I greatly respect your comments, Tim, thanks. I'm interested in this
comment: "My experience is based on,1/ evaluating that a compost tea is
finished by observing that there are more than 1000 mobile bacteria/archaea
per 20X field of view and 5 or more protozoa (usually flagellates) per 20X
field of view (additionally fungal hyphae observed but not salient in this
case) 2/ adding fish hydrolysate at 0.4% 3/ then re-evaluting to see an
approximate 40% loss of bacterial/archaeal and flagellate activity."
Where does this baseline come from, if you don't mind me asking? Why more
than 1000 bacteria and 5 protozoa based on the respective view? I'm in no
way saying it is not relevant, simply curious how you came to these
conclusions if it is other than by observation of what works for you?
Can you also define further what you are describing in regards to the
nutrient loop versus specific microbes? I couldn't agree more of the
relevance of the nutrient loop irregardless of the microbe involved in
regards to its worth. But anytime we get into a microbiological discussion
there is a grey area. For instance, while all the poo may be beneficial,
some may be more beneficial than others, such as in the form of N for the
plant being grown, or any other example one could come up with. For
instance, on a macro scale cow manure is FAR more beneficial than horse
manure. If you compost a ton of cow manure you get a ton of compost. If you
do the same with horse manure you lose half the volume. This is because the
cow has four stomachs and results in a greater digestive ability, one reason
it is used in the BioDynamic method.
It seems to me the future is in establishing baselines for biological health
in soil, then connecting existing biological deficiencies with what food
sources grow those microbes. All of this would be connected with plant
performance. I would argue that any culture created in a lab lacks ability
and strength relative to compost or farm raised microbiota. Granted, you can
accomplish more consistent and higher concentrations of microbes grown in
petri dishes, but it's the equivalent of spoiling your children. If you
provide everything for them they will not necessarily be accomplished
adults. They lack "life experience". For instance, one of the hallmarks of
the BioDynamic method is that the compost heaps are not turned. The
organisms are forced to operate aerobically and also via fermentation,
giving them more life experience. You want them to struggle a bit, more
strength and arguably greater diversity is accomplished in this manner. We
are working on ways to quantify this, but is simply based on our field
trials and subjective experience. Further, much of the material sold as
"compost" is simply mulch that has been oxidized by steaming and turning
every hour. Gives it a bad name.
This also touches on a point that I think is underexperimented on in the
compost tea world. No doubt, one of the major benefits is the fact that the
solution is alive. But as we all know, it is a perfect plant food as well,
as Nature intended. As I have mentioned, we encourage retail stores and
nurseries to brew perpetually with our Vortex Brewers. Our approach is not
necessarily to create a perfectly replicable tea, but to ensure that stores
can hand their customers a living solution (something they cannot buy from a
shelf) and reduce the maintenance of the unit in the store. We're not going
to ask you to bottle it, buy a refrigerator, organize a pick up day, and
hope people show up. One of the things that I'm sure is well covered in this
listserve is the predominance of protozoa and ciliates as the brew matures.
This remains true even with the addition of more food, biology, and catalyst
going forward. I don't find many people that claim this is a negative, but
most are focused on bacteria and fungi. Humus, or plant food, is the guts of
microbes created by the shredders. In one way of looking at it, the more
higher organisms you have (shredders) the more plant food is obtained. This
is extremely important for short cycle plants and people growing indoors or
in containers who are not trying to establish a soil food web in their soil
or soilless mix. The living organisms are simply gravy. It would be
interesting to compare compost tea on cloned plants that were fed over the
lifetime of a perpetual brew. Some plants would receive 12-24hr old tea,
others would receive the 24-26 hour tea, etc. with defined parameters for
adding more inputs. We have outlined this experiment and intend on
conducting it in the near future. my hypothesis would be that the more
mature tea would produce the greatest results in growing plants simply from
the fact that there was more plant food available.
I flesh this out to exhibit the fact that compost tea can be created for
many different reasons from many different angles. I truly appreciate the
insight on this list in regards to working towards a more standard baseline
to garner significance out of our efforts. I'm one to say that we may never
get there, but it sure is fun trying. J
Be a farmer, start a garden.
Evan Folds
Progress Earth
6005 Oleander Dr
Wilmington, NC 28403
910-777-5372 ext # 1
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Received on Wed Apr 20 2011 - 18:30:25 EDT