Elaine et al,
Is there a collection
of field test data on the various controls of CT? Any test with controls
to show control of one pathogen or another? I'm as interested in the work
that's been done and the procedure as well as the results. Method,
replication, etc will help me explain what scientific work has been completed
and give me insight has to successful and unsuccessful avenues. The
scientific community, even those who don't have all the answers for their focus,
is quick to marginalize the work completed and potential of CT research and
use. I love information, knowledge and debate but not cynicism and
negativity. I have found the best way to deal with the latter is to have
current trends and data along with the admission that this is (to quote a
commercial) emerging science. Thanks for any insights.
Bill Garlette
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 2:14
AM
Subject: RE: [compost_tea] Re: Tea and
EPA regulations
A fungicide is a chemical that kills a fungus using a
specific mode of killing action, such as solubilizing the cell membrane, or
interfering with cell elongation, or disrupting a metabolic function.
Compost tea does not function in these ways. Or at least we do
not have any evidence that tea has these modes of function.
Compost tea
results in protection of the leaf surface by using the food resources
that the mildew would otherwise have and be able to grow on (the beneficial
fungi in the tea use the foods; the beneficials are better adapted to use the
foods than midlew under the conditions on the leaf surfaces, specifically good
aeration, specific foods made by the plant to select for the beneficials and
not the mildew).
Another mechanism is that the leaf or root surface is
now covered by rapidly growing fungi and bacteria which prevent the disease
fungus from getting to the leaf surface. All the infection sites are
occupied by the beneficials, so there is no way the disease can get to the
plant cells.
Protozoa and nematodes consume disease-causing
fungi. If the EPA wants to make us register this interaction, then they
will have to register cats as biocides to control mice. Predation is
generally considered a physical control method, and not something that is
under EPA jurisdication. We are not growing ONE specific species to
CONTROL a different species, unlike people a biological pesticide.
Antibiotics may be produced in tea, but there is no evidence that this
is a mechanism by which tea works. So no one should use that as a
potential mechanism by which tea performs it's function.
There is nothing toxic about tea.
There is a great of
protection, competition, competitive exclusion, and consumption. But no
specific one-on-one control.
Compost tea is not a
fungicide. DO NOT MAKE ANY CLAIMS THAT IT IS.
-- 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 www.soilfoodweb.com
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