[compost_tea] Re: Parcipitate, CT Naming, NOP & Manure

From: Kirk Leonard <kirk_at_oregonatural.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 12:44:29 -0800

Dear Elaine, per your request: "The CA method, I believe, takes a sample
and lowers the pH and measures the parcipitates. The short chain humic
acids (fulvics) remain in solution and..." This from Message 3 on 1/15, is
where I got "parcipitate." I thought it might be a typo, as Lloyd
suggests, or maybe another form of separation I'd never heard of, so I
wanted to ask. It's a typo, right Tom?

On what we call making compost tea, I don't think it's too late to rename
it. We all understand what we're talking about, but I have talked with many
people unfamiliar with it, at farm markets, fairs, events, who assume what
Bob suggests: "brewing" implies a heating/cooking process, as in making
coffee, tea for drinking, etc, so they immediately get a wrong picture of
what's happening.

"Aerated compost tea" is a much more appropriate description, so that's what
I suggest (and sometimes you might warm the water to 70-80 degrees F...).
We want both aerated compost and the process is one of aeration... Oxygen is
critical to the process and to the soil, per Elaine's note today, aerobic
critters are what we are after... "Aerator" seems as easy as "brewer" and
is, after all, what the machine is doing. It just seems more
straightforward and supportive of more people getting it sooner, which I see
as an important and worthwhile goal.

The main reason I think it's not too late is that "compost tea" standards
are still being formulated for the USNOP, and we are still a small band of
makers. As standards are put in place - for the first time anywhere - a new
and better naming could happen, too, and we could easily propagate it. My
two cents....

Speaking of the NOP, Doc, is there any news of the new NOSB Compost Task
Force? Is there a group assembled and an agenda? Is there any hope for
composted manures? Have you figured out how "processed manure materials"
got in and all other manures, composts or vermicomposts, seem to have to be
regarded as "raw" under the NOP. Is this still the case?

kirk_at_oregonatural.com







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Received on Thu Jan 16 2003 - 17:18:34 EST

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