[compost_tea] Re: What I think is important

From: B Blake <bbdallas100_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:05:36 -0000

Thanks for that Wormgold info Matt. It was real juicy.
Getting to this Post I was studying the Daily (or whenever)
Post Digests long before actually joining the Group.

Can you imagine if ALL the Posts from 2002 on were a FREE Book :-)
Was fortunate to be able to talk with a few old Poster's from the
past including a real favorite of mine.
We laughed when I said that I appreciated all the microbes and all they cou=
ld do but after shooting the shotgun
(the shotgun approach where there may be hundreds, thousands
(or more) of species that you don't even know their names)
I really didn't care.
He laughed and said "we really don't care either."

In other words we were both looking for more that what the few microbes tha=
t would survive may or may not do on the leaves
and/or in the soil. Nothing against it. That's nice, that's nice
AND that's nice too. BUT is that all there is?

There is a whole lot to learn from examining machines and techniques
from the past and trying to understand what really went down. Something you=
 think is brand new may actually have already been
tried out by remarkable extremely qualified people
and became Lost "Secrets of the Ancients" :-)

It's not new to think about what effect the 'Tea Broth Nutrients'
have on the plant leaves and plant roots. After the microbes do their trans=
formation of nutrients routine their usefulness is DONE
in some scenarios.

Any microbe stew just for the sake of the microbes themselves would be a se=
parate Tea
that could continue with the hours of testing dogma loved so much.

The Compost Tea 'Feeding Machines' operating in the Trillions
would care less about the multi-million dollar testing sensation and would =
be testing the machines effectiveness (IN HOUSE) on the Plants themselves w=
ith never ending waves of possibilities.
Like Bobby was talking about with actual food.

As it turns out after a tremendous amount of digging this
'feeding strategy' was just getting rolling at the PhD level until
a death came.
Then it slipped through the cracks until now.

It may be time to break up the routine and have more than one single compet=
ition if and when there is that level of comradely again.
Look at the Post numbers in 2004 compared to 2011.
It's time to shake this badboy up.
It's coming.
Old dudes move cool and slow plus like a little warmer weather :-)

While I'm talking about the Ph D's they started inventing some interesting =
test machines around 2003. You hear things about
fantastic breakthroughs coming but it's never from the shotgun.
9 out of 10 times it's individual bacteria being isolated
and/or manipulated.
A Plant Spray that jacks up growth by around 40%?


Bill



--- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, Matthew Graeff <phishphan12_at_...> wrote:
>
> Tad,
>
> Wasn't your Dad head of the ICTC (International Compost Tea Council) a =
 
> few years back? Whatever happened with that?
>
> I think a certifying council is a great idea, and SFI was supposed to =
 
> be the be all end all of that, I think. It seems they were corrupted =
 
> along the way, and that may stop newer brewers or people that got
> burned for thousands of dollars in tests to be very skeptical of
> certification of any kind.
>
> No, there doesn't have to be a competition, but that may attract more =
 
> flies than just another convention. Have an ACT brewer category,
> extractor, hybrid (both ACT and LCE). I would compare it to a beer
> festival. You know not everyone's going to win, most people are just =
 
> there to catch a buzz. :) I think it would be cool to get there and
> get down to the nuts and bolts of ACT versus explaining it to everyone =
 
> and their sister that walks up to you the basics of ACT (unless you
> enjoy that of course).
>
> Getting the standards down for testing I think would be the biggest
> hurdle, other than getting everyone in the same room.
>
> I could be totally off on all this, but I think it sparked a
> discussion within the group.
>
> Matt
> On Feb 1, 2012, at 1:33 PM, Tad wrote:
>
> > I've been following the recent posts regarding a competition between =
 
> > commercial tea brewing units. With the right controls in place (it
> > sounds like they were not there according to Steve at the Texas
> > event), it could have some benefit.
> >
> > However, rather than a competition, I think a certifying agency or
> > some industry standard would be far more beneficial to ACT as a
> > technology. There are many different designs that make acceptable
> > tea, meaning they extract the organisms into the liquid medium and
> > provide adequate aeration to keep dissolved oxygen levels above 6 mg/
> > l. Granted, some will be more efficient, cost-effective, or more
> > aesthetically pleasing, but provided the above conditions are met
> > then a brewer design could potentially qualify.
> >
> > An agreed upon definition about what ACT is and isn't, what it's
> > purposes are, main benefits, and what claims can be made that are
> > proven to be accurate and not based on conjecture or anecdotal
> > evidence/opinion.
> >
> > How many brewer manufacturers actually own and use a microscope and =
 
> > dissolved oxygen meter to test their tea quality, and base their
> > recommendations upon that data? I see crazy claims all the time.
> > Some companies claim you can refrigerate your ACT for up to a week
> > (Vermicrop), or brew continually as long as you want, adding compost =
 
> > and foodstocks, but never actually testing the tea with a microscope.
> >
> > If we want to legitimatize our industry, we need to establish
> > conventional methodology that is supported by accurate data and
> > direct microscopy. Otherwise, all we have is some bubbling brown
> > liquid, with no idea if it contains the proper sets of organisms,
> > with good diversity and biomass.
> >
> > I think once we have some standard for our industry, the next step
> > would be to collaborate on the subject that Bobby eluded to: How can =
 
> > we improve our ACT (based on brewer design and inputs) to maximize
> > plant growth across a variety of media and environmental conditions?
> >
> > I'm sick of hearing that ACT doesn't work because people use a 10
> > gallon aquarium pump and airstone from Petco, or listen to claims
> > that are unsupported by any data or microscopy.
> >
> > My 2 cents,
> > Tad Hussey
> > www.kisorganics.com
> >
> >
>




Received on Wed Feb 01 2012 - 16:13:48 EST

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