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Re: [compost_tea] Root Zone Injection



This is an interesting topic (I hope! :)). The idea is to get at some of those root diseases, obviously, but I am not sure this is the right way. You have to think about the critters in the tea more.
 
If you inject a fungal tea to try and get beneficial fungal into the soil foodweb, for example, and kill the fungi in so doing, then you have fungi foods that the bad fungi can use.  Very tricky. I would think you would want to make some holes and pour tea in as in after aeration. And once they survive is the tree going to be putting out enough exudates for the beneificals to survive (actually Shigo suggests a dying tree might!) Anyhow, what are those fungi going to eat down there?
 
I am pretty sure you will get better results with  aeration, perhaps followed by  an application of some gentle microbe food like soy bean meal followed by some good fungal compost tea with mycorrhizal and then an application of two inches of fungal compost/humus topped off by the tree's own leaf.
 
This way you get to control what is going on. You know the critters in your tea are fine. No guesses and you get the microarthropods and worms in the act so you get nutrient cycling...in this case ammonium, the kind your tree needs. There is stuff for everyone to eat and the mulch helps buffer the moisture flow from the soil to the atmosphere.
 
And, I will go one step further, though you may laugh.....depending on the size of the diameter around the tree you need to treat, you might want sprinkle baby oatmeal on the ground before you apply compost and mulch. You will get great fungi if your compost has good fungi!
 
Jeff
 
 

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