Hi Bob -
I thought the offer you made was very interesting. I, of course, being the
perennial scientist, want the data. :-)
I am so happy when you emphasize the importance of getting research done.
Everyone in the world of compost tea needs to see solid scientific data.
SFI has the data published in the Compost Tea Brewing Manual, of course.
I've shown the results of some of our recent studies at the VermiCo meeting
in Portland, at Washington Tilth Producers, and at ACRES. We'll be
publishing those studies as well.
Last year SFI ran the first three teas that people made for free. All we
asked was that you sample the soil before you start, and apply tea to the
soil at least once, as well as the foliage. We asked to have the soil
sampled again at the same time this spring. If you remember to sample the
second time, SFI will run that second soil sample for free next spring. The
three teas are free, the first soil sample costs you money, but that's all
you end up paying for. We send you your data, but we get to use the results
in conjunction with the larger study.
For those of you who think that SFI might not be honest in their assessment
of Growing Solutions machines, or SoilSoup machines, let me assure you that
the techs in the lab just see the sample number, not anything else. I don't
know samples have come from people until I get the data to interpret, so I
don't influence in any way the data being obtained. I look the data over and
try to figure out what's going on.
The point of the tea grant is to learn about repeatability of the different
machines under different conditions. We want you to use a mix of thermal and
worm compost, molasses, kelp, and humic acid or fish hydrolyzate.
We have seen this year that as long as the compost is decent stuff, has the
fungi needed, the compost tea machine does pretty much the same thing
regardless of the compost source.
If the machine being used can't extract fungi, or doesn't allow fungi to
grow, then no amount of good compost helps.
So, those of you who want to sign up, please let us know. Just e-mail me.
Those doing the Tea Grant from last year get automatic re-up, but you need to
let me know.
We only want to have three machines from each manufacturer of each size they
make. But we need three machines of each kind. If we don't get three
machines of each kind, we will not do that kind of machine.
Sorry, if it's a home-made machine, we can't get the replication we need.
Let me know.
We finished the SARE grant annual report today. We need to get the City of
Eugene composting trials written up next, with Mary Bradley's help. Then the
Tea Grant data will really appear on the E-zine.
OK?
Elaine
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
<A HREF="
http://www.soilfoodweb.com/">www.soilfoodweb.com</A>
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
.
Received on Thu Jan 02 2003 - 23:40:24 EST