Re: RES: [compost_tea] in-furrow soil insect prevention?

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 09:09:49 EST


HI Jose -

I was on planes all day yesterday. Left my hotel in Hilversum, The
Netherlands at
7 am Central European times, and got home at 8:45 pm PNW time. Long day.
and of course, here I am, wide-awake at 4 am, because my body thinks it is
mid-afternoon, and what am I doing in bed all-day?

So, hopefully the body will come to an agreement with the sunshine sometime
today...... I hope there will be sunshine today in Corvallis!

Anyway, so much for my excuse on not gettting back right away to Jose'
question.

He asked -
Would sugar activate bacteria in the soil, thereby increasing nutrient >
> cycling and
> and retention and consequently reducing nutrient looses ?
> Has Dr Elaine seen any data on the utilization of sugar + Chemical or
> Organic fertilizers as a way to improve fertilizer utilization ?
>

The folks at the University of Georgia (Cooleman, Hendrix), Michigan State
(Robertson), and at Colorado State University (Klein, Wall, Hunt) have shown
some interesting results. The Tilth lab at Iowa State (Cambardella), and
some of the compost program work at UC Davis (Jackson). Hum, Mike Allen at
San Diego State. Oh yeah, and Ehrenberg's work at Rutgers. And Jayne Belnap
with the USGS.

The problem is that they don't always tie the combination of fertilizer with
carbon back to plant production. Or they are not aware of the anaerobic
conditions that excess simple carbon (a more general term for sugar, or maybe
other forms of organic compounds) can develop. Instead of carefully
monitoring the amount of carbon, and the form of the carbon, they dump
material into the soil and conclude that addition of carbon is detrimental.
Instead of realizing there is a gradient of response, they extrapolate their
results to all conditions everywhere.

When anyone, but especially individuals in the extension service, USDA, and
universities make all-inclusive statements like "compost tea doesn't work",
you should learn to just exit from that person's presence. They have an axe
to grind, and it is clearly anti-new methods. They aren't interested in
figuring out the conditions that result in positive results, they just want
to negate the method completely.

Sorry, I'm off on a tirade this morning, but I really want people to
understand this.
Compost tea works - but not under all conditions, everywhere. You have to
understand what you are doing. When has rote performance ever been
successful for anything.

Water is a good thing, right? All the time? How about when you have too
much, in which case water will drown you. Or not enough can be just as
deadly. What is the right amount, and in what conditions? The right amount
of water for rice will kill cactus.

Someone the other day asked if compost tea could kill plants. Well, defined
as it should be defined, no, compost tea will not kill plants. But if you
make compost tea wrong, (and it's not compost tea), then really, what do you
expect? Of course "it" will kill plants. But it's not compost tea then. Be
really careful how people define compost tea. Manure swirled in a tank isn't
going to work most of the time. Rare exceptions, because of how they made
it, but it isn't compost tea.

Put too much salt in your water, and drinking the water will kill you. So,
what kills the plants when manure is liquified? anaerobic? too high salt?
too much nitrate? Could be any of those things. How do you make sure liquid
manure is going to be beneficial, and not detrimental? that's what we have
to work on, not on flat-out statements that liquid manure is bad. Because it
isn't always bad.

And the same with sugar, kelp, or lignite. Too much sugar will be really bad
because the soil goes anaerobic. Not enough sugar, and the organisms don't
have the food to grow and do what the plant needs. You can add too much kelp
and kill your plants because you get too much N. Too little, and you lack
the micrnutrients the plants need, especially if you've leached all the
micronutrients from the mineral parts of your soil by poor management.
Lignite? Only useful if you have the biology you need to break it down.

Hope this helps -

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand



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Received on Tue Feb 11 2003 - 10:54:21 EST

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