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[compost_tea] Re: microbial food



Hi all-just to repeat, I'm not adding baking soda as a fungicide.

The hydrolyzed fish comes at a pH of 3.4, which is not optimal for 
absorption thru the foliage, nor perhaps the best for feeding the 
microbes around the plant.  To bring it up to around pH 6, I would 
like to add something alkaline to the fish before mixing it in with 
the rest of the foods and water for foliar feeding.

  Doesn't have to be baking soda, but BS (Tom, did you come up with 
that shorthand?!) does minimize the precipitating of the phosphate 
from the phosphoric acid used to "pickle" the fish.  Compared to say 
some calcium (lime, etc) compound.

Wouldn't need much, since this is getting diluted for foliar and root 
feeding to 1:100, not much Na+ being added.  Plus in my area this
will 
be leached quickly, more problematic in a dry area...

If somebody else has a better "neutralizer" love to hear it.  

Or do you think the acid fish is okay to use as it comes?  I would 
especially worry if any humic was added to the same tank of "foods" 
since they start to come out of solution at pH 6 and lower.

Glen

--- In compost_tea@yahoogroups.com, "Steve Bridges" <kimas@t...> 
wrote:
> Baking soda, one heaping teaspoon to a gallon of water makes an 
excellent foliar spray for powdery mildew.  As a retail nurserymen I 
could sell them something but I find it better to be helpful rather 
than greedy. Keep it simple, affordable, and simply effective. Don't 
know the effect on the microbes, and if I were using AACT then the 
baking soda would not be needed? But I'm still not going to sell my 
customers a $5 gallon of compost tea when they can use a nickels
worth 
of baking soda.
> Steve Bridges
> Kimas Tejas Nursery
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Jeff Lowenfels 
>   To: compost_tea@yahoogroups.com 
>   Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 11:17 AM
>   Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: microbial food
> 
> 
>   Baking soda?  What impact on the microbes?
> 
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