dimension Database."

Another database example with lots of plants,
insects, and life form photos.

The author made extensive use of a digitial camera to
collect photo images of field specimans, as well as
a flatbed scanner to compile "herbarium" samples of
leaves and flowers and mushrooms in digital color.

Shortcut to Taxonomy / Phyla / Database fields.
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/SHORTCUT.HTM

Regards,
Steve Diver


_______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture


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From: Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
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Robert's description of his wife's batch of rice as a
substrate to capture and culture beneficial microorganisms
living in the forest floor is IM.

EM, in contrast, is only made by master brewers. It is a
specific set of microbes and microbial brewing process.

Yet EM and IM are used in a similar way in terms of spraying
on piles of manures, composts, and animal bedding to enhance
microbial remediation...  or to inoculate soils and plants
with beneficial microbes, bioactive substances, and liquid
nutrients.

Steve Diver

>


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BioImages - Virtual Field-Guide (UK) | BioImages.org.uk
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/

3,187 Taxa
30,113 Images

"BioImages (VFG-UK) is programmatically built from
a 4th Dimension Database."

Another database example with lots of plants,
insects, and life form photos.

The author made extensive use of a digitial camera to
collect photo images of field specimans, as well as
a flatbed scanner to compile "herbarium" samples of
leaves and flowers and mushrooms in digital color.

Shortcut to Taxonomy / Phyla / Database fields.
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/SHORTCUT.HTM

Regards,
Steve Diver


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Robert's description of his wife's batch of rice as a
substrate to capture and culture beneficial microorganisms
living in the forest floor is IM.

EM, in contrast, is only made by master brewers. It is a
specific set of microbes and microbial brewing process.

Yet EM and IM are used in a similar way in terms of spraying
on piles of manures, composts, and animal bedding to enhance
microbial remediation...  or to inoculate soils and plants
with beneficial microbes, bioactive substances, and liquid
nutrients.

Steve Diver

>


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Subject: [permaculture] 
	BD, CT, EM, IM, FPE = special cultures in organic farming
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Larry asked for resources on:

"If anyone has anything to add on compost, EM, IM, fermented
plant extracts and 24 hour compost tea, that be much appreciated.."

There is no faster way to share resources on this than to just
list the SANET, BD-Now, and Compost postings where I
have summarized these already, in addition to the ATTRA
publications on CT and BD.

Somebody needed these last week, so I put the
following list together.  See resources below on BD,
CT, EM, IM, and FPE.

Especially see the long SANET post on November 6,
2002 regarding Fermented Plant Extracts and EM-FPE.

Fermented plant extracts -- most commonly done as
a plain liquid manure or plant extract -- though the use
of EM to make EM-FPE is growing -- is a dynamic
practice gaining increased usage in India, Africa, Asia,
and Central America where poor farmers need to obtain
fertility and pest control from local plants and simple
on-farm extraction methods.  See the SANET posting
for links to the really interesting and detailed work
underway in India.

EM (Effective Microorganisms) from the Kyusei Nature
Farming system in Japan.

EM-FPE, the EM-Fermented Plant Extracts.

IM (Indigenous Microorganisms), or IMO's, from the Korean
Natural Farming Association.

In January 2003, Gil Carandang and myself put on an IMO
workshop at the EcoFarm Conference in Asilomar, California.
Making these IMO cultures on the farm is one of the most
exciting developments I've seen in organic farming.  See
the SANET posting of January 19, 2003 for background
resources.

The book by Han Kyu Cho and Atsushi Koyama, "Korean
Natural Farming: Indigenous Microorganisms and Vital
Power of Crop/Livestock," is the primary source in English.
Yet, the book is not easy to obtain.  Gil Carandang is offering
his little booklet from the workshop, which is a photocopy of
his practical notes on making these IMO cultures as well as
illustrations from Han Kyu Cho's book.  If you can get to
one of Gil's workshop, you will have fun and learn a lot.
The Korean Natural Farming approach with IMO's add a
whole new dimension to your farming experience.

The solutions that result from CT, EM, IM and FPE can be
viewed as "special cultures" that contain beneficial microbes,
nutrients, and bioactive substances.

BD (biodynamics) has "special cultures" in the form of
CPP (Cow pat pit) or Barrell Compost (BC); Horn Manure
(BD 500), BD Preps, etc.

CT, EM, IM, FPE and BD "special cultures" are cutting edge
organic farming techniques in terms of fertility, biostimulation,
growth promotion, and biocontrol of pests and diseases.  Most
notably, these special cultures can be viewed as biocontrol
techniques in the rhizosphere and phyllosophere.

CT, EM, IM, FPE and BD are some of the advanced
organic farming approches that are being employed
to combat insect pests and diseases.  They offer
complex biological, chemical, physical, and energetic
interactions to manipulate plant physiology,
pests, and pest habitats.

Regards,
Steve Diver
ATTRA

===================================================

Topic:  Compost Teas

For reference, see:

Notes on Compost Tea
ATTRA
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/compost-tea-notes.html

Compost Teas for Plant Disease Control
ATTRA
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/comptea.html

Here are the two latest resources, beyond those
listed in the ATTRA publication "Notes on Compost Tea":

There is a Compost Tea Web Forum on Yahoo!Groups.

Compost Tea at Yahoo!Groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/compost_tea/

The following paper from Steve Scheuerell in the
journal Compost Science & Utilization contains the
very latest literature reviews.

Steve Scheuerell.  2002. Compost tea: Principles and prospects
for plant disease control (Literature review).  Compost Science
& Utilization. Autumn.  Vol. 10, No. 4.  page 313-
26 pages

Also see:

Subject:      Re: Species diversity + Plate Culture
Date:         Wed, 6 Nov 2002 10:51:37 -0600
Sender:       Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                 SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0211&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=7413

_____ See notes on the Midwest Bio-Systems approach to
identify, select and culture beneficial microbial strains.  MBS
then uses selected strains as amendments to compost teas
to make a complete liquid biological tea/fertilizer/biocontrol.

===================================================

Topic:  Alternative Farming Systems:  terminology, concepts, practices

Subject:      Re: farming systems comparison
Date:         Tue, 12 Nov 2002 12:06:26 -0600
Sender:       Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0211&L=sanet-mg&P=R12433&I=-3

===================================================

Topic:  EM - Effective Microorganisms

See these postings on SANET, BD-Now, and USCC

Subject:    Re: Effective Micro-organisms (EM)
Date:         Mon, 23 Apr 2001 18:06:53 -0600
Sender:     Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                  SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0104&L=sanet-mg&P=R29647&I=-3

Subject:    Re: Effective Micro-organisms (EM)
Date:         Tue, 24 Apr 2001 12:28:32 -0600
Reply-To: steved@ncatark.uark.edu
Sender:      Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                   SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0104&L=sanet-mg&P=R31022&I=-3

Re: EM - was vortex pump
16 May 2002 21:20 UTC
BD-Now || Biodynamics Discussion List
by Steve Diver
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2002/bdnow/msg02466.html

[USCC] Re: produce waste storage
Thu Dec 6 20:18:52 2001
U.S. Compost Council List
Steve Diver steved@ncatark.uark.edu
http://mailman.cloudnet.com/pipermail/compost/2001-December/003372.html

[USCC] Re: EM
Mon Feb 12 13:30:22 2001
U.S. Compost Council List
Steve Diver steved@ncatark.uark.edu
http://mailman.cloudnet.com/pipermail/compost/2001-February/002495.html

Subject:     Re: COMPOSTING TECHNIQUES (Effective Microorganisms)
Date:         Tue, 19 Mar 2002 14:25:50 -0600
Sender:      Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                 SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0203&L=sanet-mg&P=R31718&I=-3

Subject:     Re: Regulation of compost teas (Effective Microorganisms)
Date:         Wed, 6 Nov 2002 20:41:53 -0600
Sender:      Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                 SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0211&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=8254

_____ Note:  This is the long post that contains notes on EM-FPE,
or EM-Fermented Plant Extracts, and the websites in India that
summarize this technology.

Subject:     Re: Beneficial Soil Microbia (Effective Microorganisms)
Date:         Fri, 13 Dec 2002 16:35:18 -0600
Sender:      Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                 SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0212&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=10020

===================================================

Topic: IM

See these postings on SANET and BD-Now

Subject:    Indigenous Microorganisms + Korean Natural Farming
                  Association
Date:         Sun, 19 Jan 2003 16:00:57 -0600
Sender:     Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                  SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0301&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=23043

Subject:     Re: Indigenous Microorganisms + Korean Natural
                   Farming Association
Date:         Sun, 19 Jan 2003 23:22:08 -0600
Sender:      Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                 SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0301&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=23833

Subject:    Re: Soil Equilibrium
Date:         Fri, 3 Jan 2003 14:51:51 -0600
Sender:     Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                  SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0301&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=4653

Fermented foods in China, book review
14 March 2003 03:01 UTC
BD-Now || Biodynamics Discussion List
by Steve Diver
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2003/bdnow/msg01674.html

===================================================

Topic:  Biodynamic Farming preparations and special cultures

For reference, see:

Biodynamic Farming & Compost Preparation
ATTRA
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/biodynamic.html

Also see:

Microbial assay of BD preps at ICRISAT (India) = microbial
antagonism
15 June 2002 22:23 UTC
BD-Now || Biodynamics Discussion List
by Steve Diver
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2002/bdnow/msg02815.html

Re: Microbial assay of BD preps at ICRISAT (India) =
       microbialantagonism
17 June 2002 16:30 UTC
BD-Now || Biodynamics Discussion List
by Steve Diver
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2002/bdnow/msg02850.html

===================================================
===================================================



_______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture


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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 12:04:16 -0500
From: Steve Diver <steved@ncat.org>
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Subject: [permaculture] 
	BD, CT, EM, IM, FPE = special cultures in organic farming
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Larry asked for resources on:

"If anyone has anything to add on compost, EM, IM, fermented
plant extracts and 24 hour compost tea, that be much appreciated.."

There is no faster way to share resources on this than to just
list the SANET, BD-Now, and Compost postings where I
have summarized these already, in addition to the ATTRA
publications on CT and BD.

Somebody needed these last week, so I put the
following list together.  See resources below on BD,
CT, EM, IM, and FPE.

Especially see the long SANET post on November 6,
2002 regarding Fermented Plant Extracts and EM-FPE.

Fermented plant extracts -- most commonly done as
a plain liquid manure or plant extract -- though the use
of EM to make EM-FPE is growing -- is a dynamic
practice gaining increased usage in India, Africa, Asia,
and Central America where poor farmers need to obtain
fertility and pest control from local plants and simple
on-farm extraction methods.  See the SANET posting
for links to the really interesting and detailed work
underway in India.

EM (Effective Microorganisms) from the Kyusei Nature
Farming system in Japan.

EM-FPE, the EM-Fermented Plant Extracts.

IM (Indigenous Microorganisms), or IMO's, from the Korean
Natural Farming Association.

In January 2003, Gil Carandang and myself put on an IMO
workshop at the EcoFarm Conference in Asilomar, California.
Making these IMO cultures on the farm is one of the most
exciting developments I've seen in organic farming.  See
the SANET posting of January 19, 2003 for background
resources.

The book by Han Kyu Cho and Atsushi Koyama, "Korean
Natural Farming: Indigenous Microorganisms and Vital
Power of Crop/Livestock," is the primary source in English.
Yet, the book is not easy to obtain.  Gil Carandang is offering
his little booklet from the workshop, which is a photocopy of
his practical notes on making these IMO cultures as well as
illustrations from Han Kyu Cho's book.  If you can get to
one of Gil's workshop, you will have fun and learn a lot.
The Korean Natural Farming approach with IMO's add a
whole new dimension to your farming experience.

The solutions that result from CT, EM, IM and FPE can be
viewed as "special cultures" that contain beneficial microbes,
nutrients, and bioactive substances.

BD (biodynamics) has "special cultures" in the form of
CPP (Cow pat pit) or Barrell Compost (BC); Horn Manure
(BD 500), BD Preps, etc.

CT, EM, IM, FPE and BD "special cultures" are cutting edge
organic farming techniques in terms of fertility, biostimulation,
growth promotion, and biocontrol of pests and diseases.  Most
notably, these special cultures can be viewed as biocontrol
techniques in the rhizosphere and phyllosophere.

CT, EM, IM, FPE and BD are some of the advanced
organic farming approches that are being employed
to combat insect pests and diseases.  They offer
complex biological, chemical, physical, and energetic
interactions to manipulate plant physiology,
pests, and pest habitats.

Regards,
Steve Diver
ATTRA

===================================================

Topic:  Compost Teas

For reference, see:

Notes on Compost Tea
ATTRA
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/compost-tea-notes.html

Compost Teas for Plant Disease Control
ATTRA
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/comptea.html

Here are the two latest resources, beyond those
listed in the ATTRA publication "Notes on Compost Tea":

There is a Compost Tea Web Forum on Yahoo!Groups.

Compost Tea at Yahoo!Groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/compost_tea/

The following paper from Steve Scheuerell in the
journal Compost Science & Utilization contains the
very latest literature reviews.

Steve Scheuerell.  2002. Compost tea: Principles and prospects
for plant disease control (Literature review).  Compost Science
& Utilization. Autumn.  Vol. 10, No. 4.  page 313-
26 pages

Also see:

Subject:      Re: Species diversity + Plate Culture
Date:         Wed, 6 Nov 2002 10:51:37 -0600
Sender:       Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                 SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0211&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=7413

_____ See notes on the Midwest Bio-Systems approach to
identify, select and culture beneficial microbial strains.  MBS
then uses selected strains as amendments to compost teas
to make a complete liquid biological tea/fertilizer/biocontrol.

===================================================

Topic:  Alternative Farming Systems:  terminology, concepts, practices

Subject:      Re: farming systems comparison
Date:         Tue, 12 Nov 2002 12:06:26 -0600
Sender:       Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0211&L=sanet-mg&P=R12433&I=-3

===================================================

Topic:  EM - Effective Microorganisms

See these postings on SANET, BD-Now, and USCC

Subject:    Re: Effective Micro-organisms (EM)
Date:         Mon, 23 Apr 2001 18:06:53 -0600
Sender:     Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                  SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0104&L=sanet-mg&P=R29647&I=-3

Subject:    Re: Effective Micro-organisms (EM)
Date:         Tue, 24 Apr 2001 12:28:32 -0600
Reply-To: steved@ncatark.uark.edu
Sender:      Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                   SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0104&L=sanet-mg&P=R31022&I=-3

Re: EM - was vortex pump
16 May 2002 21:20 UTC
BD-Now || Biodynamics Discussion List
by Steve Diver
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2002/bdnow/msg02466.html

[USCC] Re: produce waste storage
Thu Dec 6 20:18:52 2001
U.S. Compost Council List
Steve Diver steved@ncatark.uark.edu
http://mailman.cloudnet.com/pipermail/compost/2001-December/003372.html

[USCC] Re: EM
Mon Feb 12 13:30:22 2001
U.S. Compost Council List
Steve Diver steved@ncatark.uark.edu
http://mailman.cloudnet.com/pipermail/compost/2001-February/002495.html

Subject:     Re: COMPOSTING TECHNIQUES (Effective Microorganisms)
Date:         Tue, 19 Mar 2002 14:25:50 -0600
Sender:      Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                 SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0203&L=sanet-mg&P=R31718&I=-3

Subject:     Re: Regulation of compost teas (Effective Microorganisms)
Date:         Wed, 6 Nov 2002 20:41:53 -0600
Sender:      Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                 SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0211&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=8254

_____ Note:  This is the long post that contains notes on EM-FPE,
or EM-Fermented Plant Extracts, and the websites in India that
summarize this technology.

Subject:     Re: Beneficial Soil Microbia (Effective Microorganisms)
Date:         Fri, 13 Dec 2002 16:35:18 -0600
Sender:      Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                 SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0212&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=10020

===================================================

Topic: IM

See these postings on SANET and BD-Now

Subject:    Indigenous Microorganisms + Korean Natural Farming
                  Association
Date:         Sun, 19 Jan 2003 16:00:57 -0600
Sender:     Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                  SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0301&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=23043

Subject:     Re: Indigenous Microorganisms + Korean Natural
                   Farming Association
Date:         Sun, 19 Jan 2003 23:22:08 -0600
Sender:      Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                 SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0301&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=23833

Subject:    Re: Soil Equilibrium
Date:         Fri, 3 Jan 2003 14:51:51 -0600
Sender:     Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
                  SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0301&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=4653

Fermented foods in China, book review
14 March 2003 03:01 UTC
BD-Now || Biodynamics Discussion List
by Steve Diver
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2003/bdnow/msg01674.html

===================================================

Topic:  Biodynamic Farming preparations and special cultures

For reference, see:

Biodynamic Farming & Compost Preparation
ATTRA
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/biodynamic.html

Also see:

Microbial assay of BD preps at ICRISAT (India) = microbial
antagonism
15 June 2002 22:23 UTC
BD-Now || Biodynamics Discussion List
by Steve Diver
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2002/bdnow/msg02815.html

Re: Microbial assay of BD preps at ICRISAT (India) =
       microbialantagonism
17 June 2002 16:30 UTC
BD-Now || Biodynamics Discussion List
by Steve Diver
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2002/bdnow/msg02850.html

===================================================
===================================================



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Subject: [permaculture] BioImages - Virtual Field-Guide (UK)
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BioImages - Virtual Field-Guide (UK) | BioImages.org.uk
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/

3,187 Taxa
30,113 Images

"BioImages (VFG-UK) is programmatically built from
a 4th Dimension Database."

Another database example with lots of plants,
insects, and life form photos.

The author made extensive use of a digitial camera to
collect photo images of field specimans, as well as
a flatbed scanner to compile "herbarium" samples of
leaves and flowers and mushrooms in digital color.

Shortcut to Taxonomy / Phyla / Database fields.
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/SHORTCUT.HTM

Regards,
Steve Diver


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BioImages - Virtual Field-Guide (UK) | BioImages.org.uk
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/

3,187 Taxa
30,113 Images

"BioImages (VFG-UK) is programmatically built from
a 4th Dimension Database."

Another database example with lots of plants,
insects, and life form photos.

The author made extensive use of a digitial camera to
collect photo images of field specimans, as well as
a flatbed scanner to compile "herbarium" samples of
leaves and flowers and mushrooms in digital color.

Shortcut to Taxonomy / Phyla / Database fields.
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/SHORTCUT.HTM

Regards,
Steve Diver


_______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
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Subject: [permaculture] 
	Appropriate architecture in India: IndianOrganic.com + Anangpur.com 
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Appropriate architecture in India is another theme
I want to share.

Here are two sites in India you will find interesting:

1.

IndianOrganic.com | Rajasthan, India
http://www.indianorganic.com/

This is Ajit and Royina Grewal's farm house in Alwar District
of Rajasthan.  I visited Ajit and Royina in October 2002
to talk about the organic and biodynamic farming project.

A special feature of their home is the catenary form.  See
the web section on Domes. It has a picture gallery and
explanation of this structure.  The architect Suresh Rajan
designed this house.  It is based on local resources (bricks),
straight-forward building methods, and is structurally
sound and earthquake resistant.  It has that adobe style
cooling effect necessary in a harsh, hot, arid climate.
The Grewal's home worked so well, that the government
of Rajasthan is looking into building several hundred
schools based on this structure.

The catenary dome structure is composed of bricks, and
is built with the aid of a curved form that stands on a tripod
in the middle of the dome as you build. It swings around, so
the placement of bricks is precise, the one above just leading
over the edge of the one below... curving up into the beehive
dome.  There are three sizes of domes and three matching
construction forms to aid in laying of bricks.  The domes have
either 6, 4, or 3 arches.   The ground floor is laid out on a
series of hexagons.  Royina gave me a tour and explained
all the geometric details, and I scribbled notes and took
pictures on top of the roof, but it still hard to describe.
The pictures of the web page are the best way to grasp
what it looks like and feels like.  I am very much hoping
that Royina, an artist and author, will publish a book
on this structure.  It will be a best seller in permaculture
and green architecture circles.

Altogether, it is absolutely gorgeous and mesmerizing to walk
through the house, room by room, finding little alcoves.
Royina's artistic touch is evident in the marble floor designs and
custom-made furniture to fit the curvilinear dwelling.

It so happens that IndianOrganic is a premier example
of permaculture in the tough, arid lands of Rajasthan.

Ajit Grewal started the farm about 20 years ago.  The region is
located on the edge of the Thar desert and can be characterized
as barren, arid lands with sand dunes, elephant grass, shrubs and
native aromatic plants such as artemesia, pastoral grazing with
sheep and goats, and irrigated agriculture.  The farms and villages
exist in a harsh environment with extreme heat and drought in the
summer.  When the Grewals first arrived, few trees existed, and
the only birds present were crows and vultures.  Now, 20 years
later, the farm is a tree-covered oasis with tree crops and annual
crops blended together, a forest farm where 85 species of birds
visit and dwell amongst the trees and greenery.  What happened
is that Ajit decided to use his farm as a demonstration site for
ecological restoration, wherein he proceeded to plant 10s of
thousands of trees, establish an organic farm based on
agroforestry and intercropping, employ innovative methods
of irrigation, and utilize humus management practices such
as BD compost and vermicompost.

In addition to permaculture as a framework for ecological
restoration through intensive intercropping, agroforestry and
a systematic approach to establishment and maintenance
of plants and trees, Ajit is teaching farmers how to make
BD compost, Vermicompost, and related organic farming
methods.

2.
Anangpur Building Centre | Haryana, India
http://www.anangpur.com

humane architecture, affordable price
appropriate and cost effective technologies
Geodesics, Octageodules, Space frames, A Frames
interlocking blocks

Especially see:

Building Systems that Economize - Anangpur Building Centre
http://www.anangpur.com/f_build.html

FOUNDATIONS
      Eccentric Arched Foundations
 ROOFS
      Funicular Shells | http://www.anangpur.com/build2.html
      Ferrocrete Purlins & Rafters
 WALLS
      Surface Engineering ( Ram Lochan Tiles )
      Surface Engineered Blocks ( Swaran Singh Blocks)
      Interlocking Hollow Concrete Blocks

Structural Systems That are Innovative
http://www.anangpur.com/f_struc.html

MODULAR STRUCTURES
      A- Frames
      Cube - on - Vertex
 COMPRESSIVE STRUCTURES
      Domes
      Octagedules
      Space Frames
      Silos
 TENSILE STRUCTURES
      Hyperbolic Paraboloid

Also see:

Habitat Technology Network - A Video Based Technology
Demonstration on Alternative Methodologies of Building
http://www.anangpur.com/f_video.html

Sustainable Development - Anangpur Building Centre
http://www.anangpur.com/f_sus_dev.html

Here, see notes on Vastu Vidya, guidelines for human
settlements and governance.

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Regards,
Steve Diver


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	Appropriate architecture in India: IndianOrganic.com + Anangpur.com 
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Appropriate architecture in India is another theme
I want to share.

Here are two sites in India you will find interesting:

1.

IndianOrganic.com | Rajasthan, India
http://www.indianorganic.com/

This is Ajit and Royina Grewal's farm house in Alwar District
of Rajasthan.  I visited Ajit and Royina in October 2002
to talk about the organic and biodynamic farming project.

A special feature of their home is the catenary form.  See
the web section on Domes. It has a picture gallery and
explanation of this structure.  The architect Suresh Rajan
designed this house.  It is based on local resources (bricks),
straight-forward building methods, and is structurally
sound and earthquake resistant.  It has that adobe style
cooling effect necessary in a harsh, hot, arid climate.
The Grewal's home worked so well, that the government
of Rajasthan is looking into building several hundred
schools based on this structure.

The catenary dome structure is composed of bricks, and
is built with the aid of a curved form that stands on a tripod
in the middle of the dome as you build. It swings around, so
the placement of bricks is precise, the one above just leading
over the edge of the one below... curving up into the beehive
dome.  There are three sizes of domes and three matching
construction forms to aid in laying of bricks.  The domes have
either 6, 4, or 3 arches.   The ground floor is laid out on a
series of hexagons.  Royina gave me a tour and explained
all the geometric details, and I scribbled notes and took
pictures on top of the roof, but it still hard to describe.
The pictures of the web page are the best way to grasp
what it looks like and feels like.  I am very much hoping
that Royina, an artist and author, will publish a book
on this structure.  It will be a best seller in permaculture
and green architecture circles.

Altogether, it is absolutely gorgeous and mesmerizing to walk
through the house, room by room, finding little alcoves.
Royina's artistic touch is evident in the marble floor designs and
custom-made furniture to fit the curvilinear dwelling.

It so happens that IndianOrganic is a premier example
of permaculture in the tough, arid lands of Rajasthan.

Ajit Grewal started the farm about 20 years ago.  The region is
located on the edge of the Thar desert and can be characterized
as barren, arid lands with sand dunes, elephant grass, shrubs and
native aromatic plants such as artemesia, pastoral grazing with
sheep and goats, and irrigated agriculture.  The farms and villages
exist in a harsh environment with extreme heat and drought in the
summer.  When the Grewals first arrived, few trees existed, and
the only birds present were crows and vultures.  Now, 20 years
later, the farm is a tree-covered oasis with tree crops and annual
crops blended together, a forest farm where 85 species of birds
visit and dwell amongst the trees and greenery.  What happened
is that Ajit decided to use his farm as a demonstration site for
ecological restoration, wherein he proceeded to plant 10s of
thousands of trees, establish an organic farm based on
agroforestry and intercropping, employ innovative methods
of irrigation, and utilize humus management practices such
as BD compost and vermicompost.

In addition to permaculture as a framework for ecological
restoration through intensive intercropping, agroforestry and
a systematic approach to establishment and maintenance
of plants and trees, Ajit is teaching farmers how to make
BD compost, Vermicompost, and related organic farming
methods.

2.
Anangpur Building Centre | Haryana, India
http://www.anangpur.com

humane architecture, affordable price
appropriate and cost effective technologies
Geodesics, Octageodules, Space frames, A Frames
interlocking blocks

Especially see:

Building Systems that Economize - Anangpur Building Centre
http://www.anangpur.com/f_build.html

FOUNDATIONS
      Eccentric Arched Foundations
 ROOFS
      Funicular Shells | http://www.anangpur.com/build2.html
      Ferrocrete Purlins & Rafters
 WALLS
      Surface Engineering ( Ram Lochan Tiles )
      Surface Engineered Blocks ( Swaran Singh Blocks)
      Interlocking Hollow Concrete Blocks

Structural Systems That are Innovative
http://www.anangpur.com/f_struc.html

MODULAR STRUCTURES
      A- Frames
      Cube - on - Vertex
 COMPRESSIVE STRUCTURES
      Domes
      Octagedules
      Space Frames
      Silos
 TENSILE STRUCTURES
      Hyperbolic Paraboloid

Also see:

Habitat Technology Network - A Video Based Technology
Demonstration on Alternative Methodologies of Building
http://www.anangpur.com/f_video.html

Sustainable Development - Anangpur Building Centre
http://www.anangpur.com/f_sus_dev.html

Here, see notes on Vastu Vidya, guidelines for human
settlements and governance.

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Regards,
Steve Diver


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	Organic architecture + Earth forms: Antoni Gaudi + Chris Drury
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This is a follow-up to:

Raised field and terraced agriculture, built landscapes,
Amazon +Andean
28 March 2003 19:35 UTC
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2003/permaculture/msg00390.html

and

Waru waru raised beds | Nasca puquios aqueducts |
Terraced amphitheaters
28 March 2003 17:23 UTC
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2003/permaculture/msg00383.html

Those images of terraced amphitheaters are beautiful
to observe and think about in terms of land forms, structures,
and earth architecture.... as well as terraced agriculture and
what goes into these creations and how they are used.

To see the terraced amphitheaters, go to:

Defending Against Frost, The American Way: Past
& Present || A Photo Gallery By Kashyapa A. S. Yapa
http://kyapa.tripod.com/agengineering/thermalcontrol/thermal.htm

Which brings me to these next resources on form and structure.

Permaculture UK Magazine No. 34 had pointers
to the organic architecture of Antoni Gaudi and the
land artist forms of Chris Drury.

Here are some web-based resources to observe.

Antoni Gaudi - Organic Architecture
http://www.gaudiclub.com/ingles/i_partici/moscoso.asp

Mad about Gaudi
http://www.telebooks.com

Antoni Gaudí - A Life in the Architecture
http://members.lycos.nl/gaudiworks/eng_gaudi.htm

            +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Wave Chamber by Chris Drury
http://www.chrisdrury.co.uk/4/4d.html

Chris Drury - Land Artist Working with Nature
http://www.chrisdrury.co.uk

Chris Drury - Commissioned Work Outside and Works
in Public Places
http://www.chrisdrury.co.uk/commis.html

Chris Drury on the Axis Database
http://www.axisartists.org.uk/all/ref5386.htm

            +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also see:

DeLeon White Gallery - Artists with Eco-Art
http://www.eco-art.com/dynamic/artist_list.asp

Public Nature - Land Art Earthworks
http://www.publicnature.com/paintings/landworks.html

greenmuseum.org | Featured Artists
http://greenmuseum.org/

            +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Regards,
Steve Diver


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Subject: [compost_tea] Re: Weed Control using Compost Tea
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Hi Merla - 

We've met on the BD-Now list and discussed
weed control.  As you know, I'm into what
works.  

Compost tea is not even on the list of 
practices I'd suggest for weed control. It will
likely just make your weeds grow real nice, if 
you apply to existing vegetation. 

On the other hand, there is evidence that
humified compost will control weeds.  I am
referring to agricultural fields that are
plowed.  

SANET discussed this a couple of years ago; 
how chicken shit encourages weeds to pop-up, 
probably due to raw humic substances which mimic 
a disturbed soil site and provide feedback to
Nature to get her warriours out there and cover
the bare Earth.

Humified compost, in contast, tells the weed
warriors to chill out and lay low.  It mimics a 
mature soil ecosystem.  Everything is cool over
here, no weeds seeds are needed we are mature
and stable. 

The Luebkes in Austria conducted on-farm 
European field trials that explain this. 
They laid out field strips of compost at
3,4,5,6,7,8,10 weeks into the composting 
process, then observed weeds growing on the 
plots. After the 5th and 6th weeks, or
thereabouts, a weed populations dramatically
declined and then as the compost matured
even further there were very few weeds at all.
This is not about weed seeds, it is about
a communication feedback loop with humus
and weeds. As organic matter undergoes 
humification in the later weeks, the signals
lean towards mature soils vs disturbed soils. 

I support alternatives to herbicides and I
have spent years looking into non-chemical
weed control methods.  So I support your efforts
to reduce herbides in the environment.  But
I would also suggest you get practical and 
get tough on those weeds.  Don't be nice to them
and give them a drink of soluble nutrients
via compost teas.  Kick their ass with FLAME
and STEAM.  

I assume we are talking roadside weeds.

GOATS are the biological control I see large
overgrown areas begging for.  Pen them on
a spot and keep them there. 

I don't like Yahoo!Groups so I don't keep
up with Compost Tea List on a regular basis.  
When I saw your post I had to chime in.   

Weed control with humified compost falls
into the category of Deep Humus.  It is
an amazing tale which deserves to be told
over and over again.  Find the SANET archives
to understand the whole picture.  

Again, I am talking agricultural fields that
are tilled and planted into crops, not roadside
vegetation.  Big difference! 

Compost teas, of course, support a humified
soil ecosystem when used in conjuction with 
humified composts.  

Well, you can do some field trials and see
what happens but until then I don't place
much practical hope on weed control just
by application of compost teas alone, 
especially in comparison to kick-ass 
methods of non-chemical control.

VINEGAR is going to be a potent weed control
solution, in comparison to your soluble
organic fertilizer from compost tea. 

Steve Diver 





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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
Subject: New: The Soil Foodweb Multi-Media CD
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Here is a resource that is now available.

The Soil Foodweb Multi-Media CD
Featuring slides and video from Dr. Elaine Ingham.
$44.95

*Multi-media presentation on Soil Foodweb
*Slide collection in medium resolution jpg images
*Slide legend
*Movie clips
*Interactive self-learning "slide presentation"
  for PC users

Elaine Ingham worked with Sam Ettaro with
Unisun communications for a couple of years,
and one of the products that resulted was this
multi-media CD on the soil foodweb.

This is the CD that features the slides from a study
that demonstrated botrytis disease suppression on
grape leaves when compost teas had 100%
and 70% leaf surface, at the same time botrytis was
applied at 70% leaf coverage. The grape leaves
remained healthy.

In contrast, when compost teas covered 50% and 10%
of the leaf surface, botrytis infection was obvious.

Sam is now in Pennsylvania with a multi-media
business called Harmony Central.

Harmony Central
806 Daisy St.
Clearfield, PA 16830
814-768-9489 Local
866-470-0740 Toll-Free
814-768-7202 Fax
admin@unisun.org
http://www.harmonycentral.org

In addition, Harmony Central is the distributor
for Elaine Ingham's audio CD's.

Audio CD's in Soil Foodweb Series

Volume 1: An Introduction to the Soil Foodweb - 2 CD Set -
$9.00
Volume 2: A Plant Production Overview - 2 CD Set - $9.00
Volume 3: Turf Systems - 2 CD Set (EcoPak) - $7.00
Volume 4: The Compost Foodweb - 2 CD Set - $13.95

As a bonus, the The Soil Foodweb Multi-Media CD
at $44.95 is now being shipped with Volume 2 in
the Audio CD series, "Plant Production Overview."

This is a resource pointer, add this item to your
Soil Foodweb + Humus Management Toolbox.

Regards,
Steve Diver

.

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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
Subject: Indigenous Microorganisms + Korean Natural Farming Association
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[Previously... Re: [SANET-MG] Beneficial Soil Microbia]

The question is how to get information on IM or IMO's,
Indigenous Microorganisms.

Well, there is a seminar on Indigenous Microorganisms
at the Ecological Farming Conference in California,
Jan. 22-25.  Gil Carandang, a farmer from the Phillipines,
will demonstrate some of the special cultures.
http://www.eco-farm.org/efc/efc_main.html

Concepts and practices on Indigenous Microorganisms, IM
or IMO, originate with Han Kyu Cho and the Korean Natural
Farming Association, or KNFA, going back 35 to 40 years.
Yet, this knowledge has only come into English language in
the last few years.

There is one book in English, yet it is not available for-sale
from any distributor that I can determine.

Korean Natural Farming: Indigenous Microorganisms and
Vital Power of Crop/Livestock
Han Kyu Cho and Atsushi Koyama
Korean Natural Farming Association, 1997. 172 p.

Here is an address for KNFA:

Korean Natural Farming Association (KNFA)
209-2 Woongok-ri, Chungan-myun
Kyisan Kun, Chung cheong buk do
Republic of Korea
Tel:  (82-43)832-8777
Fax: (82-43)832-8783

Listed in:
Asian Productivity Organization // Green Productivity and
Natural Farming
http://www.apo-tokyo.org

KNFA develops IMO's in association with specific substrates
to create special cultures.  The IMO's are diluted to certain
concentrations and sprayed on plants, composts, and soils.

fermented fruit juices -FFJ
fermented plant juices FPJ
fish amino acid - FAA
brown rice vinegar - BRV
Oriental herbal nutrients - OHN
lactic acid bacteria serum - LAS

Often, these special cultures are mixed together to make
a complete recipe for plant pest control, to provide
soluble nutrients, to provide bioactive substances,
to inoculate the leaf surface with beneficial microorganisms.

KNFA farming practices pay special attention to soil
management, cover crops, and organic mulches. IMO's
are directed at critical stages of the plant growth,
to enhance and facilitate physiology and microbiology.

Very little on IMO's exists on the web, as well.
Here is one article to gain insight:

Indigenous Micro-organisms Put to Work
The Seed Saver's Network
http://www.genevar.com.au/seedsavers/resources/10.html

Here is a web document from a Korean company, a .doc
download, that points to commercial equipment for the
production of fermented biofertilizers with IMO's in
the KNFA tradition.  It contains useful background
information on KNFA, IMO's, microbial processes, and
microbial benefits.  It contains photos in an educational
series that show the production steps and processes.

Bio Plant of Indigenous Microorganism
Developed by... Natural Farming Institute
Manufactured by... H-Tec Co., Ltd
http://www.htech-fa.co.kr/english/env/images/infoeng.doc

Interestingly, EM in Japan does something very similar.  The
equipment featured here may be the same.  Over 1 million
Japanese households collect  food scraps in the EM bokashi
buckets.  Trucks come by every once in a while to pick up the
"pickled" bokashi-treated food waste.  The bokashi food-waste
material is taken to farms and composted.  And, the bokashi
food-waste material is taken to these biofertilizer plants which
run the material through bioprocessing equipment that integrates
(as best I can surmise):  bokashi food-waste + rice bran biomass
+ molasses + EM microbes + heat treatment + fermentation
process that results in a ready-to-use, pelletized organic
fertilizer for use on commerical on organic farms.

Web research on Korean-language websites -- to locate IMO
material on the web -- included digging through Korean
characters to find English-language resources.  That's how
I found the following chapter from Korea Organic Farming
Association, which offers complimentary notes on organic
farming, composting, fermentation, beneficial microorganisms,
and special-culture microbial-inoculants.

The Technics and Management of Organic Farming
Korea Organic Farming Association
http://www.organic.or.kr/whatis/what6.php

Similarly, web research found these items at Research Institute
of Organic Agriculture, Dan Kook University, Republic of Korea.

Research Institute of Organic Agriculture
Dan Kook University, Republic of Korea
http://www.anseo.dankook.ac.kr/~ecnet/

Chemical Characteristics of Soil and NO3- Accumulation of
Vegetable by Conventional and Organic farming in Korea
College of Agriculture, Dan Kook University, Republic of Korea
http://www.anseo.dankook.ac.kr/%7Eecnet/serve/base9.html

Development, Current Issues and Prospects of  Organic Agriculture
Movement in Korea
College of Agriculture, Dan Kook University, Republic of Korea
http://www.anseo.dankook.ac.kr/%7Eecnet/serve/base7.html

If you look at EM practices, you can see that Kyusei Nature
Farming + EM practices from Japan does something very similar
to KNFA + IM from Korea -- interestingly -- and that is get
beneficial microbes in touch with organic substrates and let
microbiology work over the organic amendments and raw
materials to transform the biomass into a fermented biofertilizer
or compost or special culture, or, remediate something like
raw manure sitting in a pile to prevent putrefaction.

And, to label these special cultures so it creates a
systematic approach to treatment of organic wastes
and biomass, preparation methods and microbial
integration, and biofertilizer + microbial inoculation
usage methods, all at the same time.

EM recipes at Lindros, South Africa
http://www.lindros.co.za/effective_microorganisms.htm

Keep in mind, as I mentioned earlier on SANET, the special
cultures in biodynamics -- Horn Manure, CPP, Liquid Manures
and Herbal Teas -- does pretty much the same thing;
get beneficial microbes in touch with an organic substrate
and let microbes grow and flourish and transform and
extract.

Thus, by using local herbs, garden plants, and fruits you can
make BD-Liquid Manure, EM-Fermented Plant Extracts,
or IM-FFJ, IM-FPJ, and IM-OHN.

You can see that a pattern emerges.  Farmers use local biomass
sources in association with local beneficial microorganisms
or brought-in microbial inoculants -- sometimes with microbial
food sources and catalysts such as molasses or raw sugar --
to allow Nature to work over the materials and develop
biofertilzers, disease and pest suppressive foliar brews, and
soil and compost inoculants.

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Related Resources:

The Food & Fertilizer Technology Center, an Information
Center for Farmers in the Asia Pacific Region, located in Tawain,
has an excellent library with two complimentary documents on
microbial fertilizers and inoculants.... including recipe for bokashi
(fermented organic matter).
http://www.agnet.org/library/

Use of Microbial Inoculants and Organic Fertilizers in
Agricultural Production
J.F. Parr, S.B. Hornick, and D.D. Kaufman
ABSTRACT:
http://www.agnet.org/library/abstract/eb394.html
HTML:
http://www.agnet.org/library/article/eb394.html
PDF | 15-pages:
http://www.agnet.org/library/data/eb/eb394/eb394.pdf

Microbial Fertilizers in Japan
Michinori Nishio
ABSTRACT:
http://www.agnet.org/library/abstract/eb430.html
HTML:
http://www.agnet.org/library/article/eb430.html
PDF | 12-pages:
http://www.agnet.org/library/data/eb/eb430/eb430.pdf

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Since IM and EM deal with fermentation, it is helpful
to look at fermentation technology and microbiology;
organisms; microbial growth factors; yeast; bacteria.

Here's a document from FAO.

Fermented Fruits and Vegetables: A Global Perspective
FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin No. 134
http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0560e/x0560e00.htm

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Fermented foods from around the world
Table 2.2 Microorganisms commonly found in fermentig fruit
and vegetables
Table 2.3 Water activity for microbial reactions
Table 2.4 Classification of bacteria according to temperature
requirements
Table 5.1 Major lactic acid bacteria in fermented plant products

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Biotechnology, Second, Completely Revised Edition, Volume 9
Enzymes, Biomass, Food and Feed Biotechnology 2nd Edition
Reed, Gerald / Nagodawithana, T. W. (eds.).  1995. 804 p.
ISBN 3-527-28319-6 -Wiley-VCH, Weinheim
http://www.wiley-vch.de/publish/en/books/

Indigenous Fermented Foods
Larry R. Beuchat
http://www.wiley-vch.de/books/biotech/pdf/v09indig.pdf

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The History of Kimchi
http://www.korea.net/koreanculture/kimchi/kimchi_2.html

The Scientific Nature and Nutritional Aspects of Kimchi
http://www.korea.net/koreanculture/kimchi/kimchi_4.html

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Medina, the microbial inoculant / soil activator developed
by James Martin in Texas, has an interesting history.  Here
is a web item that describes this process, and how one NGO
is seeking further information on development of special
cultures based on local biomass + local microbes.

Need for guidance in researching microbe catalyst for
enhanced crop yields
http://www.treesforlife.org/soilcond/Default.htm

Trees for Life ||| Soil Regeneration through microbe catalyst

"In the 1950s, Mr. James Martin [developer of Medina Soil
Activator] discovered that a fermented mixture of sea water,
cow dung and yeast stimulates microbes that exist in nature to
multiply at about one thousand times the normal rate."

"Martin believed that plankton in sea water, when fermented with
dung from lactating cows and yeast, may produce enzymes that
helped create the explosion of life on Earth some 3,000 million
years ago, when the Earth was surrounded by ammonia, methane
and water."

Medina Agriculture Products Co.
http://www.medinaag.com/

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you follow Compost Teas and EM and IM and BD,
as well as Organic Farming in general, you will notice that
many of the soil and foliar practices effect the rhizosphere
and the phyllosphere, those rich zones of biological
activity on the root and leaf surfaces.

A lot is known about rhizospheric organisms and
the rhizosphere.

Yet, here is a paper on phyllospheric organisms, and
how these endophytic organisms can help promote plant
growth and achieve biological control of diseases
AND insects on the leaf surface.

Endophytic Microorganisms:  A Review on Insect Control
and Recent Advances on Tropical Plants
Electronic Journal of Biotechnology
Vol.3 No.1, Issue of April 15, 2000
http://www.ejb.org/content/vol3/issue1/full/4/index.html

Well, I had promised several people to post resources
on IM + KNFA, so here they are.

Best regards,
Steve Diver

( New email address....  steved@ncat.org )

For the earlier SANET discussion on EM + IM, see:
Re: Beneficial Soil Microbia
Fri, 13 Dec 2002
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0212&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=10020



RiverValley wrote:

> Hi Steve,
>
> Do you know where we can do for more info on IM.
>
> thanks,
> daniel

.

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Subject: Re: Beneficial Soil Microbia
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Fermentative anaerobic is a beneficial microbial pathway.

See Higa and Parr's paper for a microbial explanation:

Beneficial and Effective Microorganisms for a Sustainable
Agriculture and Environment. 1994.  By Higa,Teruo, and
James F. Parr.  International Nature Farming Research Center,
Atami, Japan.  16 p. http://www.agriton.nl/higa.html

"Fermentation is an anaerobic process by which facultative
microorganisms (e.g., yeasts) transform complex organic
molecules (e.g., carbohydrates) into simple organic compounds
that often can be absorbed directly by plants. Fermentation
yields a relatively small amount of energy compared with
aerobic decomposition of the same substrate by the same
group of microorganisms. Aerobic decomposition results in
complete oxidation of a substrate and the release of large
amounts of energy, gas, and heat with carbon dioxide and
water as the end products. Putrefaction is the process by
which facultative heterotrophic microorganisms decompose
proteins anaerobically, yielding malodorous incompletely
oxidized, metabolites (e.g., ammonia, mercaptans and indole)
that are often toxic to plants and animals."

Etc.

It may be that aerobic and fermentative anaerobic
processes are not exclusive; rather, they happen
simultaneously, alternating back and forth.   Rather,
one is more dominant under the management system
praticed by the farmer.

One of the common indicators of good soil health with
EM (Effective Microorganisms), as well as IM (Indigenous
Microorganisms), is the rod test.  It is a common sight
in Japanese and Korean natural farming systems to push
a rod into the soil to observe changes in soil structure,
following adoption of the soil management system.

Scientists, using digitial meters, call that a penetrometer test.

Farmers just push a rod into the soil.  After you work with
EM or IM a few years, loaded with lactobacillus, you
can see observe a difference in soil structure, with reduced
compaction and enhanced friability.

Mulch, organic matter, low-till management, microbial
inoculation.... all these are part of the organic management
approach that results in soil improvements like this.

Seemingly, there is conflict between the composters
heralding aerobic compost and the EM people heralding
fermentative anaerobic composting.

Yet, I'm not sure there really is conflict.  They both work.
They both focus on beneficial microorganisms and beneficial
microbial pathways.  Perhaps one is just more dominant at a
given point in time, and also, the composters understand what
they are doing within the approach they take.

Besides, conflict is a mental construct.  Nature has
multitudes of pathways.  If we simply provide the conditions,
the terrrain -- by practicing humus management, for
example -- then the microbes flourish and do their work.

Yet, aerobic composting does have a goal and that is
well humified compost.

Fermentative anaerobic composting results in fermented
biomass.

Both are the result of digested organic matter, they are
stable, they retain nutrients etc.  But they are not exactly alike,
and that is normal.

Biodynamic + EM research in India says that EM compost
provides plant-available food for the current growing season,
while humified compost provides slow-release fertililzer as
well as helps build long-term soil structure.

If you have a high-end microscope setup with UV light
and specialized lens, you can see the difference in
humus crumb structure and related microbial architecture.

The microscope setup I refer to is based on Siegfried
Luebkes work in Austria.

In the U.S., Bob Pike at Pike Agri-Lab Supplies has
duplicated this microscope setup within a commercial
lab setting.

Here is an image of clay-humus crumb under the microscope.
This is from an organic farm that has practiced humus
management for many years.  Farms that neglect humus
management and replenishment of organic matter will
have flatter, less developed architecture.
http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/cmc-compost.html
http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/humus-cauliflower-microscopy.gif

Perhaps that is helpful.

Steve Diver
ATTRA

David Menne wrote:

> Following some recent postings and material/sites they refer to :
>
> (a) It would appear that for application to soil and crops, aerobic bug
> production is the good and healthful way to go.
>
> However :
>
> (b) Dr. Teruo Higa's Effective Microbe [EM] Technology [University of The
> Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan; http://www.embiotech.org] very clearly prescribes
> ANaerobic bug production.
>
> Any wise comments ?

.

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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
Subject: Re: Paramagnetic Rock Dusts
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Here is another viewpoint on paramagnetic rock dusts.

Rock Dusts  in Agriculture:  Insights on Remineralization and
Paramagnetism
http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/rock-dust.html

It has pointers to the emerging concepts and practices
associated with ORMUS elements, which also need
to be examined.  Read Barry Carter's articles and papers
for a in-depth explanation of the energetics behind ORMUS.

Separately, I wrote to David Menne to get clarification
on his pot trials.

I'm pretty sure we'd both agree on the value of rock dusts
to provide bioavailable minerals and trace elements, and
the essential activity of microbes to result in solubilization
and mineralization through organic acids, enzymes, and
chelation.

To me, this is by far the most important contribution of
rock dusts.  It is why organic farmers add rock phosphates
to compost piles to increase bioavailable P.  It is why
rock dusts are added to compost teas and foliar blends
and bioponic solutions.  Put the minerals and biologicals
and organics in there together and let the frothy brew
of life work it over and re-arrange it and come up with
something new... a chelated compound, a biotic-mineral
complex, and so on.

On the other hand, I have attended workshops by Dr. Phil
Callahan on several occassions and in my view and those of
many others in eco-farming his work on paramagnetism is
*significant* and worthwhile.

In the instance where plants grew better with Rock
Dust+Lower-PM than Rock Dust+High-PM, it probably
means that the Rock Dust+Lower-PM was of better
quality in terms of balanced minerals, trace elements,
and bioavailability.

It made the plants grow better.  The agronomic effects
of bioavailable minerals and a trace element mix had a
greater effect than a weak electromagnetic field.  So use
that brand.

Good agronomic husbandry is the common sense approach,
even when you are working in subtle energy agriculture.

Steve Diver

.

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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
Subject: Re: Purity Of Organic Foods/Compost
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Municipal yard waste consists of grass clippings, leaves,
and shredded tree timmings.

Of these, grass clippings are the only biomass source
with pesticide contamination levels of any concern,
for all practical purposes.

Tree leaves are rarely sprayed with pesticides.  A few tree
species, for example sycamore, will sometimes receive a
fungicide spray to control anthracnose, but that is way back in
early spring.

Shredded branch timmings actually make a valueable compost
feedstock.

Some of the woodier and bulker wood chips provide porosity
and air flow, while the shredded feedstock derived from young
green branches helps balance the C:N ratio; and the lignins from
these young branches may play a role in humification.

Leaf recycling by communities, gardeners, and small farmers
is a great way to generate biomass for use as a mulch and
to make compost.

Leaves are a local biomass source, they are free, and they
are available in large volumes.

Leaves are free spirited and will blow away, though, so that is
why Master Composters talk rounding them up and keeping
them pinned down in a leaf corral.

If you have a 3' x 3' pile of leaves, and one 50-lb
bag of alfalfa pellets (rabbit feed), then you have the
perfect C:N ratio for a thermophyllic compost pile;
just sprinkle rabbit pellets and water as you build the
pile of leaves, then turn after one week to re-mix
and re-moisten the pile.  Repeat the turning process
a few times.  Later, after temperatures are moderate,
you can add worms and let them do their thing, which
adds another biological dimension.

When it comes to organic farms and municipal yardwaste,
in relation to concerns over pesticide contaimination of
grass clippings, an easy solution is to just collect leaves and
branch trimmings in the fall and completely avoid grass
clippings.

Yet when it comes down to mixed yardwastes with grass
clippings and potential herbicide residues, there is good reason
to expect the composting process itself to pack a powerful
punch full of enzymes and microbial bioremediation processes.

Phil Fredericks at EarthCare Technologies, Inc. is the compost
manager who has a lot to say about the compost windrow
functioning as a bioremediation factory.   He uses specialized
microbial inoculants to enhance degradation of hydrocarbons
and waste products handled at his compost facility.  The basis
of this microbial technology goes back to oilfeed research
in Oklahoma in the 1960s.
http://www.ecticompost.com
http://www.ecticompost.com/ec_process.html

Staff at Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
(AAFRD) developed a database of references on composting
and put this online as:

On-Farm Composting - A Review of the Literature
AAFRD
http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/sustain/compost/bibliography.html

Included is this topic:

On-Farm Composting: Bioremediation / Soil Remediation
AAFRD
http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/sustain/compost/bioremediation.html

For a recent literature review on the occurrence, degradation,
and fate of pesticides in composts, see this two-part series in
Compost Science and Utilization.

Occurrence, Degradation, and Fate of Pesticides During
Composting || Part I: Composting, Pesticides, and Pesticide
Degradation (Literature Review)
Fatih B=FCy=FCks=F6nmez, Robert Rynk, Thomas F. Hess and
Edward Bechinski
Compost Science and Utilization (1999) | Autumn | Vol. 7, No.4 |
pages 66-82.

Occurence, Degradation, and Fate of Pesticides During
Composting || Part II: Occurence and Fate of Pesticides in
Compost and Composting Systems (Literature Review)
Fatih B=FCy=FCks=F6nmez, Robert Rynk, Thomas F. Hess and
Edward Bechinski
Compost Science and Utilization (2000) | Winter | Vol. 8, No. 1 |
pages 61- 81.

See:
Compost Science and Utilization
http://www.jgpress.com/compost.htm

Regards,
Steve Diver

.

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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
Subject: Manual on Raised Beds,
         a form of permaculture for the dry and wet tropics
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Recently, under the thread "Regulation of compost teas,"
I posted resources on organic farming methods (biodynamics,
organics, composts, EM, fermented plant extracts) at
Auroville in India.

Auroville is a city-in-the-making in southern India based on
the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.  Auroville has
several farms and organic farming and gardening projects.

Here is a 4-page PDF leaflet on raised beds from Auroville.

A Manual for Raised Beds, A Form of Permaculture for the
Dry and Wet Tropics

Go to HTML Source .....
Ecological Agriculture at Auroville
http://www.auroville.org/environment/agri.htm

Download the zipped PDF file at .....
A Manual for Raised Beds, A Form of Permaculture for the
Dry and Wet Tropics
http://www.auroville.org/environment/farms_news/Raised%20Beds.zip

The manual is based on the work of a dutch farmer,
Paul Teuben, who stayed at Auroville for two years.

Previously, vegetable production in the region was not
considered feasible.  The costs of production were high
and market prices were low. India has a hot climate with
wet and dry seasons and the farm and soil undergoes
hardship under these conditions.

But after people starting using the raised bed technique --
by following a particular farming system approach -- they
realized there are many benefits of this technique, including:

permanent raised beds
soil covered with organic mulches and cover crops
nutrients from liquid manures, green manures, foliage of legumes
water management
soil improvement
use of local resources
simple method to teach
seedling production and transplanting techniques
aesthetic and enjoyable gardens
beneficial insect and butterfly habitat
high yield food production
economic returns

This little leaflet is a nice summary of the methods and benefits
of raised beds, which you can add it to your sustainable farming
toolbox.

It also adds to the growing body of information on
permanent beds and biointensive agriculture.

            +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The work of John Jeavons and Ecology Action comes to mind:

Ecology Action Publications
http://www.growbiointensive.org/

"Grow Biointensive" books and research booklets
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/growbiointensive-books.html

Dig It!
John Jeavons Double-Digging Video
John Jeavons, 1997, 30 min
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/gb-videos.html

What is the GROW BIOINTENSIVE Food-Raising Method?
http://www.growbiointensive.org/biointensive/GROW-BIOINTENSIVE.html

            +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So does Roland Bunch and his Five Principles of Soil
Management for the Humid Tropics.

1. Maximize organic matter
2. Keep the soil covered
3. Use zero tillage
4. Maximize biodiversity
5. Feed the crops through the mulch

Nutrient Quantity or Nutrient Access?:  A New Understanding of How
to Maintain Soil Fertility in the Tropics
By Roland Bunch, October 2001
HTML Gateway through MOIST:
http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/moist/RolandB.html

Bunch's Paper in PDF:
http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/moist/Roland.pdf
        A 19-page PDF download

NECOFA -- Network for Ecofarming in Africa -- provides
Roland Bunch's paper in in HTML:
http://www.necofa.org/activities/publications/bunch_primav.html

            +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So does Mark Cain's market farming approach in the Ozarks,
inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka and Emilia Hazelip:

No-Till, Mulch-Based Market Gardening
http://www.seedballs.com/mcain.html

            +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So does Emilia Hazelip's market farming approach in
southern France -- known as Synergistic Gardening --
inspired by Masonobu Fukuoka and Permaculture:

The Synergistic Garden
By Emilia Hazelip
http://www.seedballs.com/hazelip.html

The Four Principles Of Synergistic Agriculture

1.  Keep the soil undisturbed and uncompacted.
2.  Use the soil's self-fertility as fertilizer.
3.  Integrate the litter zone with the agricultural soil profile.
4.  Establish a partnership with beneficials to protect crops.

            +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So does Ken Hargesheimer in Texas, with his teaching approach
to permanent raised beds, based on his worldwide travels:
http://www.minifarms.com/

Raised Bed Agriculture | Ken Hargesheimer
http://www.minifarms.com/rba.html

            +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Regards,
Steve Diver

.

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In response to a few questions posed by Douglas Hinds:


DH:
"I'm hoping one or more of you can direct me to a reliable source
for detailed studies on Compost Tea and / or EM Tea that specify:"

"  the organisms contained in them, the substances produced by them
  and the effects of those substance on a number of different plant
  species."


SD:
Allow me to point to a few items I've already compiled. They
also list primary information sources, so you can find additional
resources by starting here.

Notes on Compost Teas
ATTRA
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/compost-tea-notes.html
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/compost-tea-notes.pdf

Especially see the "Minimum Standards for Compost" and
"Minimum Standards for Compost Teas," on pages 5-6,
drawn from Dr. Elaine Ingham's experience at Soil Foodweb,
Inc.

In the resources section, especially see:

"Compost Tea Brewing Manual" published by Elaine Ingham

Dr. Ingham=92s Monthly E-Zine

Organic Teas from Composts and Manures by Richard Merrill,
OFRF Grant Report 97=9640.
[This download contains 88 literature references in the
bibliography, =93Selected References for Organic Tea Extract
Studies=94]

Compost Tea for Organic Farming and Gardening by William Quarles.
The IPM Practitioner. Vol. 23, No. 9 (September). p. 1=968

Papers by Will Brinton and Andreas Trankner


Next,

Nature Farming and Effective Microorganisms
ATTRA
http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/Nature-Farm-EM.html

EM contains around 80-120 microorganisms.

The main species of microorganisms in EM include:  [1] Lactic
acid bacteria: Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei,
Streptococcus lactis; [2] Photosynthetic bacteria:
Rhodopseudomonas palustrus, Rhodobacter spaeroides;
[3] Yeasts:  Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida utilis;
[4] Actinomycetes:  Streptomyces albus, Streptomyces
griseus; and [5] Fermenting Fungi: Aspergillus oryzae,
Mucor hiemalis.

For literature, especially see the two volumes of Dr. Higa's book,
"An Earth Saving Revolution";  the conference proceedings of
International Kyusei Nature Farming (there are now six volumes);
and the following book which is available through Food Products
Press, the publisher "Journal of Sustainable Agriculture"
and "Journal of Crop Production," among others.

"Nature Farming and Microbial Applications," a Food Products
Press book edited by Hui-lian Xu, James F. Parr, and Hiroshi
Umemura, was co-published simultaneously published as Journal
of Crop Production, Volume 3, No. 1 (#5), 2000.  It contains
30 scientific papers on EM, addressing topics such as:  Nature
Farming history, principles, and perspectives; production and
application of organic materials as fertilizers in China,
EM-prepared organic fertilizers in the control of plant pathogenic
diseases and insect pests; EM-prepared organic fertilizers and
their influence on soil organic matter, soil moisture, and other
soil quality parameters; Nature Farming practices for apple
production in Japan; EM-prepared organic fertilizers in organic
sweet corn production; EM in the treatment of malodorous
poultry manure; and influence of EM on mycorrhizae,
earthworms, rhizobia, and other aspects of soil biology.

Excerpts / table of contents to Higa's books:

An Earth Saving Revolution, Vol. I
http://www.emro.jp/english/library/books/esr/esr.html

An Earth Saving Revolution, Vol. II
http://www.emro.jp/english/library/books/esr2/esr2.html

The web resources section in my working paper points to
a number of primary information sources.

Of special interest is the following paper.

Beneficial and Effective Microorganisms for a Sustainable
Agriculture and Environment. 1994.  By Higa,Teruo, and
James F. Parr.  International Nature Farming Research
Center, Atami, Japan.  16 p. http://www.agriton.nl/higa.html

This paper includes the microbial pathway sketched out by
Dr. Higa, "Flow Chart of Organic Matter Decomposition by
Soil Microorganisms and the Development of Soils That
May be Disease-Inducing, Zymogenic, or Synthetic."

In North America, Sustainable Community Development in
Missouri sponsors the EMtrading.com website which has
research reports of special interest.
http://www.emtrading.com/

Regarding EM as a liquid spray for foliar inoculation.

EM itself can be used as a foliar spray to enhance foliar
nutrition and to enhance pest control.

EM is also used as a microbial adjunct to plant-based extracts.

[In both instances, I refer to "extended EM" which is made
by mixing EM stock solution with molasses and water.]

In the organic and biodynamic literature plant-based extracts
are commonly referred to as "herbal teas" or "liquid manures."
Fresh plant material is harvested, chopped, and soaked in a
barrel of water for 3-10 days.  A simple extract may be a
single ingredient herbal tea, for example stinging nettle extract.
On the other hand, farmers in India, for example, are developing
complete recipes for liquid manures that include a mixture of
plants (stinging nettle, neem), lactating cow urine, and other
ingredients.

When EM is added to the solution it facilitates the extraction of
nutrients and bioactive substances from the plant leaf material
through a fermentation process.

[This is typical for EM as well as any microbial inoculant.
Microbes work on a substrate; i.e., organic wastes, organic
amendments, raw organic matter].

The resulting EM extract is known as a fermented plant extract,
or EM-FPE.

To gain a practical understanding of these approaches,
see:

EM Application Manual for APNAM Countries
------------- three online sources --------------
http://www.agriton.nl/apnanman.html
http://www.emfsafe.com/em/app/
http://www.plantsfood.com/bm.htm

Margarita Correa, working at Auroville near Pondicherry in
southern India, published a notable paper that describes
the use of EM, biodynamic preparations, and related organic
farming practices.  Of special interest are her notes on
EM-FPE for pest management.

The Impact of Effective Microorganisms (EM) in Various
Organic Farming Systems
http://www.auroville.org/environment/EM_impact.pdf
        13-page PDF

Margarita Correa also published a paper describing EM-FPE.

Go to HTML Source:
AuroAnnam - research & development farm at Auroville
http://www.auroville.org/research/auroannam_research_farm.htm

Download EM presentation as a zip file and open......

Experiences with Effective Microorganisms in disease and
pest control in farms and gardens in India
C. Margarita and L. Dengel

        ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Selected excerpts from C. Margarita and L. Dengel:

EM was used to ferment locally growing plant material that was
known for its medicinal value and for its pest repelling or pest
controlling properties, such as neem and Calotropis gigantea.

All plant material was chopped, immersed with the help of a
stone weight in EM solution undergoing extension, and let
ferment for about five days under anaerobic conditions. For the
production of approximately 20 liters of FPE, the following
ingredients were used:

15 liters of water
3 kg of neem leaves (and flowers)
250 g of each plant material indicated as per Table 2
450 ml of EM stock solution
450 g of cane jaggery (which could be replaced by molasses)

Afterwards it was filtered and stored away for use, for at
least 90 days.

EM-FPE from fruits, weeds and plants with known pest repellent
properties have been observed to enhance the efficacy of pest
control. It seems that EM is capable of extracting the active
ingredients from plants and making them available as pest
control agents.

1.  Turmeric  (Curcuma longa)
2.  Ginger (Zingiber officinale)
3.  Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum)
4.  Papaya (Carica papaya)
5.  Custard Apple (Annona squamosa)
6.  Vitex (Vitex negundo)
7.  Neem (Azadirachta indica)
8.  Calotropis (Calotropis gigantean)
9.  Onion (Allium cepa)
10. Garlic (Allium sativum)
11. Aloe (Aloe barbedensis)
12. Tulasi (Ocimum sp.)
13. Pongam (Pongamia pinnata)
14. Euphorbia (Euphorbia tirucalli)

        ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also see:

EM-Fermented Plant Extract and EM5 for Controlling Pickleworm
(Diaphania nitidalis) in Organic Cucumbers
http://www.emtrading.com/em/htmlpapers/emcucumbers.html

In addition to traditional EM-FPE, a new EM practice is
to add EM ceramics powder to the solution.

For example, see:

EM-X Ceramic Powder (EM-XCP)
http://www.emtrading.com/em/emreport2001/emscp.html

In general, adding a clay powder or rock dust component
to a foliar brew provides the ingredients for organo-mineral
and biotic-mineral interactions and complexes to occur.  In
some instances micronutrients serve as biocatalysts for
microorganisms, and in other instances organic acids from
microbial activity enhance mineral availability through
solubilization and mineralization.


Next,

What are the bioactive compounds produced by microorganisms
during compost tea brewing, or from compost watery extracts,
that function as biostimulants.

Microbial metabolites and bioactive substances extracted
from composts that come to mind include enzymes, amino acids,
nucleic acids, vitamins, and hormones.

Yet, while I mention these in general I can't think of any
papers that provide specific data on this point.

Krasilnikov's "Soil Microorganisms and Higher Plants,"
located online at Soil and Health Library, comes to mind
as a background source on this topic.
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010112Krasil/010112krasil.toc.ht=
ml



Next,

How does vermi-compost compare to compost tea or EM
tea, and "detailed studies available regarding the worm-gut
bacteria / microorganisms that process the vermicompost?"

Compost teas and worm teas have greater fungal components
than EM, for one.

In addition to the resources from Elaine Ingham referred to
earlier, you may want to join the Compost Tea discussion
list at Yahoo!Groups.  The archives include compost tea
lab tests, comparative results between composts, etc.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/compost_tea/


Next,

Regarding "detailed studies on the microbial ecology of worm
guts and worm castings":

Here is a vermiculture paper worth downloading.  Dr. Sultan
Ismail is one of the leaders of vermicomposting technology
in India.

Vermitech-A Potential Technology for Soil Management
and Productivity
S. Sundaravadivel and Sultan Ismail | Institute of Research in
Soil Biology and Biotechnology, The New College,
Chennai, India
http://www.shaping-the-future.de/pdf_www/128_paper.pdf

The following references from this paper are worth noting:

Nielson R L, (1965) Presence of plant growth substances in
earthworms demonstrated by paper chromatography and the
went pea test. Nature Lond 208: 113-114.

Parle J N, (1963 a) Microorganisms in the intestines of earthworms.
J Gen Microbial 31: 1-13.

Parle J N, (1963 b) A microbilogical study of earthworm casts.
J Gen Microbial 31: 13-23.

It so happens that India is a world leader in vermicomposting,
biofertilizers, and plant-based pest control (liquid manures and
fermented plant extracts).

To capture web-based resources on vermiculture in India,
I posted the following resource list on Permaculture.

[permaculture] Vermicompost + Cuba + India
30 May 2002
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2002/permaculture/msg01124.html

An additional worm-extract from India is vermiwash.
Vermiwash is made by dripping water (or something like
an occassional watering at weekly or bi-weekly intervals)
through an active worm bed or a worm barrel with an outlet
at the bottom to collect the vermiwash.  The vermiwash is
used as a foliar spray that functions as a foliar fertilizer,
biostimulant, and prophylactic pest control.  It is also mixed
with cow urine and plant extracts.

The following two links provide a glimpse into the many different
recipes and approaches used in India to prepare plant extracts
and vermiwash:

Growing Biodynamic Sugar Cane in India
http://www.biodynamics.net.au/resources/

Green Foundation Newsletter
http://www.greenconserve.com/Our%20Periodical%20Newsletter.htm


On a related note,

The whole approach to plant-based pest control using native
plants and locally grown herbs to prepare liquid manures and
fermented plant extracts is well developed in India.

There are two indigenous knowledge data sources in India
that capture farmer experiences with plant-based pest control:

Indigenous Knowledge News
Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems || Chennai, India
http://www.ciks.org/archives.html

Honeybee Network & Innovation Database
SRISTI || Ahmedabad, India
http://www.sristi.org/honeybee.html

The Indigenous Knowledge News is an especially rich
online source to learn about plant-based pest control.
This newsletter was formerly titled "Pesticide Post."

The Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems publishes
a series of booklets called "Plants in Pest Control."
http://www.ciks.org/agpub.html


Finally,

Compost teas, EM, liquid manures, and fermented plant
extracts are worth exploring because they match the principles
of organic agriculture to use local resources and biological
processes.  They work with organic substrates and microbes
to transform raw materials into fertilizers and pest controls.
They bring a dynamic effect to the phyllosphere and the rhizosphere.
They are biological farming and humus management practices
that provide the terrain for microbes to do their work.

Steve Diver
ATTRA

.

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Subject: Re: Species diversity + Plate Culture
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I guess I should alter this for clarity.  It is sometimes helpful to
read a "second" viewpoint.  What I mean to say is that
Johnny Agulia confirms what Elaine Ingham has been saying
about the plate-count vs direct-look method.

Direct-look is a colloquial term for the microbial bioassay
method developed by Dr. Ingham through her graduate
research and introduced as a commercial lab service during
her tenure at Oregon State University.  It uses high-end
epiflourescent microscopy to visually observe and measure
bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes.

Steve Diver


> It is sometimes helpful to read a different viewpoint. In the
> following piece, Johnny Agulia at ABC ORGANICS summarizes
> the difference between "Plate-Count" and "Direct-Look" methods
> for microbial analysis.  Be sure to read the "French Poodle effect"
> to gain a hands-on appreciation for the biological farming approach
> versus the NPK farming approach.
> http://www.abcorganics.com/Compost%20Production.htm
>
> Adios,
> Steve Diver

.

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Still, there are other uses of plate counts...

One useful aspect of plate culture is to look at potential
for disease suppression and pathogen inhibition, by
microbial cultures or with compost samples.  Make a
compost extract and put your sample in there and let the
critters duke it out.

See:
Pathogen Inhibition Assay @ Bob Baars site
http://www.compara.nl/what_compost.htm

It is also interesting to just grow out microbes from composts
and soils and microbial inoculants.  You can "see" diversity for
yourself as the different microbial cultures start to grow on a plate.
Compare high diversity plates to low diversity plates -- a contrast
between well managed soils and neglected soils -- and you start
to get the idea what diversity is all about and why it is important.
There is a memorable piece in the Japanese "Life in the Soil"
video that illustrates this point.

You can also select microbial cultures that start to grow from soils
or composts, identify them by mass spectrophotometry, then culture
them, then add them as an adjunct to compost teas and liquid
biologicals.   Agri-Energy Resources in Illinois is doing this
on a commercial basis.
http://www.agrienergy.net/products/indexproducts.html
http://www.agrienergy.net/products/research_data.htm

The power of this approach can be understood from Midwest
Bio-Systems' experience in the Georgia vegetable grower's field,
where a virus in bell peppers was "arrested" through an
integrated eco-farming approach that included mineral balancing,
high quality compost application, and amended compost teas
obtained from Agri-Energy Resources.  Getting a vegetable crop
to grow out of virus infection through organic and biological farming
practices is a *major* development.

No wonder people are so upset about the NOP rules on
compost teas.  The sophistication among organic farmers and
crop advisory labs to implement advanced biological farming
aproaches -- such as sophisticated compost tea blends -- is
years ahead of 95% of the land-grant university of USDA
programs.

Incidentally, Agri-Energy hosts this piece that I am fond
of passing along; a synopsis of European and American
viewpoints on the importance of soil life and humus management.

The Soil Life - Humus - Soil Fertility Connection
http://www.agrienergy.net/renewabledata/soil%20life%20humus/soillife.html

Likewise, Midwest Bio-Systems hosts this piece on compost
quality.

Distinguishing Compost Quality
http://www.aeromasterequipment.com/compostquality.html

And this piece,
University Research on ACS Compost from Midwest Bio-Systems
http://www.aeromasterequipment.com/universityresearch.html

It is sometimes helpful to read a different viewpoint. In the
following piece, Johnny Agulia at ABC ORGANICS summarizes
the difference between "Plate-Count" and "Direct-Look" methods
for microbial analysis.  Be sure to read the "French Poodle effect"
to gain a hands-on appreciation for the biological farming approach
versus the NPK farming approach.
http://www.abcorganics.com/Compost%20Production.htm

Adios,
Steve Diver

.

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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
Subject: Re: Species diversity + Plate Culture
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Still, there are other uses of plate counts...

One useful aspect of plate culture is to look at potential
for disease suppression and pathogen inhibition, by
microbial cultures or with compost samples.  Make a
compost extract and put your sample in there and let the
critters duke it out.

See:
Pathogen Inhibition Assay @ Bob Baars site
http://www.compara.nl/what_compost.htm

It is also interesting to just grow out microbes from composts
and soils and microbial inoculants.  You can "see" diversity for
yourself as the different microbial cultures start to grow on a plate.
Compare high diversity plates to low diversity plates -- a contrast
between well managed soils and neglected soils -- and you start
to get the idea what diversity is all about and why it is important.
There is a memorable piece in the Japanese "Life in the Soil"
video that illustrates this point.

You can also select microbial cultures that start to grow from soils
or composts, identify them by mass spectrophotometry, then culture
them, then add them as an adjunct to compost teas and liquid
biologicals.   Agri-Energy Resources in Illinois is doing this
on a commercial basis.
http://www.agrienergy.net/products/indexproducts.html
http://www.agrienergy.net/products/research_data.htm

The power of this approach can be understood from Midwest
Bio-Systems' experience in the Georgia vegetable grower's field,
where a virus in bell peppers was "arrested" through an
integrated eco-farming approach that included mineral balancing,
high quality compost application, and amended compost teas
obtained from Agri-Energy Resources.  Getting a vegetable crop
to grow out of virus infection through organic and biological farming
practices is a *major* development.

No wonder people are so upset about the NOP rules on
compost teas.  The sophistication among organic farmers and
crop advisory labs to implement advanced biological farming
aproaches -- such as sophisticated compost tea blends -- is
years ahead of 95% of the land-grant university of USDA
programs.

Incidentally, Agri-Energy hosts this piece that I am fond
of passing along; a synopsis of European and American
viewpoints on the importance of soil life and humus management.

The Soil Life - Humus - Soil Fertility Connection
http://www.agrienergy.net/renewabledata/soil%20life%20humus/soillife.html

Likewise, Midwest Bio-Systems hosts this piece on compost
quality.

Distinguishing Compost Quality
http://www.aeromasterequipment.com/compostquality.html

And this piece,
University Research on ACS Compost from Midwest Bio-Systems
http://www.aeromasterequipment.com/universityresearch.html

It is sometimes helpful to read a different viewpoint. In the
following piece, Johnny Agulia at ABC ORGANICS summarizes
the difference between "Plate-Count" and "Direct-Look" methods
for microbial analysis.  Be sure to read the "French Poodle effect"
to gain a hands-on appreciation for the biological farming approach
versus the NPK farming approach.
http://www.abcorganics.com/Compost%20Production.htm

Adios,
Steve Diver

.

From - Thu Oct 31 13:05:18 2002
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From:         Steve Diver <steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU>
Subject: Re: Regulation of compost teas
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I have been away a couple of weeks, traveling through
India examining biodynamic and organic agriculture,
so I am just now reading through this Sanet thread.

It so happens I also met Sanjay Aggarwal with Maple
Organics, who has plenty of experience working
with EM in agriculture and effluent waste streams.

It may be helpful to sunmmarize three microbial
pathways in relation to organic matter decomposition:

1. Aerobic thermophyllic
2. Putrefactive anaerobic
3. Fermentative anaerobic

Putrefactive anaerobic is the rotting manure that
sits in the open drawing flies.

If you take that same manure and mix it with biomass and
build a compost pile with proper C:N ratio, moisture,
and aeration, you get a thermophyllic heating process that
turns into a crumbly, dark, humus material known as compost.

If you spray the manure in the animal stall with EM it will
initiate a fermentative aneraobic microbial pathway and prevent
flies and odors.  You can later take that EM-sprayed manure to
the thermophyllic compost pile, or you can build an EM heap
and promote a breakdown process that results in fermented
biomass.

I do not consider humified compost and fermented biomass
to be the same thing, yet both are useful processes and products.

EM is fermentative anaerobic.  So is miso, kim chee,
tempeh, and a number of Oriential foods, as well as
ensilage for your dairy cow.

E. coli is a putrefactive organism, it is not compatible with EM.

E. coli in organic agriculture, compost teas, and related
biological farming technologies including EM is an overblown
topic, it seems to me.

Elaine Ingham has already summarized the compost tea
situation pretty well.

It is an unfortunate turn of events that NOP went down
the path of E. coli hysteria at the same time the compost tea
industry is taking off like wild fire, providing a dynamic new
tool for organic agriculture.

A 120 day waiting period kicks compost tea out of
the life cycle of the crop.  Yet it is the inoculation of
the leaf surface and the root surface with compost tea
which results in such a dynamic benefit to the crop,
especially at crucial stages of growth.

Compost teas provide soluble nutrients which promote
a noticeable greening of crops, they provide bioactive
compounds which function as biostimulants and effect
metabolic processes, and they provide beneficial
microorganicsm which coat the plant surfaces and
provide numerous biocontrol mechanisms.

Steve Diver


Edna wrote:
Sanjay mentioned using EM to make compost tea.  Elaine and others talked

about making sure the tea is aereated to prevent growth of E. coli.  As
I
understand it, EM is made up of organisms that ferment in the absence of

oxygen (anaerobic).  I'm curious what this means relative to the
potential
of multiplying any E. coli that may contaminate the EM juice.  Any
comments?
Edna

.

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I have been away a couple of weeks, traveling through
India examining biodynamic and organic agriculture,
so I am just now reading through this Sanet thread.

It so happens I also met Sanjay Aggarwal with Maple
Organics, who has plenty of experience working
with EM in agriculture and effluent waste streams.

It may be helpful to sunmmarize three microbial
pathways in relation to organic matter decomposition:

1. Aerobic thermophyllic
2. Putrefactive anaerobic
3. Fermentative anaerobic

Putrefactive anaerobic is the rotting manure that
sits in the open drawing flies.

If you take that same manure and mix it with biomass and
build a compost pile with proper C:N ratio, moisture,
and aeration, you get a thermophyllic heating process that
turns into a crumbly, dark, humus material known as compost.

If you spray the manure in the animal stall with EM it will
initiate a fermentative aneraobic microbial pathway and prevent
flies and odors.  You can later take that EM-sprayed manure to
the thermophyllic compost pile, or you can build an EM heap
and promote a breakdown process that results in fermented
biomass.

I do not consider humified compost and fermented biomass
to be the same thing, yet both are useful processes and products.

EM is fermentative anaerobic.  So is miso, kim chee,
tempeh, and a number of Oriential foods, as well as
ensilage for your dairy cow.

E. coli is a putrefactive organism, it is not compatible with EM.

E. coli in organic agriculture, compost teas, and related
biological farming technologies including EM is an overblown
topic, it seems to me.

Elaine Ingham has already summarized the compost tea
situation pretty well.

It is an unfortunate turn of events that NOP went down
the path of E. coli hysteria at the same time the compost tea
industry is taking off like wild fire, providing a dynamic new
tool for organic agriculture.

A 120 day waiting period kicks compost tea out of
the life cycle of the crop.  Yet it is the inoculation of
the leaf surface and the root surface with compost tea
which results in such a dynamic benefit to the crop,
especially at crucial stages of growth.

Compost teas provide soluble nutrients which promote
a noticeable greening of crops, they provide bioactive
compounds which function as biostimulants and effect
metabolic processes, and they provide beneficial
microorganicsm which coat the plant surfaces and
provide numerous biocontrol mechanisms.

Steve Diver


Edna wrote:
Sanjay mentioned using EM to make compost tea.  Elaine and others talked

about making sure the tea is aereated to prevent growth of E. coli.  As
I
understand it, EM is made up of organisms that ferment in the absence of

oxygen (anaerobic).  I'm curious what this means relative to the
potential
of multiplying any E. coli that may contaminate the EM juice.  Any
comments?
Edna

.

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Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 23:38:24 -0000
Subject: [compost_tea] Re: plants that attract/support microbes?
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I think i heard the soil under banannas and bamboo are rich in 
beneficial soil life.  I think one probably banannas high in bact. 
and probably the bamboo high in fungi.  does that sound right?  

--- In compost_tea@yahoogroups.com, George and Paulette Mouchet 
<geomouchet@Q...> wrote:
> I posted this question awhile back and didn't get any response.  
I'll try again:
> 
> Are there specific plants that attract and support high colonies of 
beneficial soil organisms?
> 
> Paulette


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--- In compost_tea@yahoogroups.com, "jery_morgan" <jery_morgan@h...> wrote:
> I think i heard the soil under banannas and bamboo are rich in 
> beneficial soil life.  I think one probably banannas high in bact. 
> and probably the bamboo high in fungi.  does that sound right? 
 
Read a note in a bamboo publication that the same species of bamboo in two different but close location one near a stream the other not, had I recollect a bacterial dominance near the stream but somewhat more fungal in the grove away from the stream. Bamboo is a grass and grasses tend to be bacterial"but" depending on the soil (clay, sand, loam mix) a fungal bacterial blend is probably a good guess. Bananas well ask Dr. I, she has worked with banana growers in Australia.


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Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 00:44:49 -0700
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: plants that attract/support microbes?
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Terence Dodge wrote:
> --- In compost_tea@yahoogroups.com, "jery_morgan" <jery_morgan@h...> wrote:
> 
>>I think i heard the soil under banannas and bamboo are rich in 
>>beneficial soil life.  I think one probably banannas high in bact. 
>>and probably the bamboo high in fungi.  does that sound right? 
> 
>  
> Read a note in a bamboo publication that the same species of bamboo in two different but close location one near a stream the other not, 
>had I recollect a bacterial dominance near the stream but somewhat more fungal in the grove away from the stream. 
>Bamboo is a grass and grasses tend to be bacterial"but" depending on the soil (clay, sand, loam mix) a fungal bacterial blend is 
>probably a good guess. Bananas well ask Dr. I, she has worked with banana growers in Australia.

Here's more about that from the sanet-mg list:
[a reply to Jeff Lowenfels]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: fungal vs bacterial/ till no? No till?
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 14:13:58 +0000
From: gil carandang <gil_carandang@HOTMAIL.COM>
Reply-To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

jeff,
thanks for the information.  it is really of great help.  currently, we do a
lot of experimentations and observations on several vegetable families.  we
do our own microbial culture using lacto bacilli, forest and bamboo
microorganism.  apparently, the forest ones are much fungal and the bamboo
much bacterial.  lactic acid bacteria however is our main workhorse in
composting, digestion and arresting foul odors.  we do a lot of anaerobic
fermentation.  in fact, we ferment our materials first before we really
compost them.  we make special designer compost that includes several
diversed materials of which we inoculate with beneficial indigenous
microorganisms and add lots of bionutrients we normally extract from herbs.
our designer compost we add rice bran and rice hull charcoal aside from
microbes and bionutrients.  this compost is what we will start using for our
compost teas.  anaerobic to aerobic? well, let's see.
again, thanks. gil



[a reply to Elaine Ingham]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: fungal vs bacterial/ till no? No till?
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 03:12:58 +0000
From: gil carandang <gil_carandang@HOTMAIL.COM>
Reply-To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

dear elaine,
i appreciate greatly your response.  in fact, you are right.  there's a
difference between the putrefactive and fermentative processes.
putrefactive anaerobic results in real foul stinky smells like sewage.
fermentative has much sour but not rotten smell.  there are definite
subtleties on the smells and experience is our best teacher.  some people
like the EM people also test the pH.

anyway, you definitely can use the yogurt.  i however, make our own lacto
bacilli in a very simple way.  we do a two stage process.  we first trap
several microbes to its food like carbohydrate and then saturate them (on
the second stage) with milk.  in this manner, we eliminate the other
microbes and keep a pure lacto bacilli culture.  we then add another kind of
food to keep them alive rather than the customary refrigeration.  in the
countryside, at least in the philippines, we don't have refrigeration.  it
is very cheap to produce that it is almost unbelievable.  i have a booklet
on this process that i distributed at the recent ecofarm conference.  anyone
who will be interested would simply need to e-mail me at:
gil_carandang@hotmail.com.
i was also told that lacto bacilli is both anaerobic and aerobic.  i guess
it is more anaerobic or may we call facultative.  lacto bacilli is really a
microbial workhorse.  it is normally associated with the word probiotics.
and in organic agriculture, especially livestock, they use a lot of these
and combined with immune booster herbs like aloe vera. again, most of highly
nutritious foods are fermented foods.  and lots of them are lactic acid
fermented.  in the same token, the microorganisms that we get from the
forest are assumed by natural farmers to be beneficial (as you observe where
you get them) and maybe more fungal in association.  and the bamboo
microorganism we use can be said to be more bacterial for its roots exudates
attract a lot of beneficial bacteria.  as natural farmers, do i still need
tests and counts?  probably yes.  although most practical farmers will not
have to.  through our experimentations and observations, we should be able
to "see".  we natural farmers always believe that if we open our eyes, ears,
heart and being to nature, nature will start to unfold its mysteries to us.
the ultimate answer to all our agricultural questions lie not on man but on
nature herself.  as long as we align our methods to the workings of nature,
we should be in good position. it is our holistic approach and broader
realization and appreciation of nature that will guide us and not
discriminating and dichotomized mindsets of the reductionist science.

[...]

again, thanks.
gil carandang
herbana farms
philippines

<><><>
-- 
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech



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Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 12:09:40 EDT
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: plants that attract/support microbes?
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Soil under any tree SHOULD be rich in microbial life.  

But often, it is NOT.  Why?  The chemicals we have been pouring on the soil.  
Different "-icides" and salts, otherwise called fertilizers.  There is 
benefit in a fertilizer, true, but potentially a great deal of harm.  Concentration 
is the key factor there.  

If bananas are healthy, they tend to be in the slightly bacterial to slightly 
fungal balance of fungi to bacteria.  Actually the best banana I know (Ono 
Farms on Maui) has soil on the fungal side.  Not hugely fungal, but on the 
fungal side.  

Lactic acid bacteria are not really conducive to growth of fungi, at least 
what I've seen.  Making compost with fermentative bacteria TO START might 
prevent the putrefactive loss of N, S and P through volatilization, buut once the 
hot phase of the composting is over, then pushing the right fungi is important.  


But, yes, indigenous fungal species.  Indigenous fermentative species as 
well.  Buying EM or another bacterial inoculum might get things started in the 
right direction, but then you want to start saving and developing your own 
inoculum with time.  That's the best way to get the species adapted to your local 
conditions.  

Get the "good-guy " fungi from soil under trees that are HEALTHY.  Deep 
roots, going deep into the soil, not roots hampered by compaction, anaerobic 
conditions, and running along the surface of the soil. 

Elaine
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand

"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well, 
but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things 
turn out."   --  Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic


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<FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT  SIZE=3 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">Soil under any tree SHOULD be rich in microbial life.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
But often, it is NOT.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; The chemicals we have been pouring on the soil.&nbsp; Different "-icides" and salts, otherwise called fertilizers.&nbsp; There is benefit in a fertilizer, true, but potentially a great deal of harm.&nbsp; Concentration is the key factor there.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
If bananas are healthy, they tend to be in the slightly bacterial to slightly fungal balance of fungi to bacteria.&nbsp; Actually the best banana I know (Ono Farms on Maui) has soil on the fungal side.&nbsp; Not hugely fungal, but on the fungal side.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Lactic acid bacteria are not really conducive to growth of fungi, at least what I've seen.&nbsp; Making compost with fermentative bacteria TO START might prevent the putrefactive loss of N, S and P through volatilization, buut once the hot phase of the composting is over, then pushing the right fungi is important.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
But, yes, indigenous fungal species.&nbsp; Indigenous fermentative species as well.&nbsp; Buying EM or another bacterial inoculum might get things started in the right direction, but then you want to start saving and developing your own inoculum with time.&nbsp; That's the best way to get the species adapted to your local conditions.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Get the "good-guy " fungi from soil under trees that are HEALTHY.&nbsp; Deep roots, going deep into the soil, not roots hampered by compaction, anaerobic conditions, and running along the surface of the soil. <BR>
<BR>
Elaine<BR>
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.<BR>
www.soilfoodweb.com<BR>
SFI Oregon, USA<BR>
SFI Australia<BR>
SFI New York<BR>
SFI Europe<BR>
SFI New Zealand<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT  COLOR="#000000" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well, but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things turn out."&nbsp;&nbsp; --&nbsp; Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic<BR>
<BR>
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<br>

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Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 00:44:49 -0700
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: plants that attract/support microbes?
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Terence Dodge wrote:
> --- In compost_tea@yahoogroups.com, "jery_morgan" <jery_morgan@h...> wrote:
> 
>>I think i heard the soil under banannas and bamboo are rich in 
>>beneficial soil life.  I think one probably banannas high in bact. 
>>and probably the bamboo high in fungi.  does that sound right? 
> 
>  
> Read a note in a bamboo publication that the same species of bamboo in two different but close location one near a stream the other not, 
>had I recollect a bacterial dominance near the stream but somewhat more fungal in the grove away from the stream. 
>Bamboo is a grass and grasses tend to be bacterial"but" depending on the soil (clay, sand, loam mix) a fungal bacterial blend is 
>probably a good guess. Bananas well ask Dr. I, she has worked with banana growers in Australia.

Here's more about that from the sanet-mg list:
[a reply to Jeff Lowenfels]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: fungal vs bacterial/ till no? No till?
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 14:13:58 +0000
From: gil carandang <gil_carandang@HOTMAIL.COM>
Reply-To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

jeff,
thanks for the information.  it is really of great help.  currently, we do a
lot of experimentations and observations on several vegetable families.  we
do our own microbial culture using lacto bacilli, forest and bamboo
microorganism.  apparently, the forest ones are much fungal and the bamboo
much bacterial.  lactic acid bacteria however is our main workhorse in
composting, digestion and arresting foul odors.  we do a lot of anaerobic
fermentation.  in fact, we ferment our materials first before we really
compost them.  we make special designer compost that includes several
diversed materials of which we inoculate with beneficial indigenous
microorganisms and add lots of bionutrients we normally extract from herbs.
our designer compost we add rice bran and rice hull charcoal aside from
microbes and bionutrients.  this compost is what we will start using for our
compost teas.  anaerobic to aerobic? well, let's see.
again, thanks. gil



[a reply to Elaine Ingham]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: fungal vs bacterial/ till no? No till?
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 03:12:58 +0000
From: gil carandang <gil_carandang@HOTMAIL.COM>
Reply-To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

dear elaine,
i appreciate greatly your response.  in fact, you are right.  there's a
difference between the putrefactive and fermentative processes.
putrefactive anaerobic results in real foul stinky smells like sewage.
fermentative has much sour but not rotten smell.  there are definite
subtleties on the smells and experience is our best teacher.  some people
like the EM people also test the pH.

anyway, you definitely can use the yogurt.  i however, make our own lacto
bacilli in a very simple way.  we do a two stage process.  we first trap
several microbes to its food like carbohydrate and then saturate them (on
the second stage) with milk.  in this manner, we eliminate the other
microbes and keep a pure lacto bacilli culture.  we then add another kind of
food to keep them alive rather than the customary refrigeration.  in the
countryside, at least in the philippines, we don't have refrigeration.  it
is very cheap to produce that it is almost unbelievable.  i have a booklet
on this process that i distributed at the recent ecofarm conference.  anyone
who will be interested would simply need to e-mail me at:
gil_carandang@hotmail.com.
i was also told that lacto bacilli is both anaerobic and aerobic.  i guess
it is more anaerobic or may we call facultative.  lacto bacilli is really a
microbial workhorse.  it is normally associated with the word probiotics.
and in organic agriculture, especially livestock, they use a lot of these
and combined with immune booster herbs like aloe vera. again, most of highly
nutritious foods are fermented foods.  and lots of them are lactic acid
fermented.  in the same token, the microorganisms that we get from the
forest are assumed by natural farmers to be beneficial (as you observe where
you get them) and maybe more fungal in association.  and the bamboo
microorganism we use can be said to be more bacterial for its roots exudates
attract a lot of beneficial bacteria.  as natural farmers, do i still need
tests and counts?  probably yes.  although most practical farmers will not
have to.  through our experimentations and observations, we should be able
to "see".  we natural farmers always believe that if we open our eyes, ears,
heart and being to nature, nature will start to unfold its mysteries to us.
the ultimate answer to all our agricultural questions lie not on man but on
nature herself.  as long as we align our methods to the workings of nature,
we should be in good position. it is our holistic approach and broader
realization and appreciation of nature that will guide us and not
discriminating and dichotomized mindsets of the reductionist science.

[...]

again, thanks.
gil carandang
herbana farms
philippines

<><><>
-- 
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech



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Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 03:52:58 -0000
Subject: [compost_tea] Re: plants that attract/support microbes?
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--- In compost_tea@yahoogroups.com, "jery_morgan" <jery_morgan@h...> wrote:
> I think i heard the soil under banannas and bamboo are rich in 
> beneficial soil life.  I think one probably banannas high in bact. 
> and probably the bamboo high in fungi.  does that sound right? 
 
Read a note in a bamboo publication that the same species of bamboo in two different but close location one near a stream the other not, had I recollect a bacterial dominance near the stream but somewhat more fungal in the grove away from the stream. Bamboo is a grass and grasses tend to be bacterial"but" depending on the soil (clay, sand, loam mix) a fungal bacterial blend is probably a good guess. Bananas well ask Dr. I, she has worked with banana growers in Australia.


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Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: plants that attract/support microbes?
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Soil under any tree SHOULD be rich in microbial life.  

But often, it is NOT.  Why?  The chemicals we have been pouring on the soil.  
Different "-icides" and salts, otherwise called fertilizers.  There is 
benefit in a fertilizer, true, but potentially a great deal of harm.  Concentration 
is the key factor there.  

If bananas are healthy, they tend to be in the slightly bacterial to slightly 
fungal balance of fungi to bacteria.  Actually the best banana I know (Ono 
Farms on Maui) has soil on the fungal side.  Not hugely fungal, but on the 
fungal side.  

Lactic acid bacteria are not really conducive to growth of fungi, at least 
what I've seen.  Making compost with fermentative bacteria TO START might 
prevent the putrefactive loss of N, S and P through volatilization, buut once the 
hot phase of the composting is over, then pushing the right fungi is important.  


But, yes, indigenous fungal species.  Indigenous fermentative species as 
well.  Buying EM or another bacterial inoculum might get things started in the 
right direction, but then you want to start saving and developing your own 
inoculum with time.  That's the best way to get the species adapted to your local 
conditions.  

Get the "good-guy " fungi from soil under trees that are HEALTHY.  Deep 
roots, going deep into the soil, not roots hampered by compaction, anaerobic 
conditions, and running along the surface of the soil. 

Elaine
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand

"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well, 
but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things 
turn out."   --  Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic


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<FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT  SIZE=3 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">Soil under any tree SHOULD be rich in microbial life.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
But often, it is NOT.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; The chemicals we have been pouring on the soil.&nbsp; Different "-icides" and salts, otherwise called fertilizers.&nbsp; There is benefit in a fertilizer, true, but potentially a great deal of harm.&nbsp; Concentration is the key factor there.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
If bananas are healthy, they tend to be in the slightly bacterial to slightly fungal balance of fungi to bacteria.&nbsp; Actually the best banana I know (Ono Farms on Maui) has soil on the fungal side.&nbsp; Not hugely fungal, but on the fungal side.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Lactic acid bacteria are not really conducive to growth of fungi, at least what I've seen.&nbsp; Making compost with fermentative bacteria TO START might prevent the putrefactive loss of N, S and P through volatilization, buut once the hot phase of the composting is over, then pushing the right fungi is important.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
But, yes, indigenous fungal species.&nbsp; Indigenous fermentative species as well.&nbsp; Buying EM or another bacterial inoculum might get things started in the right direction, but then you want to start saving and developing your own inoculum with time.&nbsp; That's the best way to get the species adapted to your local conditions.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Get the "good-guy " fungi from soil under trees that are HEALTHY.&nbsp; Deep roots, going deep into the soil, not roots hampered by compaction, anaerobic conditions, and running along the surface of the soil. <BR>
<BR>
Elaine<BR>
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.<BR>
www.soilfoodweb.com<BR>
SFI Oregon, USA<BR>
SFI Australia<BR>
SFI New York<BR>
SFI Europe<BR>
SFI New Zealand<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT  COLOR="#000000" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well, but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things turn out."&nbsp;&nbsp; --&nbsp; Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic<BR>
<BR>
</FONT>
<br>

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From: Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
Subject: Re: strange brew
Comments: To: elijah smith <elijahs@earthlink.net>
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It sounds like a nature farming recipe.  These include all kinds
of on-farm biofertilizers and fermented extracts, made from
local biomass sources and biological conversion processes.

The red tinge may be a type of photosynthetic bacteria.

EM (Effective Microorganism), one of the nature farming
microbial tools, has these purple photosynthetic Rhodobacters,
and an EM-treated hog-lagoon turned red is a sign of bioconversion.

See:

Enrichment & Isolation of Purple Non-Sulfur Photosynthetic Bacteria
http://www.splammo.net/bact102/102pnsb.html

Sudden Popularity of Soil Based Organisms (SBOs) as Probiotics
In:
http://www.antioxbrew.com/

What other details and background can you share, Elijah?

Regards,

Steve Diver
ATTRA


elijah smith wrote:

>
>
> I need help identifying what sort of anaerobic bacteria we've grown.
> Someone gave us a recipe for a sort of tea which is supposed to
> "increase the amount of sunlight absorbed" when applied as a foliar
> spray.  The recipe goes like this:
>
>
>
> soak a pile of fish scales in water.  Strain the water through red
> cinder (we have a lot of this in Hawaii...).  Let the water sit in a
> full sealed glass jar in the sun.
>
>
>
> Well, we did it, and the glass jar sat and say for months and then all
> of a sudden turned bright red - which was what was supposed to
> happen... we can make more of it by just putting mixing it with clean
> water and adding it to more jars; each in turn will turn red after a
> bit.
>
>
>
> But what is it?  Anyone ever heard of this stuff?  Does it really
> increase sunlight absorption?  I though maybe 'cuz it was so red, it
> might somehow let the plant intake a different part of the spectrum -
> but I'm no scientist, I'm just guessing.
>
>
>
> Thanks!
>
>     Elijah
>
>
>


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<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
It sounds like a nature farming recipe. &nbsp;These include all kinds<br>
of on-farm biofertilizers and fermented extracts, made from<br>
local biomass sources and biological conversion processes. &nbsp; &nbsp; <br>
<br>
The red tinge may be a type of photosynthetic bacteria. &nbsp;<br>
<br>
EM (Effective Microorganism), one of the nature farming<br>
microbial tools, has these purple photosynthetic Rhodobacters, <br>
and an EM-treated hog-lagoon turned red is a sign of bioconversion. &nbsp;<br>
&nbsp;<br>
See:<br>
<br>
Enrichment &amp; Isolation of Purple Non-Sulfur Photosynthetic Bacteria<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.splammo.net/bact102/102pnsb.html">http://www.splammo.net/bact102/102pnsb.html</a><br>
<br>
Sudden Popularity of Soil Based Organisms (SBOs) as Probiotics&nbsp; <br>
In:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.antioxbrew.com/">http://www.antioxbrew.com/</a><br>
<br>
What other details and background can you share, Elijah? <br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
Steve Diver<br>
ATTRA <br>
<br>
<br>
elijah smith wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:001201c321b8$80240850$01ae1e43@stumpy">
  <meta content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1170" name="GENERATOR">
  <style></style>
  <div>&nbsp;</div>
  <div><font face="Arial" size="2">I need help identifying what sort of anaerobic
 bacteria we've grown.&nbsp; Someone&nbsp;gave us a recipe for a sort of tea  which
is supposed to "increase the amount of sunlight absorbed" when applied as
 a foliar spray.&nbsp; The recipe goes like this:</font></div>
  <div>&nbsp;</div>
  <div><font face="Arial" size="2">soak a pile of fish scales in water.&nbsp;
Strain  the water through red cinder (we have a lot of this in Hawaii...).&nbsp;
Let the  water sit in a full sealed glass jar in the sun.</font></div>
  <div>&nbsp;</div>
  <div><font face="Arial" size="2">Well, we did it, and the glass jar sat
and say for  months and then all of a sudden turned bright red - which was
what was supposed  to happen... we can make more of it by just putting mixing
it with clean water  and adding it to more jars; each in turn will turn red
after a bit.&nbsp;  </font></div>
  <div>&nbsp;</div>
  <div><font face="Arial" size="2">But what is it?&nbsp; Anyone ever heard of
this  stuff?&nbsp; Does it really increase sunlight absorption?&nbsp; I though maybe
 'cuz it was so red, it might somehow let the plant intake a different part
of  the spectrum - but I'm no scientist, I'm just guessing.&nbsp; </font></div>
  <div>&nbsp;</div>
  <div><font face="Arial" size="2">Thanks!</font></div>
  <div><font face="Arial" size="2">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Elijah</font></div>
  <div>&nbsp;</div>
  </blockquote>
  <br>
  </body>
  </html>

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From: Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
Subject: IPM - Picturing Impact method + bio-lahang compost decomposer
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
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Here are some worthwhile resources for your sustainable
toolbox on:

*Picturing Impact method for farmer study groups
*IPM in Indonesia
*Conservation of natural enemies
*Insect Zoo
*Rice ecosystem IPM
*IPM as an entry point for Sustainable Livelihoods
*Ecological Foundations to Tropical Rice IPM
*Living Soils
*Tea IPM Ecological Guide

The picturing impact method and the on-farm recipe to
make bio-lahang as a compost decomposer led me to
these resources.

The first item is an article on Farmer Study Groups and
Community IPM in Indonesia, from the current issue
of LEISA, the magazine on low-external input
and sustainable agriculture.

A farmer study technique is to loan out cameras so
participants take pictures of their fields and farming
methods, then come back and label the pictures and
share experiences and reflect on the situation under
study.

Picturing Impact!
by John Pontius
LEISA / ILEIA | Vol. 19, No. 1 | March 2003
"Learning with Farmer Field Schools" issue
http://www.ileia.org//2/19-1/18_21.PDF

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The full report can be viewed online in PDF and DOC:

Picturing Impact:  Participatory Evaluation of Community IPM
in Three West Java Villages
Dr. John C. Pontius
FAO Regional Community IPM Program
International Learning Workshop on Farmer Field
Schools (FFS), October 2002, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
http://www.eseap.cipotato.org/upward/Events/FFS-Workshop-Yogya2002/02-Pontius.pdf

        45-page PDF

Picturing Impact:  Participatory Evaluation of Community IPM
in Three West Java Villages
http://www.communityipm.Org/docs/Picturing%20Impact/Picturing%20Impact%20top%20page.html

Especially see:

Chapter 4. Picturing Impact - Main Report
        40-page DOC version

"The goal of this study was to learn about the impact of
Community IPM on poverty in farming communities. The study
was carried out by farmers themselves, who took photographs
of what they considered to be indicators of impact. The data
consists of 84 photographs with captions."

The entries on indigenous microbe preparation for "compost
decomposers" and plant extracts for pest control remind me
of on-farm recipes in nature farming.

Excerpts:

"The photograph is of a mixture of goat manure, leaves, and
'biolahang' (a decomposer that we make from 'lahang' or sugar
palm sap, slices of banana tree trunks, and water).  The compost
is ripening.  Good quality compost needs to ripen for anywhere
from a week to 10 days.  Biolahang is mixture that we make
to speed the ripening process.  There are many similar commercial
products, but having tested them all against our decomposer, we
know that ours is as good as any." - Yakub Syah | page 23

"Our decomposer is made from 'lahang' (sugar palm sap), slices
of banana tree trunks, and water.  Tirta Bumi tested the
decomposer against a product called EMBIO, which is quite
expensive.  Bio-lahang is the equal of EMBIO.  Yakub Syah |
page 24

"Spider Gate.  One of our efforts is to spread the word about IPM.
We built this gate, which we decorated with pictures of spiders, a
symbol of the need to conserve natural enemies.  You could say
that the gate has also become a symbol for our village, which we
believe, has become an IPM village.  Jarot Indraloka | page 25

"IPM activities have helped farmers to become scientists.  This
photo is of 'bio-lahang', the decomposer that we created and tested.
It's cheap and performs as well as EM4 and EMBIO, which are
both very expensive commercial products.  If we can make it cheap,
why should we buy something expensive?  Aos Rosidin | page 30"

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Other resources at this IPM site:

Community Integrated Pest Management
/ formerly FAO Programme for Community IPM in Asia
http://www.CommunityIPM.org

.From Farmer Field Schools to Community IPM:
Ten Years of IPM Training in Asia
Editors: John Pontius, Russ Dilts, Andrew Bartlett
April 2001
http://www.communityipm.Org/docs/10%20Years%20of%20IPM/10Years-Main.htm

A detailed description of the development of Farmer Field
Schools, including historical context, educational foundations,
ecological principles and lessons learned.

The document consists of 145 pages with many photographs,
boxes and diagrams. To make it easier to download, the
document has been split into 8 chapters

Especially see:

Chapter 3: The IPM Farmer Field School

Chapter 6: Ecological Principles Underlying the FFS
conservation of beneficial insects, spiders, and snakes

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Toxic Trail - A BBC documentary in the 'Earth Report' series
http://www.communityipm.Org/ToxicTrail.htm

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tea IPM Ecological Guide
Michael R. Zeiss, Koen den Braber
Translated by Tran Thanh Nam
Published by CIDSE, April 2001
http://www.communityipm.Org/docs/Tea_Eco-Guide/Tea_Eco-Guide.html

Especially see:

Chapter Three: The Living Soil

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Living Soils: Training Exercises for Integrated Soils Management
William Settle, 2000
http://www.communityipm.Org/docs/Living%20Soils/living%20soils.html
        101-pages, tables, diagrams, 31 excercises

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Field Guide on Peanuts
http://www.communityipm.Org/docs/PeanutIPMguide.zip

See:

Chapter 4, Insect Zoo

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Settle, W.H. et al. 1996. Managing Tropical Rice Pests
Through Conservation of Generalist Natural Enemies and
Alternative Prey. Ecology, 77(7): 1975-1988
http://www.communityipm.Org/docs/Ecol_settle.pdf
        15-page PDF, classic article

Mangan, J., and M.S.Mangan 1998. A comparison of two IPM
training strategies in China: the importance of concepts or the
rice ecosystem for sustainable insect pest management.
Agriculture and Human Values 15: 209-221.
http://www.communityipm.Org/docs/China-concepts.doc
        22-page DOC

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

IPM as an entry point for Sustainable Livelihoods
http://www.communityipm.Org/Concepts/sustlive01.htm

"never in my wildest dreams did I think that a program about
'bugs' would bring the dawn of democracy and liberation to
Indonesian villages"

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ecological Foundations to Tropical Rice IPM
http://www.communityipm.Org/Concepts/ecology01.html

A practical guide to the ecological dynamics of the irrigated
rice ecosystem, based on the classic paper in Ecology by
William Settle in 1996.

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Regards,

Steve Diver
NCAT / ATTRA
===================================================
===================================================


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From: Dale Wilson <nosliwelad@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: gmo farming
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
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Hello John,

> It is my feeling that gmo's are so popular in
> the States because farmers worldwide have it very difficult
> to make a living whatever they grow or produce.

I think that is a big part of it.  In the US corn belt, farmers either
have to become very large, (thousands of acres), or they have to take
an outside job.  If one or two people are caring for a thousand acres
of soybeans, the Roundup-Ready trait is a logistical Godsend.

> GMO was " substantially" equivalent to the normal crop. It was
> something that could be grown by the same methods used before and it
> still had a flavor of being something new and exithing. That must
> have lured many farmers into it for the first time.

The seed industry jumped in with input traits (Insect and herbicide
resistance) because these things are technically fairly
straightforward.
Many now believe that introducing *input-trait* GMO's first was a
political blunder.  The public haven't a clue, and do not care about
the trials and tribulations of farmers, and input traits have no value
in the larger political marketplace.  It would have been better to
first introduce traits that the consumer wants, like high vitamins, or
better flavor, to help win the political battle over GMO's.  Of course,
such traits are kind of nebulous for corn and soybeans!  (poor corn,
poor soybeans, such boring crops, unless one looks closely)

> The inertia for moving back to conventional seeds is partly caused
> because there are no longer sufficient conventional seeds readilly
> available.

Naw, I know of people, and whole communities that grow non-GMO crops
because they get a premium price.  The seed company I am in now
(Fielder's Choice) sold plenty of non-GMO seed.  This is all
market-driven, and I don't believe there is any groundswell away from
GMO's.  In fact, last year there was serious European Corn Borer
pressure, and this has increased sales of Bt corn.  Rootworm-resistant
corn has just come on the market, and that is increasing demand for GMO
seed too.

Dale

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
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From: gil carandang <gil_carandang@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Fwd: [SANET-MG] Technology Culture of Indigenous Microorganisms
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
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hi all!

i will be lecturing on the technology culture of beneficial indigenous
microorganisms and bionutrients this july 11  at ISEES univ. of minnesota in
st. paul for the organic aquaculture workshop.  and in august 24, 2003, will
also be doing one at solfest in hopland, california.  ecofarm association of
watsonville, california is hooking me up to conduct seminars and workshops
on the technology while i am in the united states.  i will arrive july 10 at
st. paul and will leave for manila august 28.

i am taking this opportunity to offer this asian natural farming technology
that wiill really empower the american farmers.

if anyone or group that will be interested to take advantage of my presence
in the united states, you can e-mail me.  you can organize an hour lecture
or a whole day hands-on workshop on the said technology.  after st. paul,
minnesota, i intend to visit iowa and philadelphia.  i also have a plan to
visit new mexico.  and most of the time, i will be based in santa cruz,
california.

many thanks folks!
gil carandang
herbana farms
philippines


>From: "gil carandang" <gil_carandang@hotmail.com>
>To: gil_carandang@hotmail.com
>Subject: Fwd: [SANET-MG] Technology Culture of Indigenous Microorganisms
>Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 17:29:19 +0000
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>From: gil carandang <gil_carandang@HOTMAIL.COM>
>>Reply-To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
>><SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
>>To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
>>Subject: [SANET-MG] Technology Culture of Indigenous Microorganisms
>>Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 16:20:12 +0000
>>
>>Hi all!
>>Since I mentioned to my e-mail to Dr.. Elaine Ingham about the culture of
>>indigenous microorganisms for agriculture, a lot of people have e-mailed
>>me
>>on the booklet.  I am then posting the details on this booklet:
>>
>>Technology of Culturing Beneficial Indigenous Microorganisms and
>>Bionutrients for use in Agricultural Crops and Livestock
>>
>>Last January 23, 2003 Gil Carandang of Herbana Farms, a leading organic
>>and
>>natural farming advocate from the Philipines and who recently completed
>>Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture at the University  of California
>>Santa Cruz, had just conducted a workshop on Indigenous Microorganism:
>>Grow
>>Your Own at the annual Ecological Farming Conference in Asilomar
>>(Monterey,
>>California) on full-packed crowd.
>>
>>Indigenous Microorganisms (IMO):  Grow Your Own
>>The recent interest in building microorganism populations for fertility
>>and
>>pathogen control has given many farmers food for thought.  Compost teas
>>are
>>now becoming extremely high in concentrations of beneficial
>>microorganisms.
>>This interest is not so new in Asian countries, however, where "Nature
>>Farming" and "Effective Microorganisms" or EM Technology has been popular
>>for years.  Buying starter cultures of beneficiaal microorganisms can be
>>expensive for farmers.  Now a relatively new movement is empowering
>>farmers
>>with knowledge about culturing, increasing and applying local or
>>"indigenous" on-farm beneficial microorganisms.  Learn the basic theory
>>and
>>techniques for growing these farming companions to help increase yields
>>and
>>reduce problems.
>>
>>"The best workshop I had in 18 years!"
>>- Jim Nelson
>>  Camp Joy Gardens
>>  Boulder Creek, California
>>
>>Learn to culture Lacto Bacilli, the workhorse of the beneficial indigenous
>>microorganisms.  Lacto Bacilli arrest foul odors and improve digestion,
>>nutrient intake.
>>-Forest microorganism.  Culture diversed, powerful beneficial indigenous
>>microorganisms from the forest and apply them to your garden and farm and
>>improve soil fertility.
>>-Beneficial Indigenous Microorganisms produce enzymes and natural
>>antibiotic
>>that control pathogens like e. coli and salmonella.
>>-Bionutrients.  Fermented plant extracts to improve soil fertilty, control
>>pests and diseases, increase microbial diversity and ecology.
>>
>>Did you know that you can gather plants in your farm and use them as
>>fermented extracts to improve plant growth serving as natural growth
>>promotants?
>>... and many more!
>>
>>The booklet on this amazing natural farming technology is now available.
>>You can organize your own workshop to learn this Asian Natural Farming
>>technology empowering farmers, self-generating their own inputs through
>>the
>>culture of these Beneficial Indigenous Microorganisms and Bionutrients.
>>Gil
>>Carandang can be reached through e-mail: gil_carandang@hotmail.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
>>Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8.
>>http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
>

_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*
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From: joe cummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>
Subject: Re: spinosad a product of a fungus in organic production?
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Hello Douglas and Joe Nessim,
I am grateful for your valuable comments.
I thank Douglas for reminding me that actinomycetes are bacteria and not
fungi. Acinomyceters are filamentous spore forming  bacteria that tend
to hang around a lot with fungi.Actinomycetes make most antibiotics.
Years ago when I was a student the actinomycetes were frequently called
fungi or undecided but that debate was cleared up a long time ago. Now
it is impolite to call actinomycetes  fungi.
I understand that the spinosad  is produced by fermentation and not by
chemical synthesis. So long as the insecticide is produced by bacteria
it seems artificial do differ it from Bt.

Douglas Hinds wrote:

>Hello Joe and other saneters following this thread.
>
>Responding to your reply to Joe Cummins reading whether spinosad is
>suitable for use in organic food production:
>
>JN> Yes, spinosad is very effective. A product called Tracer that
>JN> contains 480 gr./liter spinosad is used here in Israel against
>JN> the larva of a night moth that attacks dates (Batrachedra
>JN> amydraula), and replaced previous conventional pesticides (such
>JN> as Dursban) that were being used.
>
>That is very good to know. It would also be good to know the name of
>the fungi which produces the substance found to have antibiotic
>activity (which evidently has been named spinodad), so I checked it
>out:
>
>  Spinosad gets its name from the microbe that produces it, a
>  soil-dwelling bacterium called Saccharopolyspora spinosa.
>  http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/apr00/crop0400.htm
>
>JN> HOWEVER -- this product has NOT been certified for use in
>JN> organic agriculture here, and is not on the lists of approved
>JN> materials certified by IFOAM.
>
>Not having been approved is one thing and having been rejected is
>another and very different matter. Perhaps it hasn't been evaluated
>yet. If it WAS evaluated and was rejected, on what grounds was that
>decision made?
>
>JN> I've just rechecked their website, and if I'm not mistaken
>JN> spinosad does not appear on the list. You can check this at :
>JN> http://www.ifoam.org/standard/norms/ibs.pdf
>
>The word "spinosad" doesn't appear on the IFOAM list nor is it
>contained anywhere in the file you mention above. That may suggest
>that it hasn't been evaluated. (More on this below).
>
>JN>   I believe the reason for not approving the substance has to do with the
>JN> technology behind its production, and not because the agent itself is not
>JN> natural.Possibly even uses some sort of genetic engineering, but I'm not
>JN> certain about that.
>
>You are assuming the spinosad was rejected, then. However, that may
>not be the case. We need to know that.
>
>JN> Whether this brand name (Tracer) is equivalent to the products
>JN> approved by OMRI is something I don't know. OMRI might also be
>JN> less strict than IFOAM. However, since this could possibly have
>JN> something to do with your field of expertise, it might benefit
>JN> this list if you could find out why spinosad has been approved
>JN> by OMRI but not by IFOAM.
>
>1).- The nature and source of the substance would seem to qualify it
>     for organic food production, so if in fact it WAS rejected, it
>     must have been due to some other reason, such as the one you
>     suggested. (A number of Bt strains HAVE been genetically
>     modified, for instance - but that wouldn't rule out Bt strains
>     that weren't).
>
>2).- No global standards exist for providing organic certification.
>     Instead, each country (i.e. the USA or Japan) or commercial
>     block (i.e the European Union) has developed it's own standards
>     for  allowing a product to be marketed as organic.
>
>     In the case of the USA, the Organic Food Production Act (OFPA)
>     of 1990 (but which took effect only last year), mandates the
>     need to have organic products certified as such by one of a
>     number of organic certification agencies accredited by the
>     USDA. Otherwise (with a few minor exceptions), your product can
>     not be sold as organic.
>
>     The reverse is also true. If your products have been certified
>     as organic by any one of a number of organic certification
>     agencies accredited by the USDA, then your product is organic,
>     period.
>
>     Where does the IFOAM fit in? It doesn't! In the US organic
>     market, IFOAM's standards do not determine what is and isn't
>     organic. Furthermore, a number of the organic certification
>     agencies accredited by the USDA aren't even members of the
>     IFOAM.
>
>     So, obviously, you need to know in which market your products
>     will be sold in before you plant, as well as use methods that
>     meet the official standards of that particular market, and use
>     an organic certification agency accredited by the organism
>     responsible for overseeing that market.
>
>     For someone who ships to various markets, each with similar yet
>     slightly different standards, it may be wise to choose a method
>     capable of being certified in any and all of them (such as the
>     one I suggest below).
>
>3).- Being able insure the presence of the fungi itself in the soil
>     and on the plant would seem to me to be a preferable solution,
>     with inoculated compost and compost tea providing the same (or
>     perhaps better) results with less cost, along with an added
>     degree of prevention. Furthermore (unless compost tea is not
>     permitted), you're much more likely to satisfy the
>     certification requirements of all major organic markets.
>
>
>
>>>From: joe cummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>
>>>To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
>>>Subject: [SANET-MG] spinosad a product of a fungus in organic production?
>>>Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 13:08:28 -0400
>>>
>>>An antibiotic product of  a fungus, Spinosad, is providing effective
>>>insect control. Is this product suitable for  use in organic food
>>>production? I do not know the answer and look forward to opinion from
>>>organic gardeners.
>>>
>>>
>
>
>
>>>jc
>>>
>>>
>
>Douglas Hinds
>Centro para el Desarrollo Comunitario y Rural (CeDeCoR), A.C.
>(Center for Community and Rural Development, a non-profit organization),
>
>Coordinador Nacional para Producción Organica,
>Confederacion Nacional de Propietarios Rurales
>
>Dir. Gral de Proyectos Especiales,
>Consejo Suprema Nacional Indigena
>
>All in Mexico
>
>Also: Chair of the Working Group on Organic Pineapple of the
>International Society for Horticultural Science and Consultant for
>the FAO group formed to draft a Technical Manual on Organic
>Pineapple Production
>
>--
>
>********************************************************
>
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>
>

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Hello Douglas and Joe Nessim,<br>
I am grateful for your valuable comments.<br>
I thank Douglas for reminding me that actinomycetes are bacteria and
not fungi. Acinomyceters are filamentous spore forming  bacteria that
tend to hang around a lot with fungi.Actinomycetes make most
antibiotics. Years ago when I was a student the actinomycetes were
frequently called fungi or undecided but that debate was cleared up a
long time ago. Now it is impolite to call actinomycetes  fungi.<br>
I understand that the spinosad  is produced by fermentation and not by
chemical synthesis. So long as the insecticide is produced by bacteria
it seems artificial do differ it from Bt.<br>
<br>
Douglas Hinds wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid312084577.20030720175752@gmx.net">
  <pre wrap="">Hello Joe and other saneters following this thread.

Responding to your reply to Joe Cummins reading whether spinosad is
suitable for use in organic food production:

JN&gt; Yes, spinosad is very effective. A product called Tracer that
JN&gt; contains 480 gr./liter spinosad is used here in Israel against
JN&gt; the larva of a night moth that attacks dates (Batrachedra
JN&gt; amydraula), and replaced previous conventional pesticides (such
JN&gt; as Dursban) that were being used.

That is very good to know. It would also be good to know the name of
the fungi which produces the substance found to have antibiotic
activity (which evidently has been named spinodad), so I checked it
out:

  Spinosad gets its name from the microbe that produces it, a
  soil-dwelling bacterium called Saccharopolyspora spinosa.
  <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/apr00/crop0400.htm">http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/apr00/crop0400.htm</a>

JN&gt; HOWEVER -- this product has NOT been certified for use in
JN&gt; organic agriculture here, and is not on the lists of approved
JN&gt; materials certified by IFOAM.

Not having been approved is one thing and having been rejected is
another and very different matter. Perhaps it hasn't been evaluated
yet. If it WAS evaluated and was rejected, on what grounds was that
decision made?

JN&gt; I've just rechecked their website, and if I'm not mistaken
JN&gt; spinosad does not appear on the list. You can check this at :
JN&gt; <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ifoam.org/standard/norms/ibs.pdf">http://www.ifoam.org/standard/norms/ibs.pdf</a>

The word "spinosad" doesn't appear on the IFOAM list nor is it
contained anywhere in the file you mention above. That may suggest
that it hasn't been evaluated. (More on this below).

JN&gt;   I believe the reason for not approving the substance has to do with the
JN&gt; technology behind its production, and not because the agent itself is not
JN&gt; natural.Possibly even uses some sort of genetic engineering, but I'm not
JN&gt; certain about that.

You are assuming the spinosad was rejected, then. However, that may
not be the case. We need to know that.

JN&gt; Whether this brand name (Tracer) is equivalent to the products
JN&gt; approved by OMRI is something I don't know. OMRI might also be
JN&gt; less strict than IFOAM. However, since this could possibly have
JN&gt; something to do with your field of expertise, it might benefit
JN&gt; this list if you could find out why spinosad has been approved
JN&gt; by OMRI but not by IFOAM.

1).- The nature and source of the substance would seem to qualify it
     for organic food production, so if in fact it WAS rejected, it
     must have been due to some other reason, such as the one you
     suggested. (A number of Bt strains HAVE been genetically
     modified, for instance - but that wouldn't rule out Bt strains
     that weren't).

2).- No global standards exist for providing organic certification.
     Instead, each country (i.e. the USA or Japan) or commercial
     block (i.e the European Union) has developed it's own standards
     for  allowing a product to be marketed as organic.

     In the case of the USA, the Organic Food Production Act (OFPA)
     of 1990 (but which took effect only last year), mandates the
     need to have organic products certified as such by one of a
     number of organic certification agencies accredited by the
     USDA. Otherwise (with a few minor exceptions), your product can
     not be sold as organic.

     The reverse is also true. If your products have been certified
     as organic by any one of a number of organic certification
     agencies accredited by the USDA, then your product is organic,
     period.

     Where does the IFOAM fit in? It doesn't! In the US organic
     market, IFOAM's standards do not determine what is and isn't
     organic. Furthermore, a number of the organic certification
     agencies accredited by the USDA aren't even members of the
     IFOAM.

     So, obviously, you need to know in which market your products
     will be sold in before you plant, as well as use methods that
     meet the official standards of that particular market, and use
     an organic certification agency accredited by the organism
     responsible for overseeing that market.

     For someone who ships to various markets, each with similar yet
     slightly different standards, it may be wise to choose a method
     capable of being certified in any and all of them (such as the
     one I suggest below).

3).- Being able insure the presence of the fungi itself in the soil
     and on the plant would seem to me to be a preferable solution,
     with inoculated compost and compost tea providing the same (or
     perhaps better) results with less cost, along with an added
     degree of prevention. Furthermore (unless compost tea is not
     permitted), you're much more likely to satisfy the
     certification requirements of all major organic markets.

  </pre>
  <blockquote type="cite">
    <blockquote type="cite">
      <pre wrap="">From: joe cummins <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:jcummins@UWO.CA">&lt;jcummins@UWO.CA&gt;</a>
To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU">SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU</a>
Subject: [SANET-MG] spinosad a product of a fungus in organic production?
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 13:08:28 -0400

An antibiotic product of  a fungus, Spinosad, is providing effective
insect control. Is this product suitable for  use in organic food
production? I do not know the answer and look forward to opinion from
organic gardeners.
      </pre>
    </blockquote>
  </blockquote>
  <pre wrap=""><!---->
  </pre>
  <blockquote type="cite">
    <blockquote type="cite">
      <pre wrap="">jc
      </pre>
    </blockquote>
  </blockquote>
  <pre wrap=""><!---->
Douglas Hinds
Centro para el Desarrollo Comunitario y Rural (CeDeCoR), A.C.
(Center for Community and Rural Development, a non-profit organization),

Coordinador Nacional para Producción Organica,
Confederacion Nacional de Propietarios Rurales

Dir. Gral de Proyectos Especiales,
Consejo Suprema Nacional Indigena

All in Mexico

Also: Chair of the Working Group on Organic Pineapple of the
International Society for Horticultural Science and Consultant for
the FAO group formed to draft a Technical Manual on Organic
Pineapple Production

--

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   July 2003 SFI E-Zine

Table of Contents

        1.    Feedback from the ICTC Seminar
        2.    Nutritional differences between organics and conventional
        3.    Upcoming SFI and SSI seminars
        4.    More Grower Experiences
        5.    More Compost Tea Brewing Manual Update
---------------------------------

I'm on-time with this one!  

I leave for New Zealand and then Australia tomorrow, so I have to get 
this out!

The ICTC Seminar a week ago was a huge success.  Quite a few people 
wrote into the compost_tea@yahoogroups.com list serve about it, and I've 
put just a couple of their e-mails below.  

Next month I'll spend some time on soil considerations.  Where are we in 
the northern and southern hemispheres on the annual cycle, and what's 
the "calendar" of taking soil samples, applying sustainable inputs, and 
so forth for a couple different systems.

Anyone have a favorite system they want to have me focus on?

ERI

1.  Feedback on the International Compost Tea Council Seminar in July


Hello-
I, too, wish to thank the board of the ICTC for their hard work in setting
up this excellent conference. I attended the Fri. session and found
Elaine's presentation to be clear, entertaining, and very informative, as
always, and Hendrickus Shraven's slide presentation was also excellent, as
it showed a wide range of examples of projects where AACT can be useful in
restoring health to an ecosystem.

I thought it was great that we had the opportunity to see different types
of spray truck set-ups in action; in fact, I would have liked a little more
time to spend observing each of them, and asking questions. Even though I
have my own sprayer, I am curious how others are doing it, and there's no
substitute for seeing it in person. I'd be interested in knowing what
different methods people are using to keep their tea aerated in their tanks
in their trucks. (I believe Giovanni had a compressor with a hose?) Do you
need to worry about too many bubbles, or too small or too large of bubbles?
I have a small truck with a 100-gal. tank, so I don't want anything very
large or expensive.

Thank you very much, Leon, for insisting we clean out my brewer before I
left. On my way back, my clutch master cylinder went out with no warning,
on a very busy road, in rush hour traffic. I wasn't even able to pull my
truck off to the side of the road, and had to wait for a tow truck to tow
my truck and trailer to a shop in Redmond. A dreadful ending to a wonderful
day! And I wasn't able to get my brewer home for a couple of days.

Finally, I want to thank Seaneen for the support and encouragement she has
given me the past several months, and for taking the time to answer my
numerous questions.      Autumn


Hi folks,

I just got back from the first International Compost Tea Council 
education session with Dr. Elaine and many of the ICTC board members and 
many of you on this list. There were about 70 folks and from all 
over.... California, Alaska, Oregon, Canada, Washington...a great bunch 
of people. It was great to meet those of you who are on this list. What 
fun to be able to put a face to a name. Kirk L, incidentally, has a 
beard. ):
 
It was terrific to see all the different brewers.... KIS, BOBs, Growing 
Solution, Worm Gold. And there were several commercial spay trucks.
 
And, of course, Dr. Elaine and Hendrikus! Always terrific. We had two 
mornings of lectures and q and a and in the afternoon, we looked at 
brewers, sprayers and continued the discussions outside.
 
For those who are still suspicious about the ICTC, get over your fears. 
THIS WAS A TERRIFIC EDUCATIONAL WEEKEND AND THE ICTC BOARD MEMBERS DID 
AN OUTSTANDING JOB ORGANIZING AND RUNNING THE EVENT. They put a lot of 
time and energy into it and it showed. There is no question that if you 
support the idea of AACT, you should join and support the educational 
efforts of the group. Do it now! http://www.intlctc.org/ It is a 
worthwhile effort. All of us at the seminars learned a tremendous amount.
 
I sure hope the ICTC will l do it again, perhaps in other parts of the 
country. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE SESSIONS, THE ENTIRE EVENT WAS 
VIDEO TAPED AND A CD OF IT WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON. AGAIN, CONTACT THE 
ICTC FOR MORE INFO....
 
Anyone else there care to comment?
 
Cheers,
 
Jeff

Folks, you really can believe Jeff's superlatives. It *was*
wonderful: very well organized, highly educational/informative, and
lots of fun. I'm happy to share my own experience of the Saturday
session as seen through the eyes of a home (strictly organic)
gardener and recent CT convert.

Jeff didn't mention his own contribution to the Saturday session (the
only one I attended) so please let me tell you that it was terrific.
Jeff has all the enthusiasm, energy and physical pyrotechnics of a
four-year old (that's a COMPLIMENT, Jeff!) as well as a non-stop
sense of humor.

His story of his own conversion from dedicated user of that familiar
Fertilizer-in-a-Green-and-Yellow-Box to sincere CT advocate segued
smooothly into a general, not-too-technical-for-us-beginners
description of what's going on in the soil food web. His basic
presentation of what's happening down there at the micro level really
helped me understand why we have to be feeding the little critters,
who in turn will feed the plants.

Dr. Elaine and Leon Hussey, president of ICTC, were on the sidelines
during his presentation, stepping in from time to clarify and expand,
then on we went with more of Jeff's enthusiastic presentation of 3-D
electron microscope views of paramecia, nematodes and all those other
tiny things we all grew up believing were flat.

Hendrikus Schraven showed us some incredible pictures of
remediation work his landscaping company has done, successfully
creating luxuriant gardens and lawns on a previously water-logged
site.

Dr. Elaine took us through the basic chemistry of how the components
of a compost pile are transformed via several microbiological
interventions into nutrients that can then be brewed, grown and
multiplied into a compost tea full of living bacteria, fungi,
beneficial nematodes and other tiny creatures. Her fascinating
presentation helped me understand how the nitrogen in a green leaf
tossed into the compost pile comes to be nitrogen accessible to the
growing tip of a new plant's rootlet.

She took lots of time to explain the *how* and *why* of keeping a
compost tea aerobic in order to allow the beneficial bacteria to
out compete (and thus eliminate) whatever human pathogens might be
present in the original compost. This safety issue is, of course,
central to helping gardeners, farmers and The Powers That Be
understand how _properly brewed_ CT is absolutely safe for human food
crops, as well as incredibly beneficial to crops.

After lunch we moved to an outdoor area where several CT brewers had
been set up by their manufacturers. We were able to meet the various
brewers and watch them in action, ask questions of their designers,
sniff compost, peer into microscopes and learn from the many
informative conversations going on among the attendees.

Finally Elaine wrapped the session up with a discussion of the carbon
: nitrogen requirements of various types of plants, spraying
schedules for various crops, and a general Q & A for those of us who
were not already experiencing brain cramps.

It was a wonderful day. My enthusiastic thanks to ICTC for all the
hard work that went in to organizing it, and for making it available
to a wide audience. No CT user should miss the opportunity to attend
a similar ICTC educational event when one presents itself within
driving distance.

Irene, outside Eatonville, WA where the CT'd zucchini leaves doubled
in size while I was attending the ICTC training session...


Both Jeff and Irene covered what the ICTC session was all about very 
well.  But if I may add, I attended the all day session on Saturday and 
left with the words: Exciting, Fascinating, Awesome, Inspiring, ... and 
other such words running around in my head during my 2 hour drive back 
home.  (Jeff, I even stopped at the Ellensburg Safeway before getting 
home just to buy several boxes of Baby Oatmeal.  I wanted to make some 
of my own fungi cultures to show off.
Jeff, I was ready to package you up along with your enthusiasm and 
inspiring ability to express the science of all of this in layman terms 
and smuggle you home with me.  I need you here in Eastern Washington to 
explain to these folks that there IS a difference between the chemical 
components of NPK and soil biology as well as what years of chems is 
doing to our farmland.  Your enthusiasm was excellent and your humor 
appreciated.  It was also great to be able to put a face to all the emails.
Elaine, thank you too, so very much.  Your scientific explanations were 
set well toward the layman, but yet deep enough to inspire the science 
dabbler.  Learning from reading your emails is one thing, but listening 
to you speak and having the ability to talk with you and ask questions 
face to face added a whole different layer to the learning.  You keep 
your audience enthused and interested - it was great to have had the 
honor to attend.
Next time I'm roping my neighbors, and father, into coming -my pop being 
my biggest critic when it comes to the soil science vs. chemical 
applications.  Jeff, I had always jokingly called my dad the 'Father of 
MiracleGrow' - now I guess I need a new name for him since your 
explanation of the history of the product... grin.  But that's okay; 
there are other chemicals over there in his garden shed to work off 
of... grin.
Leon, and the other ICTC folks who worked hard to make this happen, 
thank you very much for the hospitality and hard work in setting this 
up.  The format of the session could not have been better.  Leon, you 
kept joking about it being 'seat of pants', but if I were to go again, 
the format, in my opinion, should not change one bit.  Jeff gave the 
introduction in easy to understand terms, Elaine interjected where more 
science was needed, and then she followed Jeff with more in-depth 
science - which too, was easy to understand and relate with.  Each of 
you helped the other, it was great.  The questions and comments added in 
from the audience were also informative and helpful.
Hendrikus, thank you too for sharing your experiences and knowledge. The 
work you are doing is awe-inspiring to all of us, I am sure.
Bob, it was great to finally meet you in person as well.  A pleasure indeed!
I have always had a heart for science and now to be able to mix my two 
favorite 'hobbies', science and farming, only add to the experience!  As 
a lot of you have had to listen to me rant about my thoughts on how AACT 
could/should be best promoted, cultivated and gained in the ol' 
criticized world the 'stuff' - I think I was able to see, first hand, 
one of the best means of its promotion.  The next time this is offered, 
I'm not only coming myself, but bringing some of the critics near me.  I 
would encourage others to do the same.  These folks explain this better 
than I could have ever imagined!
Thank you ICTC, SoilFoodWeb, Brewers and each of the speakers!  It was 
an awesome day.
 Mike Bosko

A huge THANK YOU to you as well Jeff!  It was a wonderful weekend and a 
fantastic event! Thank you again for all of your support.  Thank you as 
well to all of those who chose to support and participate last weekend.  
We could not have done it without all of you!!!!       
Elaine and Hendrikus a huge THANK YOU to the both for a terrific Friday 
program.  Great success and hope to do it again soon.....  :)

Seaneen Hummel
Director of Compost Tea Spraying services - Creative Gardens, Inc.
Founder & VP, International Compost Tea Council   www.intlctc.org

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.    Nutrional differences

Here is a link to a NY Times article on nutritional
differences between organics and conventional
It makes our old pal Alex Avery look pretty bad (he he)
check it out
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/16/dining/16WELL.html

David Conner

3.    Upcoming SFI and SSI seminars

SFI has several workshops coming up, geared to consultants as well as 
small producers.
To get details on our workshops and others that Elaine is doing around 
the country, go to www.soilfoodweb.com .

Here is a list of the workshops schedule for 2003.

October 4 - 6         Soil Biology and Soil Chemistry
October 20 - 21     Hands-on Composting
October 21 - 22     Hands-on Compost Tea

The advisor's training will be in November, but to be considered for the 
advisor's training, we have to have a consulting relationship with you.  
Not only do you have to have the Soil Biology and Chemistry training 
behind you, the Compost and/or Compost Tea training sessions, AND you 
have to be sending in samples and ASKING QUESTIONS about them.  We have 
to feel that you are working with us at SFI, doing your best to get the 
information out to growers, gardeners, kids, and the public in general, 
and getting your hands into the soil and into understanding the 
critters, how they work.  

So, those of you who want to do that training, please realize you have 
to be pro-active about showing us you want to participate!
---------------------------------------------------------------------

3.  MORE GROWER EXPERIENCES

I've been making compost tea for the fruit club with the Bob-O-Lator.  I 
asked the members how many gallons they want next week.  I've received 
some answers ...

"Hi Judy...we'd like 10gal of tea on the 6th.  I sprayed the currant 
bushes with compost tea this spring and for the first time in 5plus 
years they weren't defoliated by currant worms.  Previously we had used Bt."

"Hi Judi, I would like 40 Gallons of your magical brew.  Denny"  

"Would love some CT...enough to spray 3 tiny apple trees..each 3 ft tall 
with one branch. Plus about 2 more gallons to dilute for maintenance of 
some new buddlea hedge."

"I need more compost tea.  The leaves on my apple tree look waxed.  I 
took 4 gallons before.  Can I have 20?  No, better make that 40 or 50."

"I'd like 10 gallons this time.  My hostas are 3 times their size."

Our fruit club is growing.  We've added five members this month because 
of the compost tea.  Members are picking up their tea in gallon jugs, 
5-gallon pails, and 55 gallon drums.  It's fun to see them outside of 
meetings as it gives us more time to chat.  Tea time has become a mini 
social event.

Judi



4. More Compost Tea Brewing Manual Update

Pages 32 to 38 of the CTBM.  

We try to get all the compost tea makers to participate in the Compost 
Tea Grant, but some don't respond no matter what.  Of course, I can't 
communicate with Growing Solutions (or employees, family or associates), 
as I've been threatened that there will be legal action taken if I do.  
So I don't.  

Ed Neff of Soil Soup has told me in no uncertain terms that they test 
only with BBC Labs.  If so, where's the data?  

So, instead of working with the companies that make those machines, we 
work with people who own their machines.  So much for either Growing 
Solutions or Soil Soup being interested in "unity" in the compost tea 
world.  

If either Ed Neff or Mike Alms would like to start testing what their 
teas actually contain, Soil Foodweb Inc would run their samples just as 
we run samples for anyone else.  I have never cut them off, or said they 
couldn't work with us.  They are the ones that won't maintain the 
community of people working on common goals in the compost tea world.  

Here's the section from the tea manual ----
------------------------------------
Comparison of Different Commercial Brewers

 The Sustainable Studies Institute Tea Grant, 2002

In the tea grant sponsored by the Sustainable Studies Institute, growers 
made tea using the machines they bought, with nutrient starters sold by 
the companies or prepared by the grower, using their own choice of 
composts.  Composts chosen for use were widely variable, temperature, 
water source, and cleaning conditions were widely variable, and yet the 
teas produced were quite similar.  Of course, assessing total and active 
bacteria and total and active fungi does not take into account species 
diversity per se, so the level of resolution assessed means only one 
kind of variation was assessed.  But good tea machines resulted in good 
organism numbers, regardless of conditions, while poor tea machines 
rarely produced decent organism numbers.   
This is opposite claims by some tea machine makers that because compost, 
water, food resources and so forth are so different from tea brew to tea 
brew that the teas are so variable that consistent data cannot be 
obtained.  Clearly, tea contains reasonably the same bacterial and 
fungal biomass and same levels of activity if decent compost and recipes 
are made.  Only tea machine makers trying to hide the fact that their 
machine cannot make a consistently decent result would use arguments 
that testing is not possible because of variation from tea brew to tea 
brew.  .
In the following study, teas were made according to the manufacturer's 
directions.  In some instances, the teas were made at SFI by SFI 
technicians (maintained at 72 F, using de-gassed Corvallis city water), 
but in most cases, the teas were made by growers, using the instructions 
received from the tea machine manufacturer, and sent overnight mail to 
SFI Corvallis, or New York.  Growers were requested to make their 
composts from 50% thermal compost and 50% vermicompost.  The compost was 
mixed well before use, the amounts needed for each machine measured, 
placed in the unit, with the same amount of molasses and soluble kelp 
per volume of water added to each machine.  Each machine was run for the 
specified time.
One to three sub-samples of tea were removed from the machine, typically 
via whatever method was available to move tea from the tea-making 
machine into the spray tank of a sprayer. If there was no discharge 
pump, this is noted.  Samples were sent to the lab by overnight mail in 
plastic water containers filled a third to a half full.  Each sample was 
assessed for total and active bacteria, total and active fungi, 
protozoa, and nematodes at SFI.

Results.  The most notable finding is that despite widely different 
sources of compost, and different machine designs, the resulting teas 
were reasonably uniform with respect to achieving minimal levels of 
bacterial and fungal activity and biomass.  Some manufacturers have 
suggested that there is so much variation from tea to tea that testing 
is meaningless, but generally what that means is the tea maker is trying 
to disguise an inferior machine.  If the machine does not achieve the 
same minimum levels of organisms from tea brew to tea brew when using 
similar compost, ingredients, and climate conditions, then there is 
quite likely something wrong with the machine.  
Growers need to recognize that brew-to-brew differences based on 
different composts, different food additives, and different weather 
conditions are possible, but if the compost has decent organism levels, 
similar food resources are added, and temperatures are reasonably warm, 
the tea will always have organism numbers above the minimum levels on 
the desired range of the SFI test.  
Some machines routinely have much higher fungal or bacterial biomass 
than others and there are machines that ALWAYS give higher then the 
minimal range on the SFI test.  This is excellent, and quite likely a 
true difference in the ability of the machine to extract organisms from 
the compost.  
In several instances we have documented that the reasons some machines 
cannot extract organisms from the compost are:
1.    Compost compacts in the basket, making water movement impossible 
through the compost.  Without water movement through the compost, 
organisms cannot be extracted from the compost and organisms will be 
lacking in the tea.  
2.    When water cannot move through the compost, it is quite likely 
that the compost will become anaerobic during the brew cycle.  Visit 
trade shows where the machines are running.  Put your hand in the 
compost in a machine to see if water is actively moving through the 
compost.  But be careful - some manufacturers have been known to use 
compost with a higher-than-normal amount of chunky material to make it 
seems like the machine has good water flow, when in fact, using 
non-woody compost, the material compacts.  Check in-use machines to 
determine flow-through in the compost.
3.    Bio-film build-up occurs.  Usually build-up within one brew cycle 
is not a problem, except where water flow does not occur.   Cleaning 
then becomes an important factor.  Some machines are difficult to clean, 
and when considering different machines, consider cleaning ease.

The numbers of samples in each assessment below are given in the table.  
Some growers sent in one tea, some sent in three, a few sent in more 
teas.   Results are listed by machine type and volume.  In some cases, 
new machines have come on the market, but the only testing has been with 
the manufacturer.  The tea grant will be repeated in 2003, and the 
results should be available next year.  
    Note the differentiation into compost tea and bacterial tea.  If 
only bacteria grow well in the tea, and fungi, protozoa and nematodes do 
not appear in at least minimal amounts in the tea, then the tea cannot 
be called a compost tea.  


Table 7. Tea Quality Assessed by the SSI Tea Grant Study.  Growers sent 
in compost teas from different machines, using their own or manufacturer 
supplied compost, the manufacturer's nutrient starting mix, or molasses 
and kelp, in conditions in the field through the summer of 2002.  Data 
from SFI research is included as well.  While some range of response is 
present, in general the data by machine are not widely different.  In 
general, when variability is greater than the mean, the compost tea 
machine has trouble making consistent tea.  
    Active Bacteria (µg/ml)    Total Bacteria(µg/ml)    Active 
Fungi(µg/ml)    Total Fungi(µg/ml)
Desired Ranges for suppressive teas*    10 - 150    150 - 300    2 - 
10    2 -20
Compost Tea Brewers^    Mean    SD    Mean    SD    Mean    SD    Mean    SD
Earth Tea Brewer500 gal (8 teas)500 gal (2001-1tea)100 gal (6 teas)   
 52735168    468ND118    1322467004518    3841ND1054    57.6232.24   
 38.5ND1.36    109308.46    57.0ND3.33
Simplici-Tea KIS5 gal (10 teas)    141    93    3730    2755    6.88   
 2.63    11.8    3.12
EarthWorks85 gal (9 teas)    326    219    10210    5084    1.70   
 1.52    2.62    3.45
Clarke 60 gal (12 teas)100 gal (3 teas)    70.352.4    66.622.9   
 25191306    2231363    1.883.55    1.131.49    3.627.63    2.260.83
Alaska Giant1 gal (3 teas)5 gal (2 teas)    35.852.4    22.853.3   
 52542528    40221312    1.030.34    0.570.46    5.792.47    4.431.07
Compara50 gal (200 L) (3 teas)    89.1    19.7    2115    715    2.79   
 1.37    5.72    1.73
Bacterial Tea Brewers^                
SoilSoup30 gal (6 teas)aNylon Bag (3 teas)    40.2101    23.113.3   
 17691500    947210    0.031.23    0.031.26    0.253.01    0.191.88
Growing Solutions25 gal (4 teas)100 gal (12 teas)500 gal (12 teas)b 
Schraven (1 tea)    34618460.670.4    54526834.7    415626444106209   
 424618615579    0.530.881.021.57    0.851.081.01    0.892.305.362.21   
 1.412.807.75
*Based on work comparing teas that are not suppressive with teas that 
are suppressive
^Based on results that show that bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes 
in the compost are successfully and routinely extracted into the tea.  
On rare instances bacterial tea can put enough bacteria on leaf surfaces 
to use up food and prevent disease growth.
aNylon Bag - set of brews done at SFI using a nylon bag instead of the 
fabric bag sold by SoilSoup.  
bThe Schraven method of running the GSI System involves different foods, 
changing the aerator in the basket and altering the basket arrangement 
when used in the larger machines. Clearly, things can be done to improve 
this bacterial tea machine so it COULD make decent compost tea.  

A great deal of assessment goes into determining whether a tea machine 
in fact can extract decent levels of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and 
nematodes from the compost and grow the organisms in the tea during the 
24 hour aerobic brewing process.   For example, Bruce Elliott who makes 
the Earth Tea Brewer machines has worked with SFI since he started 
building tea makers in 1999.  He has invested a great deal of effort in 
determining the best recipe of foods to grow fungi in his tea maker.  In 
addition, EPM has just developed a 22 gal tea machine, and so far, is 
getting as good organism numbers in the tea as their other tea brewers.  
    Simplici-Tea makes the KIS brewers, and has recently developed a 30 
gal machine.  This too is getting as good organisms in the tea as the 5 
gal machine.  
    EarthWorks make 35 and 85 gal machines and are working on a new 
formulation of their nutrient mixes for this summer.  On occasion, the 
foods added this last summer resulted in too much oxygen use in the 
teas, especially as the temperatures became warmer and warmer.  During 
the summer, the amount of foods added should decrease as the 
temperatures increase.  Generally, food should reduce by 2-fold for each 
10 degree in temperature rise.
    
Contact Information for Compost Tea machines:

Alaska Giant, John Evans
10-to-100 gal. brewers, 4 gal and 1 gal Soil Stimulant brewer kits
P.O. Box 1072
Palmer, Alaska 99645  
Tel: (907) 746-4781                                            FAX: 
(907) 746-4781
E-mail: alaskabounty@alaskagiant.com    Website: www.alaskagiant.com

Bob's Bitti, Bob-O-Later, Bob Norsen
5-to-30 gal, and 30-to-300 gal machines (variable volumes)
6515 W Marginal Way
Seattle, Washington 98106
Tel: (206) 571-4671                FAX: (206) 767-2026
E-mail: bob@bnbrew.com

Charlie Clarke/James Sotillo Contact JAMSOT@aol.com

Compara Xtraktor, Gerben Schrouten
Air pump, tea diffuser, 50 gal., 250 gal., 500 gal.
Postbus 110, 2394 ZG HAZERSWOUDE Rd.
Netherlands 1221 JR
Tel: 31 71 34 19873                                            
E-mail: office@compara.nl.com        Website: www.compara.nl/engels.shtml

Compost Solutions
1000 L machines
Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia
Contact: Lee Beckett
E-mail:  lbeckett@bigpond.com

Ecology Enterprises, Dennis Hronek
Brewer can extract up to 24,000 gallons of high microbe product per 
day.  Patent pending.
P.O. Box 546
Windsor, Colorado
Tel: (970) 686-0669                Tel: (509) 787-2900
E-mail: info@ecology-enterprise.com                Tel: (541) 948-2692

EcoVit Tea-riffic Brewers, Laura Sabourin
17, 100, 300 gal, custom-made
RR #1 St. Catharines
Ontario, Canada L2R 6P7
Tel: (905) 562-0151                FAX: (905) 562-0152
E-mail: EcoVit@ragdolls.net            Website: www.ecovit.ca

EPM Earth Tea Brewers.  Bruce Elliott
All tea pump types, air stones and venture; 22, 100, 500 gal.
Sprayers, worm bins
P.O. Box 1295
Cottage Grove, Oregon  97425
Tel: (541) 767-2747                                             FAX: 
(541) 767-2744
E-mail: sales@fish-world.com        Website: www.composttea.com

Simplici-tea, Keep It Simple Brewers, Leon Hussey
Air pump tea maker, 5, 30 gal.
12323 180th Ave. NE
Redmond, Washington  98052
Tel: (425) 558-0990                                             FAX: 
(425) 558-3695
E-mail: kis@simplici-tea.com        Website: www. simplici-tea.com

The Compost Tea Company
Air pump tea maker, 200 L and larger sizes
982 Kaipaki Road, RD 3, Cambridge, New Zealand
+64 7 827 6682                     FAX +64 7 827 3787
cherryle.prew@extra.co.nz              Website:  www.compost-tea.co.nz   

WormGold Extractors, George Hahn and Carole Eddington
Air pump tea maker, 100, 500 gal.
P.O. Box 95
Cardiff by the Sea, California 92007   
Tel: (760) 942-6086                                             FAX: 
(619) 942-5356
E-mail: geohahn1@juno.com            Website: www.wormgold.com

In the cases where we have data, it is interesting to compare the tea 
data with the compost from which the tea was made.  If nematode, 
protozoa or fungal biomass were low in the compost that often explains 
low biomass or numbers in the tea. Remember, however, that bacteria may 
increase by 100 to 500 times the original number during a brewing cycle, 
while fungi may only increase by 5 to 10 times. Protozoa and nematodes 
DO NOT increase in numbers in a tea cycle. Their life cycles are longer 
than the duration of a compost tea brew cycle.
If the organisms are present in the compost, but not present, or low, in 
the tea, then the reason for the lack of those organisms needs to be 
determined:
1.    Were the organisms extracted?  If neither active nor total fungi 
or active or total bacteria are present, there's a good indication that 
extraction is the problem.  Is the mesh on the basket, bag or compost 
container a problem?  Neither active nor total fungi can be a result.
2.    Were they killed by too much pressure going through a pump?  No 
organisms at all present.
3.    Did something in the tea kill them?  Minimal amounts of total 
bacteria and total fungi (extraction occurred), but no active biomass.
4.    Did they lack food?  Did they lack a surface to grow on?  No 
active fungi, minimal layers of total fungi.
5.    Did the tea drop into limited oxygen or anaerobic conditions?  Low 
active and low total fungi, but what is seen is covered with bacteria 
that do not stain with the activity stain.  

----------------------------

More next month! - ERI


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         <big><b><big><big>July 2003 SFI E-Zine </big></big></b></big><br>
 <big><br>
 <b>Table of Contents</b></big><br>
 <br>
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 1.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Feedback from the ICTC Seminar<br>
 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; 2.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Nutritional differences between organics and conventional<br>
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 3.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Upcoming SFI and SSI seminars<br>
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 4.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;More Grower Experiences<br>
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 5.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;More Compost Tea Brewing Manual Update<br>
 ---------------------------------<br>
 <br>
 I&#8217;m on-time with this one! &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 I leave for New Zealand and then Australia tomorrow, so I have to get this 
out!<br>
 <br>
 The ICTC Seminar a week ago was a huge success.&nbsp; Quite a few people wrote 
into the <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="mailto:compost_tea@yahoogroups.com">compost_tea@yahoogroups.com</a>
list serve about it, and I&#8217;ve put just a couple of their e-mails below. &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 Next month I&#8217;ll spend some time on soil considerations.&nbsp; Where are we in 
the northern and southern hemispheres on the annual cycle, and what&#8217;s the 
&#8220;calendar&#8221; of taking soil samples, applying sustainable inputs, and so forth 
for a couple different systems.<br>
 <br>
 Anyone have a favorite system they want to have me focus on? <br>
 <br>
 ERI<br>
 <br>
 1.&nbsp; Feedback on the International Compost Tea Council Seminar in July<br>
 <br>
 <br>
 Hello-<br>
 I, too, wish to thank the board of the ICTC for their hard work in setting 
<br>
 up this excellent conference. I attended the Fri. session and found <br>
 Elaine's presentation to be clear, entertaining, and very informative, as 
<br>
 always, and Hendrickus Shraven's slide presentation was also excellent,
as <br>
 it showed a wide range of examples of projects where AACT can be useful
in <br>
 restoring health to an ecosystem.<br>
 <br>
 I thought it was great that we had the opportunity to see different types 
<br>
 of spray truck set-ups in action; in fact, I would have liked a little more 
<br>
 time to spend observing each of them, and asking questions. Even though
I <br>
 have my own sprayer, I am curious how others are doing it, and there's no 
<br>
 substitute for seeing it in person. I'd be interested in knowing what <br>
 different methods people are using to keep their tea aerated in their tanks 
<br>
 in their trucks. (I believe Giovanni had a compressor with a hose?) Do you 
<br>
 need to worry about too many bubbles, or too small or too large of bubbles? 
<br>
 I have a small truck with a 100-gal. tank, so I don't want anything very 
<br>
 large or expensive.<br>
 <br>
 Thank you very much, Leon, for insisting we clean out my brewer before I 
<br>
 left. On my way back, my clutch master cylinder went out with no warning, 
<br>
 on a very busy road, in rush hour traffic. I wasn't even able to pull my 
<br>
 truck off to the side of the road, and had to wait for a tow truck to tow 
<br>
 my truck and trailer to a shop in Redmond. A dreadful ending to a wonderful 
<br>
 day! And I wasn't able to get my brewer home for a couple of days.<br>
 <br>
 Finally, I want to thank Seaneen for the support and encouragement she has 
<br>
 given me the past several months, and for taking the time to answer my <br>
 numerous questions.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Autumn<br>
 <br>
 <br>
 Hi folks,<br>
 <br>
 I just got back from the first International Compost Tea Council education 
session with Dr. Elaine and many of the ICTC board members and many of you 
on this list. There were about 70 folks and from all over.... California, 
Alaska, Oregon, Canada, Washington...a great bunch of people. It was great 
to meet those of you who are on this list. What fun to be able to put a face 
to a name. Kirk L, incidentally, has a beard. ): <br>
 &nbsp;<br>
 It was terrific to see all the different brewers.... KIS, BOBs, Growing
Solution, Worm Gold. And there were several commercial spay trucks.<br>
 &nbsp;<br>
 And, of course, Dr. Elaine and Hendrikus! Always terrific. We had two mornings 
of lectures and q and a and in the afternoon, we looked at brewers, sprayers 
and continued the discussions outside.<br>
 &nbsp;<br>
 For those who are still suspicious about the ICTC, get over your fears.
THIS WAS A TERRIFIC EDUCATIONAL WEEKEND AND THE ICTC BOARD MEMBERS DID AN
OUTSTANDING JOB ORGANIZING AND RUNNING THE EVENT. They put a lot of time
and energy into it and it showed. There is no question that if you support
the idea of AACT, you should join and support the educational efforts of
the group. Do it now! <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
 href="http://www.intlctc.org/">http://www.intlctc.org/</a> It is a worthwhile
effort. All of us at the seminars learned a tremendous amount.<br>
 &nbsp;<br>
 I sure hope the ICTC will l do it again, perhaps in other parts of the country. 
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE SESSIONS, THE ENTIRE EVENT WAS VIDEO TAPED AND 
A CD OF IT WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON. AGAIN, CONTACT THE ICTC FOR MORE INFO....<br>
 &nbsp;<br>
 Anyone else there care to comment?<br>
 &nbsp;<br>
 Cheers,<br>
 &nbsp;<br>
 Jeff<br>
 <br>
 Folks, you really can believe Jeff's superlatives. It *was* <br>
 wonderful: very well organized, highly educational/informative, and <br>
 lots of fun. I'm happy to share my own experience of the Saturday <br>
 session as seen through the eyes of a home (strictly organic) <br>
 gardener and recent CT convert.<br>
 <br>
 Jeff didn't mention his own contribution to the Saturday session (the <br>
 only one I attended) so please let me tell you that it was terrific. <br>
 Jeff has all the enthusiasm, energy and physical pyrotechnics of a <br>
 four-year old (that's a COMPLIMENT, Jeff!) as well as a non-stop <br>
 sense of humor.<br>
 <br>
 His story of his own conversion from dedicated user of that familiar <br>
 Fertilizer-in-a-Green-and-Yellow-Box to sincere CT advocate segued <br>
 smooothly into a general, not-too-technical-for-us-beginners <br>
 description of what's going on in the soil food web. His basic <br>
 presentation of what's happening down there at the micro level really <br>
 helped me understand why we have to be feeding the little critters, <br>
 who in turn will feed the plants.<br>
 <br>
 Dr. Elaine and Leon Hussey, president of ICTC, were on the sidelines <br>
 during his presentation, stepping in from time to clarify and expand, <br>
 then on we went with more of Jeff's enthusiastic presentation of 3-D <br>
 electron microscope views of paramecia, nematodes and all those other <br>
 tiny things we all grew up believing were flat.<br>
 <br>
 Hendrikus Schraven showed us some incredible pictures of <br>
 remediation work his landscaping company has done, successfully <br>
 creating luxuriant gardens and lawns on a previously water-logged <br>
 site.<br>
 <br>
 Dr. Elaine took us through the basic chemistry of how the components <br>
 of a compost pile are transformed via several microbiological <br>
 interventions into nutrients that can then be brewed, grown and <br>
 multiplied into a compost tea full of living bacteria, fungi, <br>
 beneficial nematodes and other tiny creatures. Her fascinating <br>
 presentation helped me understand how the nitrogen in a green leaf <br>
 tossed into the compost pile comes to be nitrogen accessible to the <br>
 growing tip of a new plant's rootlet.<br>
 <br>
 She took lots of time to explain the *how* and *why* of keeping a <br>
 compost tea aerobic in order to allow the beneficial bacteria to <br>
 out compete (and thus eliminate) whatever human pathogens might be <br>
 present in the original compost. This safety issue is, of course, <br>
 central to helping gardeners, farmers and The Powers That Be <br>
 understand how _properly brewed_ CT is absolutely safe for human food <br>
 crops, as well as incredibly beneficial to crops.<br>
 <br>
 After lunch we moved to an outdoor area where several CT brewers had <br>
 been set up by their manufacturers. We were able to meet the various <br>
 brewers and watch them in action, ask questions of their designers, <br>
 sniff compost, peer into microscopes and learn from the many <br>
 informative conversations going on among the attendees.<br>
 <br>
 Finally Elaine wrapped the session up with a discussion of the carbon <br>
 : nitrogen requirements of various types of plants, spraying <br>
 schedules for various crops, and a general Q &amp; A for those of us who 
<br>
 were not already experiencing brain cramps.<br>
 <br>
 It was a wonderful day. My enthusiastic thanks to ICTC for all the <br>
 hard work that went in to organizing it, and for making it available <br>
 to a wide audience. No CT user should miss the opportunity to attend <br>
 a similar ICTC educational event when one presents itself within <br>
 driving distance.<br>
 <br>
 Irene, outside Eatonville, WA where the CT'd zucchini leaves doubled <br>
 in size while I was attending the ICTC training session...<br>
 <br>
 <br>
 Both Jeff and Irene covered what the ICTC session was all about very well.&nbsp; 
But if I may add, I attended the all day session on Saturday and left with 
the words: Exciting, Fascinating, Awesome, Inspiring, &#8230; and other such words 
running around in my head during my 2 hour drive back home.&nbsp; (Jeff, I even 
stopped at the Ellensburg Safeway before getting home just to buy several 
boxes of Baby Oatmeal.&nbsp; I wanted to make some of my own fungi cultures to 
show off.<br>
 Jeff, I was ready to package you up along with your enthusiasm and inspiring 
ability to express the science of all of this in layman terms and smuggle 
you home with me.&nbsp; I need you here in Eastern Washington to explain to these 
folks that there IS a difference between the chemical components of NPK and 
soil biology as well as what years of chems is doing to our farmland.&nbsp; Your 
enthusiasm was excellent and your humor appreciated.&nbsp; It was also great to 
be able to put a face to all the emails.<br>
 Elaine, thank you too, so very much.&nbsp; Your scientific explanations were
set well toward the layman, but yet deep enough to inspire the science dabbler.&nbsp; 
Learning from reading your emails is one thing, but listening to you speak 
and having the ability to talk with you and ask questions face to face added 
a whole different layer to the learning.&nbsp; You keep your audience enthused 
and interested &#8211; it was great to have had the honor to attend. <br>
 Next time I&#8217;m roping my neighbors, and father, into coming -my pop being 
my biggest critic when it comes to the soil science vs. chemical applications.&nbsp; 
Jeff, I had always jokingly called my dad the &#8216;Father of MiracleGrow&#8217; &#8211; now 
I guess I need a new name for him since your explanation of the history of 
the product&#8230; grin.&nbsp; But that&#8217;s okay; there are other chemicals over there 
in his garden shed to work off of&#8230; grin.<br>
 Leon, and the other ICTC folks who worked hard to make this happen, thank 
you very much for the hospitality and hard work in setting this up.&nbsp; The format
of the session could not have been better.&nbsp; Leon, you kept joking about it
being &#8216;seat of pants&#8217;, but if I were to go again, the format, in my opinion,
should not change one bit.&nbsp; Jeff gave the introduction in easy to understand
terms, Elaine interjected where more science was needed, and then she followed
Jeff with more in-depth science &#8211; which too, was easy to understand and relate
with.&nbsp; Each of you helped the other, it was great.&nbsp; The questions and comments
added in from the audience were also informative and helpful.<br>
 Hendrikus, thank you too for sharing your experiences and knowledge. The 
work you are doing is awe-inspiring to all of us, I am sure.<br>
 Bob, it was great to finally meet you in person as well.&nbsp; A pleasure indeed!<br>
 I have always had a heart for science and now to be able to mix my two favorite 
&#8216;hobbies&#8217;, science and farming, only add to the experience!&nbsp; As a lot of you
have had to listen to me rant about my thoughts on how AACT could/should be
best promoted, cultivated and gained in the ol&#8217; criticized world the &#8216;stuff&#8217; 
&#8211; I think I was able to see, first hand, one of the best means of its promotion.&nbsp; 
The next time this is offered, I&#8217;m not only coming myself, but bringing some 
of the critics near me.&nbsp; I would encourage others to do the same.&nbsp; These folks
explain this better than I could have ever imagined!<br>
 Thank you ICTC, SoilFoodWeb, Brewers and each of the speakers!&nbsp; It was an 
awesome day.<br>
 &nbsp;Mike Bosko<br>
 <br>
 A huge THANK YOU to you as well Jeff!&nbsp; It was a wonderful weekend and a
fantastic event! Thank you again for all of your support.&nbsp; Thank you as well
to all of those who chose to support and participate last weekend.&nbsp; We could
not have done it without all of you!!!!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<br>
 Elaine and Hendrikus a huge THANK YOU to the both for a terrific Friday
program.&nbsp; Great success and hope to do it again soon.....&nbsp; :)<br>
 <br>
 Seaneen Hummel<br>
 Director of Compost Tea Spraying services - Creative Gardens, Inc.<br>
 Founder &amp; VP, International Compost Tea Council&nbsp;&nbsp; <a
 class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.intlctc.org">www.intlctc.org</a><br>
 <br>
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
 2.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Nutrional differences<br>
 <br>
 Here is a link to a NY Times article on nutritional<br>
 differences between organics and conventional<br>
 It makes our old pal Alex Avery look pretty bad (he he)<br>
 check it out<br>
 <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
 href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/16/dining/16WELL.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/16/dining/16WELL.html</a><br>
 <br>
 David Conner<br>
 <br>
 3.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Upcoming SFI and SSI seminars <br>
 <br>
 SFI has several workshops coming up, geared to consultants as well as small 
producers. <br>
 To get details on our workshops and others that Elaine is doing around the 
country, go to <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="http://www.soilfoodweb.com">www.soilfoodweb.com</a> . <br>
 <br>
 Here is a list of the workshops schedule for 2003.<br>
 <br>
 October 4 &#8211; 6 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Soil Biology and Soil Chemistry<br>
 October 20 &#8211; 21 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Hands-on Composting<br>
 October 21 &#8211; 22 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Hands-on Compost Tea<br>
 <br>
 The advisor&#8217;s training will be in November, but to be considered for the 
advisor&#8217;s training, we have to have a consulting relationship with you.&nbsp; Not
only do you have to have the Soil Biology and Chemistry training behind you,
the Compost and/or Compost Tea training sessions, AND you have to be sending
in samples and ASKING QUESTIONS about them.&nbsp; We have to feel that you are
working with us at SFI, doing your best to get the information out to growers,
gardeners, kids, and the public in general, and getting your hands into the
soil and into understanding the critters, how they work. &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 So, those of you who want to do that training, please realize you have to 
be pro-active about showing us you want to participate!<br>
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
 <br>
 3.&nbsp; MORE GROWER EXPERIENCES<br>
 <br>
 I&#8217;ve been making compost tea for the fruit club with the Bob-O-Lator.&nbsp; I 
asked the members how many gallons they want next week.&nbsp; I&#8217;ve received some 
answers &#8230;<br>
 <br>
 &#8220;Hi Judy...we'd like 10gal of tea on the 6th.&nbsp; I sprayed the currant bushes 
with compost tea this spring and for the first time in 5plus years they weren't 
defoliated by currant worms.&nbsp; Previously we had used Bt.&#8221;<br>
 <br>
 &#8220;Hi Judi, I would like 40 Gallons of your magical brew.&nbsp; Denny&#8221; &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 &#8220;Would love some CT...enough to spray 3 tiny apple trees..each 3 ft tall 
with one branch. Plus about 2 more gallons to dilute for maintenance of some 
new buddlea hedge.&#8221;<br>
 <br>
 &#8220;I need more compost tea.&nbsp; The leaves on my apple tree look waxed.&nbsp; I took 
4 gallons before.&nbsp; Can I have 20?&nbsp; No, better make that 40 or 50.&#8221;<br>
 <br>
 &#8220;I&#8217;d like 10 gallons this time.&nbsp; My hostas are 3 times their size.&#8221;<br>
 <br>
 Our fruit club is growing.&nbsp; We&#8217;ve added five members this month because
of the compost tea.&nbsp; Members are picking up their tea in gallon jugs, 5-gallon 
pails, and 55 gallon drums.&nbsp; It&#8217;s fun to see them outside of meetings as it
gives us more time to chat.&nbsp; Tea time has become a mini social event.<br>
 <br>
 Judi<br>
 <br>
 <br>
 <br>
 4. More Compost Tea Brewing Manual Update<br>
 <br>
 Pages 32 to 38 of the CTBM. &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 We try to get all the compost tea makers to participate in the Compost Tea 
Grant, but some don&#8217;t respond no matter what.&nbsp; Of course, I can&#8217;t communicate 
with Growing Solutions (or employees, family or associates), as I&#8217;ve been 
threatened that there will be legal action taken if I do.&nbsp; So I don&#8217;t. &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 Ed Neff of Soil Soup has told me in no uncertain terms that they test only 
with BBC Labs.&nbsp; If so, where&#8217;s the data? &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 So, instead of working with the companies that make those machines, we work 
with people who own their machines.&nbsp; So much for either Growing Solutions 
or Soil Soup being interested in &#8220;unity&#8221; in the compost tea world. &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 If either Ed Neff or Mike Alms would like to start testing what their teas 
actually contain, Soil Foodweb Inc would run their samples just as we run 
samples for anyone else.&nbsp; I have never cut them off, or said they couldn&#8217;t 
work with us.&nbsp; They are the ones that won&#8217;t maintain the community of people 
working on common goals in the compost tea world. &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 Here&#8217;s the section from the tea manual ----<br>
 ------------------------------------<br>
 Comparison of Different Commercial Brewers<br>
 <br>
 &nbsp;The Sustainable Studies Institute Tea Grant, 2002<br>
 <br>
 In the tea grant sponsored by the Sustainable Studies Institute, growers 
made tea using the machines they bought, with nutrient starters sold by the 
companies or prepared by the grower, using their own choice of composts.&nbsp; 
Composts chosen for use were widely variable, temperature, water source, and
cleaning conditions were widely variable, and yet the teas produced were quite
similar.&nbsp; Of course, assessing total and active bacteria and total and active
fungi does not take into account species diversity per se, so the level of
resolution assessed means only one kind of variation was assessed.&nbsp; But good
tea machines resulted in good organism numbers, regardless of conditions, 
while poor tea machines rarely produced decent organism numbers.&nbsp; &nbsp;<br>
 This is opposite claims by some tea machine makers that because compost, 
water, food resources and so forth are so different from tea brew to tea brew
that the teas are so variable that consistent data cannot be obtained.&nbsp; Clearly,
tea contains reasonably the same bacterial and fungal biomass and same levels
of activity if decent compost and recipes are made.&nbsp; Only tea machine makers
trying to hide the fact that their machine cannot make a consistently decent
result would use arguments that testing is not possible because of variation
from tea brew to tea brew.&nbsp; . <br>
 In the following study, teas were made according to the manufacturer&#8217;s directions.&nbsp; 
In some instances, the teas were made at SFI by SFI technicians (maintained 
at 72 F, using de-gassed Corvallis city water), but in most cases, the teas 
were made by growers, using the instructions received from the tea machine 
manufacturer, and sent overnight mail to SFI Corvallis, or New York.&nbsp; Growers 
were requested to make their composts from 50% thermal compost and 50% vermicompost.&nbsp; 
The compost was mixed well before use, the amounts needed for each machine 
measured, placed in the unit, with the same amount of molasses and soluble 
kelp per volume of water added to each machine.&nbsp; Each machine was run for 
the specified time.<br>
 One to three sub-samples of tea were removed from the machine, typically 
via whatever method was available to move tea from the tea-making machine 
into the spray tank of a sprayer. If there was no discharge pump, this is 
noted.&nbsp; Samples were sent to the lab by overnight mail in plastic water containers 
filled a third to a half full.&nbsp; Each sample was assessed for total and active 
bacteria, total and active fungi, protozoa, and nematodes at SFI.<br>
 <br>
 Results.&nbsp; The most notable finding is that despite widely different sources 
of compost, and different machine designs, the resulting teas were reasonably 
uniform with respect to achieving minimal levels of bacterial and fungal activity
and biomass.&nbsp; Some manufacturers have suggested that there is so much variation
from tea to tea that testing is meaningless, but generally what that means
is the tea maker is trying to disguise an inferior machine.&nbsp; If the machine
does not achieve the same minimum levels of organisms from tea brew to tea
brew when using similar compost, ingredients, and climate conditions, then
there is quite likely something wrong with the machine. &nbsp;<br>
 Growers need to recognize that brew-to-brew differences based on different 
composts, different food additives, and different weather conditions are possible,
but if the compost has decent organism levels, similar food resources are
added, and temperatures are reasonably warm, the tea will always have organism
numbers above the minimum levels on the desired range of the SFI test. &nbsp;<br>
 Some machines routinely have much higher fungal or bacterial biomass than 
others and there are machines that ALWAYS give higher then the minimal range 
on the SFI test.&nbsp; This is excellent, and quite likely a true difference in 
the ability of the machine to extract organisms from the compost. &nbsp;<br>
 In several instances we have documented that the reasons some machines cannot 
extract organisms from the compost are:<br>
 1.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Compost compacts in the basket, making water movement impossible through 
the compost.&nbsp; Without water movement through the compost, organisms cannot 
be extracted from the compost and organisms will be lacking in the tea. &nbsp;<br>
 2.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;When water cannot move through the compost, it is quite likely that 
the compost will become anaerobic during the brew cycle.&nbsp; Visit trade shows 
where the machines are running.&nbsp; Put your hand in the compost in a machine 
to see if water is actively moving through the compost.&nbsp; But be careful &#8211; 
some manufacturers have been known to use compost with a higher-than-normal 
amount of chunky material to make it seems like the machine has good water 
flow, when in fact, using non-woody compost, the material compacts.&nbsp; Check 
in-use machines to determine flow-through in the compost.<br>
 3.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Bio-film build-up occurs.&nbsp; Usually build-up within one brew cycle
is not a problem, except where water flow does not occur.&nbsp;&nbsp; Cleaning then
becomes an important factor.&nbsp; Some machines are difficult to clean, and when
considering different machines, consider cleaning ease.<br>
 <br>
 The numbers of samples in each assessment below are given in the table.&nbsp; 
Some growers sent in one tea, some sent in three, a few sent in more teas.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
Results are listed by machine type and volume.&nbsp; In some cases, new machines 
have come on the market, but the only testing has been with the manufacturer.&nbsp; 
The tea grant will be repeated in 2003, and the results should be available 
next year. &nbsp;<br>
 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Note the differentiation into compost tea and bacterial tea.&nbsp; If only 
bacteria grow well in the tea, and fungi, protozoa and nematodes do not appear 
in at least minimal amounts in the tea, then the tea cannot be called a compost 
tea. &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 <br>
 Table 7. Tea Quality Assessed by the SSI Tea Grant Study.&nbsp; Growers sent
in compost teas from different machines, using their own or manufacturer
supplied compost, the manufacturer&#8217;s nutrient starting mix, or molasses and
kelp, in conditions in the field through the summer of 2002.&nbsp; Data from SFI
research is included as well.&nbsp; While some range of response is present, in
general the data by machine are not widely different.&nbsp; In general, when variability 
is greater than the mean, the compost tea machine has trouble making consistent 
tea. &nbsp;<br>
 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Active Bacteria (&micro;g/ml)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Total Bacteria(&micro;g/ml)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Active Fungi(&micro;g/ml)&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp;Total Fungi(&micro;g/ml)<br>
 Desired Ranges for suppressive teas*&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;10 - 150&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;150 - 300&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;2 &#8211; 10&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp;2 -20<br>
 Compost Tea Brewers^&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Mean&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;SD&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Mean&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;SD&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Mean&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;SD&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Mean&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp;SD<br>
 Earth Tea Brewer500 gal (8 teas)500 gal (2001&#8211;1tea)100 gal (6 teas)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;52735168&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp;468ND118&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;1322467004518&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;3841ND1054&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;57.6232.24&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;38.5ND1.36&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;109308.46&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp;57.0ND3.33<br>
 Simplici-Tea KIS5 gal (10 teas)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;141&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;93&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;3730&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;2755&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;6.88&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;2.63&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp;11.8&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;3.12<br>
 EarthWorks85 gal (9 teas)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;326&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;219&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;10210&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;5084&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;1.70&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;1.52&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp;2.62&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;3.45<br>
 Clarke 60 gal (12 teas)100 gal (3 teas)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;70.352.4&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;66.622.9&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;25191306&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp;2231363&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;1.883.55&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;1.131.49&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;3.627.63&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;2.260.83<br>
 Alaska Giant1 gal (3 teas)5 gal (2 teas)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;35.852.4&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;22.853.3&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;52542528&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp;40221312&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;1.030.34&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;0.570.46&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;5.792.47&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;4.431.07<br>
 Compara50 gal (200 L) (3 teas)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;89.1&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;19.7&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;2115&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;715&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;2.79&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;1.37&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;5.72&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;1.73<br>
 Bacterial Tea Brewers^&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<br>
 SoilSoup30 gal (6 teas)aNylon Bag (3 teas)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;40.2101&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;23.113.3&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;17691500&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp;947210&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;0.031.23&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;0.031.26&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;0.253.01&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;0.191.88<br>
 Growing Solutions25 gal (4 teas)100 gal (12 teas)500 gal (12 teas)b Schraven 
(1 tea)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;34618460.670.4&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;54526834.7&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;415626444106209&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;424618615579&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp;0.530.881.021.57&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;0.851.081.01&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;0.892.305.362.21&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;1.412.807.75<br>
 *Based on work comparing teas that are not suppressive with teas that are 
suppressive<br>
 ^Based on results that show that bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes 
in the compost are successfully and routinely extracted into the tea.&nbsp; On 
rare instances bacterial tea can put enough bacteria on leaf surfaces to use
up food and prevent disease growth.<br>
 aNylon Bag - set of brews done at SFI using a nylon bag instead of the fabric 
bag sold by SoilSoup. &nbsp;<br>
 bThe Schraven method of running the GSI System involves different foods, 
changing the aerator in the basket and altering the basket arrangement when 
used in the larger machines. Clearly, things can be done to improve this bacterial
tea machine so it COULD make decent compost tea. &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 A great deal of assessment goes into determining whether a tea machine in 
fact can extract decent levels of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes 
from the compost and grow the organisms in the tea during the 24 hour aerobic 
brewing process.&nbsp;&nbsp; For example, Bruce Elliott who makes the Earth Tea Brewer 
machines has worked with SFI since he started building tea makers in 1999.&nbsp; 
He has invested a great deal of effort in determining the best recipe of foods
to grow fungi in his tea maker.&nbsp; In addition, EPM has just developed a 22
gal tea machine, and so far, is getting as good organism numbers in the tea
as their other tea brewers. &nbsp;<br>
 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Simplici-Tea makes the KIS brewers, and has recently developed a 30
gal machine.&nbsp; This too is getting as good organisms in the tea as the 5 gal
machine. &nbsp;<br>
 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;EarthWorks make 35 and 85 gal machines and are working on a new formulation 
of their nutrient mixes for this summer.&nbsp; On occasion, the foods added this 
last summer resulted in too much oxygen use in the teas, especially as the 
temperatures became warmer and warmer.&nbsp; During the summer, the amount of foods
added should decrease as the temperatures increase.&nbsp; Generally, food should
reduce by 2-fold for each 10 degree in temperature rise. <br>
 &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<br>
 Contact Information for Compost Tea machines:<br>
 <br>
 Alaska Giant, John Evans<br>
 10-to-100 gal. brewers, 4 gal and 1 gal Soil Stimulant brewer kits<br>
 P.O. Box 1072<br>
 Palmer, Alaska 99645 &nbsp;<br>
 Tel: (907) 746-4781&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; FAX: (907) 
746-4781<br>
 E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="mailto:alaskabounty@alaskagiant.com%A0%A0">alaskabounty@alaskagiant.com&nbsp;&nbsp;</a>
&nbsp;Website: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="http://www.alaskagiant.com">www.alaskagiant.com</a><br>
 <br>
 Bob&#8217;s Bitti, Bob-O-Later, Bob Norsen<br>
 5-to-30 gal, and 30-to-300 gal machines (variable volumes)<br>
 6515 W Marginal Way<br>
 Seattle, Washington 98106<br>
 Tel: (206) 571-4671&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;FAX: (206) 767-2026<br>
 E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="mailto:bob@bnbrew.com">bob@bnbrew.com</a><br>
 <br>
 Charlie Clarke/James Sotillo Contact <a
 class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:JAMSOT@aol.com">JAMSOT@aol.com</a><br>
 <br>
 Compara Xtraktor, Gerben Schrouten<br>
 Air pump, tea diffuser, 50 gal., 250 gal., 500 gal. <br>
 Postbus 110, 2394 ZG HAZERSWOUDE Rd.<br>
 Netherlands 1221 JR<br>
 Tel: 31 71 34 19873&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<br>
 E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="mailto:office@compara.nl.com%A0%A0">office@compara.nl.com&nbsp;&nbsp;</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;Website: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="http://www.compara.nl/engels.shtml">www.compara.nl/engels.shtml</a><br>
 <br>
 Compost Solutions<br>
 1000 L machines<br>
 Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia<br>
 Contact: Lee Beckett<br>
 E-mail:&nbsp; <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="mailto:lbeckett@bigpond.com">lbeckett@bigpond.com</a><br>
 <br>
 Ecology Enterprises, Dennis Hronek<br>
 Brewer can extract up to 24,000 gallons of high microbe product per day.&nbsp; 
Patent pending.<br>
 P.O. Box 546<br>
 Windsor, Colorado <br>
 Tel: (970) 686-0669&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Tel: (509) 787-2900<br>
 E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="mailto:info@ecology-enterprise.com%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0">info@ecology-enterprise.com&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a>
Tel: (541) 948-2692<br>
 <br>
 EcoVit Tea-riffic Brewers, Laura Sabourin<br>
 17, 100, 300 gal, custom-made<br>
 RR #1 St. Catharines<br>
 Ontario, Canada L2R 6P7<br>
 Tel: (905) 562-0151&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;FAX: (905) 562-0152<br>
 E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="mailto:EcoVit@ragdolls.net%A0%A0">EcoVit@ragdolls.net&nbsp;&nbsp;</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;Website: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="http://www.ecovit.ca">www.ecovit.ca</a><br>
 <br>
 EPM Earth Tea Brewers.&nbsp; Bruce Elliott<br>
 All tea pump types, air stones and venture; 22, 100, 500 gal.<br>
 Sprayers, worm bins<br>
 P.O. Box 1295<br>
 Cottage Grove, Oregon&nbsp; 97425<br>
 Tel: (541) 767-2747&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; FAX: (541) 
767-2744<br>
 E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="mailto:sales@fish-world.com%A0%A0">sales@fish-world.com&nbsp;&nbsp;</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;Website: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="http://www.composttea.com">www.composttea.com</a><br>
 <br>
 Simplici-tea, Keep It Simple Brewers, Leon Hussey<br>
 Air pump tea maker, 5, 30 gal.<br>
 12323 180th Ave. NE<br>
 Redmond, Washington&nbsp; 98052<br>
 Tel: (425) 558-0990&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; FAX: (425) 
558-3695<br>
 E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="mailto:kis@simplici-tea.com%A0%A0">kis@simplici-tea.com&nbsp;&nbsp;</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;Website: www. simplici-tea.com<br>
 <br>
 The Compost Tea Company<br>
 Air pump tea maker, 200 L and larger sizes<br>
 982 Kaipaki Road, RD 3, Cambridge, New Zealand<br>
 +64 7 827 6682&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;FAX +64 7 827 3787<br>
 <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="mailto:cherryle.prew@extra.co.nz">cherryle.prew@extra.co.nz</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Website:&nbsp; <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="http://www.compost-tea.co.nz%A0">www.compost-tea.co.nz&nbsp;</a> &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 WormGold Extractors, George Hahn and Carole Eddington<br>
 Air pump tea maker, 100, 500 gal. <br>
 P.O. Box 95<br>
 Cardiff by the Sea, California 92007&nbsp; &nbsp;<br>
 Tel: (760) 942-6086&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; FAX: (619) 
942-5356<br>
 E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
 href="mailto:geohahn1@juno.com%A0%A0">geohahn1@juno.com&nbsp;&nbsp;</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Website:
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.wormgold.com">www.wormgold.com</a><br>
 <br>
 In the cases where we have data, it is interesting to compare the tea data 
with the compost from which the tea was made.&nbsp; If nematode, protozoa or fungal 
biomass were low in the compost that often explains low biomass or numbers 
in the tea. Remember, however, that bacteria may increase by 100 to 500 times 
the original number during a brewing cycle, while fungi may only increase 
by 5 to 10 times. Protozoa and nematodes DO NOT increase in numbers in a tea
cycle. Their life cycles are longer than the duration of a compost tea brew
cycle.<br>
 If the organisms are present in the compost, but not present, or low, in 
the tea, then the reason for the lack of those organisms needs to be determined:<br>
 1.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Were the organisms extracted?&nbsp; If neither active nor total fungi or 
active or total bacteria are present, there&#8217;s a good indication that extraction 
is the problem.&nbsp; Is the mesh on the basket, bag or compost container a problem?&nbsp; 
Neither active nor total fungi can be a result.<br>
 2.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Were they killed by too much pressure going through a pump?&nbsp; No organisms 
at all present.<br>
 3.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Did something in the tea kill them?&nbsp; Minimal amounts of total bacteria 
and total fungi (extraction occurred), but no active biomass.<br>
 4.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Did they lack food?&nbsp; Did they lack a surface to grow on?&nbsp; No active 
fungi, minimal layers of total fungi.<br>
 5.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Did the tea drop into limited oxygen or anaerobic conditions?&nbsp; Low 
active and low total fungi, but what is seen is covered with bacteria that 
do not stain with the activity stain. &nbsp;<br>
 <br>
 ----------------------------<br>
 <br>
 More next month! - ERI<br>
 <br>
 
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Hi Debra -

Your web page is beautiful and inspiring. A yurt is a nice abode.

I can provide some contacts for India, but let me get back
later with details.

E.g.,
Pune, India.... which is about 4 hours away from Bombay/Mumbai
by bus, is home to a half dozen institutes and organizations developing
and promoting vermicomposting / vermiculture.

See:

[permaculture] Vermicompost + Cuba + India
30 May 2002
http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2002/permaculture/msg01124.html


E.g.,
Near Bombay you have the state of Gujarat. The Bombay-
Gujarat region is where Swadhyaya movement is centered.
Led by teacher Pandurang Shrastri Athavale, the Swadhyaya
movement is keen on plant-based pest control, vermicomposting,
organic farming, alternative crops, water well recharge, and related
green technologies. It promotes the ancient teachings of India --
the Vedas and Upanishads -- as a framework for modern living
and re-integration following cultural displacement by European
colonialism. It promotes villagers working and eating together
on volunteer farms, also learning these green technologies -- Hindus,
Muslims, and Christains working together -- who then take these
appropriate technologies back to their villages and teach. When
you consider that every one of the 19,000 villages in Gujarat
has been visited by Swadhyaya, and you observe how it teaches,
it becomes apparent that Swadhyaya is one of the most powerful
appropriate technology dissimenation programs in the world.

Organic organic farming and biodynamic farming in India is
growing by leaps and bounds. The climate is amenable to
polyculture food plants extraordinairre, and good quality
cow dung is available for good quality BD preprations like
BD 500, Cow Patty Pit (CPP), BD compost, vermicompost.

Here is my biblio on Plants and Agriculture of India, which you
may find helpful:

Selected Bibliography on the Useful Plants and Agriculture of India
http://www.ipa.net/~steved/plants-india.html

Regards,
Steve Diver
steved@ncat.org

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Title: Permaculture contacts in or near Bombay India
Ill be traveling to Bombay India the December to attend a friends 
wedding. Afterwards, Ill have a couple weeks to explore some of my 
interests. Does anyone know of permaculture / ecological building and or 
interesting organic garden projects in or near the Bombay area that we 
could visit?
Thanks Much,
Debra Amerson, MA Business
Artist & Plantscape Designer

Plantris
Healthy Habitats With Plants & Art

Voice 415.267.7606
Fax 415.488.1564
debra@plantris.com
http://www.plantris.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




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Subject: let the soil work for us - now available online
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“Let the soil work for us” by Elliott, E. T. and Coleman, D. C. the
Ecological Bulletin article Joel Gruver has referenced more than once on
SANET is now posted at
http://www.certifiedorganic.bc.ca/rcbtoa/training/soil-article.html
Would like to express my appreciation to David Coleman, Ecological Bulletin,
Mary Gold (AFSIC) and Joel Gruver who each helped bring this to fruition.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Rochelle Eisen
COABC's Cyber-Help Coordinator
Site 48 RR3 C7  Summerland BC Canada V0H 1Z0
250.494.7980 (p) 250.494.7985 (f)
Cyber-Help For Organic Farmers http://www.certifiedorganic.bc.ca/rcbtoa
Subscribe to our Cyber-Help Newsletter mailto:cyber-help@jnweb.com

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Just a note about Nafiisa Sobratee's message...E. coli are facultative 
aerobes, which means that they prefer to live in anaerobic environments, 
but can live and reproduce very well in aerobic environments. In fact, when 
scientists work with E. coli in the laboratory, we use aerobic conditions. 
There is some evidence and preliminary data that human pathogens are not a 
significant concern in compost tea if they are not present in the compost 
used to brew the tea, but there have been no articles published in peer 
reviewed scientific journals on this topic. Remember also that E. coli are 
soil microorganisms and live in many soil environments. There are many 
different strains of E. coli, some that are harmless to humans, some that 
are mildly pathogenic and some, like E. coli 0157:H7, that are extremely 
virulent to humans. I think the more important question to ask is: "are 
there virulent strains of E. coli in compost tea?" Several different 
researchers, including myself are working on this topic and at least one 
paper (from researchers at Soil Foodweb Incorporated) is in the review 
process and due to be published soon. It will be very interesting to see 
the results of this research. Currently the use of compost tea is not 
permitted under the new National Organic Program (USDA Organic) because of 
concerns about E. coli and other pathogens. Hopefully research in this area 
will define safe ways to brew and apply compost tea so that this emerging 
sustainable technology can continue to be used in agricultural systems.

Allison Hornor


----------
Allison L. Hornor
Graduate Student
Department of Crop and Soil Science
Cornell University
706 Bradfield Hall
(607) 255-3226

----------

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<html>
<body>
Just a note about Nafiisa Sobratee's message...E. coli are facultative
aerobes, which means that they prefer to live in anaerobic environments,
but can live and reproduce very well in aerobic environments. In fact,
when scientists work with E. coli in the laboratory, we use aerobic
conditions. There is some evidence and preliminary data that human
pathogens are not a significant concern in compost tea if they are not
present in the compost used to brew the tea, but there have been no
articles published in peer reviewed scientific journals on this topic.
Remember also that E. coli are soil microorganisms and live in many soil
environments. There are many different strains of E. coli, some that are
harmless to humans, some that are mildly pathogenic and some, like E.
coli 0157:H7, that are extremely virulent to humans. I think the more
important question to ask is: &quot;are there virulent strains of E. coli
in compost tea?&quot; Several different researchers, including myself are
working on this topic and at least one paper (from researchers at Soil
Foodweb Incorporated) is in the review process and due to be published
soon. It will be very interesting to see the results of this research.
Currently the use of compost tea is not permitted under the new National
Organic Program (USDA Organic) because of concerns about E. coli and
other pathogens. Hopefully research in this area will define safe ways to
brew and apply compost tea so that this emerging sustainable technology
can continue to be used in agricultural systems.<br><br>
Allison Hornor<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<hr>
<font face=3D"Bookman Old Style, Bookman" size=3D4 color=3D"#800080">Allison=
 L.
Hornor<br>
</font><font face=3D"Bookman Old Style, Bookman" color=3D"#800080">Graduate
Student<br>
Department of Crop and Soil Science<br>
Cornell University<br>
706 Bradfield Hall<br>
(607) 255-3226<br>
<hr>
</font></body>
</html>

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From - Wed Nov 05 19:56:15 2003
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From: Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
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Joel -

I know you have ideas on where that N is
coming from.  I'll be interested to hear
your thoughts.

Microbial biomass, humus complex, N pools,
OM pools... protozoan grazing... the whole basis
of organic agriculture is based on a holistic system
with mutliple components interacting to
support a cycle of nutrient availability,
growth promotion, and plant protection.

We have evidence that microorganisms communicate
with plant roots and make nutrients available
as the plant needs them, during certain periods
of the growing season. Later in the growing season,
these same nutrients are not produced by the
rhizosphere community.

Anyways, mineralization also came up on the
U.S. Compost Council list regarding compost
mineraliztaion rates. Greg Evanylo at Virginia
Tech completed recent SARE research on agronomic rates
of compost.  He shared ideas and figures on N
mineralization from composts, worth bookmarking
for future reference.

Yet, again, crop response in the field is greater
than what compost mineralization rates predict.

Interestingly, I'm on the road in Davis, California.
This is a very productive agricultural region.

The size of the trees and the diversity of plant
species to choose from for landscaping and
food production is amazing.

UC-SAREP at UC-Davis has published helpful papers
and publications on organic matter, worms, etc.

In my travels, observations on sustainability are
striking.  How will population growth, resource
consumption, fossil fuel reserves, transportation
methods and building structures, and global warming
effect our lives and our lifestyles in 5, 10,
20, and 50 years?

It occurs to me that we may have to look
at a lifestyle based on the bicycle and other
non-fossil fuel driven transporation, in the
next decade or two.  This will also be a time
when home food production becomes the norm, rather
than reliance on shipped-in food and commercial
agriculture.  I realize this is a bleak picture,
but it an impression that is real.  How do you support
these megatropolis populations with all those cars
zooming around, when fossil fuel reserves are predicted
to zero out in less than 100 years?

Steve Diver
NCAT / ATTRA


On Wed, 5 Nov 2003 14:07:27 -0500, Joel Gruver <jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

>2 weeks ago I asked several soil scientists with long careers investigating=

>nitrogen management to estimate how many lbs of the N taken up by a typical=

>NC corn crop comes from the mineralization of organic matter.
>
>They all estimated 20-40 lbs and presented the following rationale (2%
>mineralization of 1% OM (~10 tons of OM in an acre plow layer) with a 5% N
>content  =E0 20 lbs N).
>
>They all agreed that :
>a 150 bushel/acre corn crop will take up 150-170 lbs/acre of N
>150 lbs/acre of fertilizer N is a normal rate
>fertilizer uptake efficiency is not likely to exceed 50%.
>
>I then showed them the following calculation:
>total N uptake =96 50% of fertilizer N =3D 75 =96 95 lbs of soil N/acre
>and asked them where all this soil N was coming from if organic matter was
>only providing 20-40 lbs.
>
>They all seemed genuinely perplexed=85 as if they had never contemplated th=
is
>question.
>
>Joel Gruver
>Department of Soil Science
>NC State University
>919 515 4270
>jgruv@hotmail.com

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From: chris reid <reidchris@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Compost Tea Experiences, Questions, and Recommendations
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Over the past few months, I've been putting together a document of ideas,
experiences and best practices in aerobically active compost tea (AACT)
brewing and use, as part of a Yahoo compost tea e-group moderated by Jeff
Lowenfels.  I use the tea in my landscaping practice, and others use it in
gardens, farms, and even some use it for houseplants.

The interest and impetus for putting together this document was that it is
not easy to gather together the information to brew good tea.  Elaine
Ingham's Compost Tea Brewing Manual provides a wealth of useful information,
but I find there is even more to know than is provided in this pioneering
document.

As a result of this still-incomplete project, I've now been asked to speak
at a local conference on the topic of compost tea.  I just began using it
last summer, so it is premature to draw public conclusions about my own
limited experiences and I think it best and most responsible to function and
speak more as a reporter who has spoken to many others about their
experiences.

So now you have the background.  In preparation for the conference talk, I'm
interested in hearing from anyone using compost tea in farm, garden, or
landscape settings.  What has your experience been?  What kind of setup,
ingredients, and recipes are you using? Have you tested your teas?  What are
the results - positive and unintended or negative -- that you believe you
have observed? What other inputs or practices are you using in the plots
where you are using tea?

I am clear that some of the information will be anecdotal, other info more
documentable.

I welcome comments either on or off list.

Thanks,

Chris Reid

********************************************************

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Subject: Compost Tea Experiences, Questions, and Recommendations
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Over the past few months, I've been putting together a document of ideas,
experiences and best practices in aerobically active compost tea (AACT)
brewing and use, as part of a Yahoo compost tea e-group moderated by Jeff
Lowenfels.  I use the tea in my landscaping practice, and others use it in
gardens, farms, and even some use it for houseplants.

The interest and impetus for putting together this document was that it is
not easy to gather together the information to brew good tea.  Elaine
Ingham's Compost Tea Brewing Manual provides a wealth of useful information,
but I find there is even more to know than is provided in this pioneering
document.

As a result of this still-incomplete project, I've now been asked to speak
at a local conference on the topic of compost tea.  I just began using it
last summer, so it is premature to draw public conclusions about my own
limited experiences and I think it best and most responsible to function and
speak more as a reporter who has spoken to many others about their
experiences.

So now you have the background.  In preparation for the conference talk, I'm
interested in hearing from anyone using compost tea in farm, garden, or
landscape settings.  What has your experience been?  What kind of setup,
ingredients, and recipes are you using? Have you tested your teas?  What are
the results - positive and unintended or negative -- that you believe you
have observed? What other inputs or practices are you using in the plots
where you are using tea?

I am clear that some of the information will be anecdotal, other info more
documentable.

I welcome comments either on or off list.

Thanks,

Chris Reid

********************************************************

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From: Lion Kuntz <lionkuntz@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Nutrient Quantity, of Nutrient ACCESS?
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No disrespect to Joel, but several hundred thousand
3rd world farmers have personal hands-on experiences
only now beginning to receive agronomic research
attention in the USA...

http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/moist/Roland.pdf

Nutrient Quantity or Nutrient Access?
A New Understanding of How to Maintain Soil Fertility
in the Tropics
By Roland Bunch


INTRODUCTION

If we are to achieve or maintain high levels of
agricultural productivity in the tropics, it is
crucial
that we properly understand the relationship between
nutrients in the soil and crop productivity.
This understanding is especially important if we wish
to achieve such productivity at the lowest
possible costs, both economic and ecological. The
thesis of this paper is that the conventional
view of the relationship between soil nutrients and
crop productivity in the tropics is leading
to both damaging agricultural policies and inefficient
and damaging farm-level practices. Of
prime importance to small-scale farmers worldwide is
that this conventional concept results in the
consistent recommendation of the use of huge
quantities of chemical fertilizers that are
biologically
unnecessary, economically extravagant and ecologically
damaging. The ecological damage caused
by chemical fertilizer in its own right is perhaps not
that great. Nevertheless, if we include its
indirect impact caused by the fact that most
small-scale farmers reduce their use of organic matter
(o.m.) once they start using chemical fertilizers, the
indirect ecological damage brought about by
chemical fertilizers in developing world agriculture
and ecology is nothing short of breath-taking.
The present paper cannot delve deeply into soil
chemistry and biology. For a much more in-depth
analysis of the chemical and biological issues
described herein, the best book at present
(unfortunately available only in Spanish and
Portuguese) is Ana Primavesi's The Ecological
Management of the Soil. (Primavesi) Nevertheless, the
present paper will describe, in general, a
new conception of the fertility of tropical soils, and
then, again very generally, ways in which that
theory can be put into practice.

It should also be mentioned that much of the theory
described in this paper was originally developed
by Drs. Artur and Ana Primavesi. Furthermore, the
Primavesis' theories have been widely validated
by hundreds of thousands of small farmers in southern
Brazil with the technical support of people
such as Valdemar Hercilio (Salgado) de Freitas,
Claudino Monegat and Ademir Calegari. Those
of us trying to improve small farmers' productivity
owe a deep debt of gratitude to these people.


THE CONVENTIONAL CONCEPT OF SOIL FERTILITY

Soil fertility is not an easy concept to define,
(Cresser) but for the purposes of this paper, we will
use the definition of soil fertility presented in
Anthony Young's book Agroforestry for Soil
Conservation: "soil fertility...is the capacity of
soil to support the growth of plants, on a sustained
basis, under given conditions of climate and other
relevant properties of land." We choose this
definition, rather than the much more limited one that
takes into account only the soil content of
available nutrients, because we agree with Young that
the latter definition "leads to a myopic view
of soil management, to the neglect of physical and
biological properties." (Young)
The traditional concept of soil fertility basically
maintains that fertility is largely a reflection of
the
overall quantities or concentration of nutrients in
the soil. That is, plant nutrition is to be maximized
primarily by ensuring that all the essential nutrients
are present in the soil in significant
concentrations. Therefore, if a farmer applies
sufficiently large amounts of primarily chemical
fertilizer, uses the right balance of NPK, and the
soil has an acceptable pH and sufficiently high
cation exchange capacity (CEC) to hold those nutrients
in place, the farmer will have efficiently
achieved good soil fertility.

The basic idea is that the soil operates like a bank:
add more nutrients repeatedly, over a long period
of time, and these nutrients will gradually build up,
like a savings account, increasing the soil's
fertility and therefore crop productivity. Although
there are, of course, other factors that must be
taken into account, primarily physical and chemical
processes like leaching, soil pH, the soil's CEC
and nutrient fixation, the basic idea is that the soil
acts more or less like a static recipient of
nutrients. Thus, the vast majority of the effort and
experimentation of these traditional theorists have
had to do with overall nutrient levels and their
physical movement, mineralization and leaching
within the soil profile. For the purposes of this
paper, this idea of soil fertility will be called the
Nutrient Quantity Concept.

The priorities of the adherents of this Concept are
seen very clearly in the books they write on the
subject of soil properties and management. A typical
textbook, based on the Nutrient Quantity
Concept--even one dealing with tropical soils--
dedicates three chapters (73 pages) to NPK, while
not dedicating even a single chapter to either organic
matter (o.m.) or soil biology. (Committee on
Tropical Soils) Even a book published as recently as
1997 on soil fertility in Africa dedicates two
long chapters (82 pages) to NP, and only a fraction of
one chapter (8 pages) to specifically organic
inputs. (Buresh) Other factors are mentioned in these
publications, but chemical sources and
quantities of NPK dominate heavily the entire
discussion.
A common conclusion drawn from this conception by its
proponents as late as 1997 is that in Africa
"mineral fertilizers should be at the core of
strategies to restore soil fertility and raise crop
production." (Quiñones) Another major proponent of
this conception wrote in 1994: "Some people
say that Africa's food problems can be solved without
the application of chemical fertilizers.
They're dreaming." (Borlaug) The Financial Times goes
on to write that the same author said that,
"Sub-Saharan Africa had the lowest use of fertilizer
in the world and soil nutrients were so low that
other efforts to raise crop productivity would not be
successful until fertility was improved."
(Borlaug) By "fertility" being "improved," he is
referring specifically to the application of chemical
fertilizers.

First, allow me to include a short explanation for the
benefit of the layman. Crops are capable of
absorbing some nutrients that exist in the soil at
levels of less than 0.2 parts per million, while other
nutrients are often difficult to absorb at 100 times
that concentration. (Ahn) Thus there is, in fact,
little relationship between a plant's physical ability
to absorb a nutrient and the nutrient's
concentration in the soil. Also, plants do not absorb
the various nutrients primarily according to the
levels present in the soils, but rather in accordance
with the plants' own needs, and in ratios between
the nutrients that are relatively stable for each
species or variety of plant, regardless of the supply
of the nutrient in the soil. Thus, the Nutrient
Quantity Concept is really saying that, other
conditions
being adequate, the growth or productivity of any
plant will depend largely on the quantity and
availability of the nutrient in the soil that is
proportionately least adequate in relation to the
total
amount of that nutrient necessary for the plant to
achieve maximum growth, and that in practice
maximum crop growth should be achieved by having large
enough reserves of these nutrients in the
soil so that adequate quantities of them will exist in
available forms. (Cresser)


THE INADEQUACIES OF THE NUTRIENT QUANTITY CONCEPT
Theoretical Inadequacies of the Concept

First, the Nutrient Quantity Concept, in its
simplified, "banking" form, is very unrepresentative
of
what actually happens in the soil. Far more important
for productivity than the total quantity of any
single nutrient or group of nutrients is the chemical
form in which it occurs, the depth in the soil at
which it occurs, the kinds and numbers of macro and
microorganisms that exist, the presence of soil
compaction layers, and the equilibrium that exists
between the nutrients, the pH of the soil, its
moisture content, its organic matter content, its
macro and microorganisms, its texture and structure,
etc. Furthermore, these factors constantly impact on
each other, creating a very complex and
constantly changing environment within the soil, or,
more accurately, a constantly changing complex
of varying microenvironments within the soil. These
factors may make it possible for a plant, in a
particular time frame, to access a majority of the
total store of a given nutrient in the soil, or much
less than 1 % of the total store of that same
nutrient.

In other words, the same nutrient that is in the same
total concentration within two different soils
may well be fifty to one hundred times more available
to a plant in one of those soils than in the
other. Obviously, the total amount of a nutrient in
the soil is nowhere near as important in terms of
the soil's fertility as is the availability of that
nutrient to the plants growing on it.
Of course, the body of literature and scientific
conclusions that have grown up around the Nutrient
Quantity Concept, if taken in its total complexity,
admits as much. The data of soil science, as a
whole, take into account fairly well the fact that all
the above-mentioned factors can affect fertility
(although soil science could certainly be a good deal
more aware of certain of these factors,
especially the biological ones). In fact, quite
surprisingly, the science built up around the Nutrient
Quantity Concept in no way contradicts the very
different conception of what is required to achieve
soil fertility that will be described below.

Where the advocates of the Nutrient Quantity Concept
of soil fertility have apparently gone wrong
is in the conclusions they have made about soil
fertility, based almost entirely upon only a certain,
specific selection of these scientific findings. That
is, the experiments, although heavily lop-sided
in the dominance of their preoccupation with chemical
fertilizers, do not necessarily support the
Nutrient Quantity Concept any more than they support
the concept presented below. What has
apparently happened is that one particular fact has
come to totally dominate people's thinking about
soil nutrients. This is the fact that, in a uniform
soil environment, the larger the total quantities of
a nutrient that exist in a given soil, the larger will
be the quantity of that nutrient that is in available
forms. Even though there is ample proof that in a
non-uniform soil, and in countless specific cases,
this relationship does not exist at all, many
conventional soil scientists continue to see this
relationship as the most important single logical
basis to soil fertility management. (See, for
example, Cresser) To cite an extreme but very common
example, even when the availability to
plants of soil phosphorus is known to be as many as
fifty times greater in an organic environment
than in an infertile acid soil environment, the
Nutrient Quantity Concept still leads virtually all
conventional soil scientists to recommend applying
additional chemical phosphorus to the acid soil
rather than finding or creating an organic
microenvironment within that soil in which to apply a
much smaller dose of (organic or inorganic)
phosphorus.

Thus, in a very few words, the Nutrient Quantity
Concept does not differ from the concept to be
presented below, in its scientific, experimental
undergirding. Rather, the difference lies in the
somewhat arbitrary decision to emphasize the
relationship between total nutrient quantity and the
quantity of nutrients available to growing crops, even
though scientific evidence shows that this
relationship is in most cases tenuous, at best,
especially in the case of small farmers in the
tropics.
A second major error of the Nutrient Quantity Concept
is that it seems to presuppose that these
nutrients are being more stable in the soil than their
own research shows they actually are, especially
where the CEC of the soil is quite low and/or erosion
is occurring. The idea of building up nutrients


in the soil would seem to presuppose that those
nutrients will remain there over, say, twenty years
or so. Yet virtually all of the N, much of the K, and
even small amounts of the P applied as chemical
fertilizers today, will not be there twenty years from
now, even if no plants were using them. And
on low CEC soils and erodible hillsides, the loss of
even P can be considerable. In short, the
farmers' "money" is constantly leaking out of the
"bank". And, sadly, the more money there is in
the bank, the more will leak out.

This assumption of the persistence of nutrients in the
soil seems to be assumed, also, when
conventional scientists criticize those who propose
using large amounts of o.m. for maintaining soil
fertility. Nutrient Quantity proponents worry at
considerable length that organic inputs cannot
maintain soil nutrient levels over the long term, and
that they do not produce as much long-lasting
humus as often as we all would like. (Buresh) They
seem to forget that chemical fertilizers do not
maintain the levels of most micronutrients, either. Of
more importance economically, chemical
fertilizers, as used by small farmers, do not maintain
soil pH. (And even if farmers could,
theoretically, avoid acidifying their soils with
chemical fertilizers, the costs of liming or using the
more expensive alkaline fertilizers is seldom included
in economic analyses of the costs of chemical
fertilizer use.) Of course, because of the leaking
from the bank, chemical fertilizers, even when used
in recommended quantities, may not achieve the
long-term levels of total nutrients desired.
Thus, organic amendments are little different from
chemical fertilizers in not being able to increase
soil nutrient quantities dramatically over time in the
tropics, especially under small farmer
conditions. This is not to say we should give up on
striving toward at least soil nutrient maintenance
over the long run, but rather to say that the use of
chemical fertilizers exclusively, in the case of
small farmer agriculture, will very likely achieve no
more long-term improvement in nutrient
quantities than will the use of o.m. exclusively. Just
as most small farmers often, but not always,
lack the o.m. to increase stores of P, for instance,
they also usually lack the cash (and often the
profitability of chemical fertilizers on their
depleted lands far from markets) to buy sufficient
chemical fertilizer.

Furthermore, neither this paper nor most of those
people who use low input agriculture oppose all
use of chemical fertilizers. The replacement of some
chemical elements in the soil (mostly P), under
certain conditions, and in moderate amounts, is, for
us, perfectly acceptable, if not desirable.
The third error of the Nutrient Quantity Concept is
that its proponents have largely avoided taking
into account the tremendous impact in tropical soils
of such factors as their macro and microbiology,
o.m. content, microenvironments and compaction layers.


Inadequacies in Practice

Based on these theoretical considerations, most
conventional soil scientists have come to a series
of extremely far-reaching conclusions. Among these,
they have concluded that the best, most
efficient way of improving the soil fertility of the
developing world's resource-poor farmers is to
apply tremendous quantities of NPK along with,
perhaps, a small supplement of o.m. They have
concluded that "low external input" technologies must
inevitably lead to "low output" results. They
have therefore further concluded that "ecological
agriculture" is inevitably unproductive and has
virtually no future. And finally, they have concluded
that soils with very low CEC's, like those of
most of West Africa, have very little potential for
decent crop productivity. None of these
conclusions is based on the scientific understanding
we have of soils in its totality. And concrete
evidence from tens of thousands of farms around the
world, as well as from many scientific
experiments, provides considerable evidence that not
one of these conclusions is, in fact, accurate.
Thus, the Nutrient Quantity Concept is failing us. It
is failing to lead us to proper conclusions about
agricultural priorities. It is failing to predict what
will happen if we apply a whole range of
agricultural technologies that are now being tried in
the tropics, and it is failing to help us understand
a series of both natural and agricultural phenomena
that we are observing. Above all, it is failing
to lead us to promising new technologies that can
provide tremendous benefits at low cost to poorer
farmers within the tropics.

Let's look a little more closely at these failings.
One of the main negative impacts of the traditional
Nutrient Quantity Concept in tropical environments is
that it has caused many scientists to dismiss
ecological agriculture out of hand. It has become
almost a mantra of some of these scientists that
"low input agriculture is low output agriculture."
After all, according to the Nutrient Quantity
Concept way of thinking, if not much is put into the
bank account, not much can be withdrawn.
Thus a whole series of promising technologies for
increasing agricultural productivity–mostly those
which are included in approaches referred to as
ecological agriculture or agroecology--have been
largely ignored by the dominant members of the
scientific community, (Anonymous; Pretty and
Hine) to the tremendous detriment of farmers in the
tropics. In fact, millions of small-scale farmers
in developing countries, representing well over 3 % of
the total, have adopted ecological agriculture
practices in just the last ten years, (Pretty and
Hine) yet these practices are largely ignored by
conventional soil scientists.

Another major negative impact of the application of
this Concept is the claim that because many
tropical soils have very low CEC's, they will never be
able to produce large harvests. Because such
soils cannot hold very many nutrients over a crop's
entire life-span, it is said they will never be able
to support maximum output. This conception of the
dynamics of soil fertility has caused huge areas
of the tropics to be written off as "low-potential"
areas, where significant investments in agricultural
development are therefore not advisable. (Mosher) As a
result, hundreds of millions of people have
been condemned to a not-so-benign neglect and
perpetually low productivity. Since these people
often were already among the poorest of the poor, this
mistaken policy has aggravated already
serious problems of economic injustice and downright
hunger. And all because of a theory of soil
fertility that is questionable at best.

Another factor that becomes extremely important for
those of us who focus our work on the poorer
farmers of the tropics is that the Nutrient Quantity
Concept leads almost inevitably to an excessively
high use of chemical fertilizers. The cost of chemical
fertilizer very frequently represents the largest
single cash cost of resource-poor farmers in the
tropics. Yet experience in nation after nation has
shown that for a much lower total expense, farmers can
achieve the same or even higher yields.
Furthermore, as the years go by, the use of most
chemical fertilizers mine the soil of micronutrients,
acidify the soil even more, and help to erode away,
burn out, or simply fail to replace the soil's o.m.
In time, these factors all work together to reduce the
response that chemical fertilizers achieve in
terms of productivity, to the point that, in many
cases, there remains no net economic advantage to
their use whatsoever.

Furthermore, the recent staggering increase in
petroleum prices (from $ 12.00 a barrel to somewhere
between $ 19.00 and $ 32.00 a barrel) is going to
result in major increases in the real farm gate cost
of fertilizers, both because of increased costs of
production and increased transport costs. Thus, tens
of millions of small-scale farmers for whom chemical
fertilizer is presently economically
advantageous will find that in the future that
advantage will have largely or totally disappeared.
Thus, it is extremely important that we all learn as
much as we can about the technological
possibilities that will still allow farmers to
increase and maintain their productivity without
depending so heavily on increasingly expensive
chemical fertilizers.

An additional major problem of the traditional
Nutrient Quantity Concept is that increasing
observation, especially of ecological or low external
input agriculture, is showing that the Concept's
predictive abilities are seriously lacking. Crop
productivity, in most such cases, is not basically, or
even approximately, a factor of the overall amount of
nutrients in the soil, or of the CEC of the soil.
Very high levels of productivity are being achieved on
soils that, according to the traditional
Concept, could never produce such yields, and with
applications of nutrients that are anywhere from
one-half to one-tenth the quantities the Nutrient
Quantity Concept would indicate are necessary.
Recent scientific experiments with o.m. and fertilizer
use in Africa, where scientists cannot explain
7
with conventional theories the yields that were
achieved, are typical. (Palm)
In what specific cases has the Nutrient Quantity
Concept failed to predict present phenomena?
- The increases in yields achieved by the use of green
manure/cover crops (gm/cc's) in system after
system are greater than the conventional Concept would
have predicted. With increases of only
perhaps 100 kg of fixed N and no additional P or K,
yields of maize crops have often doubled.
(Buckles; Bunch and Lopez; Pretty and Hine, for
example) Furthermore, yields of 2.5 t/ha have
continued to be produced on relatively poor, humid
tropical soils every year for 40 years, with no
application of chemical NPK. Of course, what is
happening here is due to biological, physical, and
chemical dynamics within the soil, not just those of
soil nutrients. Nevertheless, according to the
Nutrient Quantity Concept, the levels of P, at least,
should have become a major limiting factor years
ago. Yet applications of chemical P on these soils
still, after forty years, give no economic response.
(Buckles)

Perhaps it should be added here that "green
manure/cover crops" is a technology that is
traditional
in many tropical areas, but which have only been
developed over the last fifteen years in Brazil and
Mesoamerica and spread around the world largely by
NGO's in the last five years or so. This
technology, not to be confused with traditional "green
manuring," grows biomass, often leguminous,
intercropped with regular crops, under fruit trees,
during the dry season, during frosty periods or on
degraded soils too poor for cropping (i.e. on land
with little or no opportunity cost), thereby adding
huge net quantities of high-nutrient biomass in situ
to agricultural systems and applying it to the
surface where it is highly accessible to subsequent
crops. (See Bunch 2001) "Dispersed trees" is
another traditional practice around the world which
has only recently been studied and promoted in
Central America, but which apparently has tremendous
potential for increasing biomass production
in much of the lowland tropics.

-In Madagascar, hundreds of farmers are now using a
System of Rice Intensification (SRI) that
frequently achieves yields of 12 to 15 t/ha, and
occasionally 18 t/ha, using only moderate amounts
of compost and no chemical fertilizer on low CEC, acid
soils (a classic case of "low potential soils").
(Uphoff) Yet the world's rice experts hold that the
"biological maximum" for the rice plant is less
than 10 t/ha. As one scientist has written, "yields
for multiple varieties peak out at about 8 t/ha, even
with high N applications, up to 200 kg/ha." (Ladha, et
al.). Furthermore, even with applications of
200 kg/ha of N, N assimilation is considered to be the
limiting factor for rice production. (Uphoff)
In this case, the difference in yields between
conventional rice and SRI rice is probably due to a
whole series of factors, but whatever the reasons may
be, the "low input agriculture is low output
agriculture" attitude cannot come even close to
explaining rice yields of 15 t/ha on these "low
potential" soils with so little N introduced into the
system.

- In the case of West Africa's very old, low CEC
soils, books based on the Nutrient Quantity
Concept claim good yields can only be achieved with
major applications of chemical nutrients.
(Avery) Yet around people's homes (admittedly on very
small plots), African women frequently
grow 4-mt-tall, 4 t/ha maize. How? Through the daily
application of grey water and kitchen scraps
from the household. And the soil is the same soil as
in their fields a few mts away.

- The age-old, world-wide regeneration of soils by
means of traditional slash-and-burn, or shifting
agriculture, techniques cannot be fully explained by
the dominant interpretation of the Nutrient
Quantity Concept, either. Attempts have been made to
somehow help the Concept explain this
regeneration of the soil through the idea of nutrient
pumping. But the amount of nutrients pumped
by trees is frequently not enough to explain the
renewed fertility. In many cases, there are precious
few nutrients in the subsoil that the trees could
pump, even if they were physically capable of
pumping the required quantities. And, of course, the
concentration of nutrients in the soils from
which they are being pumped is only a fraction of what
the Nutrient Quantity Theory would consider
sufficient for adequate for plant growth.

Furthermore, I have personally asked West African
farmers to show me which fields were ready to
be "slashed and burned," and close to half of the
indicated fields had no visible vegetation on them
other than grasses. Certainly farmers whose food
supply has depended for generations on their
ability to accurately identify regenerated soils could
not be mistaken half the time. And if grasses
can regenerate soils by themselves, how can the
Nutrient Quantity Concept explain this worldwide
phenomenon?

- The biomass productivity of natural rainforests is
also much higher than its CEC would allow
under the traditional Concept. Interestingly enough,
in this case, scientists who normally adhere to
the Nutrient Quantity Concept freely admit that the
rapid recycling of nutrients in tropical rainforests
permits tremendous levels of biomass production in the
presence of very low levels of nutrients and
CEC's in the soil in general. Nevertheless, they have
been largely unwilling to entertain the
possibility that this same phenomenon of the rapid
circulation of nutrients could be the basis of
highly productive crop agriculture under similar
conditions. Put another way, Nutrient Quantity
proponents freely admit in the case of rainforests
that "low input forests produce high output
forests," yet they refuse to admit that the same
principle might be applicable to agriculture in the
very same environments. This use of one rationale for
proven rainforest productivity while refusing
to admit to the possibility of the very same process
in agriculture would seem to represent a serious
lack of logical consistency.

Nutrient pumping might seem to cloud the above issue
somewhat. Nevertheless, many rainforests
produce prodigious amounts of biomass above subsoils
whose provision of nutrients, even under
extremely efficient nutrient pumping, would be less
than those nutrients added artificially under
many "low external input" systems. We should also
remember that the areas deep in the soil from
which these nutrients are presumably "pumped,"
virtually always possess much lower
concentrations of nutrients than do the soils above
them. Therefore, even with nutrient pumping,
natural forests provide clear evidence that sufficient
nutrients for very high levels of biomass
production are being extracted from soils with
extremely low total concentrations of nutrients.
Furthermore, low external input agroforestry systems
also pump nutrients. Thus, the logic of the
Nutrient Quantity advocates remains problematic at
best.

-Chemical fertilizer companies are dedicating millions
of dollars to research on "slow-release"
forms of chemical fertilizer. This means, in effect,
that the fertilizer companies themselves (which,
not surprisingly, are among the most vociferous
proponents of the Nutrient Quantity Concept) are
admitting--through their actions, if not their
words--that the overall quantity of nutrients
available
at any given time is not the primary issue in
productivity.

Of course, one could argue that slow-release
fertilizer is being developed because its ecological
benefits will demand a sacrifice in productivity from
farmers. Nevertheless, research on slowrelease
fertilizers has shown no such significant reduction in
yields. Thus, the very development
of this kind of fertilizer is an admission that, at
least where this fertilizer is successful in terms of
productivity, the constant supply of nutrients is more
important than the total quantity available at
any particular time.

Given the apparent inaccuracies and even logical
inconsistencies of the traditional Nutrient Quantity
Concept, it is time to develop a new, more
comprehensive and accurate concept of soil fertility
in
the tropics.


THE NUTRIENT ACCESS CONCEPT OF TROPICAL SOIL FERTILITY
An Illustrative Experiment

To illustrate the new concept, I will first describe
an experiment reported in Ana Primavesi's The
Ecological Management of the Soil. (Primavesi) In this
experiment, crops were grown in four
hydroponic solutions. In the first solution, a normal
concentration of nutrients for maximum maize
plant development was used, and replenished every 4
days. In the second, twice the normal
concentration was used and replenished every 4 days.
In the third, the normal solution was diluted
50 times and also replenished every 4 days. And in the
fourth case, the solution used was diluted
50 times the normal concentration, as in the third
case, but was replenished every 2 days.
Plant growth (measured in grams of dry weight) in the
second case was less than in the first. In the
third case, as either theory would predict, the growth
of the plants was 28% less than in the first.
But in the fourth, quite surprisingly, the growth of
the plants was slightly superior to that in the first
case. That is, even when the nutrient solution was
1/50 what the traditional Nutrient Quantity
Concept would have seen as optimal, the plants grew
equally well, as long as the solution was
replaced frequently enough and the roots could access
the nutrients.
That is, crop growth above a certain extremely low
concentration, does not depend on the
concentration of nutrients. It depends, rather, on the
constant access of plant roots to the nutrients,
even when these nutrients exist in very low
concentrations. The Nutrient Quantity Concept's
remedy of increasing the concentration of nutrients by
applying large amounts of chemical fertilizer
misses the point almost entirely. What is needed is a
constant supply of even a very small but wellbalanced
amount of nutrients over time, and the unobstructed
access of plant roots to these nutrients.
This experiment shows that the relationship between
concentrations or overall quantities of nutrients
and plant growth is, above a certain minimum
concentration, altogether nonexistent. As long as
plants enjoy the right conditions of nutrient balance,
accessibility to nutrients, and a constant
resupply of nutrients, the relationship between the
concentration of nutrients in the soil and its
productivity is either zero (i.e. there is no
relationship) or negative (i.e. more concentrated
nutrients
reduce plant productivity).

So why is this fact more relevant to tropical soils
and farmers than to temperate-zone soils and
farmers? Very simply, tropical soils tend to have
fewer cation-exchange sites, and therefore lower
concentrations of nutrients. Because of this paucity
of CEC, it is also much more difficult and costly
for farmers to raise those concentrations of nutrients
over the medium to long term. Second, the
ambient heat of the tropics makes it difficult or
impossible for plants to create the osmotic pressure
to be able to absorb nutrients from highly
concentrated solutions. (Primavesi) Therefore, plants
in
the lowland tropics often thrive better on more
limited concentrations of nutrients (as was
illustrated
by the second case in the experiment above), as long
as the remaining conditions are fulfilled.

Thirdly, farmers who work by hand or animal traction,
can more easily micromanage their soils,
creating varied microenvironments, in some of which
nutrients are accessible, even if the total soil
environment is deficient in accessible nutrients. And
lastly, while northern farmers can often afford
to fertilize their soils more heavily than need be for
present purposes, resource-poor farmers in the
developing countries just cannot afford to
over-fertilize. Furthermore, in high-rainfall or
steeply
sloped areas, resource-poor farmers would lose more of
those nutrients than do their northern
colleagues.

The Concept

The new concept of soil fertility emphasizes not the
concentration of nutrients in the soil, but rather
the maximization of the access of plant roots to soil
nutrients. Thus I will herein call it the Nutrient
Access Concept of soil fertility. The Nutrient Access
Concept of soil fertility in the tropics posits
the following:

Maximum plant growth can best and most cheaply be
achieved in the tropics by:

1) the constant supply of soil nutrients (most
inexpensively achieved with fairly low
concentrations),

2) a healthy balance between the nutrients, and

3) maximum access of plant roots to these nutrients
(i.e. the maintenance of good soil structure
and/or mulches).



THE ADEQUACY OF THE NUTRIENT ACCESS CONCEPT
Of course, the first question we must ask is whether
the Nutrient Access Concept can explain the
phenomena mentioned above better than the Nutrient
Quantity Concept could.

First of all, the Nutrient Access Concept does not
deny that heavy concentrations of nutrients can
produce high yields in many circumstances, especially
in cooler climes, and when soils are
compacted or optimal soil structure has otherwise been
damaged, CEC is high and farmers are well-
capitalized. It would tend to indicate that high-input
agriculture is probably more expensive than
it need be to achieve maximum productivity, but it
does not deny that high levels of productivity can
be achieved through high concentrations of nutrients
in developed nation agriculture, and even
highly capitalized plantation agriculture on the best
soils of the tropics.

Where the Nutrient Access Concept does point to
agricultural practices of a radically different kind
is where soils have very low CEC’s, where soil o.m. is
or could be abundant and cheap, where
capital is scarce, and/or where temperatures are high.
But in these situations, very common in the
tropics, would the Nutrient Access Concept be any more
useful than the Nutrient Quantity Concept?


Adequacy in Practice

The Nutrient Access Concept has already led, in
southern Brazil (Bunch, 1994) and small pockets
of farmers in country after country, to competitive
yields at relatively low costs, often on what were
previously considered “low potential” soils, and with
a much more positive long-term ecological
impact than that of agriculture according to the
traditional Nutrient Quantity Concept. (Pretty and
Hine)

These experiences, plus the nature of the Nutrient
Access Concept itself, would indicate that there
is a good chance that this Concept could reduce
significantly the costs of producing competitive
yields in the tropics. For small-scale, poor farmers,
especially on impoverished soils with low
CEC’s, the technology resulting from the Nutrient
Access Concept could be a major life-saver, both
literally and figuratively.

The Nutrient Access Concept provides absolutely no
rationale for the present unjust discrimination
against those farming on so-called “low potential”
soils. Instead, it supports the idea that with fairly
small, inexpensive applications of highly accessible
nutrients, these soils can produce harvests
several times their present levels. The “potential” of
the soil depends more on the proper
management of the soil than it does on the addition of
large quantities of very expensive nutrients.
It would also call into question efforts to introduce
and subsidize tremendous quantities of expensive
chemical fertilizers to dozens of African nations
already on the brink of bankruptcy. Presently, there
is a lot of discussion about the possibility of
bringing the “Green Revolution” to Africa. Proposals
center on the idea that the World Bank and other major
financial institutions should make a
concerted effort to introduce and subsidize chemical
fertilizers in Africa because of the perceived
dangers of “soil nutrient depletion”. (See IFPRI,
SSSA)

These proposals, of course, fly in the face of
increasing petroleum prices and a decade of Neoliberal
efforts to reduce artificial governmental subsidies.
But more basically, the perception that reduced
levels of nutrients in Africa’s soils will inevitably
preclude high levels of production is, of course,
based on the Nutrient Quantity Concept. Adoption of
the Nutrient Access Concept would force a
major rewrite of these proposals, orienting them
instead toward the achievement of increased yields
through higher levels of biomass production, soil
structure improvement and mulch-based systems,
rather than through the unsustainable use of billions
of dollars of increasingly expensive chemical
fertilizers.

Of course, even if we believed the Nutrient Quantity
Theory, we have mentioned above that small
farmers’ lack of financial resources and the lack of
their depleted soils’ response to chemical
fertilizers are a major an obstacle to maintaining or
increasing soil nutrient levels with chemical
fertilizers just as their lack of access to sufficient
o.m. prevents them from doing the same with o.m.
And with intercropped or dry season gm/cc’s and/or
dispersed trees, the former limitation may be
much greater than the latter. If this is the case,
someone must explain why, if African soil fertility
is to be subsidized, it would be better to subsidize
chemical fertilizers and rock phosphate to the total
exclusion of subsidies of the dispersed planting of
trees or of the price of green manure/cover crop
grains.


Adequacy in Explaining the Observed Phenomena

The Nutrient Access Concept can explain very
adequately those observed phenomena that the
traditional theory cannot:

- Yields in gm/cc and agroforestry systems do not
depend on high concentrations of nutrients.
Rather, they depend on the fixation of N and the
recycling of large amounts of o.m., which makes
the P and other nutrients in the soils much more
soluble (i.e. chemically available), and places most
of these nutrients near the soil surface, where they
are easily accessible to plant roots. Such systems
can therefore produce good yields over long periods of
time with low or no applications of
additional nutrients (though eventually some
nutrients, notably P, obviously have to be added to
achieve sustainability).

- The SRI yields are achieved on very poor soils with
only limited applications of compost because
the rest of the technological package aerates the soil
and makes the plants grow close to six times
more roots per plant than does the conventional rice
system, thereby allowing the plants to access
many more of the limited nutrients in the soil.
(Uphoff)

- West Africa’s extremely poor soils with very low
CEC’s produce well near people’s compounds
because the o.m. thrown out of the kitchens maintains
a small, steady supply of nutrients, and
therefore low CEC’s are sufficient to hold the
nutrients necessary for a few hours or days until more
nutrients are released from the next day’s discarded
o.m.

- The regeneration of tropical soils through fallowing
does not occur primarily because large
quantities of nutrients are brought to the surface and
kept there. Rather, the large amounts of
biomass deposited on the soil by the regrowth of
forests or grasslands either maintain or, gradually
and over a number of years, improve the soil
structure, so that the newly cleared land allows crops
to access much more efficiently the low concentrations
of nutrients that exist in the upper horizons
of the profile. Meanwhile, the organic matter on the
soil surface or near it, produced during years
of fallow, continues to supply nutrients in small
quantities that can maintain reasonably high levels
of productivity, at least for a year or two.

- Likewise, the same process maintains the impressive
productivity of rainforests for millennia.
Optimal soil structure and mulches are maintained,
maximizing the access of the forest’s trees to the
few nutrients that are constantly being supplied
through soil o.m. mineralization. And, to some
extent, deeper tree roots, having a tremendous number
of feeder roots like the rice under SRI, can
capture large amounts of nutrients even in soil
horizons with extremely low concentrations of
nutrients.

In this last case, of course, the Nutrient Quantity
people would largely agree with this analysis.
What they cannot explain is how forests can grow so
well on the basis of these very low
concentrations of nutrients when, according to their
Concept, low nutrient levels (i.e.. “low inputs”),
in whatever part of the soil profile and of whatever
origin, should result in the low productivity (i.e.
“low outputs”) of the entire system.

- Lastly, it is quite obvious that the research on,
and benefits of, slow-release chemical fertilizer is
much more understandable based upon the Nutrient
Access Concept than upon the Nutrient Quantity
Concept.

The above explanations are, of course, quite
simplistic. Much more is happening in the soil than
these explanations would indicate. Plants’ access to
nutrients, though certainly helped by applying
the nutrients to the soil surface or together with
o.m., or very near the seed, or by plants’ growing
in well-flocculated soils free of compaction layers,
is a very complicated phenomenon which
involves a large number of factors. These would
include those of soil temperature, soil o.m. levels,
pH, soil chemical properties, the presence of
compaction layers, and nutrient positioning and
equilibrium, all of which are in turn affected by the
activity of hundreds of thousands of
microorganisms in every teaspoonful of soil. Thus,
nutrient access involves a whole series of
dynamics which we only somewhat dimly understand as
yet. Nevertheless, the Nutrient Access
Concept seems to come much closer to explaining the
overall sum or average of all these varied
and mysterious processes than does the Nutrient
Quantity Concept.


PUTTING THE NUTRIENT ACCESS CONCEPT INTO PRACTICE

It will be immediately evident to many people that the
Nutrient Access Concept can most easily be
put into practice through the copious use of o.m. O.m.
can and does supply low to medium
concentrations of nutrients, and almost always in
well-balanced quantities. Furthermore, o.m., by
its very nature, has a slow-release mechanism,
allowing the nutrients to become available to plants
over a period of several months or years. And lastly,
though this mechanism is somewhat slower
and sometimes problematic in improving the structure
of heavily compacted soils, soil o.m. does
serve to gradually improve soil structure. Soil o.m.
does so both directly, through the provision of
binding materials to improve flocculation, and
indirectly, by feeding earthworms and other soil
organisms, both macro and micro, which also improve
soil structure. (Minnich)

Experience shows that the best way to apply o.m. in
order to improve soil dynamics in these three
respects, as well as to reduce costs, is to apply it
either to the soil surface or, during the period of
transition, within 20 cm of the surface. Although
there is still some argument as to how the o.m.
should be applied to the soil the first year or two of
a transition into mulch-based agriculture (when
soil compaction below the surface is a serious
limiting factor), experience tells us that after the
first
year or two, virtually all the o.m. should be applied
to the soil surface. (See, for instance, Primavesi;
MAG/DGP)

It should be mentioned here that the Nutrient Access
Concept does not necessarily support the total
discontinuation of the use of chemical fertilizer.
While organic agriculture proponents may agree
with this Concept, the Concept does not necessarily
support a totally organic approach. What the
Concept does do is open the door to a greatly reduced
use of chemical fertilizers in the short run, and
the gauging of their use in the long run more
according to the replacement levels of net losses of
nutrients for the purpose of sustainability (minus
those nutrients supplied by o.m. and N fixation),
rather than the much higher levels of use presently
thought to be the only way to significantly
increase productivity.


The Five Principles of Agriculture for the Humid
Tropics

Based on the Nutrient Access Theory, an increasing
number of institutions involved around the
world in small farmer agriculture have begun to use
some or all of the following Five Principles of
soil management (Bunch, 1995):

1) Maximize o.m. production. Frequently, small-scale
farmers can increase dramatically the
amount of o.m. their fields produce while maintaining
yields and only increasing costs slightly, if
at all. In fact, many gm/cc and agroforestry systems
reduce the amount of labor needed for
controlling weeds, thereby increasing overall o.m.
production while at the same time decreasing
costs.

Increases in o.m. production can be achieved by using
the intercropping of either various crops or
gm/cc’s with annuals or tree crops (as in dispersed
tree systems), by establishing two- to four-story
fields and gardens, and by growing trees or gm/cc’s on
wasteland or during the dry season. In
droughty areas, an increased provision of water in
whatever form can also result in greater levels
of biomass production.

Obviously, the more biomass we produce in situ, the
more we will have for applying to the soil,
thereby making the provision of nutrients to the soil
greater and more constant. If animals are
present in the farming systems, they will also be more
numerous and/or produce more manure per
animal if they have more biomass to consume.

2) Keep the soil covered. Soil exposed to the tropical
sun produces more weeds (which are another
form of biomass, but may compete with crops and/or
occasion a good deal of work). Unprotected
soil also becomes very hot, causing a series of
problems, including the more rapid rate of soil o.m.
burn-out, the reduction in crop growth rates and the
death of beneficial macro and microorganisms.
Shifting agriculture has been motivated in most places
in the world by either declining soil fertility
or increasing noxious weed growth. Once we maximize
biomass production and keep the soil
shaded, both of these problems are largely eliminated.
The need to let the land lie fallow for years
is thus also eliminated, as has been shown in country
after country with the use of gm/cc’s.
It is interesting to note that virtually all the
systems of improved fallows or gm/cc’s that farmers
have developed on their own, have increased both soil
cover and the overall production of biomass,
as compared to the previous shifting agriculture
systems.
Keeping the soil covered is obviously consistent with
the Nutrient Access Concept because it
reduces the decomposition rate of soil o.m., thereby
making sure the provision of nutrients to the
soil lasts longer and is more constant, even if
mulches tend to lose a certain amount of N to
volatilization.

3) Use zero tillage. Many traditional agriculture
systems use zero tillage. However, these systems
are often not very productive over time, because, in
the absence of large amounts of soil o.m.,
nutrients are no longer constantly supplied to the
soil and soil structure deteriorates quite rapidly.
If, however, zero tillage is used in the presence of a
maximum production of biomass, then both the
supply of nutrients and good soil structure can be
maintained. Thus, in contrast to many traditional
zero till systems, those systems with plentiful
biomass production can remain highly productive over
decades, as a whole series of gm/cc and agroforestry
systems have proven.
Often zero tillage cannot be practiced the first or
second year of the transition, but as soil o.m. levels
increase and the soil becomes covered, the populations
of organisms that naturally till the soil
increase rapidly, making further tillage by the farmer
unnecessary. (Scientists have shown, for
instance, that earthworms alone can move more
soil/ha/year than is moved with one ploughing using
a tractor-pulled moldboard plough.) (Minnich)

In the conventional textbooks, zero tillage is linked
with a major increase in the use of herbicides.
However, if the soil is kept covered through an
adequate use of gm/cc’s and agroforestry, most
small-scale farmers will find they never, or only very
rarely, need to use herbicides.
Zero tillage has an important relationship to the
Nutrient Access Concept, because tillage both
damages soil structure and increases the rate of soil
o.m. burn-out. Furthermore, tillage exposes the
soil (i.e. violates the principle of keeping the soil
covered) and removes or incorporates the mulch,
which violates the fifth principle below.

4) Maximize biodiversity. Some gm/cc users report
achieving slightly better yields with a mixed
selection of gm/cc’s. Nevertheless, this principle
will find its primary importance not in the short
run, but rather in maintaining the systems’ long-term
sustainability. It can also be very important
in maintaining the balance of nutrients required by
the Nutrient Access Concept. (Primavesi)
5) Feed the crops largely through the mulch. Many
humid tropical soils, with their pH’s below 5.0,
their aluminum toxicity and compaction layers, are not
very hospitable environments for crop roots.
Thus, crops will often grow much better if they can
also access nutrients from a thick litter layer
or mulch. In fact most, if not all, crops that grow in
the humid tropics will spread the vast majority
of their feeder roots immediately under or even up
into a mulch layer as long as it remains fairly
moist. That is, they will feed much more readily from
inside and immediately below the litter layer
than from the soil itself.

Even the impact of chemical fertilizers can sometimes
be greatly increased by being applied to the
mulch rather than the soil. In Costa Rica, edible bean
yields in the “frijol tapado” system, a
traditional slash-mulch system, were not increased
much at all above the traditional 500 kg/ha when
chemical phosphorus was applied to the soil. However,
yields rose two to three times traditional
yields (to above 2 t/ha) when the inorganic P was
applied directly to the mulch. Researchers in
Africa have also noted that fertilizers applied to
mulching materials are more efficient than when
incorporated into the soil. (Thurston)

Basically, feeding plants through the mulch helps
compensate for less than ideal conditions of soil
structure or root growth, providing a supplemental
source of readily available nutrients in small but
constant quantities right at the soil surface, thereby
making it less necessary for crops to develop
huge root systems that extend deep into the soil
profile. Obviously, plants’ access to nutrients will
be better if the nutrients are on the soil surface
than if they are three feet below it, especially in
impoverished, acidic soils with problems of aluminum
toxicity.

These same rules may well apply not only to the humid
tropics, but to the semi-arid tropics, as well.
Reports from some semi-arid areas indicate that this
is the case. Nevertheless, there still exist some
doubts as to what extent crops can survive during, and
recover after, the mulch has dried out
completely due to the frequent droughts in such areas.
Much more experimental evidence is needed
in this case.

Small farmers and NGO’s have developed a number of
other simple ways that plants’ access to
nutrients can be inexpensively enhanced during the
transition period. Edwin Asante, of World
Vision/Rwanda, for instance, has developed a sort of
small farmer version of precision planting for
potatoes. In this case, an 8-cm ball of o.m., lime,
and about one-fourth the normally recommended
amount of chemical fertilizer are placed less than
0.5-cm directly below the seed. Yields in
impoverished soils with a pH of 3.5 have averaged 20
t/ha, as opposed to 9 t/ha without precision
planting. (Personal communication during field visit)
In Honduras, Elías Sánchez developed a type
of strip tillage or in-row tillage (locally called
“minimum tillage” or “labranza mínima”) which
concentrates the o.m. in the crop row, where it is
more accessible. And Dr. Erich Raddatz is
developing mycorrhiza strains that can double fruit
production by increasing plants’ access to
nutrients. (Personal communication)

These Five Principles, apart from having proven
themselves time and time again among small
farmers around the world, are the self-same principles
a humid tropical forest employs to maintain
its high “productivity” during millennia, even on
soils with very low CEC’s. A tropical rainforest
maximizes biomass production and biodiversity, keeps
the soil shaded at all times, and feeds its
plants largely through the litter layer. And, of
course, no human beings have to plough a forest to
keep it growing lush and green, century after century.


Thus, the sustainability of forest ecology over the
millennia provides important evidence that
tropical agriculture following these Five Principles
should also be sustainable over long periods of
time. The small amount of scientific research done on
this issue so far tends to support this
conclusion. (Buckles)


ADDITIONAL IMPACTS OF THE NUTRIENT ACCESS CONCEPT

One major result we could expect of the Nutrient
Access Concept of soil fertility would be an
increase in optimism about the plight of resource-poor
farmers. They are, by the conventional
Concept, in serious, perhaps insurmountable, trouble.
Their soils are increasingly depleted of
nutrients. (Buresh; Henao) Furthermore, they have no
hope of increasing their soils’ nutrient
supplies sufficiently with o.m., and they have far too
little money to invest in chemical fertilizers,
even if the impact of fertilizers on their
impoverished soils were enough to cover the
investment.
To add insult to injury, the world’s rich nations have
now decided that somehow these unfortunate
people are on a level playing field with rich European
and American farmers, and therefore should
have to compete with them without the assistance of
protective trade barriers.

But given the Nutrient Access Concept, even those
farmers with heavily depleted soils should be
able to increase their yields dramatically with very
little investment other than that of more increased
knowledge and the adoption of new agricultural
techniques. Gm/cc’s provide cheaper nitrogen than
fertilizer factories, while zero tillage and cover
crops can eliminate the comparative advantage
provided by tractors. Whether most villager farmers
will ever be able to compete with European or
American farmers is still doubtful, but at least they
should be able to produce enough for their own
consumption to eat well. Although if conventional
farmers in the First World persist in using
increasingly expensive fossil fuels and chemical
fertilizers at the present exorbitant rate, the poor
just might be able to compete, after all.

A second impact of the Nutrient Access Concept would
be that the world’s agriculture will become
a good deal more sustainable. Increased sustainability
will come from the reduced use of chemical
fertilizers (reducing groundwater and stream
pollution, nutrient imbalances and soil
acidification),
from the positive impacts on the environment of
increased biomass production, soil cover, soil o.m.
and biodiversity, and from the decrease of farmer
dependency on increasingly expensive fossil fuels.

NOTES
Ahn, Peter Martin (1993) Tropical Soils and Fertilizer
Use, Essex, Longman Group UK Ltd.
______________ (1999) Alternatives to Conventional
Modern Agriculture for Meeting World Food
Needs in the Next Century, Report of the Cornell
International Institute for Food, Agriculture, and
Development’s (CIIFAD) conference on “Sustainable
Agriculture: Evaluation of New Paradigms
and Old Practices,” at Bellagio, Italy, April 26-30.
18
Borlaug, Norman (1998) as quoted in Dennis Avery,
Saving the Planet with Pesticides and Plastics,
The Environmental Triumph of High-Yield Farming,
Indianapolis, Indiana, the Hudson Institute.
Buckles, Daniel, et al. (1998) Cover Crops in Hillside
Agriculture, Farmer Innovation with Mucuna,
Ottawa, Canada, International Development Research
Centre (IDRC) and International Maize and
Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Bunch, Roland (1994) “EPAGRI’s Work in the State of
Santa Catarina, Brazil, Major New
Possibilities for Resource-Poor Farmers,” photocopied.
Bunch, Roland (1995) “An Odyssey of Discovery,
Principles of Agriculture for the Humid Tropics,”
ILEIA Newsletter, Vol. 11, No. 3, October.
Bunch, Roland (2001) “A Proven Technology for
Intensifying Shifting Agriculture, Green
Manure/Cover Crop Experience Around the World,” and
“Achieving the Adoption of Green
Manure/Cover Crops,” both presented at the
International Institute for Rural Reconstructon
(IIRR’s)
Conference on “Best Practices in Shifting Agriculture
and the Conservation of Natural Resources
in Asia,” held August 14-26 at Silang, Cavite, the
Philippines. Both are soon to be published by
IIRR.
Bunch, Roland and Gabino López (1995) Soil
Recuperation in Central America, Sustaining
Innovation after Intervention, Gatekeeper Series No.
55, London, International Institute for
Environment and Development (IIED).
Buresh, Roland J., et al., eds. (1997) Replenishing
Soil Fertility in Africa, SSSA Special Publication
No. 51, Madison, Wisconsin, Soil Science Society of
America (SSSA) and International Center for
Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF).
Committee of Tropical Soils, Agriculture Board, and
National Research Council (1972) Soils of the
Humid Tropics, Washington, D.C., National Academy of
Sciences (NAS).
Cresser, Malcolm, et al. (1993) Soil Chemistry and its
Applications, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge
University Press.
Henao, Julio and Carlos Baanante (1999) “Nutrient
Depletion in the Agricultural Soils of Africa,”
2020 Vision Brief 62, International Food Policy
Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, D.C.,
October.
Ladha, J. K., et al. (1998) “Opportunities for
Increased Nitrogen-use Efficiency from Improved
Lowland Rice Germplasm,” Field Crops Research, Vol.
56.
Minnich, Jerry (1977) The Earthworm Book, How to Raise
and Use Earthworms for Your Farm and
Garden, Emmaus, Pennsylvania, Rodale Press.
Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG)/Dirección
General de Planificación (DGP) (1995)
Siembra Directa, Primer Encuentro de Productores,
Organizaciones y Técnicos, Asunción, La Rural
Ediciones.
Mosher, A. T. (1971) To Create a Modern Agriculture,
Organization and Planning, New York,
Agricultural Development Council, Inc.
Palm, Cheryl A., et al. (1997) “Combined Use of
Organic and Inorganic Nutrient Sources for Soil
Fertility Maintenance and Replenishment,” in Roland J.
Buresh, et al., eds., Replenishing Soil
Fertility in Africa, SSSA Special Publication No. 51,
Madison, Wisconsin, Soil Science Society of
America (SSSA) and International Center for Research
in Agroforestry (ICRAF).
Pretty, Jules and Rachel Hine (2000) Feeding the World
with Sustainable Agriculture, A Summary
of New Evidence, Colchester, UK, University of Essex.
Primavesi, Ana (1982) Manejo Ecológico del Suelo, La
Agricultura en Regiones Tropicales, Quinta
Edición, Buenos Aires, Librería “El Ateneo” Editorial.
Quiñones, Marco A., et al. (1997) in Roland J. Buresh,
et al., eds., Replenishing Soil Fertility in
Africa, SSSA Special Publication No. 51, Madison,
Wisconsin, Soil Science Society of America
(SSSA) and International Center for Research in
Agroforestry (ICRAF).
Thurston, H. David (1997) Slash/Mulch Systems:
Sustainable Methods for Tropical Agriculture,
Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press.
Uphoff, Norman (2000) “How Can ‘The Biological
Maximum’ for Rice be Exceeded? Possible
Explanations for the High Yields Observed with the
System of Rice Intensification (SRI),” draft
copy, printed paper.
Young, Anthony (1989) Agroforestry for Soil
Conservation, Oxon, UK, C.A.B International.

=====
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sincerely, Lion Kuntz
Santa Rosa, California, USA
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Palaces4People/
http://P4P.blogspot.com
http://www.ecosyn.us/ecocity/Proposal/Palaces_For_The_People.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/ecocity/Challenges/Asia_Floods/Wet/All_Wet.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/Interesting/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

__________________________________
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Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now
http://companion.yahoo.com/

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National Agricultural Library upgrades AGRICOLA Online Public Catalog



Contact: Len Carey (301) 504-6778

lcarey@nal.usda.gov



BELTSVILLE, Md., December 8, 2003 - The National Agricultural Library (NAL)
has released a significant upgrade to its Web-based AGRICOLA catalog of
records for the materials in its collection. The new version of AGRICOLA
provides improved access--many new search and retrieval capabilities, with
daily updates--to over 4 million bibliographic records, the world's largest
compilation of agricultural information.



The new AGRICOLA catalog, which replaces AGRICOLA98, is one of several
modules implemented in NAL's migration to Endeavor's Voyager library system.
In addition to a search and retrieval engine for AGRICOLA, the new Voyager
system supports NAL's acquisitions, serials control, cataloging, indexing,
and circulation operations.



Other features of NAL's new AGRICOLA catalog include:



    * Users may search the catalog of books, journals and non-print items;
search the catalog of article records for the journals indexed; or search
the two catalog databases combined.



    * Users may choose either to display results of searches, or to e-mail
the search-results to themselves.



    * Hotlinks enable users to obtain the full text of resources, where
available electronically.



Future enhancements to the new AGRICOLA will include user-initiated requests
for patrons who have document delivery and borrowing privileges. The
National Agricultural Library and Endeavor are working with Relais
International to develop a fully electronic request and delivery management
system linked to the AGRICOLA bibliographic and holdings records. NAL plans
to implement the document delivery system in late spring 2004
(www.nal.usda.gov/spevents/relais.html).



Access to the new AGRICOLA online public catalog is through
agricola.nal.usda.gov. Users visiting the former AGRICOLA98 address will be
automatically redirected to the new location.



The National Agricultural Library, located in Beltsville, Md., is part of
the Agricultural Research Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
chief scientific research agency. NAL is one of four U.S. national
libraries, and is known for an expert staff, extensive AGRICOLA
bibliographic database, leadership in information services and technology
applications, and strong collections in agriculture and related sciences.





***********************************************

The Alternative Farming Systems Information Center

Collecting, Organizing and Distributing Critical Information for our Future

AFSIC is a dynamic collection and distribution center focusing on
sustainable, organic and alternative agricultural information.

AFSIC is staffed by a professional team of librarians and subject
specialists who facilitate rapid access to critical information resources on
alternatives to conventional agriculture.

AFSIC has been an integral part of the National Agricultural Library since
1985, and is a critical element of the overall USDA effort to insure a
sustainable future for American farmers and global agriculture.

Contact:

*       Phone: 301-504-6559 (8 a.m. - 5 p.m., M-F, EST)
*       Fax: 301-504-6927
*       Email: afsic@nal.usda.gov <mailto:afsic@nal.usda.gov>
*       Web: http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/

***********************************************






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<div class=3DSection1>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>National =
Agricultural
Library upgrades AGRICOLA Online Public Catalog</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Contact: Len Carey =
(301)
504-6778</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>lcarey@nal.usda.gov</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>BELTSVILLE, Md., =
</span></font><font size=3D2 face=3D"Courier New"><span =
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>December
 8, 2003</span></font><font size=3D2 face=3D"Courier New"><span =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'> - The National Agricultural Library =
(NAL)
has released a significant upgrade to its Web-based AGRICOLA catalog of =
records
for the materials in its collection. The new version of AGRICOLA =
provides
improved access--many new search and retrieval capabilities, with daily
updates--to over 4 million bibliographic records, the world's largest =
compilation
of agricultural information.</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>The new AGRICOLA =
catalog,
which replaces AGRICOLA98, is one of several modules implemented in =
NAL's
migration to Endeavor's Voyager library system. In addition to a search =
and
retrieval engine for AGRICOLA, the new Voyager system supports NAL's
acquisitions, serials control, cataloging, indexing, and circulation
operations.</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Other features of =
NAL's new
AGRICOLA catalog include:</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; =
* Users
may search the catalog of books, journals and non-print items; search =
the
catalog of article records for the journals indexed; or search the two =
catalog
databases combined.</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; =
* Users
may choose either to display results of searches, or to e-mail the
search-results to themselves.</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; =
*
Hotlinks enable users to obtain the full text of resources, where =
available
electronically.</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Future =
enhancements to the
new AGRICOLA will include user-initiated requests for patrons who have =
document
delivery and borrowing privileges. The National Agricultural Library =
and
Endeavor are working with Relais International to develop a fully =
electronic
request and delivery management system linked to the AGRICOLA =
bibliographic and
holdings records. NAL plans to implement the document delivery system =
in late
spring 2004 (<a =
href=3D"www.nal.usda.gov/spevents/relais.html">www.nal.usda.gov/spevents=
/relais.html</a>).</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Access to the new =
AGRICOLA
online public catalog is through agricola.nal.usda.gov. Users visiting =
the
former AGRICOLA98 address will be automatically redirected to the new =
location.</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>The National =
Agricultural
Library, located in </span></font><font size=3D2 face=3D"Courier =
New"><span
  style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>Beltsville</span></font><font
 size=3D2 face=3D"Courier New"><span =
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>,
 </span></font><font size=3D2 face=3D"Courier New"><span =
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;
  font-family:"Courier New"'>Md.</span></font><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>, is part of the
Agricultural Research Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's =
chief
scientific research agency. NAL is one of four </span></font><font =
size=3D2
  face=3D"Courier New"><span =
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>U.S.</span></font><font
size=3D2 face=3D"Courier New"><span =
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>
national libraries, and is known for an expert staff, extensive =
AGRICOLA
bibliographic database, leadership in information services and =
technology
applications, and strong collections in agriculture and related =
sciences.</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
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From: Lion Kuntz <lionkuntz@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Your Challenge Accepted -- Here are links to data
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
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--- James Kotcon <jkotcon@WVU.EDU> wrote:
[snip]
>          I would be interested in any data
> challenging my assumption that
> the same physical, chemical, and biological
> phenomena occur in both
> conventional and organic systems.
>
> Jim Kotcon

Oh, where to start...

Firstly, seek out studies demonstrating the "burn-off"
of organic matter in chemical nitrogen fertilized
soils. As N is often a leading limiting factor in
soils preventing population explosions of mibrobial
life, additions of pure N are all that are needed to
ignite this explosion.

Soon thereafter the other nutrients are incorporated
in the dominant lifeforms. A secondary population
explosion goes on of their predators. The high
turnover of microbes reduces the C ratio be exhalation
of CO2. The rapid loss of carbon seriously affects the
tilth qualities of the soils. Only photosynthesizers
can add C from the atmosphere

Then seek out the studies on actinomycetes
phosphate-pump soil function. With the reduced C comes
the death of the actinomycetes, whom cannot sustain
the phosphorus transfer from high to low gradients.
Increased dependancy on phosphate inputs are now
required.

With depleted C mobile N has fewer binding sites and
leaching problems can occur. Plus more frequent
applications of higher levels of N become necessary.
Organic systems do not add external N whatsoever, but
grow it directly on the spot in many cases, but some
add compost or manures to add OM including bound N.

Reduced C levels also has drastically lower
mycorrhizia populations, which stresses the plants
required to more work to obtain their nutrients.

High levels of organic material buffer pH, and greatly
improve plant-availability of nutrients bound to the
many binding sites on the molecules.

The diverse micro-ecosystems supports a great myriad
of organisms which burrow, tunnel and churn the soil,
aerating it and making nutrients available to the
community through their wide toolkits of chemotrophy,
lithotrophy and metabolic acids/enzymes.

Your statement indicates you have not made the most
superficial comparison of the two diverse paradigms.

Here are starting links pages I collected several
years ago. If links are dead, try them on the
waybackmachine.com archives:
http://www.ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/SoilLife/Soil_Life_01.html

Other collections of pages on thems can be found here:
http://www.ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/VisualLinks01.html

In fact, here are the contents of my ecoag-links:
http://www.ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/Links_Files.html

http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/alcohol_distill_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/biomass_crops_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/chicken_manure01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/duckweed_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/earthworms_01.htm
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/easy_mushrooms_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/eco-san_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/eco-san_refs_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/eco-san-safety-01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/herbs_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/Hog_Pollution.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/low_tech_mushrooms01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/mesclun_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/microdiversity.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/nutrition_protein_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/pathogen_safety_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/rabbit_manure01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/sprouting_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/water_hyacinth01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/Water_Pure_WH_01.html

http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/Ag_Biomass/Ag_Biomass_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/Bamboo/Bamboo_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/Biodiversity/Biodiversity_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/CompanionPlanting/CompanionPlanting_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/WOFE/Homeless_Women_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/Knowledgebase/Knowledgebase_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/MushroomTek/MushroomTek_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/MushroomTek/MushroomTek_02.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/ProtectedGrowing/ProtectedGrowing_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/Rabbits/Rabbits_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/Santa_Cruz/Santa_Cruz_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/Sebastopol/Sebastopol_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/SoilLife/Soil_Life_01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/Visual_Links_Pages.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/VisualLinks01.html
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/Visual_Pages/WastesRecycling/WastesRecycling_01.html

Last updated 17.2.2003

=====
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sincerely, Lion Kuntz
Santa Rosa, California, USA
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Suggested Websites:
Wesley Clark for President http://www.clark04.com/
http://www.ecosyn.us/ecocity/Ecosyn/Flowchart.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/ecocity/Ecosyn/IBS_Math.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/ecocity/Proposal/Palaces_For_The_People.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Palaces4People/
http://P4P.blogspot.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus

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From: Elaine Ingham <Soilfoodweb@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: help on a planting problem
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Dale gives some good suggestions.  Test and see what plants will be stunted
or prevented from growing.

But I would also get out there now, if possible, and enhance the biology that
will break down the toxics.

We've done a little work with several herbicides on golf and sports turf, in
the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia areas, and if you are interested in
the data, I can pass your name on to the people who did the work, and they
will get back to you if they are interested.  Sorry, not in the scientific
literature and not ever likely to be.

Actively aerated compost tea was applied to the snow surface.  Improved
litter decomposition was observed after the snow melted.  Improved organism numbers
were observed on the litter and were apparently decomposing plant debris
under the snow, in the zone of free water under the insulation of snow.  This has
been reported several times in the scientific literature, the first report
that I am aware in a paper back in 1986.

Plant litter material was decomposing under the snow.  Herbicides had been
used on both the sports turf and the golf greens.  There was no noticable
herbicide residual impact in these turf areas the next spring.  Presumably the
herbicides had been degraded along with the plant litter material.

We did a study two years ago showing that dioxin was decomposed below
regulatory levels within two months of adding compost tea (we selected for a
diversity of organisms that were known to attack dioxin-like substrates).

So, using Actively Aerated Compost Tea suggests a possible approach to
reducing the herbicide.

But apply it now, at about 15 to 20 gal per acre, depending on how good the
tea is.  By good, I mean adequate biology in the tea.  Many herbicides are
broken down rapidly by a certain set of fungi (which do not grow on any plate
media that we know about), and we need to make sure those fungi are present in the
tea.  that means they need to be in the compost you use.  Chat with me about
where you find that kind of compost.

If you don't have a way to apply a liquid in the winter (application of a
water based material is "fun" when the temperature in below freezing), then wait
until the soil warms to 45 to 50 degrees, and apply 15 to 20 gal of the
compost tea to the soil surface.

Roll the seeds you want to plant in a combination of actively aerated compost
tea and mycorrhizal spores.  Some evidence that colonization of the roots of
the plants by the fungi will alleviate impacts of toxic material on the roots.
 Presumably, protection from the herbicide could occur.

Finally, application of the actively aerated compost tea to the foliage of
the plant, as suggested by a previous poster, might be beneficial in protecting
the plant from foliar problems, but you really need to start to decompose the
herbicide before the seeds go on the soil.

So, it may be possible to start the remediation effort now, during the
winter, if you have snow on the soil surface.  Otherwise, get the compost tea down
ASAP in the spring, at least two weeks before planting the seeds.  Use Dale's
suggestions to test to determine if the Actively Aerated Compost Tea actually
helped reduce a residual effect (soil without the tea, soil with the tea, plant
seeds of something that should be affected by the herbicide, and watch plant
growth).

You need biologically active, high fungal species diversity, aerobic compost
tea.  Please check the International Compost Tea Council website -
www.intlctc.com
is the website address, or check www.soilfoodweb.com   - we've just added a
whole new section on compost tea on the website.

Please let me know what happens!

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand

"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well,
but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things
turn out."   --  Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic


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From: Elaine Ingham <Soilfoodweb@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: help on a planting problem
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Dale gives some good suggestions.  Test and see what plants will be stunted
or prevented from growing.

But I would also get out there now, if possible, and enhance the biology that
will break down the toxics.

We've done a little work with several herbicides on golf and sports turf, in
the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia areas, and if you are interested in
the data, I can pass your name on to the people who did the work, and they
will get back to you if they are interested.  Sorry, not in the scientific
literature and not ever likely to be.

Actively aerated compost tea was applied to the snow surface.  Improved
litter decomposition was observed after the snow melted.  Improved organism numbers
were observed on the litter and were apparently decomposing plant debris
under the snow, in the zone of free water under the insulation of snow.  This has
been reported several times in the scientific literature, the first report
that I am aware in a paper back in 1986.

Plant litter material was decomposing under the snow.  Herbicides had been
used on both the sports turf and the golf greens.  There was no noticable
herbicide residual impact in these turf areas the next spring.  Presumably the
herbicides had been degraded along with the plant litter material.

We did a study two years ago showing that dioxin was decomposed below
regulatory levels within two months of adding compost tea (we selected for a
diversity of organisms that were known to attack dioxin-like substrates).

So, using Actively Aerated Compost Tea suggests a possible approach to
reducing the herbicide.

But apply it now, at about 15 to 20 gal per acre, depending on how good the
tea is.  By good, I mean adequate biology in the tea.  Many herbicides are
broken down rapidly by a certain set of fungi (which do not grow on any plate
media that we know about), and we need to make sure those fungi are present in the
tea.  that means they need to be in the compost you use.  Chat with me about
where you find that kind of compost.

If you don't have a way to apply a liquid in the winter (application of a
water based material is "fun" when the temperature in below freezing), then wait
until the soil warms to 45 to 50 degrees, and apply 15 to 20 gal of the
compost tea to the soil surface.

Roll the seeds you want to plant in a combination of actively aerated compost
tea and mycorrhizal spores.  Some evidence that colonization of the roots of
the plants by the fungi will alleviate impacts of toxic material on the roots.
 Presumably, protection from the herbicide could occur.

Finally, application of the actively aerated compost tea to the foliage of
the plant, as suggested by a previous poster, might be beneficial in protecting
the plant from foliar problems, but you really need to start to decompose the
herbicide before the seeds go on the soil.

So, it may be possible to start the remediation effort now, during the
winter, if you have snow on the soil surface.  Otherwise, get the compost tea down
ASAP in the spring, at least two weeks before planting the seeds.  Use Dale's
suggestions to test to determine if the Actively Aerated Compost Tea actually
helped reduce a residual effect (soil without the tea, soil with the tea, plant
seeds of something that should be affected by the herbicide, and watch plant
growth).

You need biologically active, high fungal species diversity, aerobic compost
tea.  Please check the International Compost Tea Council website -
www.intlctc.com
is the website address, or check www.soilfoodweb.com   - we've just added a
whole new section on compost tea on the website.

Please let me know what happens!

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand

"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well,
but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things
turn out."   --  Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic


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From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
Organization: http://market-farming.com  --  Venaura Farm
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Date:         Fri, 16 Jan 2004 09:43:38 -0600
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Hey, it was Carey Reams who used the terms anionic and cationic in a different manner than common usage in chemical textbooks.

But so what, Carey Reams was a clairovoyant medical doctor and chemistry genius who became an ecofarming advisor to raise nutritionally 
sound produce for humans.... since conventional produce had gotten so poor.

One of the large farms in California reduced their pesticide bill by half a million dollars after adopting the Reams fertility program.... 
since the Reams approach pays close to attention to healthy plants. I doubt the farm manager worried about terminology that "conformed", eh?

Neal Kinsey was a student of William Albrecht at Univ of Missouri, and thank goodness because Kinsey can teach the Albrecht soil test 
calcuations and explain the Albrecht soil fertility approach better than any book.

Don Schriefer has two books and they provide an excellent overview of the ecofarming approach to soil management. "From the Soil Up" and 
"Agriculture in Transition."

Gary Zimmer's book is really good, "The Biological Farmer", so are the booklets from Midwestern Bio-Ag: "Crop Pests and Fertilizers - Is 
There a Connection", "Roots - The Hidden Half".... so is their soil fertilty manual that explains Albrecht-style soil test interpretation in 
detail.

Steve Diver http://www.attra.ncat.org

Art Petrzelka wrote:

 >Thanks, Joel, for your critique. I appreciate the time that you took to >help meout. > >The chemistry and scientific method in Acres 
U.S.A. is atrocious if you >try to treat it as traditional chemistry. When reading Neal Kinsey's >Hand's on Agronomy, I had to suspend my 
prior assumptions of chemistry, >small as they are, so that I could try to understand what he was saying. >That group has its own 
terminology, which can unfortunately be mistaken >for chemistry. Kinsey's use of anion/cation, for instance, is contrary >to common usage. > 
 >Maybe I'm more amenable to this because of my education as an engineer. >We're used to warping science to fit practical matters. The 
Chemistry, >Math and Physics profs used to hate to teach us. They thought that we >were hopelessly inaccurate. :-) I almost said imprecise, 
because that >is the engineer's most feared fault. Precision over accuracy, that's our >game! > >But, back to chemistry, I don't know of any 
other game in town that >addresses the minor minerals. I got soil tests through the state >extension service last spring. All I get is NPK, 
organic matter (which >was excellent) and pH. Two of those five are going to vary quite a bit >over the season. It was a cheap test, but the 
results I got weren't >worth the time and effort. > >I got some names of soil testing labs through ATTRA, and have identified >ten labs that 
do more than NPK. Only two of them do not appear to be >associated with one of the Albrecht-derivative firms that advertise in >Acres U.S.A: 
University of Maine and MDS Harris. The number and mix of >minerals that are tested for vary from firm to firm. I just checked one, >and it 
tests for twelve minerals, not the 17 that you mentioned for >plants, or even the 15 or so that Albrecht mentions. > >What's a farmer to do? 
It seems that I have to take some chaff with the >wheat, and hope I can winnow it out on my own. I believe that those >minor minerals are 
important, and I don't know how to get them balanced >without going through Acres. They are the only resource I have right >now. > >A minor 
quibble with the chart in "Has your soil got guts?": They >shifted the axes on the graph, and read it off the unshifted axes. The >elements 
that are in shortest supply are H, N & C, not N, P, S & C as >stated. Shortage is indicated by maximum distance from the 45 degree 
 >(shifted) axis. > >I ordered "From the Soil Up" by Donald Schiefer, and am looking forward >to learning more. > >If you were going to 
recommend any one book, or small set of books, for >a farmer to study, what would you pick?
-- 
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech

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Subject: Steve Diver:  Black soldier fly larvae for organic waste bioconversion
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Date:         Wed, 21 Jan 2004 11:23:38 -0600
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Subject:      Black soldier fly larvae for organic waste bioconversion
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Black soldier fly larvae for organic waste bioconversion

1.

Dr. Paul Olivier with Engineering, Separation and Recycling LLC in Louisiana shared resources on black soldier fly larvae on the U.S. 
Compost Countil List.... USCC.

The Bio-Conversion of Putrescent Wastes with Black Soldier Fly Larvae http://www.esrla.com/brazil/frame.htm

Interestingly, he is author of.....

The Universe is One, Towards a Theory of Knowledge and Life by Paul A. Olivier http://www.amazon.com

2.

A collection of resources on BSF were posted on USCC in June 2003:

USCC Web Email Archives http://mailman.cloudnet.com/pipermail/compost/

2003-June Archives by Subject http://mailman.cloudnet.com/pipermail/compost/2003-June/subject.html

3.

Jacky Foo with Integrated Biosystems Network of IOBB hosted an electronic workshop on BSF. See the papers and discussion at:

Black Soldier Fly and Waste Recycling/Management http://segate.sunet.se/archives/et-jizo.html

Here is the agenda with papers:

Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 18:43:35 +0200 Sender: Insect Larvae in Organic Waste Recycling & Management <ET-JIZO @ SEGATE.SUNET.SE> From: 
List-administrator <foo@MUIENR.AC.UG> Subject: Papers for e-discussion http://segate.sunet.se/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind02&L=et-jizo&H=1&O=D&P=2300

-----Original Message----- From: Jacky Foo <foo@muienr.ac.ug>

I am happy to announce that the following materials are now available on the web and they will serve as discussion papers for the e-workshop 
(15 April to 17 May) on "Insect Larvae in Organic Waste Recycling and Management"

(1) Paul Olivier (USA). The Bio-Conversion of Putrescent Waste http://www.esrla.com/brasil/frame.htm Or http://www.esrla.com/pdf/Brazil.pdf

(2) Kevin Warburton & Vivienne Hallman (Australia). Processing of organic materials by the soldier fly, Hermetia illicens 
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/Ras/01-174.pdf Page 118-129

(3) Craig Sheppard (USA). Black Soldier Fly and Others for Value-Added Manure Management Abstract: 
http://nespal.cpes.peachnet.edu/sustain/fly2.asp Full paper: http://nespal.cpes.peachnet.edu/sustain/ibs_conf.pdf

(4) Tran Tan Viet (Vietnam). Mass Production of Insect larvae http://www.esrla.com/tran/index.htm (under construction)

(5) Lylian Rodriguez, Siv Kong & Thomas R Preston (Cambodia). Insect larvae as recycling agents: an alternative for the conversion of 
organic wastes into high quality protein

4.

Electronic Forum on Area-Wide Integration of Specialized Crop and Livestock Production hosts a paper by Paul Olivier:

Larval Bio-conversion by Paul Olivier http://lead.virtualcentre.org/en/ele/awi_2000/particip/oliver.pdf

5.

Animal and Dairy Science at University of Georgia hosts a paper on BSF by Newton and Sheppard.

Soldier Fly Benefits: House Fly Control, Manure Volume Reduation, and Manure Nutrient Recycling G. L. Newton, D. C. Sheppard, S. A. 
Thompson, and S. I. Savage http://www.ads.uga.edu/annrpt/1995/95_311.htm

"A USDA Southern Region SARE/ACE grant (LS90-27, A Low Input Manure Management System in Animal Housing for House Fly Control, Waste 
Reduction and Feed Production) supported much of the research for this report."

Best regards,

Steve Diver http://www.attra.ncat.org
-- 
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech

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Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 06:24:30 -0000
Subject: [compost_tea] Re: Observing Microbial Biofilms on Leaf Surfaces + Isolation of Culturable Micr
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Hi Bob -

SFI uses fluorescein diacetate (FDA) in combination with 
epifluorescent microscopy to measure active microbial
biomass, and a range of microscopy methods for all the
different parameters they measure.  Elaine can provide exact 
details.   

Elaine's methodologies were developd through graduate and 
post-graduate research going back to early 1980s.

See a bibliography of her papers at:

Sunburst Nominees with SFI | Australia
http://www.sunnom.com.au/sfi/members.htm


For example: 

Ingham, E. R., and D. A. Klein. 1984. Soil fungi: relationships
between hyphal activity and staining with fluorescein
diacetate. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 16:273-278. 

Ingham, E.R. and D.A. Klein. (1984). Soil fungi: Measurement 
of hyphal length. Soil Biol. Biochem. 16:279-280.

Stamatiadis, S., J.W. Doran and E.R. Ingham. (1990). Use of 
staining and inhibitors to separate fungal and bacterial 
activity in soil. Soil Biol. Biochem. 22:81-88.


Mary Appelhof published an article in WormEzine (August 2003) 
that summarized the SFI lab techniques:

"Another capability that Dr. Ingham has is to determine which 
cells are active at the time the lab receives the samples. 
Many bacteria, protozoa, and fungi would be in a dormant 
or inactive state. Others are actively metabolizing at the 
time they make the preparation. By adding fluorescein diacetate 
(FDA) to the preparations, any cell whose mitochondria are 
active take up the FDA. When the technicians look at the sample 
using ultraviolet light with the microscope, the active cells 
show up a bright fluorescent yellow/green. By using a dark 
field on the microscope the bright yellow-green cells show up 
very readily, enabling the viewer to ascertain the number 
of active bacteria, fungi, or protozoa as compared with the 
total numbers or hyphal length." 

Etc... keep reading, this article provides an excellent 
summary of SFI procedures. 

WormEzine Vol. 2, No. 7
August 2003
http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/WormEzine_2-7.pdf


FDA and acridine orange (used in the French study) are 
fluorochromes. There's a whole bunch of the fluorochromes.

See:

Nikon Microscopy: Yellow Fluorescent Protein (YFP) Filter Set
http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/fluorescence/f
iltercubes/yfp/yfphome.html

Fluorochromes and recommended filter pairs
http://www.mtxlsi.com/fluorofilters.htm


Regards,

Steve Diver 



--- In compost_tea@yahoogroups.com, "bobkacalek" <bob@s...> wrote:
> Hi Steve,
> Thanks for sharing, very interesting.
> The advantage of quality ACT is the abundance of diversity in Micro-
> organisms delivered vs one or two specific cultures. 
> Are the methods described (Epifluorescence microscopy, scanning 
> electron microscopy, and confocal laser scanning microscopy were
used 
> to observe microbial biofilms directly on leaf surfaces)similar to 
> methods used by SFI?  Maybe Dr. E will respond?
> Thanks Again,
> bob 
> 
> 



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Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 16:51:49 -0000
Subject: [compost_tea] Observing Microbial Biofilms on Leaf Surfaces + Isolation of Culturable Microbes
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APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY,
Apr. 1997, p. 1570=961576

Methods for Observing Microbial Biofilms Directly on Leaf Surfaces=20
and Recovering Them for=09

http://nature.berkeley.edu/icelab/jmm/aem97.pdf

CINDY E. MORRIS, JEAN-MICHEL MONIER, AND MARIE-AGNE`S JACQUES

Station de Pathologie Ve=B4ge=B4tale, INRA, Domaine St. Maurice,
France


ABSTRACT

Epifluorescence microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and confocal
laser scanning microscopy were used to observe microbial biofilms
directly on leaf surfaces. Biofilms were observed on leaves of all
species sampled (spinach, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, celery, leeks,
basil, parsley, and broad-leaved endive), although the epifluorescent
images were clearest when pale green tissue or cuticle pieces were=20
used. With these techniques, biofilms were observed that were about=20
20 mm in depth and up to 1 mm in length and that contained copious
exopolymeric matrices, diverse morphotypes of microorganisms, and
debris. The epifluorescence techniques described here can be used to
rapidly determine the abundance and localization of biofilms on=20
leaves. An additional technique was developed to recover individual
biofilms or portions of single biofilms from leaves and to=20
disintegrate them for isolation of the culturable microorganisms=20
they contained. Nineteen biofilms from broad-leaved endive, spinach,
parsley, and olive leaves were thus isolated and characterized to
illustrate the applications of this technique.


Excerpts:


INTRODUCTION

It is well documented that leaves of herbaceous and woody
plants are colonized by numerous species of bacteria, yeasts,
and filamentous fungi...


In many environments, it is common to find assemblages of
microorganisms adherent to each other and/or to a surface and
embedded in a matrix of exopolymers (8). These assemblages
are referred to as biofilms...


(i) Biofilms are composed of an exopolymeric matrix and multiple=20
layers of microbial cells leading to the creation of physical=20
barriers and the establishment of chemical gradients. (ii) They
generally contain multiple species of microorganisms, fostering
metabolic and genetic exchange. (iii) Many biofilm cells are=20
attached to a surface...



MATERIALS AND METHODS

Plant material. Leaves were sampled from commercially produced=20
spinach (Spinacia oleracea), Battavian lettuce (Lactuca sativa),
Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris subsp. pekinensis),=20
celery (Apium graveolens), leeks (Allium porrum), basil=20
(Ocimum basilicum), and parsley (Petroselinum crispum) purchased=20
at a local supermarket. Leaves of broad-leaved endive (Cichorium
endivia var. latifolia, cultivar Samy) were collected from mature
plants in experimental field plots cultivated as described=20
previously (18) in Montfavet, France, or purchased at a=20
supermarket...


Preparation of plant material for microscopic observation. Leaves=20
of all plants except parsley were cut into squares of approximately=20
1 by 1 cm. For some leaves of broad-leaved endive, the cuticle=20
was also peeled off. Parsley leaflets were cut off the petioles=20
but were not cut into pieces. For epifluorescence microscopy,=20
leaflets, leaf pieces, or cuticle pieces were soaked in a solution=20
of acridine orange (0.01% in acetate buffer [pH 4]) for 2 min,=20
rinsed twice in distilled water, set on microscope slides, and=20
observed with an Olympus BHS microscope (Olympus Optical, Co.,=20
Tokyo, Japan; light source model BH.RFL.W) under UV light=20
filtered through a blue filter...



RESULTS

In situ observation. Aggregates of microorganisms embedded
in an exopolymeric matrix were observed on all leaf material
stained with acridine orange and examined by epifluorescence
light microscopy, including broad-leaved endive (Fig.
1), spinach, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, celery, leeks, basil,=20
and parsley. Epifluorescence microscopic images of biofilms on
broad-leaved endive were of the best resolution either when
the cuticle was peeled from the leaf surface and mounted
under a coverslide (Fig. 1A) or when biofilms were located on
flat, etiolated portions of the leaf....


Biofilms were observed on all parts of the leaves (margin,
base, and upper and lower surfaces). In the case of broadleaved
endive, we observed about 100 biofilms. These biofilms
were found most often at the leaf base and were rarely on the
margin of green leaf tissue. About 90% of them were attached
to trichomes (Fig. 1A and C)....


SEM examination of leaf surfaces confirmed that biofilms
could be readily observed on naturally contaminated leaf=20
surfaces. Biofilms observed by SEM were as large as 1 mm=20
in length (Fig. 2) or were in networks extending for several
millimeters and were composed of a copious exopolymer matrix
and numerous microbial morphotypes resembling bacteria,=20
filamentous fungi, and yeasts as well as debris-like particles.



DISCUSSION

The techniques reported here permitted us to illustrate that
biofilms in the phyllosphere may be tens of micrometers thick,
may have a copious exopolymeric matrix, and may form extensive
networks several millimeters long....


The isolation technique described in this study allows for
collection of a wide range of bacteria and other microorganisms
coexisting in close physical proximity...


Using the technique presented here, we have illustrated that=20
diverse microorganisms, including both gram-positive and=20
gram-negative bacteria as well as yeasts and filamentous fungi,=20
may inhabit the same biofilm in the phyllosphere as has been=20
observed in other environments (4, 22, 28)...


The isolation technique we describe here will allow phyllosphere=20
ecologists to determine which microorganisms are frequently=20
associated in biofilms. This may lead to the identification of=20
saprophytic organisms that play a role in plant disease processes=20
incited by phytopathogenic organisms with which they are associated=20
or may help to explain mechanisms of genetic exchange observed
on leaf surfaces...


Characterization of the microbial components of individual=20
biofilms in the phyllosphere may lead to new hypotheses about=20
trophic interactions or chemical communication among these=20
organisms.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

SD comment:=20

Compost teas have significant influence on microorganism
populations in the rhizophere and phyllosphere.=20=20

While biofilms are problematic in compost tea brewers,=20
they are normal and beneficial in the phyllosphere.=20

This paper elucidates direct observation of phyllosphere
organisms, and alludes to culture methods to isolate=20
microorganisms.=20=20=20

Isolation of soil and compost microbes for identification
by gas chromatography, following by culturing of selected=20
beneficial strains in fermentation flasks, then adding back=20
into compost teas prior to field application, as a liquid=20
biological injection into irrigation lines, has been done=20
by Midwest BioSystems in conjunction with Agri-Energy
Resources Lab, for example.=20

Steve Diver



=20
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/compost_tea/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     compost_tea-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
=20



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Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 16:51:49 -0000
Subject: [compost_tea] Observing Microbial Biofilms on Leaf Surfaces + Isolation of Culturable Microbes
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APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY,
Apr. 1997, p. 1570=961576

Methods for Observing Microbial Biofilms Directly on Leaf Surfaces=20
and Recovering Them for=09

http://nature.berkeley.edu/icelab/jmm/aem97.pdf

CINDY E. MORRIS, JEAN-MICHEL MONIER, AND MARIE-AGNE`S JACQUES

Station de Pathologie Ve=B4ge=B4tale, INRA, Domaine St. Maurice,
France


ABSTRACT

Epifluorescence microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and confocal
laser scanning microscopy were used to observe microbial biofilms
directly on leaf surfaces. Biofilms were observed on leaves of all
species sampled (spinach, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, celery, leeks,
basil, parsley, and broad-leaved endive), although the epifluorescent
images were clearest when pale green tissue or cuticle pieces were=20
used. With these techniques, biofilms were observed that were about=20
20 mm in depth and up to 1 mm in length and that contained copious
exopolymeric matrices, diverse morphotypes of microorganisms, and
debris. The epifluorescence techniques described here can be used to
rapidly determine the abundance and localization of biofilms on=20
leaves. An additional technique was developed to recover individual
biofilms or portions of single biofilms from leaves and to=20
disintegrate them for isolation of the culturable microorganisms=20
they contained. Nineteen biofilms from broad-leaved endive, spinach,
parsley, and olive leaves were thus isolated and characterized to
illustrate the applications of this technique.


Excerpts:


INTRODUCTION

It is well documented that leaves of herbaceous and woody
plants are colonized by numerous species of bacteria, yeasts,
and filamentous fungi...


In many environments, it is common to find assemblages of
microorganisms adherent to each other and/or to a surface and
embedded in a matrix of exopolymers (8). These assemblages
are referred to as biofilms...


(i) Biofilms are composed of an exopolymeric matrix and multiple=20
layers of microbial cells leading to the creation of physical=20
barriers and the establishment of chemical gradients. (ii) They
generally contain multiple species of microorganisms, fostering
metabolic and genetic exchange. (iii) Many biofilm cells are=20
attached to a surface...



MATERIALS AND METHODS

Plant material. Leaves were sampled from commercially produced=20
spinach (Spinacia oleracea), Battavian lettuce (Lactuca sativa),
Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris subsp. pekinensis),=20
celery (Apium graveolens), leeks (Allium porrum), basil=20
(Ocimum basilicum), and parsley (Petroselinum crispum) purchased=20
at a local supermarket. Leaves of broad-leaved endive (Cichorium
endivia var. latifolia, cultivar Samy) were collected from mature
plants in experimental field plots cultivated as described=20
previously (18) in Montfavet, France, or purchased at a=20
supermarket...


Preparation of plant material for microscopic observation. Leaves=20
of all plants except parsley were cut into squares of approximately=20
1 by 1 cm. For some leaves of broad-leaved endive, the cuticle=20
was also peeled off. Parsley leaflets were cut off the petioles=20
but were not cut into pieces. For epifluorescence microscopy,=20
leaflets, leaf pieces, or cuticle pieces were soaked in a solution=20
of acridine orange (0.01% in acetate buffer [pH 4]) for 2 min,=20
rinsed twice in distilled water, set on microscope slides, and=20
observed with an Olympus BHS microscope (Olympus Optical, Co.,=20
Tokyo, Japan; light source model BH.RFL.W) under UV light=20
filtered through a blue filter...



RESULTS

In situ observation. Aggregates of microorganisms embedded
in an exopolymeric matrix were observed on all leaf material
stained with acridine orange and examined by epifluorescence
light microscopy, including broad-leaved endive (Fig.
1), spinach, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, celery, leeks, basil,=20
and parsley. Epifluorescence microscopic images of biofilms on
broad-leaved endive were of the best resolution either when
the cuticle was peeled from the leaf surface and mounted
under a coverslide (Fig. 1A) or when biofilms were located on
flat, etiolated portions of the leaf....


Biofilms were observed on all parts of the leaves (margin,
base, and upper and lower surfaces). In the case of broadleaved
endive, we observed about 100 biofilms. These biofilms
were found most often at the leaf base and were rarely on the
margin of green leaf tissue. About 90% of them were attached
to trichomes (Fig. 1A and C)....


SEM examination of leaf surfaces confirmed that biofilms
could be readily observed on naturally contaminated leaf=20
surfaces. Biofilms observed by SEM were as large as 1 mm=20
in length (Fig. 2) or were in networks extending for several
millimeters and were composed of a copious exopolymer matrix
and numerous microbial morphotypes resembling bacteria,=20
filamentous fungi, and yeasts as well as debris-like particles.



DISCUSSION

The techniques reported here permitted us to illustrate that
biofilms in the phyllosphere may be tens of micrometers thick,
may have a copious exopolymeric matrix, and may form extensive
networks several millimeters long....


The isolation technique described in this study allows for
collection of a wide range of bacteria and other microorganisms
coexisting in close physical proximity...


Using the technique presented here, we have illustrated that=20
diverse microorganisms, including both gram-positive and=20
gram-negative bacteria as well as yeasts and filamentous fungi,=20
may inhabit the same biofilm in the phyllosphere as has been=20
observed in other environments (4, 22, 28)...


The isolation technique we describe here will allow phyllosphere=20
ecologists to determine which microorganisms are frequently=20
associated in biofilms. This may lead to the identification of=20
saprophytic organisms that play a role in plant disease processes=20
incited by phytopathogenic organisms with which they are associated=20
or may help to explain mechanisms of genetic exchange observed
on leaf surfaces...


Characterization of the microbial components of individual=20
biofilms in the phyllosphere may lead to new hypotheses about=20
trophic interactions or chemical communication among these=20
organisms.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

SD comment:=20

Compost teas have significant influence on microorganism
populations in the rhizophere and phyllosphere.=20=20

While biofilms are problematic in compost tea brewers,=20
they are normal and beneficial in the phyllosphere.=20

This paper elucidates direct observation of phyllosphere
organisms, and alludes to culture methods to isolate=20
microorganisms.=20=20=20

Isolation of soil and compost microbes for identification
by gas chromatography, following by culturing of selected=20
beneficial strains in fermentation flasks, then adding back=20
into compost teas prior to field application, as a liquid=20
biological injection into irrigation lines, has been done=20
by Midwest BioSystems in conjunction with Agri-Energy
Resources Lab, for example.=20

Steve Diver



=20
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/compost_tea/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     compost_tea-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
=20



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Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 06:24:30 -0000
Subject: [compost_tea] Re: Observing Microbial Biofilms on Leaf Surfaces + Isolation of Culturable Micr
Reply-To: compost_tea@yahoogroups.com
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Hi Bob -

SFI uses fluorescein diacetate (FDA) in combination with 
epifluorescent microscopy to measure active microbial
biomass, and a range of microscopy methods for all the
different parameters they measure.  Elaine can provide exact 
details.   

Elaine's methodologies were developd through graduate and 
post-graduate research going back to early 1980s.

See a bibliography of her papers at:

Sunburst Nominees with SFI | Australia
http://www.sunnom.com.au/sfi/members.htm


For example: 

Ingham, E. R., and D. A. Klein. 1984. Soil fungi: relationships
between hyphal activity and staining with fluorescein
diacetate. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 16:273-278. 

Ingham, E.R. and D.A. Klein. (1984). Soil fungi: Measurement 
of hyphal length. Soil Biol. Biochem. 16:279-280.

Stamatiadis, S., J.W. Doran and E.R. Ingham. (1990). Use of 
staining and inhibitors to separate fungal and bacterial 
activity in soil. Soil Biol. Biochem. 22:81-88.


Mary Appelhof published an article in WormEzine (August 2003) 
that summarized the SFI lab techniques:

"Another capability that Dr. Ingham has is to determine which 
cells are active at the time the lab receives the samples. 
Many bacteria, protozoa, and fungi would be in a dormant 
or inactive state. Others are actively metabolizing at the 
time they make the preparation. By adding fluorescein diacetate 
(FDA) to the preparations, any cell whose mitochondria are 
active take up the FDA. When the technicians look at the sample 
using ultraviolet light with the microscope, the active cells 
show up a bright fluorescent yellow/green. By using a dark 
field on the microscope the bright yellow-green cells show up 
very readily, enabling the viewer to ascertain the number 
of active bacteria, fungi, or protozoa as compared with the 
total numbers or hyphal length." 

Etc... keep reading, this article provides an excellent 
summary of SFI procedures. 

WormEzine Vol. 2, No. 7
August 2003
http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/WormEzine_2-7.pdf


FDA and acridine orange (used in the French study) are 
fluorochromes. There's a whole bunch of the fluorochromes.

See:

Nikon Microscopy: Yellow Fluorescent Protein (YFP) Filter Set
http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/fluorescence/f
iltercubes/yfp/yfphome.html

Fluorochromes and recommended filter pairs
http://www.mtxlsi.com/fluorofilters.htm


Regards,

Steve Diver 



--- In compost_tea@yahoogroups.com, "bobkacalek" <bob@s...> wrote:
> Hi Steve,
> Thanks for sharing, very interesting.
> The advantage of quality ACT is the abundance of diversity in Micro-
> organisms delivered vs one or two specific cultures. 
> Are the methods described (Epifluorescence microscopy, scanning 
> electron microscopy, and confocal laser scanning microscopy were
used 
> to observe microbial biofilms directly on leaf surfaces)similar to 
> methods used by SFI?  Maybe Dr. E will respond?
> Thanks Again,
> bob 
> 
> 



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Organization: http://market-farming.com  --  Venaura Farm
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Date:         Sat, 13 Mar 2004 09:08:16 +0000
Reply-To:     Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
               <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
Sender:       Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
               <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
From:         gil carandang <gil_carandang@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Tilth Apprentice Placement Service Updated for 2004
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

in a few weeks i will be posting our apprenticeship in tropical organic agriculture at herbana farms in the philippines. it is a six-month 
program with special focus on natural farming technology. i'll send more details later. thanks, gil carandang herbana farms philippines 
 >From: Chrys Ostrander <chrys@THEFUTUREISORGANIC.NET> >Reply-To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group 
 ><SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU> >To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU >Subject: [SANET-MG] Tilth Apprentice Placement Service Updated for 2004 
 >Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 14:19:40 -0800 > >Tilth Producers is Washington State's Organic and Sustainable growers' >Organization. Each year 
it publishes the Tilth Apprentice Placement Service >Listing as a way for folks seeking work experience on organic and >sustainable farms to 
connect with farmers seeking apprentices. > >I have just updated the Placement Service listings for 2004 on the Tilth >Producers website: 
 >http://www.tilthproducers.org. > >Seventy-four farms are listed and their apprentice position openings are >described. Check it out today! 
 > >The actual apprenticeship arrangement will be made directly between the >participating farms and apprentices. As such, the Tilth 
Placement Service >and the Tilth Producers organization cannot guarantee the satisfaction of >the farmers or the apprentices. > >Yours 
truly, >Chrys Ostrander >Web Designer for Tilth Producers ><mailto:webweaver@tilthproducers.org> > 
 >******************************************************** > >To unsubscribe from SANET-MG: >1- Visit 
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Date:         Tue, 30 Mar 2004 10:46:24 +0000
Reply-To:     Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
               <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
Sender:       Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
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From:         gil carandang <gil_carandang@HOTMAIL.COM>
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you might be interested on an in-depth workshop on indigenous microorganisms, grow your own -- beneficial indigenous microorganisms and 
bionutrients in natural farming. i did two workshops years 2003 and 2004 for ecofarm conference in monterey, california and did several 
one-day workshops in california. you may search "gil carandang", "indigenous microorganisms". let me know and i can tailor a workshop on the 
subject which participants will actually learn how to culture these beneficial indigenous microorganisms, empowering farmers. thanks, gil 
carandang herbana farms philippines >From: Maura McDermott <maura@OKLATEL.NET> >Reply-To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group 
 ><SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU> >To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU >Subject: [SANET-MG] your input needed >Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 13:16:55 
-0600 > >Fall Workshops: Your Input Needed > >The Kerr Center is planning The Future Farms 2004 conference for November, >and we need your 
help. > >In the past, many of our conference attendees have indicated they would >like >more in-depth information than can be conveyed in an 
hour-long session on >topics that would help them start a new farm enterprise or sustainably >manage existing crops/livestock. So we are 
planning a conference that will >consist of several in-depth, day or half-day workshops on topics of >interest >to small scale 
farmers/ranchers in Oklahoma and adjoining states who might >attend. > >We need you to let us know what topic or topics you would like to 
see >covered in a workshop. Below are a list of possibilities, gleaned from past >conference evaluations. >PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR OWN 
IDEA/TOPIC. > >Print this form and mail to: Maura McDermott, Kerr Center, PO Box 588 >Poteau, OK 74953 >Or you may easily email us your 
suggestions from our web site >www.kerrcenter.com-- this form is online there. Please contact us by May >1. > >Possible Workshop Topics 
(Please check) > > >Organic _____________(name crops) >__production >__marketing > >__Building healthy soil > >__Season Extension Ideas > 
 >__Rotational/Cell grazing > >__Growing “ethnic” crops > >__CSAs/Subscription Farming > >__Agritourism > >__Raising heritage breeds of 
livestock > >__Grass-fed beef >__production >__processing/marketing > >__Natural beef >__production >__processing/ marketing > >__Organic 
beef >__production >__processing/marketing > >__Financing alternative enterprises > >__Business/record keeping for farm enterprises > 
 >__Grants for farmers > >__Herbs >__production >__marketing > >__Honey: >__production >__marketing > >__Cut flowers >__production > 
__marketing > >__Farmers’ markets: > __how to start > __selling at > >__Producing/selling to schools and institutions > 
 >OTHER_______________________________________________________________________ > 
 >____________________________________________________________________________ > 
 >____________________________________________________________________________ > >___________________________________________ > >Instructors 
you would like to hear? > >____________________________________________________________________________ >__ > > >Your name, address 
(optional) > > > >Maura McDermott >Communications Director >Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture >PO Box 588 >Poteau, OK 74953 
 >918.647.9123 >www.kerrcenter.com > >"There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is >an idea whose time has 
come." --Victor Hugo > >******************************************************** > >To unsubscribe from SANET-MG: >1- Visit 
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from the address subscribed to the >list. Type "unsubscribe sanet-mg" in the body of the message. > >Visit the SANET-MG archives at: 
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-- 
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech



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<tt>
Hi Anthony -&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
I'm out of time!&nbsp; But here's a first pass at the explanation for you!&nbsp; Back in two weeks!<BR>
<BR>
Numbers of individuals in soil.&nbsp; OK, here goes.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
That's not possible to say, really, for fungi.&nbsp; A fungal individual is difficult to know for certain.&nbsp; Plate counts mess up on that measurement - in general, plate counts give you &quot;how many spores of fungi and pieces of hyphal strands were the fungi broken into when you shook your sample&quot;, which isn't really a useful piece of information.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Colony forming units - CFU - do not tell you if the fungal propagule was a spore, a tiny piece of hypha, or a mat of hyphae.&nbsp; You need to do biomass, that's all there is to it, when you are dealing with fungi.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Especially when you want to compare fungi and bacteria, comparing numbers is just plain nonsense.&nbsp; We could tell you how many individual strands of fungi are present in soil, but that is dependent on whether the soil was just plowed, or not.&nbsp; Doesn't relate to anything useful.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
But what about bacteria?&nbsp; Bacteria clump together, they like to form colonies.&nbsp; Just like people.&nbsp; People clump together in villages, towns, cities, etc..&nbsp; The group helps each individual better.&nbsp; Think of a bacterial colony as being like a neighborhood of similar ethnic people.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Plate count approaches cannot separate all the colonies into the individuals, so plate counts always underestimate the actual number of individuals - but you don't know by how much.&nbsp; How many colonies were broken up when you shook your soil sample in buffer?&nbsp; How many were not, or were partially broken up? don't know.&nbsp; So, what are you getting when you run a plate count?&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
In direct microscopy, we count the individual bacteria that we can see, including the bacteria in colonies, measure length and width, and then using the typical density of bacteria in soil, determined over the years by lots of testing and which varies from soil to soil, season to season, we can determine biomass of bacteria in soil.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
We are working on differences in bacterial and fungial densities in the rhizosphere of different agricultural plants right now, so that will be put into the data that will be used to fine-tune the SFI report based on each plant that you tell us has been growing in the area you want to know about.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
A good test for a lab that says they are doing direct measurements, but are perhaps not actually giving good data because they don't work with the person who developed the direct microscopic techniques they purport to use, is to ask them how they figured out density of bacteria and fungi in soil.&nbsp; What values do they use in their spread sheets, and how those values change with season.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
SFI labs direct that question to me, because I developed the knowledge.&nbsp; Sharing that knowledge, having someone able to understand that level of seasonal change, and understand how to do the assessment, generally takes a minimum of Ph.D. in microbiology.&nbsp; So, yes, other academics can tell you the reason you need to pay attention to this, but only by working with SFI labs will you get the knowledge that has already worked that one out.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
People who stopped by SFI and spent a week, or even a couple years, &quot;training&quot; with SF were not given this information.&nbsp; They can't explain where each value in our spread sheets comes from, and of course, that's critical in order to change the seasonal parameters, the plant parameters, that need to be changed.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Anyway, on to the numbers.&nbsp; We explain numbers versus biomass in SFI courses, so, if this discussion is a bit too much, please come to one of those classes.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Bacteria generally run about 1 million per gram (about a teaspoon) of dry weight of soil in conventional agricultural soil.&nbsp; Typically a plate count will overestimate the actual numbers of bacterial individuals, because the plate count will include dormant stages of bacteria, not just the active bacterial cells.&nbsp; That's a problem.&nbsp; If the information you need is - how many functioning cells in my soil - then you cannot get that knowledge from a plate count.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Bacterial numbers in HEALTHY agricultural soil, healthy defined by the plant can grow without pesticides or inorganic fertilizer to help it survive (not on drugs, if you will) are typically about 600 million per gram dry weight of soil.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Numbers of bacteria per gram in a conventional lawn, maintained by a chemical service?&nbsp; You may have only disease - causers, and you may have only a few thousand per gram.&nbsp; Pesticides kill things.&nbsp; Oh, surprise.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
In a healthy lawn, which is disease-free, so not requiring any pesticides, we can find up to 2,000 million bacteria per gram of soil.&nbsp; But that better be balanced by a fungal biomass to balance nitrogen in a proper ratio to grow your perennial grasses.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
The proper biology does that for you.&nbsp; You must get the ratio of fungi to bacteria correct, for the plant you want to grow, or you may be setting the stage to grow weeds better than the plant you want to grow.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
If that statement confused you, it may be time to come to an SFI class.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
In a field of soil (about 2 million lbs of soil in the top ten inches in an acre of soil), that's well into the billions of individuals of bacteria, and possibly fungi.&nbsp;&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
You need to be very careful when someone is talking about numbers of individuals of bacteria or fungi that you get the units correct.&nbsp; Did they say billions of individuals per gram of ag soil?&nbsp; Then they are not correct.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Did they say billions of individuals per gram soil in an old growth forest?&nbsp; They are correct.&nbsp; How productive a system are you talking about?&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
If they say billions of individuals in an ag FIELD, then they MAY be correct.&nbsp; In an old growth forest stand of trees?&nbsp; They are being too conservative.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
And that's just bacteria and fungi.&nbsp; what about protozoa?&nbsp; Add them in.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Nematodes?&nbsp; Microarthropods?&nbsp; You CANNOT have a healthy old growth forest without several hundred thousand microarthropods doing their thing, during the right times of the year.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Seasonal processes going on there, and we need to make sure they are there, in order to have a healthy forest.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Much to understand.&nbsp; But not impossible, nor even all that complex, if you get an understanding of how it all works together.&nbsp; There's a great deal of &quot;well, of course that's how it works&quot;, once you have someone explain the functions of the different critters for you.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Elaine Ingham<BR>
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.<BR>
SFI Corvallis, OR<BR>
SFI Port Jefferson, NY<BR>
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia<BR>
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands<BR>
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand<BR>
SFI Culiacan, Mexico<BR>
SFI Jerome, Idaho<BR>
<a href="http://www.soilfoodweb.com">http://www.soilfoodweb.com</a><BR>
</tt>




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  http://www.newfarm.org/depts/NFfield_trials/0903/daviddouds.shtml

Cultivating diversity underground for better yields above
Research at The Rodale Institute® demonstrates how sustainable farming practices can boost yields by nurturing beneficial soil fungi.

By Laura Sayre



About this series:

As some of you may know, The Rodale Institute®, which publishes The New Farm®, is home to the longest running field trials in the country 
comparing organic and conventional systems of farming called The Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial® (FST). The data from that 23 years 
of research is a real treasure trove of insight into the economic, ecological and agronomic benefits of organic farming.

In addition to this long-running Farming Systems Trial, we have a variety of other research in progress at The Institute. David Douds, as 
you’ll read in this story, has been studying soil fungi here at The Institute’s research farm for 15 years. We’re engaged in no-till 
research, weed research, compost tea research, composting research, water quality research, and much more.

Until now, much of the light we’re generating here on our research farm has been hidden under the proverbial barrel, but we’re taking off 
the barrel and busting it up for firewood. We’re going let the light of the amazing research being done here shine on farmers, consumers and 
environmental activities.

Over the next year we’ll be running a series of stories, about one a month, on the significance of our research ... and its practical 
applications. That includes a few stories on equipment construction—a front-mounted roller for no-till, and a compost turner converted from 
a junked 18-wheeler.

So sit tight, and be prepared to be amazed, starting with David Douds’ discoveries about how you can increase vegetable yields by 50 percent 
using homemade fungal inoculants.

Enjoy,

Chris Hill
Executive Editor

p.s. Interested in hearing more about how you can take part in the mycorrhizae revolution? Click here and let us know. Send your name, phone 
number and e-mail address with your note so we can follow-up with you.







	"Overall, Douds’ work suggests that a small amount of mixed MF inoculant can be substituted for a large amount of fertilizer--with no loss 
of yield, greatly reduced environmental impact, and lower production costs."


	Home-grown mycorrhizal inoculum can be produced at a fraction of the cost of purchasing commercial mixes. "I've done some preliminary 
calculations," says Douds. "The on-farm system produces 100 million propagules for approximately $50, not counting the cost of the farmer's 
labor, which is fairly minimal. To purchase 100 million propagules as listed on the bag of some commercial mixes would cost anywhere from 
$8,000 to $40,000."
		


FACT SHEET: Mycorrhizae
	

Above: USDA soil microbiologist David Douds with a carrot root-mycorrhizal fungi culture. Under the leadership of Dr. Douds, field trials 
have shown yield gains of as much as 50% in the presence of healthy mycorrhizae populations. Now Douds is developing a practical, low-cost 
method for on-farm production of mycorrhizal soil innoculant, promising higher yields with lower nutrient inputs. (Photo by Peggy Greb, 
courtesy of the Agricultural Research Service Photo Unit.)

September 29, 2003: You've read the amazing facts and figures: one teaspoon of healthy topsoil can contain millions of individual 
microorganisms, all playing a part in the functioning of the soil ecosystem. But how much do you really know about the action of those 
diverse species and how to maximize their presence in your own fields?

Ongoing research at The Rodale Institute® sheds light on one important component of the soil community--mycorrhizal fungi--and its impact on 
agricultural production. Under the leadership of Dr. David Douds, a soil microbiologist with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, field 
trials have shown yield gains of as much as 50% in the presence of healthy mycorrhizae populations. Now Douds is developing a practical, 
low-cost method for on-farm production of mycorrhizal soil inoculant, promising higher yields with lower nutrient inputs.

A mycorrhizal primer

Mycorrhizae are soil-dwelling fungi that live in and around the roots of plants ('myco-rrhizae' means 'fungus-root'). The fungi and the 
plants form mutually beneficial associations in which the fungi receive carbohydrates from the plants and the plants receive nutrients and 
other benefits from the fungi. Since the first mycorrhizae species were described by a German botanist in the 1880s, researchers have 
discovered that approximately 80% of all land plants form mycorrhizal associations. The relationship is so widespread, in fact, that it is 
sometimes referred to as 'the Universal Symbiosis,' and is believed to have played a key role in the evolutionary transition from aquatic to 
terrestrial plant forms.

Today, scientists divide mycorrhizae into two major types: endomycorrhizae, which penetrate and colonize plant roots, and ectomycorrhizae, 
which form sheaths around plant roots. Whereas ectomycorrhizal relationships tend to be highly specialized--with some 6000 fungal species 
worldwide associated with tree species of the oak, beech, and pine families, among others--endomycorrhizal associations are more generalized 
as well as more widespread, with fewer than 150 fungal species opportunistically colonizing the roots of the vast majority of terrestrial 
plant families. Ectomycorrhizal inoculants are already widely used in commercial forestry, but the possibility of developing endomycorrhizal 
inoculants for production agriculture is a more recent idea.

"These are beneficial soil fungi that colonize the roots of plants and help them take up phosphorus" and other immobile soil nutrients, such 
as zinc and copper, Douds explains. "The fungus colonizes the root and it also grows out into the soil; the part of the fungus that's in the 
soil acts as an extension of the root system, to explore a greater volume of soil and take up nutrients and bring them back into the root."

In addition to facilitating nutrient uptake, some mycorrhizae secrete a gluey substance, called glomalin, which helps develop soil structure 
and soil aggregation; others may help plants fight disease. Yet because endomycorrhizae are 'obligate symbionts'--they must have living 
plant roots to colonize in order to complete their life cycle--their numbers will decline under conventional agricultural monocultures, 
which have living crop covers fewer months of the year than organic rotations. The drop in yields typically seen after the first year of 
cultivation on virgin prairie or forest soils is probably attributable in part to the loss of native mycorrhizae, Douds says.

Fifteen years of research prove benefits of fungi

Douds has been conducting research in collaboration with The Rodale Institute since 1989, his first year at the Agricultural Research 
Service's Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, on the outskirts of Philadelphia. "Some employees of The Institute farm came down to 
our research center as part of a kind of an interagency show-and-tell about research programs and facilities and what all we could do to 
help each other," Douds recalls. "Rhonda Janke"--The Institute's research agronomist at the time--"gave a presentation about The Rodale 
Institute Farming Systems Trial," a side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional production systems. Douds recognized it as a great 
opportunity to study endomycorrhizal associations.

"Later that year I started sampling, and right off learned that [the soils under] the conventional farming systems had fewer mycorrhizal 
fungi than the soils under the low-input farming systems. So right away we all got excited and we branched out from there."

Since that first season, Douds' work at The Rodale Institute’s 333-acre experimental farm has progressed in three overlapping phases:

In the first phase, from 1989 to 1995, Douds and his team surveyed native mycorrhizal fungi (MF) populations at Rodale and examined the 
impact of different agricultural practices--including tillage regimes, crop rotations, and soil amendments--on those populations. The second 
phase, which is still ongoing, looks at the utilization of MF by crop plants, comparing yields in the presence and absence of different MF 
species. The third phase seeks to apply those findings by devising a simple, on-farm MF inoculum production system, so that farmers can 
harness the benefits of endomycorrhizae without spending lots of money on commercial mixes. (Commercial products already on the market 
include Bio/Organics Endomycorrhizal Inoculant [$79.95 for 3 lbs, labeled to treat 500 plants], Plant Success Mycorrhizae Tablets [$19.95 
for 100 tablets, labeled to treat 50 plants up to 1 ft tall], and Earthroots VAM Fungi by First Fruits LLC [$15 for 3 lbs, labeled to treat 
200 seedlings].)

	
On-farm production of mycorrhizal inoculant in test enclosures at The Rodale Institute’s farm. Douds chose bahiagrass as a host plant 
"because it's a tropical grass and the first frost will kill the shoot growth"--so it won't escape to become a new local weed and won't 
harbor any pests or pathogens that might affect either resident crops or northern native grasses.

Agronomic practices that boost—or depress—
mycorrhizal levels

Although the first phase of Douds's research found larger and more diverse MF populations in organically-managed soils than in 
conventionally-managed ones, it also revealed how specific agronomic practices can boost or depress MF levels.

"Over-wintering cover crops. . . are very beneficial to mycorrhizal fungi," Douds notes, whereas "tillage disrupts the mycorrhizal fungi in 
the soil and serves to decrease the initial colonization of the plants." Based on these findings, Douds emphasizes that all farmers, organic 
or conventional, can take steps to nurture the MF already present in their fields: reduce tillage, he says, use fungicides sparingly, 
and--most important--maximize cover cropping. "Over-wintering cover crops give the MF a host plant to colonize when there's no cash crop 
growing on the soil," Douds explains.

In the coldest part of the year the MF go dormant, but during warm spells in early spring and late fall, the MF will try to grow, and can 
exhaust their reserves if they find no plant hosts. "During these periods. . . the fungus is still respiring, it's still burning up its 
carbohydrate storage in the spores, it's burning up the lipids that were stored," leaving it "less viable when the time comes finally for 
the crop plant to be present." A cover crop or even just a weedy fallow will maintain healthy MF populations, which can then benefit the 
cash crop coming on to the field.

Crop rotations are another factor to consider, since a handful of crop species belong to plant families that do not form mycorrhizal 
associations (said to be 'non-mycotrophic'), including the Brassicaceae (rape, broccoli, cabbage, turnips, etc), the Chenopodiaceae (beets, 
spinach), and the Polygonaceae (buckwheat). Not only will these crops not benefit from the presence of MF, but MF levels in the soil will be 
depressed after these crops are grown, potentially showing an effect on any mycotrophic crops which follow.

Potatoes and peppers inoculated with mycorrhizae get yield boosts of up to 50 percent!

In the second phase of his research, looking at the impact of MF on crop yields, Douds began inoculating plants in the greenhouse and then 
tracking their performance in the field.

"We had some plants that were inoculated with a control mix with no inoculum, another one inoculated with a mix of mycorrhizal fungi, and 
another inoculated with just one species commonly present in commercial inoculum," Douds explains. "We transplanted them into the Compost 
Utilization Trial,"--another ongoing experiment at The Rodale Institute--"and we found over the course of the 3-year experiment that the 
mixture of mycorrhizal fungi increased the yield of marketable-sized peppers up to a maximum of 34% over the control. Last year we tried 
inoculating potatoes, and we got up to a 50% increase over the controls."

	
David Douds and a research intern dig potatoes in this season's mycorrhizal test plot at the Rodale Experimental Farm. In last year's 
trials, potatoes grown with mycorrhizal fungi showed yield increases of as much as 50%. Other crops known to respond dramatically to 
mycorrhizal colonization include citrus, onion, and strawberries.

This year they are repeating the potato trial, measuring yields under four different treatments: one with no added MF; one with a 
commercially available MF; one with a mixed MF inoculant grown in a leaf compost and vermiculite medium; and one with a mixed MF inoculant 
grown in a dairy manure compost and vermiculite medium. Overall, this work suggests that a small amount of mixed MF inoculant can be 
substituted for a large amount of fertilizer--with no loss of yield, greatly reduced environmental impact, and lower production costs.

One unexpected finding of Douds' work at Rodale "is that mycorrhizae can be used to increase the yield of crops even in soils that are very 
high in phosphorous." Some of the soils at the Rodale Farm which have been heavily composted, Douds notes, "have available P in excess of 
300 parts/million"--well above the level at which mycorrhizal responses are typically seen, around 20-50 ppm available P. "The 
generalization would be that P as high as 300 would be a situation in which the plant can take up all the P that it needs by itself without 
relying on the mycorrhizal fungi." Douds believes that at high nutrient levels, some of the other benefits of MF--enhanced disease 
resistance, improved soil aggregation and better water relations--could be showing an effect.

Build your own on-farm inoculum production system

The third phase of Douds' research at Rodale Farm focuses on developing an inexpensive, practicable system for on-farm production of 
mycorrhizae inoculant. As obligate symbionts, endomycorrhizae have so far resisted attempts to create what scientists call axenic (or 
isolated, single-species) cultures--they can only be grown in the presence of a host plant. Douds' system works within this constraint, 
using bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum), a tropical grass native to the southeastern US, as a host.

	

A myccorhizae factory: The basic procedure is for the farmer to construct a simple enclosure out of landscape fabric, fill it with a mixture 
of compost and vermiculite, and then transplant pre-colonized bahiagrass seedlings into the mixture. Over the course of the growing season 
the bahiagrass spreads within the enclosure and the mycorrhizal fungi spread and reproduce along with it. When the grass dies back in the 
winter, the farmer is left with a concentrated mycorrhizal inoculant that can be incorporated into his or her potting mix when starting 
seedlings in the greenhouse the following spring.

The basic procedure is for the farmer to construct a simple enclosure out of landscape fabric (75 cm square and 20 cm high), fill it with a 
mixture of compost and vermiculite, and then transplant pre-colonized bahiagrass seedlings into the mixture. Over the course of the growing 
season the bahiagrass spreads within the enclosure and the mycorrhizal fungi spread and reproduce along with it. When the grass dies back in 
the winter, the farmer is left with a concentrated mycorrhizal inoculant that can be incorporated into his or her potting mix when starting 
seedlings in the greenhouse the following spring.

This year, Douds gave inoculated bahiagrass seedlings and other materials to a few Pennsylvania farmers to see how the method fares in the 
real-life conditions of farming. Meanwhile, Douds has 12 soil enclosures growing at the Rodale Farm in an experimental grid designed to 
identify optimum growth media.

Douds chose three different kinds of compost--yard-clippings compost, controlled microbial compost, and dairy manure-leaf compost--and then 
diluted each kind with vermiculite at four different ratios, ranging from 1 part compost:2 parts vermiculite, down to 1 part compost:49 
parts vermiculite. Each soil enclosure, finally, has nine separate sections, three with no inoculant and three each with two different 
mixtures of MF.

At the end of the season, says Douds, "we'll sample the mixtures from within each enclosure, quantify the inoculum production, and then 
hopefully develop a prediction formula, where the optimum ratio [of compost to vermiculite] is a function" of the nutrient analysis and 
other properties of the compost. All the farmer will need to do, then, is get the nutrient analysis of his or her compost, plug it in to the 
formula, and find the optimal ratio of compost to vermiculite to use for his or her farm.

"On-farm methods have several advantages over commercial inoculants," Douds explains. In the first place, whereas commercial formulae 
typically only contain a single MF species (frequently Glomus intraradices), Douds' method yields a diverse inoculum containing many MF 
species. This is crucial because MF show significant 'functional diversity'--"some are good at holding the soil together, some are good at 
gathering nutrients," others help fight disease.

A second, related advantage is that by mixing in some soil from a nearby woodland, prairie, or hedgerow, the farmer can use Douds's system 
"to produce the native or indigenous strains of mycorrhizal fungi. . . the ones that are already adapted to his [or her] particular soil 
conditions." This could be especially important on problem soils, such as those with high aluminum, say, or high or low pH, where 
commercially-produced fungi may not survive.

	
Growing fungi in real life: David Douds with one of his on-farm mycorrhizal fungi production systems at Shenk's Berry Farm in Lititz, PA. 
John Shenk, the cooperating farmer, grows 5 acres of strawberries, 3 acres of raspberries, and 10 acres of mixed vegetables in a low-input 
system, selling on-farm and at the Clark Park Farmers Market in Philadelphia. "We try to farm thoughtfully," says Shenk. "And do lots of 
reading and research to keep improving our farming methods." Next season, Shenk will incorporate the soil from the enclosure into his 
greenhouse potting mix.

Last but not least, home-grown mycorrhizal inoculum can be produced at a fraction of the cost of purchasing commercial mixes. "I've done 
some preliminary calculations," says Douds. "The on-farm system produces 100 million propagules [in a single enclosure] for approximately 
$50, not counting the cost of the farmer's labor, which is fairly minimal. To purchase 100 million propagules as listed on the bag of some 
commercial mixes would cost anywhere from $8,000 to $40,000." Commercial inoculants are sold in a peat- or vermiculite-based medium, so 
purchasers have to buy (and pay to have shipped) a large volume of material to get a small number of viable MF propagules--another reason it 
makes more sense to grow your own.

At the moment, Douds' system (like commercial MF inoculant) is suitable for two types of farms: vegetable growers on any scale who produce 
their own seedlings and can mix the inoculum into their potting mix; and smaller, labor-intensive farms or urban gardens where "the inoculum 
can be incorporated by hand, directly into the planting furrow or planting hole." Farmers growing field crops on a large scale can only take 
advantage of MF inoculants if they want to try them out in a relatively small area. "Delivery of MF inoculum to the field is a problem," 
acknowledges Douds. "Commercial companies are working on this for their particular inocula." He smiles. We can only hope that he will be too.
		
	
		
	
   	

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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 15:15:08 -0000
Subject: [compost_tea] Re: compost tea additives and NOSB
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<tt>
A lot of people in farming have been **shocked** at<BR>
the narrow view of compost, vermicompost, processed<BR>
manures and compost teas in the NOP.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
The compost practice standards were lifted from a<BR>
EPA Biosolids rule known as &quot;processes to further<BR>
reduce pathogens&quot;, PFRP's, to meet time and temperature<BR>
requirements to kill human pathogens in sewage sludge<BR>
and APPLIED organic farmers as a regulatory practice!! <BR>
<BR>
In response to protests from organic farmers, the <BR>
NOSB formed the Compost Task Force to updgrade<BR>
practice standards for compost in NOP 205.203(2).&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Here is the report.&nbsp; It looks like May 2002, and<BR>
since it has not been enacted, that tells you how<BR>
slow the process is to change NOP, a federal law.<BR>
<BR>
Compost Task Force Final Report <BR>
<a href="http://www.ams.usda.gov/nosb/finalrecommendations/">http://www.ams.usda.gov/nosb/finalrecommendations/</a><BR>
may02/composttaskforce.pdf<BR>
<BR>
In fact, NOP rules are so stifling on compost, processed<BR>
manures, and compost teas that Oregon Tilth and Oregon<BR>
State University sponsored a national summit on human <BR>
pathogens from livestock manures to bring people together <BR>
and discuss the situation and make recommendations and <BR>
suggestions to upgrade these uses... in June 2003... <BR>
recognizing there is a disconnect between every day <BR>
organic farming and &quot;regulatory text&quot; that codifies <BR>
farming practices. <BR>
<BR>
See:<BR>
<BR>
Human Pathogens from Livestock Manures: Proceedings<BR>
of a National Summit<BR>
<a href="http://www.tilth.org/site/Publications/pathogen_summit.pdf">http://www.tilth.org/site/Publications/pathogen_summit.pdf</a><BR>
<BR>
The NOSB Compost Tea Task Force was formed to upgrade <BR>
compost tea practice standards.<BR>
<BR>
It notes that compost substrate to make compost teas can <BR>
be NOP compliant compost OR compost that follows guidelines<BR>
set forth by the the NOSB Compost Task Force.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Under (1) the current climate at USDA which is focused on <BR>
pathogens in animal manures and potential contamination of<BR>
edible crops and food supply and (2) scientific studies that <BR>
show multiple-week survival of pathogens applied to vegetable <BR>
crops, and (3) studies that show sweet teas can grow pathogens <BR>
-- whether you agree with the brewing protocals or not -- the <BR>
CTTF came up with the recommendations that you see.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Keep in mind that zero published studies on modern ACT's <BR>
and pathogen survival are available in the literature, today.<BR>
<BR>
There is a lab in TN that is providing an E. coli test for <BR>
composters for $15.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Steve Diver <BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
--- In compost_tea@yahoogroups.com, &quot;ericgoodenough&quot; &lt;sfo@g...&gt; wrote:<BR>
&gt; NOSB CTTF defines compost tea additives as &quot;Materials other than <BR>
&gt; water and compost added at the start of the compost tea making <BR>
&gt; process to increase microbial biomasss/populations.&quot;<BR>
&gt; <BR>
&gt; Now, if I read this correctly, then kelp, rock powders, fish, <BR>
&gt; humates, molasses, sugar, juice, oat flour, crab shell, ......THESE <BR>
&gt; ARE ALL ADDITIVES INTENDED TO INCREASE MICROBIAL BIOMASS!<BR>
&gt; <BR>
&gt; Therefore, if you use these things you will be subject to<BR>
pre-testing <BR>
&gt; to verify that your tea does not contain pathogens.&nbsp; Two tests are <BR>
&gt; required and the average result is used to &quot;prove&quot; your process is <BR>
&gt; clean.&nbsp; IF YOU CHANGE YOUR RECIPE (or your brew time, or your air <BR>
&gt; input, or your start temp, or your water supply) YOU WILL NEED TO <BR>
&gt; ORDER UP ANOTHER SET OF TESTS.<BR>
&gt; <BR>
&gt; Of course, if you choose to abide by the 90/120 day pre-harvest <BR>
&gt; interval restrictions (in other words if you apply CT no sooner<BR>
than <BR>
&gt; 90 pre-harvest for produce not in direct contact with the soil and <BR>
&gt; 120 days for produce in contact with the soil), then of course you <BR>
&gt; are all set.&nbsp; I'm not sure which interval (90 or 120?) I will be <BR>
&gt; forced to use for my apples, but if I am limited to using a foliar <BR>
&gt; ACT before May 15 (120 interval) or June 15 (90 day&nbsp; interval) it <BR>
&gt; doesn't matter!&nbsp; THE BOTTOM LINE IS I'VE JUST LOST A TOOL I COULD<BR>
USE <BR>
&gt; TO OUT-COMPETE APPLE SCAB, SOOTY BLOTCH, FLYSPECK, FIREBLIGHT,<BR>
BLACK <BR>
&gt; KNOT, ETC. ETC.!&nbsp; (UNLESS, OF COURSE, I BREW MY TEA WITH ONLY<BR>
COMPOST <BR>
&gt; AND WATER!)<BR>
&gt; <BR>
&gt; Is anyone enlivening their compost with oat flour?&nbsp; My bet is that <BR>
&gt; this practice will cause concern because your compost is no <BR>
&gt; longer &quot;finished&quot; according to standards and/or the material will<BR>
be <BR>
&gt; considered a &quot;compost tea additive.&quot;<BR>
&gt; <BR>
&gt; I've been making vermi- and thermal composts for tea brewing<BR>
without <BR>
&gt; the use of manure feedstocks so I could avoid the pre-harvest <BR>
&gt; interval headaches.&nbsp; The CTTF is recommending that CT should be<BR>
made <BR>
&gt; with &quot;compliant compost or vermicompost, using the NOSB guidelines <BR>
&gt; set forth on April 18, 2002&quot;&nbsp; CAN ANYONE POINT ME TO THE GUIDELINES <BR>
&gt; FOR VERMICOMPOST?&nbsp; DOES IT NEED TO GO THROUGH THE THREE-DAY HEATING <BR>
&gt; PROCESS?&nbsp; OH, BY THE WAY, IF YOU'VE BEEN MAKING YOUR VERMI- OR <BR>
&gt; THERMAL COMPOST WITHOUT MANURE TO AVOID THE PRE-HARVEST INTERVAL<BR>
THE <BR>
&gt; CTTF IS NOW RECOMMENDING THAT EVEN COMPOST MADE FROM 100% PLANT <BR>
&gt; FEEDSTOCK MATERIALS IS TO BE CONSIDERED THE SAME AS OTHER COMPOSTS <BR>
&gt; (WHEN MAKING COMPOST TEA) BECAUSE &quot;NON-MANURE COMPOST FEEDSTOCKS<BR>
MAY <BR>
&gt; HARBOR HIGH LEVELS OF FECAL BACTERIA.&quot;<BR>
&gt; <BR>
&gt; Folks, if these receommendations are accepted, I believe Compost<BR>
Tea <BR>
&gt; will become an excellent tool for the corporate organic growers who <BR>
&gt; can afford the cost associated with testing and re-testing and <BR>
&gt; recordkeeping.&nbsp; It may be that, again, the big guys get to reap the <BR>
&gt; rewards of the long fight to creat organic standards while the rest <BR>
&gt; of us local growers interested in food integrity and security move <BR>
&gt; on.&nbsp; Organic ain't what it used to be.&nbsp; I know these are just <BR>
&gt; recommendations but I am inching closer to the ledge.&nbsp; Can somebody <BR>
&gt; talk me down?<BR>
<BR>
</tt>




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Subject: [compost_tea] compost tea additives and NOSB
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<tt>
NOSB CTTF defines compost tea additives as &quot;Materials other than <BR>
water and compost added at the start of the compost tea making <BR>
process to increase microbial biomasss/populations.&quot;<BR>
<BR>
Now, if I read this correctly, then kelp, rock powders, fish, <BR>
humates, molasses, sugar, juice, oat flour, crab shell, ......THESE <BR>
ARE ALL ADDITIVES INTENDED TO INCREASE MICROBIAL BIOMASS!<BR>
<BR>
Therefore, if you use these things you will be subject to pre-testing <BR>
to verify that your tea does not contain pathogens.&nbsp; Two tests are <BR>
required and the average result is used to &quot;prove&quot; your process is <BR>
clean.&nbsp; IF YOU CHANGE YOUR RECIPE (or your brew time, or your air <BR>
input, or your start temp, or your water supply) YOU WILL NEED TO <BR>
ORDER UP ANOTHER SET OF TESTS.<BR>
<BR>
Of course, if you choose to abide by the 90/120 day pre-harvest <BR>
interval restrictions (in other words if you apply CT no sooner than <BR>
90 pre-harvest for produce not in direct contact with the soil and <BR>
120 days for produce in contact with the soil), then of course you <BR>
are all set.&nbsp; I'm not sure which interval (90 or 120?) I will be <BR>
forced to use for my apples, but if I am limited to using a foliar <BR>
ACT before May 15 (120 interval) or June 15 (90 day&nbsp; interval) it <BR>
doesn't matter!&nbsp; THE BOTTOM LINE IS I'VE JUST LOST A TOOL I COULD USE <BR>
TO OUT-COMPETE APPLE SCAB, SOOTY BLOTCH, FLYSPECK, FIREBLIGHT, BLACK <BR>
KNOT, ETC. ETC.!&nbsp; (UNLESS, OF COURSE, I BREW MY TEA WITH ONLY COMPOST <BR>
AND WATER!)<BR>
<BR>
Is anyone enlivening their compost with oat flour?&nbsp; My bet is that <BR>
this practice will cause concern because your compost is no <BR>
longer &quot;finished&quot; according to standards and/or the material will be <BR>
considered a &quot;compost tea additive.&quot;<BR>
<BR>
I've been making vermi- and thermal composts for tea brewing without <BR>
the use of manure feedstocks so I could avoid the pre-harvest <BR>
interval headaches.&nbsp; The CTTF is recommending that CT should be made <BR>
with &quot;compliant compost or vermicompost, using the NOSB guidelines <BR>
set forth on April 18, 2002&quot;&nbsp; CAN ANYONE POINT ME TO THE GUIDELINES <BR>
FOR VERMICOMPOST?&nbsp; DOES IT NEED TO GO THROUGH THE THREE-DAY HEATING <BR>
PROCESS?&nbsp; OH, BY THE WAY, IF YOU'VE BEEN MAKING YOUR VERMI- OR <BR>
THERMAL COMPOST WITHOUT MANURE TO AVOID THE PRE-HARVEST INTERVAL THE <BR>
CTTF IS NOW RECOMMENDING THAT EVEN COMPOST MADE FROM 100% PLANT <BR>
FEEDSTOCK MATERIALS IS TO BE CONSIDERED THE SAME AS OTHER COMPOSTS <BR>
(WHEN MAKING COMPOST TEA) BECAUSE &quot;NON-MANURE COMPOST FEEDSTOCKS MAY <BR>
HARBOR HIGH LEVELS OF FECAL BACTERIA.&quot;<BR>
<BR>
Folks, if these receommendations are accepted, I believe Compost Tea <BR>
will become an excellent tool for the corporate organic growers who <BR>
can afford the cost associated with testing and re-testing and <BR>
recordkeeping.&nbsp; It may be that, again, the big guys get to reap the <BR>
rewards of the long fight to creat organic standards while the rest <BR>
of us local growers interested in food integrity and security move <BR>
on.&nbsp; Organic ain't what it used to be.&nbsp; I know these are just <BR>
recommendations but I am inching closer to the ledge.&nbsp; Can somebody <BR>
talk me down?<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</tt>




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From - Tue May 04 00:01:07 2004
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Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 23:58:14 -0700
From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
Organization: http://market-farming.com  --  Venaura Farm
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Steve Diver steved at ncat.org
Mon May 3 10:27:19 EDT 2004

     * Previous message: [Market-farming] Speaking of sweeter...
     * Next message: [Market-farming] asparagus
     * Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

Molasses applied to soils feeds soil microbes.  Activating
soil biology can impact above-ground insect pests by altering
plant metabolism -- especially relating to sap pH and amino
acids -- in addition to controlling to soil-borne diseases which are
the usual target pathogens of enhanced soil biology.

Likewise, I recall some research underway to understand the
effect of compost utilization on arthropod pests.

Likewise, I recall some research on infra-red detection of hot
zones on plant surfaces where insects attacked.

The application of humus management=biology, mineral balancing,
and energetics is the three-part approach in ecofarming.

Steve Diver





-- 
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech



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From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 11:49:55 -0400
To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom@hevanet.com>
Subject: Helping Beneficial Fungi Work

STORY LEAD:
Helping Beneficial Fungi Work

___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
David Elstein, (301) 504-1654, delstein@ars.usda.gov
May 6, 2004
___________________________________________

Certain fertilizers can actually inhibit beneficial, naturally
occurring fungi that help plants use water and nutrients while
suppressing diseases, according to an Agricultural Research Service
scientist studying these beneficial root-dwelling fungi.

ARS plant pathologist Robert Linderman at the Horticultural Crops
Research Laboratory in Corvallis, Ore., is studying how these fungi,
called mycorrhizae, interact with fertilizers and other soil amendments
that have been commonly used in agriculture over the past half century.

Linderman is one of only a few scientists studying how mycorrhizae
affect the nutrition and health of nursery crops. He has measured the
level of mycorrhizal colonization of roots to see whether various
materials added to soil help or inhibit fungal growth. He studied a
range of commercial fertilizers and found that organic ones are usually
compatible with mycorrhizae, while phosphorus-rich inorganic fertilizers
usually inhibit them.

He also looked at peat moss, a popular additive to potting mixes used
to grow nursery crops. He found that in some cases it helps mycorrhizal
associations, while in others it hinders the fungi. Coir, a coconut
fiber that has become a popular potting mix additive, does not inhibit
mycorrhizae, but it may reduce growth of some plants.

Linderman is currently studying various types of composts to see what,
if any, effect they'll have on the establishment of mycorrhizae. His
initial finding is that some composts may suppress the fungi because of
high phosphorus levels.

After spending years researching these important fungi, Linderman
believes that he will now be able to advise growers as to which potting
mix additives will help establish mycorrhizae that can enhance plant
growth and health.    

Read more about this research in the May 2004 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine, available online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/may04/fungi0504.htm

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.

___________________________________________

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From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 11:49:55 -0400
To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom@hevanet.com>
Subject: Helping Beneficial Fungi Work

STORY LEAD:
Helping Beneficial Fungi Work

___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
David Elstein, (301) 504-1654, delstein@ars.usda.gov
May 6, 2004
___________________________________________

Certain fertilizers can actually inhibit beneficial, naturally
occurring fungi that help plants use water and nutrients while
suppressing diseases, according to an Agricultural Research Service
scientist studying these beneficial root-dwelling fungi.

ARS plant pathologist Robert Linderman at the Horticultural Crops
Research Laboratory in Corvallis, Ore., is studying how these fungi,
called mycorrhizae, interact with fertilizers and other soil amendments
that have been commonly used in agriculture over the past half century.

Linderman is one of only a few scientists studying how mycorrhizae
affect the nutrition and health of nursery crops. He has measured the
level of mycorrhizal colonization of roots to see whether various
materials added to soil help or inhibit fungal growth. He studied a
range of commercial fertilizers and found that organic ones are usually
compatible with mycorrhizae, while phosphorus-rich inorganic fertilizers
usually inhibit them.

He also looked at peat moss, a popular additive to potting mixes used
to grow nursery crops. He found that in some cases it helps mycorrhizal
associations, while in others it hinders the fungi. Coir, a coconut
fiber that has become a popular potting mix additive, does not inhibit
mycorrhizae, but it may reduce growth of some plants.

Linderman is currently studying various types of composts to see what,
if any, effect they'll have on the establishment of mycorrhizae. His
initial finding is that some composts may suppress the fungi because of
high phosphorus levels.

After spending years researching these important fungi, Linderman
believes that he will now be able to advise growers as to which potting
mix additives will help establish mycorrhizae that can enhance plant
growth and health.    

Read more about this research in the May 2004 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine, available online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/may04/fungi0504.htm

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.

___________________________________________

* This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
subscribers on weekdays.
* Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm
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_______________________________________________
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Organization: http://market-farming.com  --  Venaura Farm
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From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 11:49:55 -0400
To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom@hevanet.com>
Subject: Helping Beneficial Fungi Work

STORY LEAD:
Helping Beneficial Fungi Work

___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
David Elstein, (301) 504-1654, delstein@ars.usda.gov
May 6, 2004
___________________________________________

Certain fertilizers can actually inhibit beneficial, naturally
occurring fungi that help plants use water and nutrients while
suppressing diseases, according to an Agricultural Research Service
scientist studying these beneficial root-dwelling fungi.

ARS plant pathologist Robert Linderman at the Horticultural Crops
Research Laboratory in Corvallis, Ore., is studying how these fungi,
called mycorrhizae, interact with fertilizers and other soil amendments
that have been commonly used in agriculture over the past half century.

Linderman is one of only a few scientists studying how mycorrhizae
affect the nutrition and health of nursery crops. He has measured the
level of mycorrhizal colonization of roots to see whether various
materials added to soil help or inhibit fungal growth. He studied a
range of commercial fertilizers and found that organic ones are usually
compatible with mycorrhizae, while phosphorus-rich inorganic fertilizers
usually inhibit them.

He also looked at peat moss, a popular additive to potting mixes used
to grow nursery crops. He found that in some cases it helps mycorrhizal
associations, while in others it hinders the fungi. Coir, a coconut
fiber that has become a popular potting mix additive, does not inhibit
mycorrhizae, but it may reduce growth of some plants.

Linderman is currently studying various types of composts to see what,
if any, effect they'll have on the establishment of mycorrhizae. His
initial finding is that some composts may suppress the fungi because of
high phosphorus levels.

After spending years researching these important fungi, Linderman
believes that he will now be able to advise growers as to which potting
mix additives will help establish mycorrhizae that can enhance plant
growth and health.

Read more about this research in the May 2004 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine, available online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/may04/fungi0504.htm

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.

___________________________________________

* This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
subscribers on weekdays.
* Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm
* NewsService@ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/news
* Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1648
--------------------------------------------

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Cultivating diversity underground for better yields above
          http://www.newfarm.org/depts/NFfield_trials/0903/daviddouds.shtml
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 23:24:01 -0700

http://www.newfarm.org/depts/NFfield_trials/0903/daviddouds.shtml

Cultivating diversity underground for better yields above
Research at The Rodale Institute® demonstrates how sustainable farming practices can boost yields by nurturing beneficial soil fungi.

By Laura Sayre

About this series:

As some of you may know, The Rodale Institute®, which publishes The New Farm®, is home to the longest running field trials in the country 
comparing organic and conventional systems of farming called The Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial® (FST). The data from that 23 years 
of research is a real treasure trove of insight into the economic, ecological and agronomic benefits of organic farming.

In addition to this long-running Farming Systems Trial, we have a variety of other research in progress at The Institute. David Douds, as 
you’ll read in this story, has been studying soil fungi here at The Institute’s research farm for 15 years. We’re engaged in no-till 
research, weed research, compost tea research, composting research, water quality research, and much more.

Until now, much of the light we’re generating here on our research farm has been hidden under the proverbial barrel, but we’re taking off 
the barrel and busting it up for firewood. We’re going let the light of the amazing research being done here shine on farmers, consumers and 
environmental activities.

Over the next year we’ll be running a series of stories, about one a month, on the significance of our research ... and its practical 
applications. That includes a few stories on equipment construction—a front-mounted roller for no-till, and a compost turner converted from 
a junked 18-wheeler.

So sit tight, and be prepared to be amazed, starting with David Douds’ discoveries about how you can increase vegetable yields by 50 percent 
using homemade fungal inoculants.

Enjoy,

Chris Hill
Executive Editor

p.s. Interested in hearing more about how you can take part in the mycorrhizae revolution? Click here and let us know. Send your name, phone 
number and e-mail address with your note so we can follow-up with you.







     "Overall, Douds’ work suggests that a small amount of mixed MF inoculant can be substituted for a large amount of fertilizer--with no 
loss of yield, greatly reduced environmental impact, and lower production costs."


     Home-grown mycorrhizal inoculum can be produced at a fraction of the cost of purchasing commercial mixes. "I've done some preliminary 
calculations," says Douds. "The on-farm system produces 100 million propagules for approximately $50, not counting the cost of the farmer's 
labor, which is fairly minimal. To purchase 100 million propagules as listed on the bag of some commercial mixes would cost anywhere from 
$8,000 to $40,000."



FACT SHEET: Mycorrhizae


Above: USDA soil microbiologist David Douds with a carrot root-mycorrhizal fungi culture. Under the leadership of Dr. Douds, field trials 
have shown yield gains of as much as 50% in the presence of healthy mycorrhizae populations. Now Douds is developing a practical, low-cost 
method for on-farm production of mycorrhizal soil innoculant, promising higher yields with lower nutrient inputs. (Photo by Peggy Greb, 
courtesy of the Agricultural Research Service Photo Unit.)

September 29, 2003: You've read the amazing facts and figures: one teaspoon of healthy topsoil can contain millions of individual 
microorganisms, all playing a part in the functioning of the soil ecosystem. But how much do you really know about the action of those 
diverse species and how to maximize their presence in your own fields?

Ongoing research at The Rodale Institute® sheds light on one important component of the soil community--mycorrhizal fungi--and its impact on 
agricultural production. Under the leadership of Dr. David Douds, a soil microbiologist with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, field 
trials have shown yield gains of as much as 50% in the presence of healthy mycorrhizae populations. Now Douds is developing a practical, 
low-cost method for on-farm production of mycorrhizal soil inoculant, promising higher yields with lower nutrient inputs.

A mycorrhizal primer

Mycorrhizae are soil-dwelling fungi that live in and around the roots of plants ('myco-rrhizae' means 'fungus-root'). The fungi and the 
plants form mutually beneficial associations in which the fungi receive carbohydrates from the plants and the plants receive nutrients and 
other benefits from the fungi. Since the first mycorrhizae species were described by a German botanist in the 1880s, researchers have 
discovered that approximately 80% of all land plants form mycorrhizal associations. The relationship is so widespread, in fact, that it is 
sometimes referred to as 'the Universal Symbiosis,' and is believed to have played a key role in the evolutionary transition from aquatic to 
terrestrial plant forms.

Today, scientists divide mycorrhizae into two major types: endomycorrhizae, which penetrate and colonize plant roots, and ectomycorrhizae, 
which form sheaths around plant roots. Whereas ectomycorrhizal relationships tend to be highly specialized--with some 6000 fungal species 
worldwide associated with tree species of the oak, beech, and pine families, among others--endomycorrhizal associations are more generalized 
as well as more widespread, with fewer than 150 fungal species opportunistically colonizing the roots of the vast majority of terrestrial 
plant families. Ectomycorrhizal inoculants are already widely used in commercial forestry, but the possibility of developing endomycorrhizal 
inoculants for production agriculture is a more recent idea.

"These are beneficial soil fungi that colonize the roots of plants and help them take up phosphorus" and other immobile soil nutrients, such 
as zinc and copper, Douds explains. "The fungus colonizes the root and it also grows out into the soil; the part of the fungus that's in the 
soil acts as an extension of the root system, to explore a greater volume of soil and take up nutrients and bring them back into the root."

In addition to facilitating nutrient uptake, some mycorrhizae secrete a gluey substance, called glomalin, which helps develop soil structure 
and soil aggregation; others may help plants fight disease. Yet because endomycorrhizae are 'obligate symbionts'--they must have living 
plant roots to colonize in order to complete their life cycle--their numbers will decline under conventional agricultural monocultures, 
which have living crop covers fewer months of the year than organic rotations. The drop in yields typically seen after the first year of 
cultivation on virgin prairie or forest soils is probably attributable in part to the loss of native mycorrhizae, Douds says.

Fifteen years of research prove benefits of fungi

Douds has been conducting research in collaboration with The Rodale Institute since 1989, his first year at the Agricultural Research 
Service's Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, on the outskirts of Philadelphia. "Some employees of The Institute farm came down to 
our research center as part of a kind of an interagency show-and-tell about research programs and facilities and what all we could do to 
help each other," Douds recalls. "Rhonda Janke"--The Institute's research agronomist at the time--"gave a presentation about The Rodale 
Institute Farming Systems Trial," a side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional production systems. Douds recognized it as a great 
opportunity to study endomycorrhizal associations.

"Later that year I started sampling, and right off learned that [the soils under] the conventional farming systems had fewer mycorrhizal 
fungi than the soils under the low-input farming systems. So right away we all got excited and we branched out from there."

Since that first season, Douds' work at The Rodale Institute’s 333-acre experimental farm has progressed in three overlapping phases:

In the first phase, from 1989 to 1995, Douds and his team surveyed native mycorrhizal fungi (MF) populations at Rodale and examined the 
impact of different agricultural practices--including tillage regimes, crop rotations, and soil amendments--on those populations. The second 
phase, which is still ongoing, looks at the utilization of MF by crop plants, comparing yields in the presence and absence of different MF 
species. The third phase seeks to apply those findings by devising a simple, on-farm MF inoculum production system, so that farmers can 
harness the benefits of endomycorrhizae without spending lots of money on commercial mixes. (Commercial products already on the market 
include Bio/Organics Endomycorrhizal Inoculant [$79.95 for 3 lbs, labeled to treat 500 plants], Plant Success Mycorrhizae Tablets [$19.95 
for 100 tablets, labeled to treat 50 plants up to 1 ft tall], and Earthroots VAM Fungi by First Fruits LLC [$15 for 3 lbs, labeled to treat 
200 seedlings].)


On-farm production of mycorrhizal inoculant in test enclosures at The Rodale Institute’s farm. Douds chose bahiagrass as a host plant 
"because it's a tropical grass and the first frost will kill the shoot growth"--so it won't escape to become a new local weed and won't 
harbor any pests or pathogens that might affect either resident crops or northern native grasses.

Agronomic practices that boost—or depress—
mycorrhizal levels

Although the first phase of Douds's research found larger and more diverse MF populations in organically-managed soils than in 
conventionally-managed ones, it also revealed how specific agronomic practices can boost or depress MF levels.

"Over-wintering cover crops. . . are very beneficial to mycorrhizal fungi," Douds notes, whereas "tillage disrupts the mycorrhizal fungi in 
the soil and serves to decrease the initial colonization of the plants." Based on these findings, Douds emphasizes that all farmers, organic 
or conventional, can take steps to nurture the MF already present in their fields: reduce tillage, he says, use fungicides sparingly, 
and--most important--maximize cover cropping. "Over-wintering cover crops give the MF a host plant to colonize when there's no cash crop 
growing on the soil," Douds explains.

In the coldest part of the year the MF go dormant, but during warm spells in early spring and late fall, the MF will try to grow, and can 
exhaust their reserves if they find no plant hosts. "During these periods. . . the fungus is still respiring, it's still burning up its 
carbohydrate storage in the spores, it's burning up the lipids that were stored," leaving it "less viable when the time comes finally for 
the crop plant to be present." A cover crop or even just a weedy fallow will maintain healthy MF populations, which can then benefit the 
cash crop coming on to the field.

Crop rotations are another factor to consider, since a handful of crop species belong to plant families that do not form mycorrhizal 
associations (said to be 'non-mycotrophic'), including the Brassicaceae (rape, broccoli, cabbage, turnips, etc), the Chenopodiaceae (beets, 
spinach), and the Polygonaceae (buckwheat). Not only will these crops not benefit from the presence of MF, but MF levels in the soil will be 
depressed after these crops are grown, potentially showing an effect on any mycotrophic crops which follow.

Potatoes and peppers inoculated with mycorrhizae get yield boosts of up to 50 percent!

In the second phase of his research, looking at the impact of MF on crop yields, Douds began inoculating plants in the greenhouse and then 
tracking their performance in the field.

"We had some plants that were inoculated with a control mix with no inoculum, another one inoculated with a mix of mycorrhizal fungi, and 
another inoculated with just one species commonly present in commercial inoculum," Douds explains. "We transplanted them into the Compost 
Utilization Trial,"--another ongoing experiment at The Rodale Institute--"and we found over the course of the 3-year experiment that the 
mixture of mycorrhizal fungi increased the yield of marketable-sized peppers up to a maximum of 34% over the control. Last year we tried 
inoculating potatoes, and we got up to a 50% increase over the controls."


David Douds and a research intern dig potatoes in this season's mycorrhizal test plot at the Rodale Experimental Farm. In last year's 
trials, potatoes grown with mycorrhizal fungi showed yield increases of as much as 50%. Other crops known to respond dramatically to 
mycorrhizal colonization include citrus, onion, and strawberries.

This year they are repeating the potato trial, measuring yields under four different treatments: one with no added MF; one with a 
commercially available MF; one with a mixed MF inoculant grown in a leaf compost and vermiculite medium; and one with a mixed MF inoculant 
grown in a dairy manure compost and vermiculite medium. Overall, this work suggests that a small amount of mixed MF inoculant can be 
substituted for a large amount of fertilizer--with no loss of yield, greatly reduced environmental impact, and lower production costs.

One unexpected finding of Douds' work at Rodale "is that mycorrhizae can be used to increase the yield of crops even in soils that are very 
high in phosphorous." Some of the soils at the Rodale Farm which have been heavily composted, Douds notes, "have available P in excess of 
300 parts/million"--well above the level at which mycorrhizal responses are typically seen, around 20-50 ppm available P. "The 
generalization would be that P as high as 300 would be a situation in which the plant can take up all the P that it needs by itself without 
relying on the mycorrhizal fungi." Douds believes that at high nutrient levels, some of the other benefits of MF--enhanced disease 
resistance, improved soil aggregation and better water relations--could be showing an effect.

Build your own on-farm inoculum production system

The third phase of Douds' research at Rodale Farm focuses on developing an inexpensive, practicable system for on-farm production of 
mycorrhizae inoculant. As obligate symbionts, endomycorrhizae have so far resisted attempts to create what scientists call axenic (or 
isolated, single-species) cultures--they can only be grown in the presence of a host plant. Douds' system works within this constraint, 
using bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum), a tropical grass native to the southeastern US, as a host.



A myccorhizae factory: The basic procedure is for the farmer to construct a simple enclosure out of landscape fabric, fill it with a mixture 
of compost and vermiculite, and then transplant pre-colonized bahiagrass seedlings into the mixture. Over the course of the growing season 
the bahiagrass spreads within the enclosure and the mycorrhizal fungi spread and reproduce along with it. When the grass dies back in the 
winter, the farmer is left with a concentrated mycorrhizal inoculant that can be incorporated into his or her potting mix when starting 
seedlings in the greenhouse the following spring.

The basic procedure is for the farmer to construct a simple enclosure out of landscape fabric (75 cm square and 20 cm high), fill it with a 
mixture of compost and vermiculite, and then transplant pre-colonized bahiagrass seedlings into the mixture. Over the course of the growing 
season the bahiagrass spreads within the enclosure and the mycorrhizal fungi spread and reproduce along with it. When the grass dies back in 
the winter, the farmer is left with a concentrated mycorrhizal inoculant that can be incorporated into his or her potting mix when starting 
seedlings in the greenhouse the following spring.

This year, Douds gave inoculated bahiagrass seedlings and other materials to a few Pennsylvania farmers to see how the method fares in the 
real-life conditions of farming. Meanwhile, Douds has 12 soil enclosures growing at the Rodale Farm in an experimental grid designed to 
identify optimum growth media.

Douds chose three different kinds of compost--yard-clippings compost, controlled microbial compost, and dairy manure-leaf compost--and then 
diluted each kind with vermiculite at four different ratios, ranging from 1 part compost:2 parts vermiculite, down to 1 part compost:49 
parts vermiculite. Each soil enclosure, finally, has nine separate sections, three with no inoculant and three each with two different 
mixtures of MF.

At the end of the season, says Douds, "we'll sample the mixtures from within each enclosure, quantify the inoculum production, and then 
hopefully develop a prediction formula, where the optimum ratio [of compost to vermiculite] is a function" of the nutrient analysis and 
other properties of the compost. All the farmer will need to do, then, is get the nutrient analysis of his or her compost, plug it in to the 
formula, and find the optimal ratio of compost to vermiculite to use for his or her farm.

"On-farm methods have several advantages over commercial inoculants," Douds explains. In the first place, whereas commercial formulae 
typically only contain a single MF species (frequently Glomus intraradices), Douds' method yields a diverse inoculum containing many MF 
species. This is crucial because MF show significant 'functional diversity'--"some are good at holding the soil together, some are good at 
gathering nutrients," others help fight disease.

A second, related advantage is that by mixing in some soil from a nearby woodland, prairie, or hedgerow, the farmer can use Douds's system 
"to produce the native or indigenous strains of mycorrhizal fungi. . . the ones that are already adapted to his [or her] particular soil 
conditions." This could be especially important on problem soils, such as those with high aluminum, say, or high or low pH, where 
commercially-produced fungi may not survive.


Growing fungi in real life: David Douds with one of his on-farm mycorrhizal fungi production systems at Shenk's Berry Farm in Lititz, PA. 
John Shenk, the cooperating farmer, grows 5 acres of strawberries, 3 acres of raspberries, and 10 acres of mixed vegetables in a low-input 
system, selling on-farm and at the Clark Park Farmers Market in Philadelphia. "We try to farm thoughtfully," says Shenk. "And do lots of 
reading and research to keep improving our farming methods." Next season, Shenk will incorporate the soil from the enclosure into his 
greenhouse potting mix.

Last but not least, home-grown mycorrhizal inoculum can be produced at a fraction of the cost of purchasing commercial mixes. "I've done 
some preliminary calculations," says Douds. "The on-farm system produces 100 million propagules [in a single enclosure] for approximately 
$50, not counting the cost of the farmer's labor, which is fairly minimal. To purchase 100 million propagules as listed on the bag of some 
commercial mixes would cost anywhere from $8,000 to $40,000." Commercial inoculants are sold in a peat- or vermiculite-based medium, so 
purchasers have to buy (and pay to have shipped) a large volume of material to get a small number of viable MF propagules--another reason it 
makes more sense to grow your own.

At the moment, Douds' system (like commercial MF inoculant) is suitable for two types of farms: vegetable growers on any scale who produce 
their own seedlings and can mix the inoculum into their potting mix; and smaller, labor-intensive farms or urban gardens where "the inoculum 
can be incorporated by hand, directly into the planting furrow or planting hole." Farmers growing field crops on a large scale can only take 
advantage of MF inoculants if they want to try them out in a relatively small area. "Delivery of MF inoculum to the field is a problem," 
acknowledges Douds. "Commercial companies are working on this for their particular inocula." He smiles. We can only hope that he will be too.






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From: Elaine Ingham <Soilfoodweb@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] soil amendments from composting v fermentation
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Anaerobic metabolism includes several metabolic pathways, and the different end products from the different pathways need to be differentiated, because some pathways end up with plant toxic materials being produced, while others do not.

However, all anaerobic processes result in significantly acidic organic acids being produced, which may or may not be a problem for your plants.  Depends on the plants being grown, right?  What pH do they need?

Those organisms that produce mainly lactic and proprionic acid as the main metabolic end products and do not produce hydrogen sulfide or ammonia.  They can make phosphine gas, however, which means your PO4 may be out-gassing.  So, a little sour smell to the process, some loss pf PO4, somewhat low pH metabolites produced.  This may not lower pH in hte pile much, since the acids mix with the organic matter that have a higher pH.

Most people use the term "fermentative metabolism" for these metabolic processes.  Wine and beer production use particular species that perform this type of anaerobic metabolism.  Can we call this kind of anaerobic metabolism fermentation, please.

As opposed to putrefaction.  Putrefactive processes make the really bad smells, because hydrogen sulfide production is a putrefactive process.  Ammonia is also produced, along with phosphine gas, and a host of really bad smelling organic acids, from vinegar (acetic acid) to vomit (valeric acid) to putrescine.  Alcohol is produced by the bacteria in significant quantities, high enough concentration to kill plant roots.  This can be a real problem if you use mulch that has suffered this kind of anaerobic metabolism.

Note that I do not call this compost, becasue it is not compost.

Putrefactive anaerobic conditions are what you want to avoid.  If the compost pile becomes anaerobic, you need to turn it or dilute the food resources to slow the bacteria and fungi down.  Bacteria and fungi can grow so fast that they use up most of the oxygen in the pile.  They use up the oxygen because they are growing on the foods in the pile so fast.  As they grow, they generate heat.

Thus, if you are careful to never let the pile go anaerobic, heat will tell you when to turn.  But if the pile goes anaerobic, then heat is not related to anything positive anymore.

Composting is by definition an AEROBIC process.  Worm compost has to be aerobic, because the worms require aerobic levels of oxygen.  But the lower layers in a worm compost can go anaerobic.  If that happens, the worms will no longer go down deep into the pile.

And it is the SUM of the pile that needs to be considered.  Pockets of the organic matter can have low oxygen, where the anaerobic metabolites will move into the aerobic areas, but as long as most of the pile is aerobic, the anaerobic metabolites get consumed by the aerobic organisms, and just help increase diversity in the pile.

What's the right balance to achieve a pile that is enough aerobic?  That's what the microbiology of compost course is about that I teach.  A couple students are involved right now in replicating the process so we have the solid, scientifically sound results to present.

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
SFI Corvallis, OR
SFI Port Jefferson, NY
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
SFI Culiacan, Mexico
SFI Jerome, Idaho
http://www.soilfoodweb.com

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From: Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
Subject: [SANET-MG] Protozoa and plant growth: the microbial loop in soil revisited | New Phytologist
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Here is a new article in the prestigious Tansley Reviews series, from
New Phytologist, on protozoa and plant growth... to add to your
soil biota / soil foodweb toolbox.

Regards,

Steve Diver

****************************************************

Protozoa and plant growth: the microbial loop in soil revisited

A Tansley Review

New Phytologist
Volume 162 Issue 3 Page 617 - June 2004

Michael Bonkowski

Rhizosphere Ecology Group, Institut für Zoologie, Technische Universität
Darmstadt,
Darmstadt, Germany

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2004.01066.x
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2004.01066.x/abs

Summary

I. The rhizosphere   interface of microbial and faunal interactions

II. Microfauna and plant growth

III. Victims and benefactors: how grazers affect bacterial community
composition

IV. Nonmotile plants with flexible strategies

V. Case study: root foraging and microfaunal activity

VI. Friend or foe? Microbial signals and the manipulation of root
architecture

VII. Carbon is the currency: microfauna interactions with mycorrhiza

VIII. The plant bridging above- and below-ground processes

IX. From microscale to macroscale: interactions at the plant community level

X. Conclusions and future research

Acknowledgements

References

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****************************************************

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From: Steve Diver <steved@NCAT.ORG>
Subject: [SANET-MG] Factors limiting persistence of entomopathogenic nematodes
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This article is interesting from a soil biology perspective.

It showed that surface applied parasitic nematodes (intended
to provide biological control of turf pests) were probably just
eaten up by local predators; i.e., mites and collembola.

When the parasitic nematodes (known as "entomopathogenic"
nematodes) were incorporated into the soil, they survived
much better.

It seems like another opportunity for compost tea research;
i.e., integrated delivery of parasitic nematodes with compost
teas, to enhance survivial and efficacy of the biological control
treatment.

As a farmer or gardener who wants to use natural means
of pest control, you can use parasitic nematodes to control
pests like strawberry root weevil, sod webworms, cutworms,
flea beetles, and fungus gnats.

But when you spend all that money and time to rely on biocontrols,
you want them to be effective.

As you may be interested in what these parasitic nematodes
are all about, see this fantastic website that was also funded by
USDA-SARE.

Insect Parasitic Nematodes
http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/nematodes/

Regards,

Steve Diver


*********************************************************************

Factors limiting short-term persistence of entomopathogenic nematodes

M. Wilson and R. Gaugler

Department of Entomology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Journal of Applied Entomology
Volume 128 Issue 4 Page 250  - May 2004

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0418.2004.00814.x

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/j.1439-0418.2004.00814.x/abs


Abstract:

Entomopathogenic nematodes are commonly applied to soil and crops for
biocontrol of insects. Typically, when nematodes are applied,
recoverable numbers decline quickly. Because ultra-violet light is known
to kill entomopathogenic nematodes in the laboratory, many researchers
blame poor field persistence on the action of ultra-violet light. We
conducted a field experiment to test this hypothesis, using
Heterorhabditis bacteriophora applied to turf as a model system. We
compared persistence of surface-applied nematodes with
subsurface-applied nematodes and found no difference in persistence.
Numbers of potential nematode antagonists (mites and collembola) were
also monitored. Poor persistence was positively correlated with numbers
of mites and collembola in plots where nematodes were surface-applied,
but not in plots where they were subsurface-applied.

*********************************************************************
*********************************************************************

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Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 11:02:06 -0400
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: Re: Aged manure?
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<tt>
Hi Kirk - <BR>
<BR>
If you don't like the confusion in which the world of composting is stuck, then be part of the solution, instead of continuing to confuse the situation. <BR>
<BR>
It doesn't help the world of composting if you are not willing to define things clearly.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Compost has to have been processed properly.&nbsp; That term MUST be reserved to mean something specific.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
I don't care that some people have applied the definition incorrectly.&nbsp; Start using the the term correctly, now, and you will begin to help instead of hinder.<BR>
<BR>
Aged manure - if it has been composted, then call it compost.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
If manure has NOT been composted, then call it aged manure if it has sat around for a time.&nbsp; How long?&nbsp; What are the conditions that define aged manure becoming.... soil?&nbsp; When might manure sit long enough, with adequate microbial processes, that it now becomes soil?<BR>
<BR>
But if it is processed in that fashion, it is not compost.&nbsp; Stop trying to muddy the waters and call it compost.&nbsp; Stop with the some people do it this way, others that and isn't it all compost?&nbsp; It is NOT compost unless specific conditions&nbsp; are met.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
If dung beetles have processed manure, then perhaps there is no difference between dung-processed material and earthworm castings.&nbsp; But how would you KNOW?<BR>
<BR>
I would love it if Pat and Dick Richardson would document that.&nbsp; It would be useful to get dung beetles recognized as having a commercial importance.&nbsp; Pat and Dick have done so much for getting dung beetles as recognized as they are today, but there is still a great deal that needs doing!&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
What terms that could be developed for all the permutations of partially composted material?&nbsp; HELP the world of compost by coming up with the categories, defining them clearly, working to develop a consensus, and developing the scientific database that is needed to define these semi-composted materials. <BR>
<BR>
Compost should be defined based on the starting materials used, and on the biological and chemical composition of the final product.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
IF we had data, we might be able to say that with a mix of certain starting materials, the final product ALWAYS has this biology and this chemistry.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Kirk, I appreciate that you want the NOSB to do a better job, but the limits of the DATA are what push the NOSB and the USDA to their attitudes.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Provide DATA that show that E. coli do not survive in thermal compost, in aged manure, in partically-composted materials (come up with better terms than that for each of the situations you want to have considered), in worm caste, produced under whatever conditions.&nbsp; Define the conditions. <BR>
<BR>
Do not try to make one study, the Eastman study, in the limited conditions of that study, suffice for all worm compost made everywhere.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
If you can't afford to run experiments that show what happens to human pathogens in all these different conditions of storing waste material, or show what happens to helminths when you treat wastes with worms, or dung beetles, or by heating with micrcobes, please recognize that you rely on rapid microbial growth to do the job.&nbsp; But who herds the microbes?&nbsp; Is it a turner, or worms, or dung bettles or enchytraeids doing the microbe herding?&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Define what you are talking about, help put this information into a useful form.&nbsp; Otherwise, you just keep spinning your wheels, getting nowhere.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Define the kinds of composting, the kinds of storage.&nbsp; If you can't do the work, then read and put together a summary of all the data on composting.&nbsp; That would help give a basis from which to start a series of experiments.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Put together categories, define the categories that you think would encompass your problems, and do some literature work.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
You put that together, and then I'll put together the proposal to submit to a funding agency to get the work done.&nbsp; I don't have the time to do the lit research.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
I'm asking for help, Kirk, or anyone else out there wanting to work on this.&nbsp; Do the lit reviews, do the summarization, and define what you think are the important categories based on the knowledge we have.&nbsp; Hopefully, while you do that, I can publish the data I do have.&nbsp; We can then develop the next proposal.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
There just isn't enough time in a day for me to get to teh literature review.&nbsp; Especiaily since I try to answer questions on this list.&nbsp; Which is most important?&nbsp; Answering questions here, publishing data, or continuing to help growers do the biological conversion?&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
All of the above.&nbsp; Then please help by getting the literature&nbsp; reviewed.&nbsp; Let us ALL work out the categories of what we think is important.&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Will that be a great discussion!&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Hand off back to you, Kirk!&nbsp; Willing to work on this on the compost tea list?&nbsp; <BR>
<BR>
Elaine Ingham<BR>
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.<BR>
SFI Corvallis, OR<BR>
SFI Port Jefferson, NY<BR>
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia<BR>
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands<BR>
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand<BR>
SFI Culiacan, Mexico<BR>
SFI Jerome, Idaho<BR>
<a href="http://www.soilfoodweb.com">http://www.soilfoodweb.com</a><BR>
</tt>


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Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 20:35:35 EDT
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: Soil Biology Primer
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Bacteria are in general 2 to 5 micrometers in length, 1 to 3 micrometers in 
width.

Fungi are generally 2.5 micrometers in width, can be miles in length.  

Protozoa vary from 5 micrometer width for the little guys to 100 micrometers 
for the big guys, all sorts of shapes.  

Soil nematodes are 10 to 50 micrometers width, to 10 to 20, up to 1 cm length.

Magnifications were 1000X for the stained bacterial pictures, to 400X for 
some of the bacteria, 200 X for the fungi, to 6 X for the arthropods.  

Does that help?  Sorry I was so slow getting back.  


Elaine R. Ingham
Soil Foodweb Inc., Corvallis, Oregon
Soil Foodweb Inc., Port Jefferson, New York
Soil Foodweb Institute, Lismore Australia
Soil Foodweb Institue Cambridge, New Zealand
Soil Foodweb Inc., Hilversum, The Netherlands
Laboratorios de Soil Foodweb, Culiacan, Mexico
Soil Foodweb Inc., Jerome, Idaho

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<DIV>Bacteria are in general 2 to 5 micrometers in length, 1 to 3 micrometers in width.</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>Fungi are generally 2.5 micrometers in width, can be miles in length.&nbsp; </DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>Protozoa vary from 5 micrometer width for the little guys to 100 micrometers for the big guys, all sorts of shapes.&nbsp; </DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>Soil nematodes are 10 to 50 micrometers width, to 10 to 20, up to 1 cm length.</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>Magnifications were 1000X for the stained bacterial pictures, to 400X for some of the bacteria, 200 X for the fungi, to 6 X for the arthropods.&nbsp; </DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>Does that help?&nbsp; Sorry I was so slow getting back.&nbsp; </DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">Elaine R. Ingham<BR>Soil Foodweb Inc., Corvallis, Oregon<BR>Soil Foodweb Inc., Port Jefferson, New York<BR>Soil Foodweb Institute, Lismore Australia<BR>Soil Foodweb Institue Cambridge, New Zealand<BR>Soil Foodweb Inc., Hilversum, The Netherlands<BR>Laboratorios de Soil Foodweb, Culiacan, Mexico<BR>Soil Foodweb Inc., Jerome, Idaho<BR></FONT></DIV>

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Subject: Re: BD Now! Compost turners
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Yes, the little self-propelled is a Sandberger turner.  The whole page
is in the tradition of Luebke compost and Sandberger turners, from
the compost fleece to the temperature and CO2 chart showing
Breakdown and Buildup phases.

In Europe, contact:

Sandberger
http://www.sandberger.com/englisch/start.html

Compara.nl
http://www.compara.nl/
http://www.compara.nl/engels.shtml

In the U.S., George Leidig with Autrusa/Imants USA
carries the smaller turners.

Do not look at the web page and assume that what you
see is all you get. You have to inquire about the smaller
turners.   I have slides of a little compost turner that
attaches to a bobcat-like mini-tractor.   It was in use at
a market-farm greenhouse in Bavaria.  It was sweet.  The
greenhouse grower and market farmer, who based the whole
operation on quality compost, was happy with the compost turner.

It so happens that I have the most comprehensive paper on
Luebke compost, also known as controlled microbial compost.
Luebke compost is geared to premium-grade, well humified, compost
that has clay-humus microbiology and overall consistent quality.  

There is a prominent biodynamic CSA that uses a Sandberger
turner and BD preps to make BD compost.  

You can also make Luebke compost with a pitch fork, you
just make smaller windrows.  It is the process of management
and amendments that achieves this type of clay-humus crumb.
But it is more intensive than what many farmers can afford to
spend time on.  

For small-scale composting, you can also use a manure spreader
and two tractors.  You PTO-operate the manure spreader with
one tractor, and load the feedstock into the manure spreader
with the second tractor.  It mixes the material and lays it out
onto a windrow.   But thereafter, you will need to turn with a
bucket, or repeat the process.  It amounts to a major hassle
compared to a bonafied compost turner.

Manure forks that clamp onto the end of a bucket loader, can
turn a bucket-loading tractor into a compost turning machine,
much better than one without the tines.

Steve Diver


Arjen Huese wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am doing some research in finding out where to find affordable 
> compost turners for small scale compost (windrow) turning. Does 
> anybody have any suggestions?
>
> I found this website with a picture of an electrically powered small 
> scale windrow turner: 
> http://www.ncl.ac.uk/tcoa/projects/compostpotsveg.htm
> but it doesn't say anything about where it comes from. Does anybody 
> recognise it?
>
> Cheers
>
> Arjen Huese
>



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From: gil carandang <gil_carandang@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: [SANET-MG] HerbanaFarmsPhilippines new website
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hi all|
you can now visit our website: "www.herbanafarmsphilippines.com"
thanks,
gil carandang
herbana farms
philippines

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Back in 1998, Joel Gruver made the following post to SANET:



http://www.sare.org/sanet-mg/archives/html-home/28-html/0043.html



Hello to all...
Last year, Dr. Ray Weil and 5 grad students at the U of MD (including
myself) pondered the difference between OM stabilization
in a composting system prior to soil application as compared to the
direct application of undecomposed OM to soil.
We assembled an extensive literature review that we intended to submit for
publication but we never quite finished it... we investigated this issue
from several angles... we considered long term C sequestration, effects
on plant availability of micro and macro nutrients, effects on soil
structure and effects on disease suppresion.

My focus was on soil structural effects... in a nutshell, the process
of decomposition/microbial activity is very important to aggregate
formation and stabilization... a majority of studies seemed to show that
more labile organic substrates had greater formation and stabilization
effects (both short and long term in some cases) than materials that were
more recalcitrant like a mature compost...

The issue of differences in carbon sequestration was not discussed in many
articles... I continue to ponder this issue and I tend to feel that
decomposition in intimate contact with mineral surfaces is a very
important feature in the formation of chemically and physically protected
soil organic matter. Thus I think that unless you are adding lots of
soil/clay to your compost you will be losing more C than if you let the
decompostion take place on or in soil. However tilling/incorporating
materials into soil, fractures aggregates, increases soil aeration... and
thus promotes loss of indigenous SOM... its a tricky question...
I think the reduced volume, and homogenized consistency of good compost
makes it a superior material for handling and that is very desireable for
farmers...

Our literature sits almost finished somewhere in Dr. Weils office... I
suppose we could send an unfinished copy to someone with a deep interest
in the subject...

Joel Gruver
U of MD, Soil Quality research



Other folks joined in, including Steve Diver and Cary Oshins; this was the
post that seemed to get things started:

http://www.sare.org/sanet-mg/archives/html-home/28-html/0037.html

> Dan Hemenway wrote:
> Well, I enjoyed Steve's informed rant on buckwheat and P, though I
disagree
> with several points. I'll mention a few:
>............stuff deleted..........
> * I disagree with the strong emphasis on composting separate from
> the general soil activities. In my view, composting is something I
> need to do when I lack a more direct means to apply organic matter to
> my permaculture system or if there is something wrong with the
> material to be composted (e.g. pathogens). There are vital pulses in
> soil chemistry that are short circuited by removing the composting
> operation from the soil in general. If you apply P-bearing materials
> to the surface (bone meal, phosphate rock, etc.) and apply mulch,
> sheet mulch except when inappropriate, the P will be released at
> exactly the zone where plant roots gather nutrients. (See Vol. I,
> #3, of the International Permaculture Solutions Journal). The same
> is true of other rock powders (with the same reservations), etc.

On the topic on sheet mulch composting in place versus composting
in piles or windrows, I'd say it depends on the situation. The
method you described certainly works. Worms like that type of
mulch and decay. In practice, it seems limited to home gardens
and small-scale market gardens.

The benefits and uses of compost as a stable humus product
containing numerous exchange sites and microbials are well known.

I came across the following Sanet post by Ann Clark back in 1995,
that contains some relevant ideas. Here it is again.

Steve Diver

>From: "E. Ann Clark, Associate Professor"
>Organization: Crop Science, The Univ. of Guelph
>To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu
>Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 09:57:06 EDT
>Subject: Re: Humus -- rural -> urban -> rural
>Priority: normal

Responding to Dick R. on the issue of composting. Just curious about
the comment that it is better if composting occurs in the soil. Just
finished an M.Sc. student doing a study on composting and we didn't
come across this idea in the lit. I'd be interested in learning what
it is that is more beneficial about composting in-situ - in the soil -
as against ahead of time. Evidence from the literature?


Conventional organic wisdom hereabouts sees placement of raw manure
directly into the soil as a net negative, because of a) rapid release
of N which destabilizes cycling, b) VFA's which can be caustic, and c)
potential for anaerobic decomposition when high moisture substrate
(whether animal manure or direct cut red clover) is plowed into the
soil. As an example, they recommend cutting and wilting red clover
plowdown before plowing it in, to avoid this problem.

Good points on "waste" management at landfills! Ann
ACLARK@crop.uoguelph.ca
Dr. E. Ann Clark
Associate Professor
Crop Science
University of Guelph



Steve Diver's follow up post added the following points:

http://www.sare.org/sanet-mg/archives/html-home/28-html/0045.html

"There's a little-known but valuable publication from Wallace
Laboratores titled "Soil Conditioner and Amendment Technologies,
Volume 1," which is more or less a collection of articles originally
published in a special issue -- Sustainability of the Soil and The
Environment -- of Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis.

One of the articles titled "Compost and Composting: Facts
and Myths" gets into composting vs soil application.

Selected excerpts:

"Most people think that making compost is to create fertilizer.
Other people use composting to creat a potting soil. Ten other
reasons for so-called composting are...

1. to decrease the volume of waste, especially for going into
landfills,
2. to decrease odors,
3. to kill pathogens and weed seeds,
4. to create more favorable carbon:nitrogen ratios so as to not
induce nitrogen deficiencies in crops,
5. to destroy natural toxins like tannins and allelopathic
compounds,
6. to decrease levels of synthetic pesticides that may be in organic
waste by partial if not complete decomposition of them,
7. to provide a means for making iron and other micronutrients
available to plants,
8. to impart to soil a mechanism for retarding soil-borne diseases
nematodes,
9. to make a more convenient product for applying to
soil, and
10.to provide a means for increasing the cation-exchange capacity
of the soil, the water-holding capacity of the soil, and to
decrease crusting and erosion or soil.
Additionally, many believe that composts help decrease the incidence
of plant diseases other than soil-borne."

"For improvement of physical properties of soil, actual decomposition
in the soil, rather than composting, is best because polysacharides
are produced from carbon compounds that would otherwise be lost in
composting. These natural water-soluble polymers do much to create
and stabilize the soil aggregates to give good physical properties to
soil. It may be better to use the carbon to synthesize
polysaccharides than to burn a lot of it to make heat to sterilize
the compost, unless sterilization is necessary like with sewage
sludge. For the same reason, partially decomposed organic matter
obtained in the first phase of composting may be better for soil
improvement than would mature composts which function mostly as a
soil amendment that dilutes the soil, decreases bulk density, and
gives more pore space in the soil because of the wedges."

Recently I have been having a discussion with Dave Schellinger over on the
USCC list (compost list) concerning this very matter. Mr Schellinger put
forward the view that raw organic matter actually decreases aggregate
formation in the soil, and cited some literature claiming to support his
point:

"Humus binds clay particles, but raw organic matter disperses and reduces
aggregates.  Bohn, et al., 2001, points out that greater aggregation
produces less stable organic matter contents in soils due to increased
aeration and microbiological degradation.  Even aggregates become less
stable with added organic matter.  This coincides with my statement that raw
organic matter additions reduces ped formation.  Approximately 50-80% of
fresh organic matter is lost from most temperate soils in the year of
application, just like during the composting process.  And, the smaller the
particle size, the faster the degradation occurs.  If more organic matter is
added to the soil, it degrades faster. The book points to an experiment in
England where a farm had been applying manures to a cultivated soil annually
since 1943 (30 tonnes/h) but had never been able to bring the soil organic
fraction back to the uncultivated levels. If soils are to benefit from
organic matter additions, there must be a continual supply of fresh organic
matter to the soils.  It makes more sense, therefore, to add a more stable
form of organic matter to soils rather that raw organic matter forms."



Mr. Schellinger also put forward the proposition that the addition of raw
organic materials to soils increased production of various greenhouse gases,
aside from CO2, compared to composting prior to soil application. In large
part I think he based this on the risk of flooding and excessive rain; his
location in Louisiana might have something to do with that concern.;-)



I put forward the counter proposition, that raw organic residues could well
improve the greenhouse gas status of a soil, if they resulted in improved
soil structure and subsequent improved plant growth. The importance of
seeing the full picture of these scenarios is great, I believe. I would
certainly appreciate input from Joel Gruver and others concerning our
current understanding of these matters. I did cite in our exchange the work
of Dr Fred Magdoff, who actually compared two scenarios of manure management
and found direct application of manure to yield better aggregation than
composting the manure first:



http://www.mofga.org/mofgj00j.html





It should also be noted that no tillage scenario I am aware of allows for a
sustainable return to uncultivated SOM levels without heroic applications of
organic matter, and this because tillage is itself a major destructive force
against SOM. However, by using rotations including several years of proper
pasturing soil can be kept at acceptable OM levels even in tillage regimes.
This approach has been used for centuries, known in some quarters as the
'British ley' system. Reduced tillage regimes such as strip or zone tillage
also offer benefits in conserving SOM, but of course no till systems
conserve SOM best.





The question of 'to compost, or not to compost' hits farmers squarely in the
face, especially those whose livestock are fed exclusively or nearly so from
the farm acreage itself. One factor we did not discuss is the issue of
transportation costs and the mechanical costs of composting, which obviously
also have greenhouse gas consequences. Labor time savings for the farmer are
also an issue. This is less of an issue where manure producers rely on
transported inputs and generate large quantities of manure which must
subsequently be retransported substantial distances; there the calculus
should favor composting on shipping cost grounds quite strongly. Of course,
the farm's overall crop diversity and the need for mature, relatively weed
free compost for specific crops are also factors which the decision maker
needs to consider.



I actually experience an opposite situation. I have access to large
quantities of shredded compressed dry fall leaves. In my view it clearly
seems favourable to transport these as is to my growing site prior to
application, rather than composting them first which would mean the addition
of a substantial amount of water, as well as requiring space which at
present is unavailable. This might be analogous to the handling of hay,
which when dry and bailed can be transported more cost effectively than if
it were composted and moist. There remains the issue of whether to compost
prior to soil application, of course. With hay the issue of weed seeds looms
large, for any future open soil growing; even with leaves there is some
potential for weed seed presence.



I consider that the use of these leaves both as mulch and as incorporated
organic matter will predominate in the mixed vegetable, small fruit and tree
orchard context which I participate in. Doubtless some will also be
thermally and worm composted as well, to produce materials for compost teas
and watery extracts as well as direct applications. I believe that my sandy
soil will benefit from direct decomposition of the leaves and subsequent
fungal growth in the soil itself more than if all the leaves were composted
before application. Because this soil is very well drained I anticipate no
serious anaerobicity problems leading to methane or NOx production as a
result. In more poorly drained soils that experience spring and/or fall
flooding, it could very well be wise to compost and apply shortly before
planting, or as crop choices permit, to apply after danger of flooding is
past but with sufficient time to decompose prior to planting.



I would appreciate any specific or general comments on these subjects. I can
make the full text of the exchanges between myself and Mr Schellinger
available to anyone interested.



Frank Teuton


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<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-US =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Back in 1998, Joel Gruver made the following =
post to
SANET:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-US =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-US =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><a
href=3D"http://www.sare.org/sanet-mg/archives/html-home/28-html/0043.html=
">http://www.sare.org/sanet-mg/archives/html-home/28-html/0043.html</a><o=
:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-US =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span =
lang=3DEN-CA
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>Hello to all...<br>
Last year, Dr. Ray Weil and 5 grad students at the U of MD =
(including<br>
myself) pondered the difference between <st1:place =
w:st=3D"on">OM</st1:place>
stabilization<br>
in a composting system prior to soil application as compared to the<br>
direct application of undecomposed <st1:place w:st=3D"on">OM</st1:place> =
to soil.<br>
We assembled an extensive literature review that we intended to submit =
for<br>
publication but we never quite finished it... we investigated this =
issue<br>
from several angles... we considered long term C sequestration, =
effects<br>
on plant availability of micro and macro nutrients, effects on soil<br>
structure and effects on disease =
suppresion.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>My
focus was on soil structural effects... in a nutshell, the process<br>
of decomposition/microbial activity is very important to aggregate<br>
formation and stabilization... a majority of studies seemed to show =
that<br>
more labile organic substrates had greater formation and =
stabilization<br>
effects (both short and long term in some cases) than materials that =
were<br>
more recalcitrant like a mature compost...<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>The
issue of differences in carbon sequestration was not discussed in =
many<br>
articles... I continue to ponder this issue and I tend to feel that<br>
decomposition in intimate contact with mineral surfaces is a very<br>
important feature in the formation of chemically and physically =
protected <br>
soil organic matter. Thus I think that unless you are adding lots of<br>
soil/clay to your compost you will be losing more C than if you let =
the<br>
decompostion take place on or in soil. However tilling/incorporating<br>
materials into soil, fractures aggregates, increases soil aeration... =
and<br>
thus promotes loss of indigenous SOM... its a tricky question...<br>
I think the reduced volume, and homogenized consistency of good =
compost<br>
makes it a superior material for handling and that is very desireable =
for<br>
farmers...<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>Our
literature sits almost finished somewhere in Dr. Weils office... I<br>
suppose we could send an unfinished copy to someone with a deep =
interest<br>
in the subject...<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>Joel
Gruver<br>
U of MD, Soil Quality research<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>Other
folks joined in, including Steve Diver and Cary Oshins; this was the =
post that
seemed to get things started:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><a
href=3D"http://www.sare.org/sanet-mg/archives/html-home/28-html/0037.html=
">http://www.sare.org/sanet-mg/archives/html-home/28-html/0037.html</a><o=
:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><i><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span =
lang=3DEN-CA
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'>&gt; Dan Hemenway wrote: =
</span></font></i><span
lang=3DEN-CA><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; Well, I enjoyed Steve's =
informed rant
on buckwheat and P, though I disagree</span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; with several points. I'll =
mention a
few:</span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt;............stuff =
deleted..........</span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; * I disagree with the strong =
emphasis
on composting separate from </span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; the general soil activities. =
In my
view, composting is something I </span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; need to do when I lack a more =
direct
means to apply organic matter to </span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; my permaculture system or if =
there is
something wrong with the </span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; material to be composted (e.g.
pathogens). There are vital pulses in </span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; soil chemistry that are short =
circuited
by removing the composting </span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; operation from the soil in =
general. If
you apply P-bearing materials </span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; to the surface (bone meal, =
phosphate
rock, etc.) and apply mulch, </span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; sheet mulch except when =
inappropriate,
the P will be released at </span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; exactly the zone where plant =
roots
gather nutrients. (See Vol. I, </span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; #3, of the International =
Permaculture
Solutions Journal). The same </span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt; is true of other rock powders =
(with the
same reservations), etc. </span></i><o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>On
the topic on sheet mulch composting in place versus composting <br>
in piles or windrows, I'd say it depends on the situation. The <br>
method you described certainly works. Worms like that type of <br>
mulch and decay. In practice, it seems limited to home gardens <br>
and small-scale market gardens. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>The
benefits and uses of compost as a stable humus product <br>
containing numerous exchange sites and microbials are well known. =
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>I
came across the following Sanet post by Ann Clark back in 1995, <br>
that contains some relevant ideas. Here it is again. =
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>Steve
Diver<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><i><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:
12.0pt;font-style:italic'>&gt;From: &quot;E. Ann Clark, Associate
Professor&quot; </span></font></i><span lang=3DEN-CA><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt;Organization: Crop Science, The =
Univ. of
Guelph</span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt;To: =
sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu</span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt;Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 09:57:06 =
EDT</span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt;Subject: Re: Humus -- rural =
-&gt; urban
-&gt; rural</span></i><br>
<i><span style=3D'font-style:italic'>&gt;Priority: =
normal</span></i><o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>Responding
to Dick R. on the issue of composting. Just curious about<br>
the comment that it is better if composting occurs in the soil. Just<br>
finished an M.Sc. student doing a study on composting and we didn't<br>
come across this idea in the lit. I'd be interested in learning what<br>
it is that is more beneficial about composting in-situ - in the soil =
-<br>
as against ahead of time. Evidence from the literature? =
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><br>
Conventional organic wisdom hereabouts sees placement of raw manure<br>
directly into the soil as a net negative, because of a) rapid =
release<br>
of N which destabilizes cycling, b) VFA's which can be caustic, and =
c)<br>
potential for anaerobic decomposition when high moisture substrate<br>
(whether animal manure or direct cut red clover) is plowed into the<br>
soil. As an example, they recommend cutting and wilting red clover<br>
plowdown before plowing it in, to avoid this problem. =
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>Good
points on &quot;waste&quot; management at landfills! Ann<br>
ACLARK@crop.uoguelph.ca<br>
Dr. E. Ann Clark<br>
Associate Professor<br>
Crop Science<br>
<st1:place w:st=3D"on"><st1:PlaceType =
w:st=3D"on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName
 =
w:st=3D"on">Guelph</st1:PlaceName></st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></font></=
p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>Steve
Diver&#8217;s follow up post added the following =
points:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><a
href=3D"http://www.sare.org/sanet-mg/archives/html-home/28-html/0045.html=
">http://www.sare.org/sanet-mg/archives/html-home/28-html/0045.html</a><o=
:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span =
lang=3DEN-CA
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>&#8220;There's a little-known but valuable =
publication
from Wallace <br>
Laboratores titled &quot;Soil Conditioner and Amendment Technologies, =
<br>
Volume 1,&quot; which is more or less a collection of articles =
originally <br>
published in a special issue -- Sustainability of the Soil and The <br>
Environment -- of Communications in Soil Science and Plant =
Analysis.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>One
of the articles titled &quot;Compost and Composting: Facts<br>
and Myths&quot; gets into composting vs soil =
application.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>Selected
excerpts: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>&quot;Most
people think that making compost is to create fertilizer.<br>
Other people use composting to creat a potting soil. Ten other <br>
reasons for so-called composting are...<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>1.
to decrease the volume of waste, especially for going into <br>
landfills, <br>
2. to decrease odors, <br>
3. to kill pathogens and weed seeds,<br>
4. to create more favorable carbon:nitrogen ratios so as to not<br>
induce nitrogen deficiencies in crops,<br>
5. to destroy natural toxins like tannins and allelopathic <br>
compounds, <br>
6. to decrease levels of synthetic pesticides that may be in organic =
<br>
waste by partial if not complete decomposition of them, <br>
7. to provide a means for making iron and other micronutrients <br>
available to plants, <br>
8. to impart to soil a mechanism for retarding soil-borne diseases <br>
nematodes, <br>
9. to make a more convenient product for applying to <br>
soil, and <br>
10.to provide a means for increasing the cation-exchange capacity <br>
of the soil, the water-holding capacity of the soil, and to <br>
decrease crusting and erosion or soil. <br>
Additionally, many believe that composts help decrease the incidence<br>
of plant diseases other than soil-borne.&quot; =
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>&quot;For
improvement of physical properties of soil, actual decomposition <br>
in the soil, rather than composting, is best because polysacharides <br>
are produced from carbon compounds that would otherwise be lost in <br>
composting. These natural water-soluble polymers do much to create <br>
and stabilize the soil aggregates to give good physical properties to =
<br>
soil. It may be better to use the carbon to synthesize <br>
polysaccharides than to burn a lot of it to make heat to sterilize <br>
the compost, unless sterilization is necessary like with sewage <br>
sludge. For the same reason, partially decomposed organic matter <br>
obtained in the first phase of composting may be better for soil <br>
improvement than would mature composts which function mostly as a <br>
soil amendment that dilutes the soil, decreases bulk density, and <br>
gives more pore space in the soil because of the wedges.&quot; =
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p><font size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>Recently
I have been having a discussion with Dave Schellinger over on the USCC =
list
(compost list) concerning this very matter. Mr Schellinger put forward =
the view
that raw organic matter actually decreases aggregate formation in the =
soil, and
cited some literature claiming to support his =
point:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>&#8220;</span></font><font
size=3D2 face=3D"Courier New"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Humus binds clay particles, but raw organic matter =
disperses and
reduces aggregates.&nbsp; Bohn, et al., 2001, points out that greater
aggregation produces less stable organic matter contents in soils due to
increased aeration and microbiological degradation.&nbsp; Even =
aggregates
become less stable with added organic matter.&nbsp; This coincides with =
my
statement that raw organic matter additions reduces ped formation.&nbsp; =
Approximately
50-80% of fresh organic matter is lost from most temperate soils in the =
year of
application, just like during the composting process.&nbsp; And, the =
smaller
the particle size, the faster the degradation occurs.&nbsp; If more =
organic
matter is added to the soil, it degrades faster. The book points to an
experiment in <st1:country-region w:st=3D"on"><st1:place =
w:st=3D"on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region>
where a farm had been applying manures to a cultivated soil annually =
since 1943
(30 tonnes/h) but had never been able to bring the soil organic fraction =
back
to the uncultivated levels. If soils are to benefit from organic matter
additions, there must be a continual supply of fresh organic matter to =
the
soils.&nbsp; It makes more sense, therefore, to add a more stable form =
of
organic matter to soils rather that raw organic matter =
forms.&#8221;<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D2 =
face=3D"Courier New"><span
lang=3DEN-CA style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier =
New"'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>Mr.
Schellinger also put forward the proposition that the addition of raw =
organic
materials to soils increased production of various greenhouse gases, =
aside from
CO2, compared to composting prior to soil application. In large part I =
think he
based this on the risk of flooding and excessive rain; his location in =
<st1:place
w:st=3D"on"><st1:State w:st=3D"on">Louisiana</st1:State></st1:place> =
might have
something to do with that concern&#8230;;-)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>I =
put forward
the counter proposition, that raw organic residues could well improve =
the
greenhouse gas status of a soil, if they resulted in improved soil =
structure
and subsequent improved plant growth. The importance of seeing the full =
picture
of these scenarios is great, I believe. I would certainly appreciate =
input from
Joel Gruver and others concerning our current understanding of these =
matters. I
did cite in our exchange the work of Dr Fred Magdoff, who actually =
compared two
scenarios of manure management and found direct application of manure to =
yield
better aggregation than composting the manure =
first:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><a
href=3D"http://www.mofga.org/mofgj00j.html">http://www.mofga.org/mofgj00j=
.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>It should also
be noted that no tillage scenario I am aware of allows for a sustainable =
return
to uncultivated SOM levels without heroic applications of organic =
matter, and
this because tillage is itself a major destructive force against SOM. =
However,
by using rotations including several years of proper pasturing soil can =
be kept
at acceptable <st1:place w:st=3D"on">OM</st1:place> levels even in =
tillage
regimes. This approach has been used for centuries, known in some =
quarters as
the &#8216;British ley&#8217; system. Reduced tillage regimes such as =
strip or
zone tillage also offer benefits in conserving SOM, but of course no =
till
systems conserve SOM best.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'text-autospace:none'><font size=3D3
face=3D"Times New Roman"><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'>The question
of &#8216;to compost, or not to compost&#8217; hits farmers squarely in =
the
face, especially those whose livestock are fed exclusively or nearly so =
from
the farm acreage itself. One factor we did not discuss is the issue of
transportation costs and the mechanical costs of composting, which =
obviously
also have greenhouse gas consequences. Labor time savings for the farmer =
are
also an issue. This is less of an issue where manure producers rely on
transported inputs and generate large quantities of manure which must
subsequently be retransported substantial distances; there the calculus =
should favor
composting on shipping cost grounds quite strongly. Of course, the =
farm&#8217;s
overall crop diversity and the need for mature, relatively weed free =
compost
for specific crops are also factors which the decision maker needs to =
consider.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>I actually experience an opposite situation. I =
have
access to large quantities of shredded compressed dry fall leaves. In my =
view
it clearly seems favourable to transport these as is to my growing site =
prior
to application, rather than composting them first which would mean the =
addition
of a substantial amount of water, as well as requiring space which at =
present
is unavailable. This might be analogous to the handling of hay, which =
when dry
and bailed can be transported more cost effectively than if it were =
composted
and moist. There remains the issue of whether to compost prior to soil
application, of course. With hay the issue of weed seeds looms large, =
for any
future open soil growing; even with leaves there is some potential for =
weed
seed presence. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>I consider that the use of these leaves both =
as mulch
and as incorporated organic matter will predominate in the mixed =
vegetable,
small fruit and tree orchard context which I participate in. Doubtless =
some
will also be thermally and worm composted as well, to produce materials =
for
compost teas and watery extracts as well as direct applications. I =
believe that
my sandy soil will benefit from direct decomposition of the leaves and
subsequent fungal growth in the soil itself more than if all the leaves =
were composted
before application. Because this soil is very well drained I anticipate =
no
serious anaerobicity problems leading to methane or NOx production as a =
result.
In more poorly drained soils that experience spring and/or fall =
flooding, it
could very well be wise to compost and apply shortly before planting, or =
as
crop choices permit, to apply after danger of flooding is past but with
sufficient time to decompose prior to =
planting.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>I would appreciate any specific or general =
comments
on these subjects. I can make the full text of the exchanges between =
myself and
Mr Schellinger available to anyone =
interested.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 face=3DArial><span lang=3DEN-CA =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Frank Teuton<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

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From - Mon Apr 11 21:19:51 2005
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From: Joel Gruver <jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: [SANET-MG] bioenergy from a C mass balance perspective
Comments: cc: Michael Wagger <michael_wagger@ncsu.edu>,
          Lisa Stocking <stocking@umd.edu>, "Ray R. Weil" <rw17@umail.umd.edu>,
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Hello folks,

As we discuss the impacts of using crop residues or other organic materials
for energy purposes (as compared to soil amendment), it is important to
evaluate possible scenarios from a C mass balance perspective.

The functional benefits of SOM (nutrient storage, structural stabilization,
water holding capacity, nourishing of soil organisms...) are well documented
and widely appreciated... in contrast, the factors which constrain SOM
accumulation (e.g. climate, texture, mineralogy, landscape position...) and
interactions between these factors and management (e.g. tillage,
fertilization, organic additions, irrigation...) are rather poorly
understood.

Current research (including my own) is evaluating the concept of saturatable
pools of SOM...  an example of a potentially saturatable pool of OM is the
OM that gets adsorbed on the surfaces of fine mineral particles. There is
considerable evidence that adsorption on the surfaces of clay and fine silt
particles can confer protection against decomposition.

The amount of OM that can be protected by adsorption on mineral surfaces is
likely to be a finite quantity related to the chemical and physical
properties of a soil's mineral particles  (e.g. external surface area,
internal surface area, CEC...).

The impact of new organic inputs on soil function and the partitioning of
new organic inputs into SOM fractions (microbial biomass, particulate OM,
humus...) and CO2 is likely to depend on the quantity and quality of OM
already in the soil.

All of the above is intended to set the stage for a brief discussion of the
following question:

How will the removal of crop residue for bioenergy purposes impact C mass
balance ?

When fossil hydrocarbon energy sources (natural gas, oil and coal) are
displaced by renewable carbohydrate sources (e.g. crop residue, wood...)
less CO2 is released into the atmosphere...unless of course,  the C cost of
production, harvest, processing and transportation of the renewable
carbohydrate source is greater than the fossil C it displaces.

When crop residues are returned to soil, most of the C in the residues is
returned to the atmosphere as CO2 within a year.
 Biologically mediated soil processes (nutrient transformations,
biodrilling, detoxification...) are energized as residue C traverses the
redox continuum from carbohydrate to CO2...  Interactions between management
practices and the factors described above control whether the soil will act
as a net source, net sink or just a conduit of C.

If a soil system is at or near saturation i.e. accumulating very little SOM
because of non-management factors, use of crop residue for bioenergy
purposes will probably result in a more favorable C balance than if the
residue were returned to the soil and quickly converted back into CO2.

If a soil system has low OM relative to its potential and management
practices are adopted which promote C accumulation, return of residues will
probably result in a more favorable C balance than if the residue was
removed for bioenergy purposes.

Hope that this makes sense... looking forward to your comments.

Joel

BTW I will send some comments on composting vs. direct land application of
raw organics shortly...

Joel

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From: Joel Gruver <jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: [SANET-MG] field studies evaluating mycorrhizal inoculum
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Hello Jarrod,

Appended below are citations for a few studies that have evaluated
mycorrhizal fungi inoculum in the field. The database of mycorhiza
literature at the following link contains many more:
http://mycorrhiza.ag.utk.edu/

Douds, D.D. and C. Reider. 2003. Inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi
increases the yield of green peppers in a high P soil. Biological
Agriculture and Horticulture. 21: 91-102.

Douds, D.D., Nagahashi, G., Pfeffer, P.E., Kayser, W.M. and C. Reider. 2005.
On-farm production and utilization of mycorrhizal fungus inoculum. Canadian
Journal of Plant Science.85: 5-21.

J. Secilia and D.J. Bagyaraj. 1994. Evaluation and first-year field testing
of efficient vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for inoculation of
wetland rice seedlings, World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology,
10(4): 381 - 384

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jarrod Gunn-Mcquillan" <jgunn-mcquillan@NWHU.ON.CA>
To: <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2006 11:29 AM
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Entrez PubMed Soil Quality & phosphate availability


> Does anyone know of any field studies using Mycorrhizae??  There seems to
be
> lots of greenhouse, microcosm etc. etc.
>
> Thanks
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
> [mailto:SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU]On Behalf Of Dale Wilson
> Sent: Friday, March 17, 2006 10:00 AM
> To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Entrez PubMed Soil Quality & phosphate
> availability
>
>
> Hi Edna,
>
> >> I'm afraid I'm over my head on this subject.  I'm interested,
> >> but I understood maybe about half of what I read and my
> >> unabridged dictionary didn't help me a whole lot....
> >> Can anyone tell me if that is the take home message in this
> >> research?
>
> Unlike nitrogen and potassium, phosphorus in the soil is tightly bound
> to the mineral fraction.  As water moves from the soil into the roots,
> potassium and nitrogen and most other minerals are swept along into the
> plant along with the water (yeah, I know, this is an
> oversimplification), but not so with phosphorus.  The roots have to go
> GET phosphorus by intimate contact with soil particles.  Most plants
> simply cannot produce enough root surface area to get the phosphorus
> they need, even when there is plenty around.  Almost all crops form a
> symbiotic relationship with a class of fungus called "arbuscular
> mycorrhizae fungi" (AMF).  The AMF live in the soil and have an
> extensive network of fine mycelia.  As a young plant is established,
> the root system becomes infected by the AMF which transports phosphorus
> into the roots.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuscular_mycorrhiza
>
> "Mycorrhizae helper bacteria" work with the AMF to help dissolve P from
> the surfaces of soil particles.  The abstract cited by Lawrence studied
> an association between the AMF and the "growth-promoting rhizobacteria"
> Bacillus subtilis and Entrobacter.
>
> Here is the full text of the paper:
> http://aem.asm.org/cgi/reprint/63/11/4408
>
> Lawrence wrote:
> > I interpret this to mean that the researchers discovered that the
> > presence of a specific AM fungus innoculated with two phosphate-
> > solubilizing ("helper") bacteria in soils with low phosphate
> > bioavailability resulted in higher levels of plant available
> > phosphorus and "significantly increased biomass and N and P
> > accumulation in plant tissues".
>
> I don't think this is a new finding.  The main point of the paper seems
> to be the use the isotopic dilution method as a tool.  There is a lot
> of literature about this subject.
>
> > So, is anyone marketing a soil innoculant for organic and
> > sustainable farmers who periodically apply rock phosphate to
> > farmland with normally low P bioavailability (I assume this can
> > be detected in a soil test)?
>
> I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that inoculation with these organisms
> in normal field situations will be beneficial.  I would try it out
> carefully in designed experiments and distrust promotional literature.
> AMF is normally present in most fields, and the bacteria mentioned are
> rugged and extremely common in soil.  The paper does show why rock
> phosphate (RP) might be more available to plants than one would think
> from the soil chemistry per se.  I still would make sure my RP is
> high-grade and finely ground.
>
> Dale
>
> __________________________________________________
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Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Entrez PubMed   Soil Quality & phosphate availability
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Hello Jared,=20
=20
There are quite a few studies done with arbuscular mycorrhizas in the =
field.  To add to Joel's list, I would also include:
=20
1. Kabir, Z. and Koide, R. T, 2002, Effect of autumn and winter =
mycorrhizal cover crops on soil properties, nutrient uptake and yield of =
sweet corn in Pennsylvania, USA, Plant and Soil, 238(2):205-215.
=20
2. Boswell, E. P., Koide, R. T., Shumway, D. L.,Addy, H. D., 1998, =
Winter wheat cover cropping, VA mycorrhizal fungi and maize growth and =
yield, Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment, 67(1):55-65.
=20
3.Cheng, X. M., Baumgartner, K., 2004, Arbuscular mycorrhizal =
fungi-mediated nitrogen transfer from vineyard cover crops to =
grapevines, Biology and Fertility of Soils, 40(6): 406:412.
=20
As Joel mentioned, you can search for all the mycorrhiza literature on  =
the  Mycorrhiza Information Exchange database at =
http://mycorrhiza.ag.utk.edu/ <http://mycorrhiza.ag.utk.edu/> .
=20
Sincerely,
michelle schroeder
=20
=20
=20
Michelle S. Schroeder, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Agroecology
=20
Crop Science Department
North Carolina State University
2406 Williams Hall
Campus Box 7620
Raleigh, NC 27695-7620 USA
=20
Phone: (919) 513-0085
FAX: (919) 515-7959
Email: michelle_schroeder@ncsu.edu
Personal webpage: =
http://www.cropsci.ncsu.edu/personnel/Schroeder_Michelle/Default.asp?fmti=
nfo=3D1,450,150 =
<http://www.cropsci.ncsu.edu/personnel/Schroeder_Michelle/Default.asp?fmt=
info=3D1,450,150>=20
Agroecology program: http://www.cropsci.ncsu.edu/agroecology/ =
<http://www.cropsci.ncsu.edu/agroecology/>=20
=20
=20
=20

________________________________

From: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group on behalf of =
Jarrod Gunn-Mcquillan
Sent: Fri 3/17/2006 11:29 AM
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Entrez PubMed Soil Quality & phosphate =
availability



Does anyone know of any field studies using Mycorrhizae??  There seems =
to be
lots of greenhouse, microcosm etc. etc.

Thanks

-----Original Message-----
From: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
[mailto:SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU]On Behalf Of Dale Wilson
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2006 10:00 AM
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Entrez PubMed Soil Quality & phosphate
availability


Hi Edna,

>> I'm afraid I'm over my head on this subject.  I'm interested,
>> but I understood maybe about half of what I read and my
>> unabridged dictionary didn't help me a whole lot....
>> Can anyone tell me if that is the take home message in this
>> research?

Unlike nitrogen and potassium, phosphorus in the soil is tightly bound
to the mineral fraction.  As water moves from the soil into the roots,
potassium and nitrogen and most other minerals are swept along into the
plant along with the water (yeah, I know, this is an
oversimplification), but not so with phosphorus.  The roots have to go
GET phosphorus by intimate contact with soil particles.  Most plants
simply cannot produce enough root surface area to get the phosphorus
they need, even when there is plenty around.  Almost all crops form a
symbiotic relationship with a class of fungus called "arbuscular
mycorrhizae fungi" (AMF).  The AMF live in the soil and have an
extensive network of fine mycelia.  As a young plant is established,
the root system becomes infected by the AMF which transports phosphorus
into the roots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuscular_mycorrhiza

"Mycorrhizae helper bacteria" work with the AMF to help dissolve P from
the surfaces of soil particles.  The abstract cited by Lawrence studied
an association between the AMF and the "growth-promoting rhizobacteria"
Bacillus subtilis and Entrobacter.

Here is the full text of the paper:
http://aem.asm.org/cgi/reprint/63/11/4408

Lawrence wrote:
> I interpret this to mean that the researchers discovered that the
> presence of a specific AM fungus innoculated with two phosphate-
> solubilizing ("helper") bacteria in soils with low phosphate
> bioavailability resulted in higher levels of plant available
> phosphorus and "significantly increased biomass and N and P
> accumulation in plant tissues".

I don't think this is a new finding.  The main point of the paper seems
to be the use the isotopic dilution method as a tool.  There is a lot
of literature about this subject.

> So, is anyone marketing a soil innoculant for organic and
> sustainable farmers who periodically apply rock phosphate to
> farmland with normally low P bioavailability (I assume this can
> be detected in a soil test)?

I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that inoculation with these organisms
in normal field situations will be beneficial.  I would try it out
carefully in designed experiments and distrust promotional literature.
AMF is normally present in most fields, and the bacteria mentioned are
rugged and extremely common in soil.  The paper does show why rock
phosphate (RP) might be more available to plants than one would think
from the soil chemistry per se.  I still would make sure my RP is
high-grade and finely ground.

Dale

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From: John Cowan <johncowan@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Putting the carbon back: Black is the new green
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I have been experimenting with "charcoal" this year after reading ALL 
the books about Terra Preta, reading ALL the information on at Eprida 
http://www.eprida.com/home/index.php4 plus other information on the web 
such as at Cornell.

According the Eprida, the proper charcoal means heating suitable organic 
materials to about 400 degrees C. (750 degrees F.) without oxygen. 
Volatiles, hydrogen and water are outgassed. These gases can be used in 
a variety of ways. The charcoal is ground to 30-45 mesh. They also have 
developed a process to saturate it with ammonium bicarbonate using 
recycled gases.

My focus has been on enhancing microbiological activity and nutrient 
holding capacity in the soil. If you add some charcoal to quality 
finished compost or worm castings you will get obvious enhances 
microbiological activity as seen by doing a simple water extraction 
after one day of culturing and looking at it under a microscope.

Enhanced nutrient capacity occurs because the carbon matrix of the 
charcoal starts taking on "functional groups" and hence forms a type of 
humus that increases the CEC.

Here is how I have produced the charcoal "fertilizer" in small 
quantities:  Grind commercial "lump" barbecue charcoal (Cowboy, Royal 
Oak, etc.) to a fine powder. Do not use brickettes. I run it through an 
old meat grinder then put small amounts in an electric coffee mill. Mix 
charcoal powder with equal parts by volume fine sifted compost or worm 
castings. According to the charcoal weight, add 5% high quality fish 
meal, krill meal or other quality protein meal. Avoid solvent-extracted 
meals. Add sufficient water (non-chlorinated) usually about 1/2 the 
charcoal volume. Mix throughly. It should be wet, not mucky. Usually I 
work the mixture through a 1/4 inch hardware mesh to fluffy it up and 
cut up any lumps. Let sit in a plastic bucket for a week maybe with a 
loose cover in dry climates. Actineomyctes (sp?) smell will replace the 
protein smell in a few days and some white specks should develop.

Small quantities of this product can show a noticeable improvement in 
plant appearance and growth/production. Apply to the soil surface and 
water in. I will not go into my exact experiences but I have been 
organic gardening for decades and have experience with a wide range of 
organic fertilizers and amendments. I have never seen anything quite 
like it.

If you have questions about what I have mentioned I would invite you to 
reply to me personally or to the list.

Thanks,

John Cowan

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I have been experimenting with "charcoal" this year after reading ALL 
the books about Terra Preta, reading ALL the information on at Eprida 
http://www.eprida.com/home/index.php4 plus other information on the web 
such as at Cornell.

According the Eprida, the proper charcoal means heating suitable organic 
materials to about 400 degrees C. (750 degrees F.) without oxygen. 
Volatiles, hydrogen and water are outgassed. These gases can be used in 
a variety of ways. The charcoal is ground to 30-45 mesh. They also have 
developed a process to saturate it with ammonium bicarbonate using 
recycled gases.

My focus has been on enhancing microbiological activity and nutrient 
holding capacity in the soil. If you add some charcoal to quality 
finished compost or worm castings you will get obvious enhances 
microbiological activity as seen by doing a simple water extraction 
after one day of culturing and looking at it under a microscope.

Enhanced nutrient capacity occurs because the carbon matrix of the 
charcoal starts taking on "functional groups" and hence forms a type of 
humus that increases the CEC.

Here is how I have produced the charcoal "fertilizer" in small 
quantities:  Grind commercial "lump" barbecue charcoal (Cowboy, Royal 
Oak, etc.) to a fine powder. Do not use brickettes. I run it through an 
old meat grinder then put small amounts in an electric coffee mill. Mix 
charcoal powder with equal parts by volume fine sifted compost or worm 
castings. According to the charcoal weight, add 5% high quality fish 
meal, krill meal or other quality protein meal. Avoid solvent-extracted 
meals. Add sufficient water (non-chlorinated) usually about 1/2 the 
charcoal volume. Mix throughly. It should be wet, not mucky. Usually I 
work the mixture through a 1/4 inch hardware mesh to fluffy it up and 
cut up any lumps. Let sit in a plastic bucket for a week maybe with a 
loose cover in dry climates. Actineomyctes (sp?) smell will replace the 
protein smell in a few days and some white specks should develop.

Small quantities of this product can show a noticeable improvement in 
plant appearance and growth/production. Apply to the soil surface and 
water in. I will not go into my exact experiences but I have been 
organic gardening for decades and have experience with a wide range of 
organic fertilizers and amendments. I have never seen anything quite 
like it.

If you have questions about what I have mentioned I would invite you to 
reply to me personally or to the list.

Thanks,

John Cowan

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From: Dale Wilson <nosliwelad@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Putting the carbon back: Black is the new green
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Elaine,

> Charcoal addition, WITHOUT ANY organisms, nutrient, or water
> addition with it, was what was being discussed.  If you wish to
> add in other factors, along with the charcoal,  then the 
> discussion will be very different.

Part of the discussion is the indeterminacy of the term "charcoal." 
This subject is already "very different" because things other than pure
thermogenic carbon are present in "char."

> If you want to add all the other things besides charcoal that
> are in Terra Preta, i.e., if you want to add bacteria, fungi,
> protozoa, nematodes, microarthropods, humus, fulvics, proteins,
> sugars. etc then we aren't talking  about just charcoal anymore.

That is part of the point of this discussion.  The "char" being
discussed is a complex material.
  
> How long has it been since "black earth" was anaerobic?  It
> does not has a sickening, stinky smell to it as it has been
> described to me.  It is not low in oxygen.  It is not hot.
> Terra Preta is not charcoal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
"Because of their elevated charcoal content, it is now widely accepted
that these soils are a product of indigenous soil management involving
a labor intensive technique termed slash-and-char. The technique is
differentiated from slash and burn by a lower temperature burn and in
being a tool for soil improvement. Amending soil with low temperature
charcoal produced from a mix of wood and leafy biomass (termed
bio-char) has been observed to increase the activity of arbuscular
mycorrhizal fungi."

> Recalcitrance of any organic matter is relative, and I'll agree
> with Lutzow et all absolutely on that statement.  If you have no
> fungi in the "mix", the wider C:N materials are going to have a
> hard time breaking down.  If the fungi that can use that wide
> C:N material are present, those "recalcitrant" materials can
> disappear pretty quickly.

The other part of this discussion, is the possibility that by thermally
processing organic matter in the right way, it might be possible to
very greatly increase the recalcitrance of the organic matter, while
retaining soil-building value (beyond the value of ordinary charcoal). 
This seems to be what happened to these Terra Preta soils.  Thermal
processing might be a valuable way to make microbiologically stable OM
amendments.
  
> If organic matter has been sterilized, or does not contain the
> organisms capable of breaking down the bonds in the material,
> then that material will appear "recalcitrant".

We are not talking about sterile systems.  Sure, the biomass being
thermally processed would be rendered sterile, but after you put it in
the soil it will be colonized by the native flora and fauna.
  
> Restrict the information being considered to just what I was
> talking about, and do NOT add in all sorts of other things.
> Please don't muddy the conversation that was being held.

Elaine, it it too late!  This was a murky, confusing, impure thread
from it's inception.  I would urge you to keep an open mind.  I don't
think this is mainly about "charcoal" in the usual sense of the word.

Dale

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Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Putting the carbon back: Black is the new green
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Perhaps there was a thread was about Terre Pieta, but my specific comment  
was about charcoal.  I believe I clearly indicated my response as being  about 
charcoal.  
 
Charcoal by definition is wood held at high temperature (175 to 180  C) with 
low oxygen (doesn't burn but essentially crystallizes).  This  can be done 
mechanically, or can be done by biology.  
 
If someone wants to develop a new term, for example "char", then a clear  
definition is required.  Conditions for production of that material need to  be 
defined.  
 
When people compost using woody materials, such as oak, pine, cedar,  
eucalyptus, or other wide C:N bark, heartwood or sapwood, with other materials  
(green plant material and high N containing material) on which the bacteria and  
fungi grow rapidly, use up oxygen, and generate high heat (above 170 C), then  
conditions are correct to produce charcoal.  
 
Compost is NOT sterile at 175 C.  Just because none of the  organisms growing 
at those temperatures will grow on any lab culture plate, does  not mean 
those organisms do not exist.  
 
But many conventional microbiology-based people make that  mistake.  There 
are a huge number of species and high numbers of  individuals at high 
temperatures.  Take a look at deep sea vents.   Check out the number of species in a ml 
of seawater, regardless of whether that  water is from deep ocean vents or 
from near-shore, or mid-depth.  
 
The reason that compost piles heat is through the heat released at the  
organisms grow.  No organisms, no heat in a compost pile.  If you  have heat, you 
have growing organisms.  
 
In Terre Pieta, there are a huge number of organisms.  Which is more  likely 
to be more important to the production of the fertility of this  soil?  
Charcoal, the charred organic matter, or the organisms? 
 
----------
 
If you have a material that is compacted, it often lacks  oxygen.  
Mycorrhizal fungi are strict aerobes, and cannot grow  when oxygen is lacking.  If 
material that structurally helps  oxygen move more easily into the material is 
added, the mycorrhizal fungi will  be seen to grow more readily as the conditions 
restricting their growth are  alleviated.  
 
Did the structural material supply carbon?  mineral  nutrients?  or allow 
oxygen to move into the material?  
 
What is the real explanation for the benefit of charcoal for mycorrhizal  
growth?
 
Elaine Ingham
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 9/13/2006 3:59:48 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
nosliwelad@YAHOO.COM writes:

Elaine,

> Charcoal addition, WITHOUT ANY organisms, nutrient,  or water
> addition with it, was what was being discussed.  If you  wish to
> add in other factors, along with the charcoal,  then the  
> discussion will be very different.

Part of the discussion is  the indeterminacy of the term "charcoal." 
This subject is already "very  different" because things other than pure
thermogenic carbon are present in  "char."

> If you want to add all the other things besides charcoal  that
> are in Terra Preta, i.e., if you want to add bacteria,  fungi,
> protozoa, nematodes, microarthropods, humus, fulvics,  proteins,
> sugars. etc then we aren't talking  about just charcoal  anymore.

That is part of the point of this discussion.  The "char"  being
discussed is a complex material.

> How long has it  been since "black earth" was anaerobic?  It
> does not has a  sickening, stinky smell to it as it has been
> described to me.  It  is not low in oxygen.  It is not hot.
> Terra Preta is not  charcoal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
"Because of their  elevated charcoal content, it is now widely accepted
that these soils are a  product of indigenous soil management involving
a labor intensive technique  termed slash-and-char. The technique is
differentiated from slash and burn  by a lower temperature burn and in
being a tool for soil improvement.  Amending soil with low temperature
charcoal produced from a mix of wood and  leafy biomass (termed
bio-char) has been observed to increase the activity  of arbuscular
mycorrhizal fungi."

> Recalcitrance of any organic  matter is relative, and I'll agree
> with Lutzow et all absolutely on  that statement.  If you have no
> fungi in the "mix", the wider C:N  materials are going to have a
> hard time breaking down.  If the  fungi that can use that wide
> C:N material are present, those  "recalcitrant" materials can
> disappear pretty quickly.

The  other part of this discussion, is the possibility that by  thermally
processing organic matter in the right way, it might be possible  to
very greatly increase the recalcitrance of the organic matter,  while
retaining soil-building value (beyond the value of ordinary  charcoal). 
This seems to be what happened to these Terra Preta  soils.  Thermal
processing might be a valuable way to make  microbiologically stable OM
amendments.

> If organic  matter has been sterilized, or does not contain the
> organisms capable  of breaking down the bonds in the material,
> then that material will  appear "recalcitrant".

We are not talking about sterile systems.   Sure, the biomass being
thermally processed would be rendered sterile, but  after you put it in
the soil it will be colonized by the native flora and  fauna.

> Restrict the information being considered to just  what I was
> talking about, and do NOT add in all sorts of other  things.
> Please don't muddy the conversation that was being  held.

Elaine, it it too late!  This was a murky, confusing, impure  thread
from it's inception.  I would urge you to keep an open  mind.  I don't
think this is mainly about "charcoal" in the usual  sense of the word.

Dale




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 South Africa, Polokwane, SA
Soil Foodweb Canada,  Vulcan, Alberta, Canada
Soil Foodweb United Kingdom, Laverstoke Park,  UK
Coming soon -a second lab in Canada, one in Kenya, and in  Japan!

********************************************************
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<DIV>Perhaps there was a thread was about Terre Pieta, but my specific comme=
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<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>Charcoal by definition is wood held at&nbsp;high temperature (175 to 18=
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<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>If someone wants to develop a new term, for example "char", then a clea=
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<DIV>When people compost using woody materials, such as oak, pine, cedar,=20
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<DIV>Compost is&nbsp;NOT&nbsp;sterile at 175 C.&nbsp; Just because none of t=
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<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>But many&nbsp;conventional microbiology-based people&nbsp;make that=20
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<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>The reason that compost piles heat&nbsp;is through the heat released at=
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<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>In Terre Pieta, there are a huge number of organisms.&nbsp; Which is mo=
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<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>----------</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>If you have a material that is compacted, it often&nbsp;lacks=20
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<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
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<DIV>Elaine Ingham</DIV>
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<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 9/13/2006 3:59:48 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,=20
nosliwelad@YAHOO.COM writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE=20
style=3D"PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><=
FONT=20
  style=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=3DArial color=3D#000000=20
  size=3D2>Elaine,<BR><BR>&gt; Charcoal addition, WITHOUT ANY organisms, nut=
rient,=20
  or water<BR>&gt; addition with it, was what was being discussed.&nbsp; If=20=
you=20
  wish to<BR>&gt; add in other factors, along with the charcoal,&nbsp; then=20=
the=20
  <BR>&gt; discussion will be very different.<BR><BR>Part of the discussion=20=
is=20
  the indeterminacy of the term "charcoal." <BR>This subject is already "ver=
y=20
  different" because things other than pure<BR>thermogenic carbon are presen=
t in=20
  "char."<BR><BR>&gt; If you want to add all the other things besides charco=
al=20
  that<BR>&gt; are in Terra Preta, i.e., if you want to add bacteria,=20
  fungi,<BR>&gt; protozoa, nematodes, microarthropods, humus, fulvics,=20
  proteins,<BR>&gt; sugars. etc then we aren't talking&nbsp; about just char=
coal=20
  anymore.<BR><BR>That is part of the point of this discussion.&nbsp; The "c=
har"=20
  being<BR>discussed is a complex material.<BR>&nbsp; <BR>&gt; How long has=20=
it=20
  been since "black earth" was anaerobic?&nbsp; It<BR>&gt; does not has a=20
  sickening, stinky smell to it as it has been<BR>&gt; described to me.&nbsp=
; It=20
  is not low in oxygen.&nbsp; It is not hot.<BR>&gt; Terra Preta is not=20
  charcoal.<BR><BR>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta<BR>"Because of t=
heir=20
  elevated charcoal content, it is now widely accepted<BR>that these soils a=
re a=20
  product of indigenous soil management involving<BR>a labor intensive techn=
ique=20
  termed slash-and-char. The technique is<BR>differentiated from slash and b=
urn=20
  by a lower temperature burn and in<BR>being a tool for soil improvement.=20
  Amending soil with low temperature<BR>charcoal produced from a mix of wood=
 and=20
  leafy biomass (termed<BR>bio-char) has been observed to increase the activ=
ity=20
  of arbuscular<BR>mycorrhizal fungi."<BR><BR>&gt; Recalcitrance of any orga=
nic=20
  matter is relative, and I'll agree<BR>&gt; with Lutzow et all absolutely o=
n=20
  that statement.&nbsp; If you have no<BR>&gt; fungi in the "mix", the wider=
 C:N=20
  materials are going to have a<BR>&gt; hard time breaking down.&nbsp; If th=
e=20
  fungi that can use that wide<BR>&gt; C:N material are present, those=20
  "recalcitrant" materials can<BR>&gt; disappear pretty quickly.<BR><BR>The=20
  other part of this discussion, is the possibility that by=20
  thermally<BR>processing organic matter in the right way, it might be possi=
ble=20
  to<BR>very greatly increase the recalcitrance of the organic matter,=20
  while<BR>retaining soil-building value (beyond the value of ordinary=20
  charcoal). <BR>This seems to be what happened to these Terra Preta=20
  soils.&nbsp; Thermal<BR>processing might be a valuable way to make=20
  microbiologically stable OM<BR>amendments.<BR>&nbsp; <BR>&gt; If organic=20
  matter has been sterilized, or does not contain the<BR>&gt; organisms capa=
ble=20
  of breaking down the bonds in the material,<BR>&gt; then that material wil=
l=20
  appear "recalcitrant".<BR><BR>We are not talking about sterile systems.&nb=
sp;=20
  Sure, the biomass being<BR>thermally processed would be rendered sterile,=20=
but=20
  after you put it in<BR>the soil it will be colonized by the native flora a=
nd=20
  fauna.<BR>&nbsp; <BR>&gt; Restrict the information being considered to jus=
t=20
  what I was<BR>&gt; talking about, and do NOT add in all sorts of other=20
  things.<BR>&gt; Please don't muddy the conversation that was being=20
  held.<BR><BR>Elaine, it it too late!&nbsp; This was a murky, confusing, im=
pure=20
  thread<BR>from it's inception.&nbsp; I would urge you to keep an open=20
  mind.&nbsp; I don't<BR>think this is mainly about "charcoal" in the usual=20
  sense of the word.<BR><BR>Dale<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=3D0 face=3DArial size=3D2 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" PTSIZE=3D"10"=
>Elaine R.=20
Ingham<BR>Soil Foodweb Inc., Corvallis, Oregon<BR>Soil Foodweb Inc., Port=20
Jefferson, New York<BR>Soil Foodweb Institute, Lismore Australia<BR>Soil Foo=
dweb=20
Institute Cambridge, New Zealand<BR>Laboratorios de Soil Foodweb, Culiacan,=20
Mexico<BR>Soil Foodweb South Africa, Polokwane, SA<BR>Soil Foodweb Canada,=20
Vulcan, Alberta, Canada<BR>Soil Foodweb United Kingdom, Laverstoke Park,=20
UK<BR>Coming soon -a second lab in Canada, one in Kenya, and in=20
Japan!</FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>
<div class=3DSection1>

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From: Ann-Marie Fortuna <ann-marie.fortuna@MAINE.EDU>
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Testing a product that reduces irrigation requirements
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Dear Nicola,

I would mot be able to test your product but would like to know what =20
is in it. Actinomycetes?

Thanks,

Ann-Marie


Quoting Frank Schultz <wb5ayy@AIRCANOPY.NET>:

> Dear Nicola,
>
> Yes, I would be interested.  Farm about 15 acres and pasture about  =20
> eight acres.  Am converting to organic.
>
> Am located in Red Oak (Ellis County), Texas.  Received less than 19" =20
>  rain last year and less than 17" rain this year.
>
> Is this the sort of situation you have in mind?
>
> Frank Schultz
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Nicola Kinsella Melvin
>   To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
>   Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 12:07 PM
>   Subject: [SANET-MG] Testing a product that reduces irrigation requiremen=
ts
>
>
>   Hello,
>   I'm in the process of organizing tests of an organic product,  =20
> developed in Norway, designed to reduce the irrigation required to  =20
> grow crops by about 50%. The tests I'm organizing are going to be  =20
> conducted in Australia next growing season (planting will be  =20
> August-September 2007).
>
>   I don't work for the company that has developed it, I'm just  =20
> curious about bringing the technology into Australia (assuming it  =20
> works as well there as it has in their African tests) due to the  =20
> constant water shortages there.
>
>   A company representative is going to be the US in late  =20
> October/early November, and I know they are looking to conduct tests =20
>  here, and I was wondering if there was anyone on the list from some =20
>  of the drier states (CA, TX, ???) who would be interested in (and  =20
> set up to conduct) testing. The product has to be applied in liquid  =20
> form, so someone who is used to applying liquid based fertilizers  =20
> would probably be preferable.
>
>   If so, please let me know.
>
>   Regards,
>   Nicola
>
>   &NBSP;
>
>   *****************************************************
>
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Subject: [permaculture] Propagating Effective Microorganisms (bokashi)
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http://www.cityfarmer.org/bokashi.html

As kind of an addendum to our article on making your own mycorrhizal 
tree inoculum in the last issue of the Activist, is this story about 
propagating EM.
Keith

-- 
Keith Johnson
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 5516, Bloomington, IN 47408
(812) 335-0383
http://www.permacultureactivist.net
also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
also Association for Regenerative Culture
also APPLE-Bloomington (Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy) It's a small world after oil.
http://www.relocalize.net/groups/applebloomington
also Bloomington Permaculture Guild



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>> ... mixing compost with rock dust will help prevent leaching of
>> the nutrients in the compost. Micronutrients in the dust will
>> nourish the bacteria and fungi in the compost creating new
>> nutrient cycling, tieing up some NPK in the compost by those
>> microorganisms which then release them to your trees while
>> significantly enriching your soil mix with substances (chitin)
>> that contribute to tilth and water and nutrient holding capacity.

>> That alone should increase total nutrient availability to your
>> trees. I would use 50/50 rockdust/compost...

>> Have you considered applying enhanced compost tea? ...

> I prefer the addition of a generous amount of compost each year,
> as I am primarily interested in the constant build-up of organic
> and humic matter at the base of the trees, and its interaction
> with the soil.

The primary function of compost tea is not to enhance the soil's
fertility but rather, to increase the presence, activity and
diversity of soil microorganisms that generate growth stimulating
phyto-hormones and substances with antibiotic activity against
pathogens.

IOW: Although soil organisms are also responsible for capturing and
facilitating the assimilation of nutrients by plants, compost tea is
used as a means to provide resistance to pests and disease to a
greater extent than compost, since it adheres to the plant's foliage
- something compost doesn't do.

One is mainly directed toward soil improvement, the other toward
crop protection.

...

> I live in Israel, ... It would probably be cheaper for you to get
> your Barhis from the west coast (they grow them there, right?).

Not on the coast, in the desert - the Imperial and Cochella Valleys,
and the Sonora Desert.

> Anyhow, if anyone on the list is interested in this kind of
> bartering, we grow medjool, deglet-noor, barhi and zahidi
> varieties.

What's your soil like? Zahidi's tend to do better than Deglet's in
heavier soils, while Deglet's do better in powdery ones.

-- 

Douglas

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> couldn't u add a good compost tea to the compost and get the best
> of both worlds?

One goes into the soil, the other coats the plant.

> this may also give the life in the tea something to eat while
> waiting for something to grow. Life needs life and putting out
> compost tea with a food supply sound like a good idea to me to me
> unless there is lots of food for that life growing now.

The tea concentrates the quantity and extends the application of the
microorganisms responsible for the biological foundations of
agriculture - in itself, an organism based activity. The products
discussed are simply two different applications of that.

So while I agree that both applications are complementary, what you
suggest prevents one of them from fulfilling it's function.

As Elaine has often said, much remains to be learned about the
multiple benefits provided by soil microorganisms.

Nine years ago I purchased a copy of "Investigaciones Hoy", a
magazine published by Mexico's Instituto Politecnico Nacional
(IPN), which contained an article describing seven fungi and six
bacteria that produce Auxins, Giberelines, Cytokinins, Abscisic Acid
and Ethylenes (all of which are considered phyto-hormones, as well
as the actions of each on plants. (I am translating from the Spanish
forms of these words so some may be misspelled in English).

That same year I searched through bio-medical databases for
additional information on some of these organisms and was pleased to
confirm that substances with antibiotic activity against pathogens
are also produced (not surprising, considering that antibiotics were
developed from soil microorganisms), by at least some of those
organisms mentioned in the IPN article.

So if you want to inoculate a plants roots against pathogens that
attack those roots, adding compost tea containing the appropriate
beneficial microorganisms to the soil around those roots might be
wise. But that would be less helpful if you're trying to prevent the
infestation or infection of other tissues.

> Like at my place there is lots for the life in the compost tea to
> feast on but maybe some places might benefit with the tea and its
> food put out at the same time. just a thought

Don't stop thinking. (I know you won't).

As I understand it, compost tea rapidly concentrates and permits the
application of the same microorganisms found in the compost you make
it from to the rest of the plant.

In order to determine your best course of action, you need to know
what you should be guarding against. If your present regimen has
been sufficient with respect to disease prevention, maybe you don't
need to apply compost tea.

Elaine promotes the need for performing a kind of soil analysis
that's not readily available. She's doing that in her Oregon lab
(north of your location), but whether you want or need to go that
route is another matter. It *would* tell you what you have in your
soil, microbiologically speaking.

In addition to knowing what your potential pathogens are and which
tissues they attack, knowing which microorganisms are likely to be
effective against them and how to make sure they are present in your
soil and on your plant -if that's where you need them- would be
helpful.

Is this kind of information even available? Maybe some of sanet's
academics can answer that.

As things stand, a generalized belief in the power of the diversity,
presence and activity of the kind of microorganisms you obtain by
brewing aerobic compost tea to stimulate growth and prevent disease
is probably driving most of those using it.

The question is: Is that enough? Or should we know more?

If so: Why is so much funding channeled toward a research agenda
that focuses on reinventing (subverting, actually) an evolutionary
path that took millions of years to create?

Why are aren't the issues mentioned above being addressed instead?

Are we going to study, understand and work *with* natural biological
systems or continue to labor in bad faith - against the systems that
gave rise to ourselves and life on earth as we know it?

Or is that message too hard to package and sell?

-- 

Douglas

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As I understand the issue:

What basic model should guide us when analyzing Soil, Plants and/or Fruit?
Productivity, Health, Quality, Content and Performance are factors
that all come into play at the plant, crop, farmer and consumer
levels.

The soil is an environment that (like all environments), sustains
living organisms of a given type and depends on a number of
biological processes; and the same can be said about the conditions
present above ground.

The right combination of questions and answers can help lead a
farmer to sustainability; the wrong combination is inconclusive.
Determining which factors are significant depends on one's goals,
and those will vary. For instance:

Potassium is a key determinant for brix production in pineapple, a
crop which requires a minimum brix level in order to maintain it's
quality. However, brix is not a positive goal in avocados, oil
content is; and avocado oil content depends on the variety and the
rate of growth, which is affected by temperature.

I can't compare the importance and effects of K metabolism in
pineapple and avocados at the moment. The point is: THE FOCUS AND
IMPORTANCE OF OBTAINABLE ANALYTICAL DATA IS CROP DEPENDENT:

What you need in the soil depends on the needs of the plant - and
the truth of that goes beyond the nutritional needs of the each crop.

We have already mentioned the importance of knowing which pests and
diseases are likely to appear in particular crops in your area
during the growing season in which you intend to cultivate your
crops.

We have also mentioned the importance of maintaining a soil
environment containing a healthy balance of beneficial soil
microorganisms, as a means of protecting against soil pathogens.

(Is anyone here testing for that)?

So rather than supply an all encompassing answer, I am pointing to
a good place to start.

Are databases containing this kind of information* readily available?

*
The nutritional needs of specific crops under defined climatic
conditions;

Biological and mineral sources of specific plant nutrients;

The metabological role played by each nutrient in each plant,

The pests and diseases common to specific crops;

The substances produced by each soil microorganism and the activity
of each;

The set of conditions required for the optimum production
of each substance;

The target pest of each predator, parasite and pathogen and the
sources of same; etc.

Without that type of information, what are you analyzing for and
what good will the results of your analysis give you? Am I the only
one here that believes this is important)?

> Conclusions

> Results compiled during this rigorous two-year empirical study of
> eight San Joaquin Valley vineyards (including five organic
> operations) provide no consistent support for the alleged
> predictive Brix / leafhopper relationship as it has been widely
> promoted in recent years. ...

> "Plants with high (a Brix reading above 12) sugar content also
> have good 'immune systems."' ...

Less than 12 Brix is inadequate for pineapple and the varieties that
currently dominate the U.S. market require much more.

-- 

Douglas

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John D'hondt wrote:

> so far my own spuds, mixture of many varieties, are healthy enough
> where it seems that many professional growers in Ireland are
> plowing their blighted crops under at this moment in one of the
> most blight prone years seen for a long time. Seems that gallons
> of Dithane did not save them.

This is what the dowagro.com website says about it's specialty
fungicide dithane:

  Attention: This product contains mancozeb and ETU, chemicals known
  to the state of California to cause cancer. ETU is also known to
  the state of California to cause birth defects or other
  reproductive harm.

Non-selective, cancer causing fungicides are not the answer.
The future of agriculture requires a different mentality.

Where fungal blight is a problem, try inoculating seed potatoes with
Pitholithus Tintorius, a beneficial fungus known to promote plant
growth and produce substances with antibiotic activity against
pathological fungi.

-- 

Douglas

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Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] BBC NEWS | UK | England | Tyne/Wear | Researchers hail organic potatoes
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          souyang@tigr.org
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Katherine Marsh wrote from Ireland:

> Sarpo Axona has just started to go down with blight here in north
> Dublin, Sarpo Mira is still clear, as is Symfonia. Lady Eve
> Balfour survived to this week but showed the first signs of blight
> three days ago. I've taken the individual damaged leaves off and I
> think it will keep growing and make a worthwhile crop. Across the
> road sixty acres of Rooster which have been sprayed with Dithane
> at many times the legal limit are being ploughed in today.

Does history have to repeat itself? Phytophthora attacks the roots
of the pineapple plant and substances produced by the beneficial
fungus Pisolithus Tinctorius are specifically active against it.

This is good re Phytophthora infestans:
<http://www.tigr.org/tdb/e2k1/pima1/index.shtml>
(My comments are interspaced 2 spaces to the left)

  Late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans is a devastating
  disease of potato and tomato in the U.S. and worldwide. Epidemics
  due to P. infestans in 1845 led to the Irish potato famine and the
  mass migration and death of millions of people in Ireland. Late
  blight is now considered a re-emerging disease and has reached
  epidemic proportions in North America and Europe due to the
  development of resistance to the fungicide metalaxyl in
  populations of the pathogen and the widespread occurrence of new
  genotypes.

Fungicides can't change their actions but beneficial organisms can
continue to adapt to any changes the pathogen develops.

  The pathogen causes a destructive foliar blight and
  also infects potato tubers and tomato fruit under cool, moist
  conditions.

That's where a compost tea containing P. Tintorius would fit in.
  
  ... P. infestans was ranked number two by the American
  Phytopathological Society on the list of plant pathogen species
  targeted for DNA sequencing and whole genome sequencing is now
  underway at the Whitehead Institute at MIT. There is a large
  database of genetic information available on P. infestans
  including a genetic linkage map and expressed sequence tag (EST)
  libraries and genetic systems are tractable.

They are attempting to study this pathogen in a vacuum. Studying
it's interactions with other organisms would be much more useful.

  In addition, the Phytophthora research community holds regular
  meetings and exchanges information freely and has formed the
  Phytophthora Molecular Genetic Network whose goal is to facilitate
  the exchange of information and resources related to Phytophthora
  molecular genetics.

Are they looking for the factors that make it a pathogen?
  
  ... One tool that would be of use to scientists and growers would
  be the ability to rapidly genotype isolates of the pathogen.
  Haplotypes could be correlated with virulence

They are.

  and resistance to pesticides

But why limit remediation to chemical solutions that ignore the
causative factors and fail to deal with them? Instead of modifying
the environment in positive ways, this approach worsens
environmental quality and weakens it's equilibrium, diminishing the
presence, activity and diversity of the soil microorganisms
responsible for soil organisms are also responsible for capturing
and facilitating the assimilation of nutrients by plants, as well as
growth-stimulating phyto-hormones and substances with anti-biotic
activity against pathogens.

  and used in epidemiological studies
  
  In addition, whole mitochondrial genome sequence analysis will be
  useful in studies to examine molecular evolution in the pathogen.

It would be more useful if it's interactions with other species were
taken into account, also.

...

  Project Members

  # Jean Beagle Ristaino, Professor, Plant Pathology, N. C. State Univ., Jean_Ristaino@ncsu.edu
  # C. Robin Buell, Associate Investigator, The Institute for Genomic Research, rbuell@tigr.org
  # Luis Alpizar Gomez, Graduate assistant, NCSU, legomez@unity.ncsu.edu
  # Shu Ouyang, Bioinformatics Analyst, TIGR, souyang@tigr.org

I am sending a copy of this to each of them.

-- 

Douglas Hinds
Coordinador Nacional de Producción Organica
Confederacion Nacional de Propietarios Rurales

Chair, Organic Pineapple Working Group
International Society for Horticultural Science
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/opwg

Dir. Gral.
Centro para el Desarrollo Comunitario y Rural, A.C.

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Jean Ristaino wrote:

> I am reading your comments and am wondering where you are going
> with this.

Toward biocontrol of Phytophthora using the beneficial fungus
Pisolithus Tinctorius, which produces substances with antibiotic
activity contra Phytophthora, according to sources I found in
Medline (if I recall - I was using Uncover, I believe), a biomedical
database, in 1998. (I don't have the details on this computer).

> Who is Katherine Marsh?

Both Katherine Marsh and I have subscribed to the Sustainable
Agriculture Network Discussion Group (SANET) for many years.
SANET is funded by SARE and has about 1000 subscribers, including
many academics. Dr. Joel Gruver (who was at NCSU if I recall), also
subscribes, for instance.

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I don't remember exactly what Katherine does, but both she and John
D hondt (also in Ireland) mentioned that potato blight has been
particularly destructive there this year, particularly to those
fields cultivated relying on chemical inputs rather than biological
processes.

> Who are you and what are your interests in the disease?

I am Coordinador Nacional de Producción Organica
Confederacion Nacional de Propietarios Rurales

I also Chair the Organic Pineapple Working Group of the
International Society for Horticultural Science
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/opwg

and am Director General of the
Centro para el Desarrollo Comunitario y Rural, A.C.
located in Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico

My interest in Phytophthora stems from the fact that it attacks the
roots of the pineapple plant.

Although the INIFAP (Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones
Forestales y Agropecuarios - the research arm of Mexico's Agriculture
Secretariat), recommends dipping the roots of pineapple transplants
in fungicide, inoculating their roots with Pisolithus Tintorius
would be a more selective and therefore more appropriate solution,
as well as one that is less likely to create resistance.

> I wrote a proposal a few years back to look at alternatives to
> pesticides for late blight control and was not funded. I have
> interests in this area - but no funding yet.

Your proposal sounds good to me - I hope the sources you solicited
funds from realize soon that your proposal was sound and merits
their support.

Be sure and check out the SARE site for additional sources of
funding.

Thank you for your response.

Douglas Hinds

---------

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Hi Sals and others interested in Pisolithus Tinctorius.The comments on 
the fungus for Phytopthora control were very interesting. I found that   
fungus is an Ectomycorrhizal Fungus, one that inhabits the roots of 
plants as a symbiont. The fruiting structure of the fungus has given the 
fungus the name "dog turd" because of its appearance not smell. A good 
deal of work is published on controlling Phytopthora in Eucalyptus  but 
not much on potato. I am not sure why the potato is underrepresented in 
use of Pisolithus Tinctorius, potato. Of course finding the fruiting 
bodies of the fungus on the store produce display might be one reason 
the fungus is shunned but another reason may be the fact that the fungus 
is very allergenic. I have enclosed a couple of abstracts below. 
Sincerely, joe cummins
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/jun2003.html
Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month for June 2003

This month's fungus is Pisolithus tinctorius, the "dog turd" fungus, 
also known in more polite company as the dyemaker's puffball. This 
fungus is not growing directly on the feces, but is mycorrhizal with the 
roots of nearby trees. i.e. it forms a mutualistic association with the 
roots of trees. I am guessing there are oaks or conifers like pine or 
spruce nearby. I am guessing that the wolf feces are providing some 
extra nutrients to the fungus and allowing it to fruit in that area. The 
added water from the runoff is also making the fungus fruit in that area.

 Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo. 1997 Sep-Oct;39(5):245-52.Links
    Evaluation of the allergenicity of spore and mycelia extracts of 
Pisolithus tinctorius.
    Chavasco JK, Gambale W, de Siqueira AM, Fiorini JE, Portocarrero MC, 
Mendes Júnior LG, do Nascimento LC.

    Escola de Farmácia e Odontologia de Alfenas (EFOA), Brazil.

    The antigenic and allergenic chemical analysis of spore and mycelia 
extracts of Pisolithus tinctorius was carried out. The spores were 
collected from basidiocarps in plantations of Eucalyptus spp and the 
mycelia from culture in MNM medium. With basis on the fungus growth 
curve, the mycelia masses were obtained after 10, 20, 30, and 40 days of 
incubation, which correspond, respectively, to the beginning, middle and 
end of the log phase, and beginning of the decline phase. The mycelia 
masses, together with the spores, were submitted to the action of three 
extractors (Coca, Tris-HCl, and ammonium bicarbonate). The contents of 
carbohydrates and proteins were determined. The SDS-PAGE 
electrophoretical analysis revealed separate fractions in these 
extracts, besides common fractions, in function of cultivation time and 
extraction methods. The selected extracts for the allergic tests were 
the ones with the highest number of fractions. The prick-tests were 
conducted in 374 patients--rural workers, eucalyptus plantation workers, 
and college students. The positivity to the "prick test" with the 
antigenic extract of P. tinctorius was, respectively, 3.78%, 28.20% and 
6.40%. Most prick-test positive patients (82.75%) also presented 
symptoms of respiratory allergy (asthma and rhinitis). There was no 
reactivity difference when the spore and mycelia extracts were employed. 
The analysis of the positive patients' sera revealed the presence of IgE 
specific to the P. tinctorius antigens. Since Pisolithus tinctorius is 
found as mycorrhiza of Eucalyptus spp, and this plant is used in 
reforestation in most countries, the importance of that fungus should be 
regarded as a possible cause of respiratory allergies, especially in 
occupationally exposed workers.



    <http://www.nifg.org.uk/ecto.htm>

sals wrote:
>> Toward biocontrol of Phytophthora using the beneficial fungus
>> Pisolithus Tinctorius, which produces substances with antibiotic
>> activity contra Phytophthora, according to sources I found in
>> Medline (if I recall - I was using Uncover, I believe), a biomedical
>> database, in 1998. (I don't have the details on this computer).
>>
> where do you buy your beneficial fungus and any other life forms your 
> raising when you make the tea what do you feed while brewing.  what 
> all goes into the tea?
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After being asked where I was going, I said:

>> Toward biocontrol of Phytophthora using the beneficial fungus
>> Pisolithus Tinctorius, which produces substances with antibiotic
>> activity contra Phytophthora, according to sources I found in
>> Medline (if I recall - I was using Uncover, I believe), a
>> biomedical database, in 1998. (I don't have the details on this
>> computer).

Sal then asked:

> where do you buy your beneficial fungus and any other life forms
> your raising when you make the tea

Pisolithus Tintorius can be obtained from: Plant Health Care, Inc.,
Pittsburgh, PA <www.planthealthcare.com/> (They sell: MycorTree PT
Spore Spray)

There may be other sources available.

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/jun2003.html
  Pisolithus tinctorius is a mycorrhizal fungus, which means that it
  gets its nutrition in a mutualistic association with the roots of
  trees, mostly with conifers, but sometimes oaks. Remember that in a
  mycorrhizal association such as this, both partners benefit. This
  fungus is very useful in reclamation and reforestation of disturbed
  and poor soils, such as strip mines. It can survive low pH (high
  acidity), high concentrations of heavy metals, and high soil
  temperatures in the summer, along with the accompanying drought. It
  is also useful in the restrictive environment of nurseries. It seems
  to be a "super-mycorrhiza," and inoculum of "P.t." in the form of
  spores can be commercially purchased. So even in the "world's
  ugliest fungus" there is still some good.

> what do you feed while brewing.

> what all goes into the tea?

I haven't got that far yet.

-- 

Douglas

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 hail organic potatoes
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Douglas Hinds wrote:

>>>Toward biocontrol of Phytophthora using the beneficial fungus
>>>Pisolithus Tinctorius, which produces substances with antibiotic
>>>activity contra Phytophthora, according to sources I found in
>>>Medline (if I recall - I was using Uncover, I believe), a
>>>biomedical database, in 1998. (I don't have the details on this
>>>computer).

> Sal then asked:
>>where do you buy your beneficial fungus and any other life forms
>>your raising when you make the tea

> Pisolithus Tintorius can be obtained from: Plant Health Care, Inc.,
> Pittsburgh, PA <www.planthealthcare.com/> (They sell: MycorTree PT
> Spore Spray)

> There may be other sources available.

> http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/jun2003.html
>   Pisolithus tinctorius is a mycorrhizal fungus, which means that it
>   gets its nutrition in a mutualistic association with the roots of
>   trees, mostly with conifers, but sometimes oaks. Remember that in a
>   mycorrhizal association such as this, both partners benefit. This
>   fungus is very useful in reclamation and reforestation of disturbed
>   and poor soils, such as strip mines. It can survive low pH (high
>   acidity), high concentrations of heavy metals, and high soil
>   temperatures in the summer, along with the accompanying drought. It
>   is also useful in the restrictive environment of nurseries. It seems
>   to be a "super-mycorrhiza," and inoculum of "P.t." in the form of
>   spores can be commercially purchased. So even in the "world's
>   ugliest fungus" there is still some good.

>>what do you feed while brewing.

>>what all goes into the tea?

> I haven't got that far yet.

When used with potatoes how is Pisolithus Tinctorius applied? to the seed potatoes before planting? segmented or whole? 
after planting? Is Pisolithus Tinctorius best applied 1)alone, i.e. according to manufacturer's directions? or 2)in 
compost tea? If 2) how/when is it added to the tea? What compost tea ingredients would be beneficial a)to Pisolithus 
Tinctorius and/or b)in combination with Pisolithus Tinctorius, to plants the tea is applied to. What compost tea 
ingredients would be harmful to, or not beneficial to, Pisolithus Tinctorius?

LL
-- 
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
Venaura Farm
lflj@bellsouth.net.net
http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/market-farming

