Re: RES: [compost_tea] Nutritional effects
Hi Lloyd -
There is more worth to CT than just nutritional. The primary reason for
using CT for most growers is disease suppression. Second, start getting the
soil into better tilth, decrease watering requirements, improve aeration in
the soil, etc. Third is to improve plant nutrition.
For many growers, the overnight improvement in plant color and improvement in
disease prevention in enough evidence for them. IF YOUR TEA has the
organisms needed, if it contains the nutrition your plant is lacking, and you
get the organisms growing on the leaf surface.
What if you don't see these benefits in the next couple days after
application? You might suspect there was something not-right with the tea,
or the application method. Then you need to play detective. What wasn't
correct?
Next question then:
Do all teas improve plant health?
What if your plant is already healthy? Then the tea is a preventative and
dramatic plant growth changes may not be apparent.
So, the point here is that CT is not used for one thing alone. The
expectation should be multiple improvements, because the right organisms on
leaf and in soil control a number of processes and functions. Return the
function to the system, and the plant cannot help but respond.
Can CT be detrimental? Not if it is made correctly. Aerobic. The correct
set of active organisms to match the plant's requirements. Can't over-do
it, until the point that you start saturating the soil with water.
And I've seen people do that. Getting the right organisms back into the soil
improves soil structure, increases water-holding capacity. In tests on
potato at Oregon State University, the researchers would not reduce the water
going onto the CT trials. Even though the soil was continuously moist in our
plots, and not in the other plots, disease did not occur in our plots. But
would the OSU scientists recognize this? Not a word......
So, can CT be detrimental? Not if it is made correctly and used with
attention to the fact that the soil will be changed. Your current practices
may have to be altered.....
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
.
Received on Fri Nov 29 2002 - 20:59:22 EST
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: Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:26:31 EST